The Front Row with JASON ELLIOTT Nov. 7, 2012

I'll admit it.

I'm on fantasy sports overload right now.

Between leagues in football, baseball and now basketball, whatever free time I've got seems to be involved in making moves in an effort to act like I know what I'm doing.

FOR MY friends that are in most of the same leagues, they know better.

As far as a draft strategy, I've got none.

Best available - as long as he doesn't play for the New York Yankees, sounds good.

Drafting Mariners - well, they're crushing the ball in batting practice and moving in the fences at Safeco Field, so that shouldn't be an issue, right?

Other than that, my baseball IQ is limited to strong pitching and just hoping that my team doesn't continue to get crushed every other time I play.

That almost never happens.

Usually my strategy involves finding a good group of aces - whether that's Jered Weaver, Felix Hernandez or Dan Haren and finding enough players that can hit to be able to score some points.

It seemed to work well when both Weaver and/or Hernandez were pitching with both throwing no-hitters, but offensively, it was just flat offensive.

In basketball, my strategy might be even worse.

After selecting through some of what I think could be good-to-great players - Russell Westbrook, Kobe Bryant, Anthony Davis - the rest of the group includes Greivis Vasquez and Antawn Jamison, who have seen limited playing time thus far.

Adding Allen Iverson was a bit of a stretch, considering he's not even playing at the moment and there hasn't been any rumors of him coming back lately.

BUT AFTER a 1-5 start in the football league, I finally feel like my luck is about to change.

That feeling, along with getting a few wins in the last three weeks hasn't hurt either.

While I’d been trying hard not to believe in the “Madden” curse during the draft this season by selecting Calvin Johnson with my first pick, he’s since been dealt in an effort to get better.

That happened in a big way this weekend.

The trade, which sent Johnson to a friend’s team for a couple of backup running backs and Houston wide receiver Andre Johnson, has worked wonders for my struggling team.

Thanks to the acquisition of Tampa Bay running back Doug Martin, formerly of Boise State, I look a lot smarter than I really am.

Martin has been huge in the last two weeks, running for 251 yards and four touchdowns on Sunday at Oakland to follow up a 214-yard showing the previous game at Minnesota.

Sometimes you need to be really lucky when it comes to fantasy sports, just like those guys actually playing the game.

Fortunately for me, I finally woke up long enough to get better at it.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected].