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Most Accurate Experts: Sablich Brothers Interview

thumb_35614Wrapping up our interviews for the 2013 accuracy competition are the Sablich Brothers. Kind enough to respond to our Q & A session, Justin Sablich (The New York Times) talks on a few subjects including how they got started in the fantasy business, some keys to their success (three years straight finishing in our top 5) and a possible sleeper for next year. Without further ado, our third place finisher this year, Justin Sablich.

 

 

Sablich Brothers Q & A

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Q1: Can you tell us how you got into the fantasy business and how you landed a nice gig with the New York Times?

 

I’ve been a web editor for the sports desk of The New York Times since I graduated from Syracuse University in 2006 with a Masters degree in journalism.  On a daily basis, my job involves updating the website, multimedia production, some writing and strategic planning for major sporting event coverage.

 

My brother and I started with the fantasy football coverage during the 2009 season. We had played fantasy football for several years up until that point. I was always impressed with Jason’s success at it. It was during a visit to my family in upstate New York in December 2008 that I got the crazy idea for us to actually start writing and offering fantasy advice for The Times.  I think I said something like (after a few beers): “hey, we play more fantasy football than anyone we know, why don’t we write about it for The Times.”

 

I then pitched the idea to one of my editors and was pleasantly surprised that I got the go-ahead. We’re grateful for the following we now have; it was not expected when we started five years ago. We’re just happy that we seem to be helping others succeed in this most enjoyable hobby.

 

Q2: Can you briefly describe your process for coming up with your player projections/rankings?

 

My brother Jason deserves the credit on the rankings. He is the numbers guy and I’m more of the words guy, we compliment each other quite well. During the season we will have long discussions each week about everything that has to do with fantasy football for that week, including what players we like and don’t like, but in the end it’s his call on the rankings. I trust his judgment and, luckily, we rarely disagree anyway. We share the same basic beliefs about what will equal fantasy success, from draft strategy to how we determine who is a good start that week.

 

Q3: This is the 3rd year in a row you and your brother have finished in the top 5 of the competition (currently the best 3-year run of anyone in the contest). What’s the secret is to being consistently good at fantasy prognostication (if you had to narrow it down to one thing)?

 

I can’t give away any Sablich family secrets. But I will say, based on discussions with my brother, that we see many experts taking too many risks on a weekly basis. That’s not to say that you should go with the ECR every week, you have to take some risks to be successful.  But we try not to overanalyze matchups when they pertain to so-so players.

 

Q4: If you had to pick the fantasy writer (without the last name of Sablich) atop your must-read list, who would it be?

 

Picking one is really difficult. We read a lot of people and we’ve been lucky enough to have some of the best in the business contribute content to The Times. But Jason and I can agree that Evan Silva’s weekly matchup article on Rotoworld.com is must-read every week. The amount of detail that goes into that column is pretty amazing.

 

Q5: I know it’s way too early for this discussion, but off the top of your head, name one “sleeper” for next year and tell us why he’ll surprise us.

 

Ben Tate should be a lead back for whatever team he ends up with next season, unless he returns to Houston. That’s a safe pick, so I’ll give you a deep sleeper as well. Jason and I are big Giants fans and loved what we saw from receiver Jerrel Jernigan at the end of this season. He’s been developing slowly since being drafted in the third round in 2011, but with Hakeem Nicks likely heading elsewhere and the Giants not likely to spend much on a big name receiver, he’s shown enough to be at least a nice WR3 and should benefit from what we hope is a big bounce-back campaign from Eli Manning.

 

 

A big thank you to Justin for stopping by to share his fantasy insight today and all season long. That wraps up our most accurate expert interview series, if you’d like to stay current on the Sablich Brothers’ advice during the offseason, be sure to give them a follow on Twitter:@5thDownFantasy.

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