Week 13 Injury Report

    Bad news for those who picked up Mohammed Sanu. As I had mentioned in my previous post, he hurt himself in practice yesterday. Turns out he has a stress fracture in his foot that requires surgery, which he will have Monday.  He will probably end up on IR.

Percy Harvin is doubtful to play this weekend.

    Another injury that has kind of gone under the radar is that of David Akers. I have had Akers on my team all season and his accuracy seemed a bit off this year. I watched the Niners game last week and noticed a shot of Akers bending over in pain after missing a field goal. Apparently he has been playing injured and the Niners are now bringing in other kickers to take a look at. He was limited in practice yesterday.
  Percy Harvin did not practice Thursday and is doubtful to play this weekend. I expected this after hearing about the hard time he had at practice on Wednesday.

  The Cowboys are optimistic about DeMarco Murray's chances to play this week. It would be great for me to get him back going into the playoffs.   I like to use a running back in my flex spot because I feel they are the most reliable at getting points.  I picked up Felix Jones when Murray went down with the injury.  I often pick up the player who will fill in for the starter on my roster that is injured.  If you follow your team closely, many times you are able to pick them up before your league mates know there is even an opportunity.  Jones has been pretty reliable at making his projections, but he is starting to get banged up.  Once Murray is officially back, I will drop Jones for someone with more opportunities to produce.

Big Ben out vs. Ravens

  Another piece of fantasy relevant news today is that Big Ben Roethlisberger has been ruled out against the Ravens this week. Ben is not on my team, but he is on my opponent's team this week.  My opponent will be starting his back up, Andy Dalton. Dalton should be a decent fill in for Big Ben because the Bengals are pass heavy.

Week 13 Pickups

   I made a couple of roster changes this week. The moves I made were meant to sure up my roster heading into the playoffs. My theory is you can never have enough wide receivers and running backs on your team.  The players at these positions get injured frequently.  Last year I had 3 running backs go down after the rosters locked in the playoffs.  It is also important to keep your bench relevant.  Try and stock it with guys who are currently producing. If your league allows you a certain amount of roster moves, be aggressive with them.  Injuries will happen, it is imperative to plan ahead to minimize the effect it will have on your game day performance.

Beanie Wells

   My first pickup this week was Beanie Wells. Beanie just came back from an injury and had a two touchdown performance in his first game back. I dropped Larod Stephens-Howling to pick him up. Both these players are running backs for the Cardinals. LSH was filling in for Wells while Wells was injured. Now that Wells has returned, LSH becomes less relevant. If you have an opportunity to pick up a starting running back, you take it.  It comes down to touches, if a guy is a starter he gets the ball more, which means he will get you more guaranteed points.   To me this is a better option over most goal line backs. Unless a goal line back is on an extremely high powered offense, he may get you 20 points one week and then 0 the next. This is problematic when you have to plug them in for another player due to injury at the last minute. In my opinion, you want the option in this scenario that is least dependent on match up. I will even take a guy who splits carries with another back over most goal line backs.

   My other pickup this week is wide receiver Mohammed Sanu. Sanu has 4 touchdowns in the last 3 games for the Bengals. He is becoming a legitimate threat in the end zone and since Andrew Hawkins went down with an injury, has established himself as the #2 receiver on a pass heavy offense behind wideout AJ Green. Sanu also gets bonus points from me because he is a fellow Jersey boy,. He grew up about 10 minutes from me and went to Rutgers (state college of New Jersey). Jersey Strong Baby! I dropped the Vikings defense to make room for Sanu.  I don't have a steady defense this year and I had used the Vikings a few weeks ago. They were taking up an extra roster spot, so it was an easy decision. Unfortunately, Sanu injured himself yesterday (the day after I picked him up off the waiver wire) at practice.  His week 13 status is not looking good  and I will have to keep an eye open for details on his injury to see if he stays on my playoff roster.

   I will cover my last minute starts later in the week, as well as any relevant fantasy information that becomes available. Thanks for reading and stay tuned!

  

NFL Week 13- Early Starters

Ok let's get right to it! Week 13 is the final week of my yahoo non ppr fantasy football league's regular season schedule. Let's begin with my locks to start on my team:

QB Matthew Stafford

Matthew Stafford is my starting qb. In fact, he is the only qb on my roster. That will change next week as the rosters will lock for the playoffs. I will need to pick up a back up heading into the playoffs in case of an injury. Right now I am using the extra roster spot for a wide receiver.  Stafford has been a bit of a let down this year. I drafted him third in the second round and hoped he would continue to improve on the amazing season he had last year. He is on pace to have another 5,000 yard season, but his touchdowns are WAY down. He has had issues connecting with Megatron in the end zone this year.  Stafford is by far the best option available to me at qb.  My league mates are conservative and mostly keep a back up qb on their rosters all season.  The Lions play the Colts this week. The Colts defense is mediocre and fairly weak against the pass. This should be a good match up for me.

WR#1 AJ Green

AJ Green is my stud wideout. If this guy is playing, I am starting him no matter what the match up is.  The only time I would sit him, would be if he was going up against Revis, which is not a concern this year.

WR#2 Eric Decker

Percy Harvin is my usual #2 wideout. He has missed a couple of weeks with an ankle injury. Harvin sprained his ankle in three places. He practiced limited on Wed., but did not practice today.  I highly doubt he will play this week, despite his reputation for having a high pain tolerance. So, Eric Decker gets bumped up to #2. Decker had been on fire earlier in the season, but has cooled of late.  Hopefully a favorably match up vs. the Bucs is what the doctor ordered to get him back on track. Tampa Bay has given up the most fantasy points per game to wide receivers in the league.

WR#3 TY Hilton in his college days.

Because of the injury to Percy Harvin, I've had to go to a committee for my last wideout spot. I had been using Donnie Avery of the Colts for a couple weeks. He was consistently matching his projections, nothing outstanding, but a pretty steady option. After watching Andrew Luck and the Colts passing attack one day, I determined that you can't have enough of this guy's targets on your team. TY Hilton was available and I picked him up. Hilton is actually a very similar kind of player to Percy Harvin. He returns punts just like Percy does and he also runs the reverse like Percy does. He is still pretty rough around the edges, but this kid is the real deal. Avery has been on the decline since he received a concussion a couple of weeks ago. Hilton seems to have cut into Avery's targets and since he has a greater upside, I will be going with Hilton this week.

RB#1 Muscle Hamster

Doug Martin has been an absolute fantasy monster in his rookie year. I had no idea what a bright spot he would be on my roster when I drafted him. His week 9 massacre of the Raiders was one of the highest fantasy point scores ever. He has earned my RB #1 slot and I will start him pretty much regardless of match up. Denver is tough against the run, but I will take my chances with Muscle Hamster.

RB#2 Alfred Morris

I was #1 on the waiver list after week 1 and I used the spot to pick up Washington RB Alfred Morris. It has worked out well for me because my #2 back was DeMarco Murray, who went down with a foot injury early in the season.  Morris has a tough match up with the Giants, but he burned them a few weeks ago. I am hoping to possibly get Murray back this week. If that happens, Murray would take my flex spot, but I'll talk about that later in the week...

TE Jimmy Graham

Jimmy Graham was my first round pick ( I picked 10 of 12) this season. He missed a couple of games due to injury, but overall has been pretty good. I was torn on whether to take him or Gronk. It looks like I had luck on my side since Gronk is done for the season. Graham had a great game vs. Atlanta earlier this year, hopefully he can continue that success against them tonight.




These are the locks to start on my team in week 13. I still haven't decided who I will start in my flex, kicker, and defense spots. I'll get back to you on those later in the week. I will also be doing a write up on the new additions I made to my roster this week. Thanks for reading!



                                                                                                                         

Welcome!

   Welcome to my fantasy sports blog! As of right now, this blog will be an outlet for my interest in fantasy baseball and football. I enjoy all the major sports, so that may expand in the future. Right now I'm only involved in yahoo baseball and football leagues so that is what the blog will cover.
    I am relatively new to the world of fantasy sports. Last year I was invited to join a fantasy baseball league by coworkers. I have been a big New York Yankees fan since I was a little kid. Baseball has always been my favorite sport, so I thought that this might be a fun experience. My first draft went pretty well, but I learned something about what kind of sports fan I was. I was a New York Yankees fan. I knew a lot about the players on the New York Yankees. I knew a bit about the players on the teams the Yankees play, but I knew pretty much nothing about the entire National League of MLB,  Fantasy baseball changed that about sports for me. It unlocked a much deeper interest in sports for me. The baseball league I belong to is small, but extremely competitive. To be successful, I had to learn about players and teams I had no interest in before. It made me a more complete fan, a fan of MLB, not just a fan of a certain team. I ended up doing very well in my first experience at fantasy sports. I got to the finals in my league, unfortunately my commissioner forgot to lock the rosters and my opponent made some shady roster moves. He was disqualified, but not until after the final was over so I did not receive official credit for the win. We split the payout, because we are a league among friends and his actions were not malicious, nor did I feel he intentionally meant to break the rules.
   Despite a rocky ending to my first season, I was hooked! When football season came along I jumped at the chance to join my work's league. I was the second seed in the playoffs, but all my running backs got injured and I was defeated in the second round.  It only fueled my passion and I became a more complete NFL fan as well.
   This year in baseball I had a bad draft. I also play in a keeper league and most of my 5 keepers had bad years. Who would have thought Justin Upton, Tim Lincecum, and Hunter Pence would have such crappy years?  My other two keepers, Joey Votto and Dustin Pedroia spent considerable stretches on the disabled list.  I hung in there though. I researched free agents and made trades to sure up my roster. I am most proud of picking up Kris Medlen early in his record breaking run with the Atlanta Braves. I made it into the playoffs on the last day of the regular season and my team got hot! I beat the two teams with the best records in my league and pulled off the upset win for the league championship!

Evan Longoria hit 3 home runs on the final day of the season, giving me the win in my league championship finals.

AJ Green is my #1 wideout this season.

  I have the number one seed in my football playoffs this year. My team is 10-2 and I have been able to maintain dominance despite having several key injuries. I will share my recent roster moves and my strategies/starters for week 13 and the playoffs in coming articles. Thanks for reading and please feel free to share suggestions on the direction the blog should take as this is my first attempt.