Investing & Maybe Fantasy Baseball

Week 8 Wide Receiver Results

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Byes: Buffalo Bills, Cincinnati Bengals, Baltimore Ravens, Houston Texans

The Actual Rankings are based my scoring primer. It basically follows ESPNs standard scoring but uses fractional points and slightly devalues passing touchdowns.

Denver Broncos Wide Receivers: Eric Decker and Demaryius Thomas. Both of them were in the top 10 this week finishing 5 and 3 respectively. The question is not whether not these guys are top 15-20 wide receivers, but which one is the better fantasy option? Thomas has the best tools, but it’s not significant. Decker runs the best routes by a lot (65-70) compared to Thomas’ average route running abilities. I give the edge to Decker because he’s had 100% more red zone targets (12 compared to 6 for Thomas).

Titus Young had the biggest game this week and most likely the #1 waiver wire pickup this week. With Calvin Johnson hurt and defenses focusing on taking Johnson out of the game, Young could be a solid high end wide receiver 3.

Denarius Moore is a really good real life wide receiver. I’d argue that it’s possible that at the end of the year he could be a top 10 real life wide receiver, which is something I didn’t expect. In terms of fantasy he is now a must start every week regardless of matchup.

Michael Crabtree looked good night last night, but at the end of the year this will be one of his outlier performances. Prior to last night he had only one touchdown and has a total of 3 red zone targets (15.8%). In PPR leagues, he’s a solid #2, averaging 4-5 catches a game.

Week 8 Tight End Results

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Byes: Buffalo Bills, Cincinnati Bengals, Baltimore Ravens, Houston Texans

The Actual Rankings are based my scoring primer. It basically follows ESPNs standard scoring but uses fractional points and slightly devalues passing touchdowns.

I’ve been saying since the inception of my blog, but I’ll say it again, Jermichael Finley should be dropped in any league with 14 owners or less.

In PPR leagues Jason Witten is the number 2 ranked tight end the rest of the year. Despite missing one game (I don’t count the first game of the year) he leads the team in targets with 72. In standard leagues he’s my number 3 tight end with Gronk and Tony Gonzalez as my top 2.

Week 8 Quarterback Results

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Byes: Buffalo Bills, Cincinnati Bengals, Baltimore Ravens, Houston Texans

The Actual Rankings are based my scoring primer. It basically follows ESPNs standard scoring but uses fractional points and slightly devalues passing touchdowns.

Matthew Stafford had the best fantasy week with 352 yards and 3 touchdowns. He’s averaging 18 fantasy points per game. The takeaway is Stafford will be a top 10 quarterback the rest of the year. However, if his supporting cast continues to step up (like they did against the Seahwaks) he can be a top 5-6 quarterback. Another food for thought, how good could this offense be if they had any semblance of a running game.

Matt Hasselbeck finished the week as the 14 fantasy quarterback, exactly where I predicted. Jake Locker appears he will be healthy for Sunday’s game against Chicago. So you can drop him because Locker should be the main man moving forward.

Jay Cutler isn’t playing well. I thought this was a great chance for Cutler to have a solid fantasy day, but he looked awful. It doesn’t help he was constantly under duress (sacked 6 times) behind an extremely suspect offensive line.

Philip Rivers stunk. His offensive line doesn’t give him a lot of time, the wide receivers can’t get open, but that doesn’t mean Rivers is not partially to blame. He missed on a few open receivers and he made poor decisions. At best, he’s a top 20 quaterback.

Josh Freeman did not perform as well as stat line (on Sunday) suggests. He benefited greatly from a 64 yard dump off (for a touchdown) to Doug Martin. If you take that away he only throws for 200 yards with 51% completion percentage. Like Rivers, he wasn’t accurate with most of his passes. I’m still not buying the hype he is a a top 15 quarterback.