App Review: Fantasy Football Cheatsheet '09

I wasn't going to use an iPhone app for my fantasy football draft. I really wasn't. I had seen the free ESPN "draft kit" which looked like it had plenty of information but wouldn't really function well during the chaos of an actual live draft.

For me, a good draft tool isn't just about starting with good information, or even tracking that information (which many experienced folks still have a lot of trouble with). A good draft tool will help you organize and reorganize that information as the draft unfolds. How do you reorganize your lists as your strategy shifts? (Note: any good draft strategy must be flexible enough to adapt to how everyone is affecting your plans. It's opportunistic, i.e. the draft gave me lemons, so I made lemonade.)

So when I read about 290Design's app, I was curious whether this app could be good enough for me to leave the laptop, copious notes, and spreadsheets at home.

Good information? Check. It gets its information live off the internet from respected sources, like Rotoworld.com. The ESPN draft kit had static and dated information. This was up to the minute.

Intuitive tracking? Yup. Click on a player, tap "MyTeam" or "Other." Players on your team have a star and everyone else has big red X. And because you can flick-and-scroll on the iPhone, longs lists weren't the problem I had anticipated them being.

Organization? Absolutely. You can sort and filter players by your own ranking, average draft position, average auction value, or projected points. You can sort them by position, by starters v. backups, by veterans v. rookies, even by conference. You can search, create wish lists, store information for separate drafts, and view your own team as you build it.

I had two live drafts: a regular serpentine draft of 10 and an auction draft of 8. In both drafts, I never opened my laptop or a magazine. I never used any notes or lists of bye weeks. I never lost track of the ebb and flow of the draft because I had everything I needed, literally, at my fingertips.

My only real complaint is the app's lame icon and startup screen, which seems completely unlike the rest of the app. Did your kid draw that?

Fantasy Football Cheatsheet '09 gets my highest recommendation, which I can safely say now because it's too late for my competition to use the same tool.