Week 12 was a bounce back week for all of us making our picks. Mr. Fantasy won the week at 13-2. I finished one game behind him at 12-3. Schaumburg Stu took the 3rd spot with a record of 11-4 while Dan the Man finished one game behind him at 10-5. For the season I’m still holding onto the lead at 114-60-1. Mr. Fantasy has taken over 2nd place with a record of 112-62-1. Schaumburg Stu fell to 3rd just a game behind Mr. Fantasy with a record of 111-63-1. Dan the Man is at the bottom of the standings through 12 weeks with a record of 109-65-1. With 3 games tomorrow we’ll see if someone can het off to a fast start for Week 13.
Let’s take a look at our head to head fantasy challenge between Mr. Fantasy and Greg. At quarterback Mr. Fantasy went with Jay Cutler of the Chicago Bears while Greg selected Tom Brady of the New England Patriots. Cutler scored 5.10 points and finished 22nd among quarterbacks for the week. Brady scored 16.98 points and finished 9th among quarterbacks for the week. I’m still trying to figure out if Brady was an allowable choice. It was decided that they would no longer be able to pick player who were among the Top 5 scorers for the season. I believe Brady was on that list, but I need to double-check. At running back Mr. Fantasy went with Denard Robinson of the Jacksonville Jaquars while Greg’s choice was C.J. Anderson of the Denver Broncos. Robinson scored 11.70 points and tied for 28th among running backs for the week. Anderson had a very good week scoring 35.25 points and finishing 2nd out of all the running backs for Week 12. On a side note Justin Forsett was the leading scorer for running backs with 38 points. At the wide receiver position Mr. Fantasy picked T.Y. Hilton of the Indianapolis Colts while Greg went with Randall Cobb of the Green Bay Packers. Hilton was 6th among wide receivers with 23.20 points while Cobb scored 8.86 points and finished 49th among wide receivers for the week. At tight end both Mr. Fantasy and Greg decided that Colby Fleener of the Indianapolis Colts was the choice this week. Fleener finished 30th among tight ends scoring 4.30 points in Week 12. For kickers this week Mr. Fantasy went with Matt Bryant of the Atlanta Falcons while Greg decided that Phil Dawson of the San Francisco 49ers would be the best kicker for the week. Bryant scored 9 points and tied for 8th place for the week. Dawson scored 6 points and tied for 12th place for the week. Believe it or not Mr. Fantasy tried to use Josh Gordon the returning wide receiver of the Cleveland Browns as his sleeper pick, but I shot that pick down. Instead Mr. Fantasy went with Ben Tate now of the Minnesota Vikings while Greg’s picked was Oakland Raiders running back Latavius Murray. Tate didn’t get a carry and I’m not even sure if he saw the field on Sunday; so he scored 0 points. Murray on the other hand put up 25.93 points for the week on only 4 carries and finished 6th among running backs for the week. Even with the possible Brady error it looks like this week went Greg’s way. Let’s see if Mr. Fantasy can bounce back in Week 13.
If you where listening to the Sports Time Radio podcast yesterday you heard that we’re going to try to make Tuesday’s, Fantasy Tuesday. We’re going to see if we cam focus on hockey and basketball during their seasons. I thought we got through basketball alright, but we struggled with hockey. I think it was mostly on me as I tried to force too much information into what we where talking about and I don’t think it came across on air. Our hockey fantasy league is a category league. We use goals, assists, plus/minus (+/-), penalty minutes, power play points, short-handed points, game winning goals, faceoffs won, hits and blocked shots. For the goaltenders their categories are wins, losses, goals against average, save percentage and shutouts. Winning a category is the equivalent of winning a game. For the last week Claude Giroux of the Philadelphia Flyers was ranked as the top offensive player. One of the stats that pushed Giroux to the top spot was he won 74 faceoffs for the week. Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche was ranked 2nd on offense. MacKinnon had 6 assists and was +5 for the week. Jamie Benn of the Dallas Stars was ranked as the 3rd best offensive player for the week. Benn had a well-rounded week scoring 2 goals adding 3 assists he was a +2 had a power play point and just for the heck of it had 9 hits. The top goaltender of the week was Carey Price of the Montreal Canadiens. Price had 2 wins a 0.50 goals against average a .985 save percentage and 1 shutout. Price barely beat out Jaroslav Halak of the New York Islanders. Halak had 2 wins a 0.48 goals against average a .980 save percentage and 1 shutout. Calvin Pickard of the Colorado Avalanche picked up 2 wins during the week as he didn’t allow a goal on 42 shots in relief this week. Hopefully next Tuesday I’ll do a better job of breaking down the hockey stats for the listeners.
The Boston Red Sox made a big splash in free agency this week as they signed both Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez and have been reported to have offered Jon Lester a deal and are also interested in acquiring Cole Hamels from the Philadelphia Phillies. Sandoval will earn a guaranteed $95 million over five years, with a club option for a sixth season. Sandoval will receive a $3 million dollar bonus, then earn $17 million annually over 2015-17 before taking home an $18 million salary in both 2018 and 2019. The club option is for $17 million and comes with a $5 million dollar buyout. Ramirez will reportedly earn $88 million over those four years, and his contract contains a $22 million vesting option for a fifth year. The contract calls for a $3 million dollar signing bonus, a $19 million salary in 2015 and a $22 million salary from 2016-18. Lester has met with the Red Sox and the Atlanta Braves and is scheduled to meet with the St. Louis Cardinals next week. It’s also being reported that the Chicago Cubs have offered Lester a 6 year deal worth a reported $135 million dollars. Other reports have said that Lester would like to make a decision by the end of next week. The Chicago White Sox added 1st baseman Adam LaRoche signing him to a 2 year deal worth $25 million dollars. While the Seattle Mariners locked up their 3rd baseman Kyle Seager for 7 years with a $100 million dollar deal. It should be fun to see what moves teams make and where these free agents end up playing next season.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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