The NFL season is right around the corner; so hopefully you’ve started getting ready for your fantasy draft. Of course I’m sure there are quite a few fantasy players who have already had a draft; so I hope it went well for you. I did notice one thing as I was looking at the pre-draft rankings and that is the running back is back.
We have two 20 team leagues that we run through Yahoo.com and in their pre-draft rankings their Top 4 players are running backs. There are 6 running backs total in the Top 10 with the other four slots going to wide receivers. This is quite a turn of events from the last two or three seasons where the wide receivers dominated the Top 10. Now the question is; are you buying the change? and are you going to take a running back with your first pick?
Todd Gurley II of the Los Angeles Rams is ranked at #1 followed by Le’Von Bell of the Pittsburgh Steelers. David Johnson of the Arizona Cardinals is returning from an injury that allowed him to play in just 1 game last season, but he’s ranked at #3. Ezekiel Elliott of he Dallas Cowboys is another running back who missed some games last season, but that was due to a suspension. Elliott takes the 4th spot in the rankings. The other two running backs in the Top 10 are New York Giants rookie Saquon Barkely who comes in at #6. Right behind Barkley at #7 is New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara.
Those are the running backs that found their way into the Top 10, but there are two more running backs that just missed out. Kareem Hunt of the Kansas City Chiefs is ranked at #11 and Melvin Gordon of the Los Angeles Chargers is ranked at #13.
It will be very interesting to see where these running backs come off the board during our draft and how many actually end up being picked in the 1st round.
Do you like the order that these running backs are ranked in? or would you have them in a different order?
As you start to breakdown the rankings with the running backs making a comeback another position would have to take a fall. It appears as though the quarterback position is the one that took the hit.
The Yahoo draft board is broken into 25 players and there’s not a quarterback on the first board. You actually have to go down to #36 before you’ll run into Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers. Rodgers headlines a group of seven quarterbacks who are ranked close. Russell Wilson of the Seattle Seahawks is at #40, Cam Newton of the Carolina Panthers is ranked at #42, you’ll find Tom Brady of the New England Patriots at #44, despite returning from a knee injury Deshaun Watson of the Houston Texans is ranked at #48 and then it’s Drew Brees of the new Orleans Saints who’s ranked at #53 that end this pack.
The interesting thing with this is a healthy quarterback who plays in 16 games can rack up some points for you. While Wilson is ranked at #4o this season he was actually the second highest scorer overall in our league last season behind only Gurley II.
Looking back a little more at quarterback scoring from last season and you’ll find Brady was the 7th highest scorer in our league and he was followed by four other quarterbacks. Carson Wentz of the Philadelphia Eagles was 8th, Alex Smith is now with the Washington Redskins, but last season he was our leagues 9th highest scorer as a member of the Kansas City Chiefs. Cam Newton filled out the Top 10 in our league at #10 while Phillip River of the Changers rolled in right behind him as the 11th highest scorer in our league.
There could be a lot of strategy in our league if you can get a player who’s going to end up in the Top 10 or maybe the Top 5 in scoring in the 3rd round or later.
Now we have two 20 teams leagues. One is an auction league and the other is a snake style drafting league. Like I mentioned we run them through Yahoo.com and they are both free. If you’re interested in joining here are the links to the leagues. The first link is the auction league; so the second link will be for the snake style draft league. The drafts are over the Labor Day weekend holiday; so make sure you’re available before joining.
Hope to see you in the leagues; good luck.
There have been a couple of more injuries that could impact a couple of playoff teams as the baseball season winds down.
Trevor Bauer of the Cleveland Indians went on the 10-day DL with a small stress fracture in his right fibula.
Bauer was hit in the leg by a comebacker in his last start. Bauer came out of the game after 6 1/3rd innings, but the Indians went on to get him his 12th win of the season as they beat the Chicago White Sox 3-1 on August 11th.
Fortunately the Indians have the largest lead of any division leader in baseball at 12 1/2 games; so they can be extra careful with Bauer and not rush him back.
The biggest issue the Indians face with Bauer is there has been no timetable set for his return. In a perfect world the Indians would get Bauer back in time for him to make a coupe for starts before the Indians head into the post season, but will have to wait and see how his recovery goes.
The Seattle Mariners swept the Houston Astros in a four game series last weekend and had gotten themselves back into the hunt or a wild card spot. Then the Mariners got to add Robinson Cano back onto their roster last night after serving an 80 game suspension. Just while things where seemingly looking up for the Mariners it might have all came crashing down just three hitters into last nights game.
Jed Lowrie of the Oakland A’s was the 3rd batter to face James Paxton last night. Lowrie hit a line drive that went off of Paxton’s left arm. Paxton was removed from the game and luckily the x-rays where negative, but it looks as though Paxton will have to go on the 10-day DL.
Felix Hernandez came out of the Mariners bullpen for the first time in his career to replace Paxton. Hernandez went 5 2/3rd innings in relief, He gave up 2 runs on 5 hits while walking 2 and striking out 2. Hernandez was also he losing pitcher as the A’s beat the Mariners 3-2 last night. That was the second straight game the A’s have beat the Mariners. Seattle now finds itself 4 1/2 games behind the AL West leading Astros and they are now 3 1/2 games behind the A’s for the second American League wild card spot.
The Mariners ad the A’s wrap up their 3-game series this afternoon and if Paxton is going to have to make a trip to the DL the Mariners really needs salvage at least one game in this series. Mike Leake is making the start for Seattle while Oakland is starting Brett Anderson.
Can the Mariners stay in contention with Paxton out? and is it Hernandez who fills that rotation spot?
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