Author: Tyler

Top Fantasy Performers of Week 12

Week 12 is officially in the books and although the week wasn’t full of crazy endings, it still was very entertaining. There were a few players in particular that busted out and hopefully won you your match up this week.

The top 2 QBs this week were Ben Roethlisberger and Philip Rivers.

Big Ben threw for 351 yards, 4 touchdowns and ran for 25 yards. Although he threw 2 interceptions, he still managed to put up 38 points in most leagues.

Philip Rivers and the Chargers lit up the Cowboys on thanksgiving, throwing for 434 yards and 3 touchdowns. Rivers put up an average of 35 points.

Hats off to Josh McCown, he threw for over 300 yards and 3 scores. Not to shabby for a 38 year old journey-man QB.

The top 2 RBs this week were Alvin Kamara and Jamaal Williams.

Kamara had his best performance of the season and as usual, he did it on the ground and through the air. He rushed 5 times for 87 yards and a TD, he also caught 6 balls for 101 yards and a TD. Kamara put up an average of 36 points.

Jamaal Williams came out of nowhere and did his best to help his Packers beat the Steelers but fell a little short. He rushed 21 times for 66 yards and a TD, he also caught 4 balls for 69 yards and a TD. Williams put up an average of 28 points.

Shout out to the owners that played Rex Burkhead over Dion Lewis. Dion has been getting most of the national media love, but Rex had a big day, scoring 2 TD’s and racking up 19 points.

The top 2 WRs this week were Julio Jones and Antonio Brown.

Julio played out of his mind catching 12 balls for 253 yards and 2 TD’s and rushing once for 15 yards. He was a man amongst boys yesterday and overall had the best fantasy week putting up 50 points.

Tell me if you’ve heard this one before — Antonio Brown caught 10 balls for 169 yards and a TD. It feels like he puts up these numbers every single week. Brown put up an average of 40 points.

Robbie Anderson came up a few points short of Antonio this week, but I feel compelled to congratulate all of the owners that started him this week. It was a risky move but he payed off by putting up an average of 32 points.

The top 2 TEs this week were Zach Ertz and Rob Gronkowski.

Ertz had one of his better games this year catching 10 passes for 103 yards and a TD. The Eagles blew out the pathetic Bears and it was partly because of the Wenz-Ertz connection. Ertz has finally become the fantasy player we thought he would be, if you have him as your TE, you are sitting pretty. He put up an average of 26 points.

Gronk had himself a day, catching 5 passes for 82 yards and a 2 TD’S. As usual, he helped carry the Patriots to another win and blowout against the Dolphins. Gronk put up an average of 22 points.

An honorable mention is Kyle Rudolph, he caught 4 passes for 63 yards and 2 TD’s. It was a big TD week for Tight-ends, so no matter who you started they probably did well.

 

 

What Am I Thankful For?

Boston Celtics bright future with Kyrie Irving, Jaylen Brown, and Jayson Tatum

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The Boston Bruins benching Tuukka Rask and starting Anton Khudobin

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Alvin Kamara on my crappy fantasy team

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Lebron missing a dunk for the world to see

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VZdqJUNfNk

 

And as always

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R.I.P Terry Glenn

Not the way you wanted to start your week, but this morning we found out that former New England Patriot Pro Bowl Wide Receiver, Terry Glenn, passed away at the age of 43.

Former NFL players reacted to the sad news:

 

The first touchdown pass of Tom Brady’s career was a 21-yard reception by Terry.

https://twitter.com/fearthe_beard11/status/932627800221028352

He was an incredible talent on the field, an Ohio State legend and a 2x Pro Bowler in the NFL. Glenn was named to the Patriots All-1990’s Team.

Terry left behind his wife and three children. He was promoted to Offensive Coordinator for the Texas Revolution of the Champions Indoor Football League on April 3, 2015 and coached up until his death.

R.I.P Terry Glenn.

 

 

Time for the Bruins to TANK

It’s hard to imagine that not so long ago the Boston Bruins sat among some of the best teams in the league. Fast forward 5 years — and the Bruins are easily one of the five worst teams in the league. They are a team that is littered with AHL players, over-paid broken down veterans and a few solid veteran and youngsters. Their main issue has been injuries — Tuukka Rask, Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, David Backes and David Krejci have all missed time this year with various injuries. The only bright spots that give the Bruins hope going forward are Charlie McAvoy and David Pastrnak.

The Bruins are currently the third worst team in the Eastern Conference points-wise and are tied for the 4th worst points total in the league. They don’t have cap space to sign a major stud, so the only way back to the top is to tank. If they were to tank this season,  they would need to trade away some of their vets like Chara and Krejci. They could at least trade Chara to a playoff contender for at least a first rounder and if they eat some money on Krejci’s deal, they could receive a first/second rounder for him. The argument against tanking would be they have made a million picks in the top three rounds the past three years, but with that said they don’t have much to show from it. If you tank this year and finish in the bottom 5, they have a great chance of getting a player that can actually make a difference.

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Taking a look at the potential top five for next years draft, it looks like there are several skilled players that could help the team. Nolan Patrick (C), Kailer Yamamoto (RW), Maxime Comtois (C) and Kristian Vesalainen (W) could all step in and play on one of the Bruins top three lines.

 

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As the saying goes, if you’re not first, you’re last. Being a team in the middle is always the worst position to be, no matter the sport. So with that said, its time for the Bruins to tank.

Patriots Sign Martellus Bennett

In a surprising turn of events, the New England Patriots have claimed Martellus Bennett off waivers.

 

There are a few reasons this transaction makes perfect sense:

  1.  He is a cheap low risk, high reward move.
  2.  Marty and Tom Brady already have a connection.
  3.  He knows the playbook.
  4.  He is insurance in case Rob Gronkowski gets injured.
  5.  Bennett is a good catching/blocking TE who can replace Dwayne Allen, who has given them nothing this year.

In the end, you have to love this move. At the very least, Marty has proven to be a very interesting character.

 

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Packers release Martellus Bennett

In a surprising move, the Green Bay Packers have released tight-end Martellus Bennett.  The 10 year veteran signed a 3 year, $21 million deal this off season.  Bennett, has under performed this year ]– played 7 games for the Packers hauling in 24 catches for 233 yards and 0 touchdowns.

Bennett has indicated that he would retire at the end of this year, but this move is still surprising. Now that he is a FA, a possible landing spot/reunion could be in New England, where they are running out of healthy WR’s and could benefit from running a two TE set. If NE were to bring back Bennett, I would imagine they would release Dwayne Allen who has been a no show all year and keep rookie Jacob Hollister as the #3 TE. With that said, him landing back in NE is a long shot. A more likely landing spot is a team like Pittsburgh or Jacksonville.

2017 MLB AWARDS

The baseball season is over and now begins the much anticipated MLB awards. The categories for both AL and NL are MVP, CY Young, Rookie of the Year and Manager of the Year. The top three vote-getters in each category have been announced — here are this years’ finalists.

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The OCB boys have picked their winners for each category. It appears that everyone believes Jose Altuve will win AL MVP, Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger will win AL & NL Rookie of the year and A.J Hinch will win AL Manager of the Year. With that said, this years award-race should be tight and anyone can win.

 

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Alex Cora to the Red Sox

In a not so surprising move, the Red Sox have named Alex Cora as their 47th manager in team history.  For the past week, it was speculated that he was the top choice for the open manager spot. The only other notable competition he had was Arizona Diamondbacks’ assistant coach Ron Gardenhire.  That all changed on Saturday, when Gardenhire was swept up by the Detroit Tigers. From there, it was clear that Cora was the man for the job. The team has not made it official yet — they must wait for Cora‘s current team to finish their season. Currently, he is the Houston Astros’ bench coach and the organization is about to embark in their second ever World Series appearance.

This is not Cora’s first stint in Boston, he played for the Red Sox from 2005-2008 mainly as a utility infielder.  Although he was never a star player, he was always highly respected by fellow players and had a reputation amongst fans as being a very like-able person.

Right now, he feels like the right type of manager that the Red Sox need. They need someone that is personable — and like-able among the fans and players. They also need  a person the younger players can go to and the fact that he speaks Spanish should help out some of the Hispanic players on the Sox. The biggest question mark is going to be whether he can in game manage and handle the scrutiny of the Red Sox brass. There are high expectations in Boston and we’ll see if Cora is able to handle that.

 

Celtics vs. Cavs Recap

Opening night in the NBA did not disappoint. An off-season filled with excitement and interest carried over to Tuesday night. Unfortunately the night began with sadness. Less than 6 minutes into the first quarter, Gordon Hayward came off a back screen alley-oop attempt, flew through the air, came down off balance and awkwardly landed on his ankle. As he spun himself on the ground, we were shown the horrific scene — his ankle was facing the wrong way. After the game, it was reported that he had dislocated his ankle and had a fractured tibia. He was stretchered off the court and has been brought back to Boston for further testing and surgery.

After that gruesome injury, the Celtics were in a daze and the Cavs out-scored the Celtics 45 – 26. At halftime, it was reported that Gordon Hayward stuck around to see his teammates during the half to let them know he was okay. Knowing that Hayward was okay, the Celtics came out out red hot and by the end of the third they were able to come within 1 point, nearly erasing a 19 point deficit.

The 4th quarter was pure electricity — each team trading the lead multiple times. In the end what did the Celtics in, was a corner three from Kevin Love with 46 seconds left.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmNbHn_SvTY

 

Although the Celtics started the season off with a loss, there were a few positive take aways.

The first has to be the fight that this team has — only having 4 returning players from last years 53 win team and only 1 starter, we weren’t sure what to expect from this team.

Although losing Gordon Hayward will hurt the C’s, his injury will provide more playing time for Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. Two young players who played very well last night. Jaylen scored 25 points, had 6 rebounds and 2 steals. Jayson also had played well, after having a shaky first half which is expected from a rookie playing his first game, he still recorded a double – double 14 points and 10 rebounds. These two players have been given a great opportunity — lets hope they don’t blow it.

We all knew this was Kryie’s team, but now because of the injury he will be looked to even more on and off the court. He will be asked to score more than he has ever scored before and as it stands the season rests on his shoulders.

The starting lineup moving forward should look like:

PG – Kyrie Irving

SG – Jaylen Brown

SF – Jayson Tatum

PF – Marcus Morris

C – Al Horford

Cavs – Celtics Opening Night

It’s finally here! Opening night for the 2018 NBA Season. The first game will showcase the two top teams in the Eastern Conference, the Boston Celtics and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

There are a few notable story lines in this game:

  • Kyrie coming back to Cleveland for the first time as a Celtic.
  • The first time Kyrie and Lebron see each other since the breakup.
  • Kyrie in the past few weeks has thrown shade Cleveland’s way, notably saying “I’m really playing in a real, live sports city'”
  • Dwyane Wade reuniting with Lebron
  • Will Isaiah Thomas be at the game? How will he react to seeing Danny Ainge and the Boston Celtics
  • Our real first chance to see how well the Celtics play together

As always, the game gets broken down to 3 area — who is the better coach, who has the better starters and who has the deeper & more reliable bench.

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Coaching – Brad Stevens

If you don’t agree that Brad is the better coach in this match up, lets see what LeBron has to say.

 

“I highly respect their coaching staff and especially their head coach,” James said. “A very well-coached team, he puts those guys out there every night and puts them in position to win the game. I think Brad Stevens is a very good young coach in our league.”

 

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Starters – Boston Celtics

The Celtics and Cavaliers have a pretty even lineup, but with D-Rose and Wade both being injury prone and older, I have to give the edge to the Celtics. It will be a great test defensively for Jaylen and Jayson if they get matched up against LeBron.

PG – Derrick Rose                                        PG – Kyrie Irving

SG – Dwyane Wade                                    SG – Jaylen Brown

SF –   Lebron James                                   SF –  Gordon Hayward

PF –  Jae Crowder                                       PF – Jason Tatum

C – Kevin Love                                             C – Al Horford

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Bench – Cleveland Cavaliers

At this time, the Cavs clearly have the more veteran bench at every position. The Celtics are a very young team so I expect the Cavs to have their way against the Celtics rookies.

 

2nd Unit

PG – Jose Calderon                                    PG –  Terry Rozier

SG – J.R. Smith                                            SG – Marcus Smart

SF –  Kyle Korver                                       SF –  Semi Ojeleye

PF –  Channing Frye/Jeff Green              PF – Guerschon Yabusele

C – Tristan Thompson                               C – Aron Baynes

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Prediction – Boston Celtics 106-99

In the end, I believe the Celtics will complete the upset and beat the Cavs on opening night. I predict Kryie, Gordon and Al will combine for 80 points and the suspect Celtics bench will give them enough support to hold off a weakened LeBron and the Cavaliers.