FANTASY PLAYOFFS
Week 14 fantasy football rankings: Win or go home
Dec 5, 2019, 5:48 pm
FANTASY PLAYOFFS
These are my very early ranks, so keep in mind I post these on Thursday. Make sure you check the injury report on Sunday for players that have missed practice. If it doesn't look like a player will play this week, I typically won't rank him. Keep in mind, these are PPR rankings, and don't forget to set your lineup for Thursday Night Football.
If you have any questions, feel free to hit me up on Twitter. Be sure to check out my show MoneyLine with Jerry Bo on ESPN 97.5 FM. We're on every Sunday morning from 10-noon, and we'll talk a lot of fantasy football and NFL gambling getting you ready for kickoff every Sunday.
Aaron Rodgers should have a big game this week against Washington. Photo by Getty Images
1 Lamar Jackson
2 Deshaun Watson
3 Aaron Rodgers
4 Russell Wilson
5 Patrick Mahomes
6 Carson Wentz
7 Kirk Cousins
8 Baker Mayfield
9 Dak Prescott
10 Drew Brees
11 Tom Brady
12 Jameis Winston
13 Ryan Tannehill
14 Matt Ryan
15 Jared Goff
Derrick Henry should continue to dominate in the month of December. Photo via: TennesseeTitans.com
1 Christian McCaffrey
2 Derrick Henry
3 Ezekiel Elliott
4 Leonard Fournette
5 Alvin Kamara
6 Melvin Gordon
7 Josh Jacobs
8 Saquon Barkley
9 Nick Chubb
10 Mark Ingram
11 Le'Veon Bell
12 Joe Mixon
13 Dalvin Cook
14 Aaron Jones
15 Devonta Freeman
16 James White
17 Todd Gurley
18 Chris Carson
19 Austin Ekeler
20 Miles Sanders
21 Devin Singletary
22 Kareem Hunt
23 David Montgomery
24 Phillip Lindsay
25 Carlos Hyde
26 Rashaad Penny
27 Marlon Mack
28 Kenyan Drake
29 Derrius Guice
30 Sony Michel
Michael Thomas has been unbelievable this year. Photo by New Orleans Saints/Facebook
1 Michael Thomas
2 Davante Adams
3 DeAndre Hopkins
4 D.J. Moore
5 Julian Edelman
6 Tyreek Hill
7 Chris Godwin
8 Mike Evans
9 Devante Parker
10 Julio Jones
11 Robert Woods
12 Jarvis Landry
13 Stefon Diggs
14 Keenan Allen
15 Allen Robinson
16 Courtland Sutton
17 Cooper Kupp
18 Amari Cooper
19 Odell Beckham Jr
20 Alshon Jeffery
21 Tyler Boyd
22 Calvin Ridley
23 Kenny Golladay
24 Will Fuller
25 Michael Gallup
26 Robby Anderson
27 Jamison Crowder
28 Tyler Lockett
29 D.J. Chark
30 Marvin Jones
31 John Brown
32 D.K. Metcalf
33 Anthony Miller
34 Dede Westbrook
35 James Washington
36 Sterling Shepard
Hunter Henry's matchup is tough this week, but he still makes the Top 5. Photo via:Chargers/Facebook
1 George Kittle
2 Travis Kelce
3 Zach Ertz
4 Darren Waller
5 Hunter Henry
6 Jared Cook
7 Jack Doyle
8 Mark Andrews
9 Evan Engram
10 Kyle Rudolph
11 Ryan Griffin
12 Austin Hooper
1 Vikings
2 Packers
3 Steelers
4 Ravens
5 Texans
6 Eagles
7 Bears
8 Titans
9 Browns
10 Chargers
11 Cowboys
12 Patriots
1 Wil Lutz
2 Greg Zuerlein
3 Jake Elliott
4 Justin Tucker
5 Robbie Gould
6 Ka'imi Fairbairn
7 Matt Gay
8 Harrison Butker
9 Younghoe Koo
10 Jason Myers
11 Austin Seibert
12 Michael Badgley
Good luck this week and when in doubt, start your studs.
It’s been an excellent weeklong stretch of games for the Astros tempered by the news of yet another season-ending injury to a starting pitcher. To get the bad news out of the way, it comes as no surprise that Ronel Blanco needs Tommy John surgery and is done until at least the middle of next season. While Blanco had not been nearly as good through nine 2025 starts as he was last season, he was still taking his regular return and on average getting into the sixth inning. Blanco turns 32 years old at the end of August. He’s not even salary arbitration-eligible until 2027. That last fact may be good news for him. The Astros will likely keep Blanco next year in hopes he can contribute in the second half of the season, since they will pay him barely the Major League minimum salary ($780,000 next year) That’s in contrast to Jose Urquidy, who in the midst of his salary arbitration years would have cost about three and a half million dollars to keep, so the Astros non-tendered him.
With Blanco joining Hayden Wesneski in the “See you next year! Hopefully.” club, it struck me as interesting that the Astros let Lance McCullers throw 102 pitches in his Wednesday outing vs. the Athletics. That’s eleven more than he had thrown in any of his prior four starts. McCullers holding up physically would be a huge boost, but the new essentials in the Astros’ rotation are Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown. Framber has settled in to the tune of a 1.93 earned run average over his last four starts. Brown’s season ERA is 2.00. Brown has had five days of rest before all eleven of his starts this season. This Sunday is Brown’s presently next scheduled outing. He would work on four days of rest if on the mound Sunday against the Rays.
Taking the last two games from the Mariners was huge (for the second half of May anyway). Keeping the good times rolling by sweeping the two-game miniseries from the A’s was less significant but still nice. Maybe not quite nice enough to have Frank “The Tank” from the movie Old School belting out “We’re going streaking!!!” but it did give the Astros their first four game winning streak of the season. They still have not lost more than three straight.
On a heater!
Speaking of streaking, time for annual mention of one of my all-time favorite baseball factoids. The 1916 New York Giants hold the MLB record for the longest win streak with an incredible 26 in a row. Earlier in the season the Giants ripped off 17 in a row. Combine the two streaks and that’s 43-0! The 1916 New York Giants finished in fourth place. In all their other games the Giants went 43-66. The American League’s longest ever winning streak is of fairly recent vintage. The 2007 Cleveland Indians won 22 straight. There have been only two other winning streaks since 1900 of at least 20 games. The 1935 Chicago Cubs won 21 straight. The Art Howe-managed 2002 Oakland A’s won 20 in a row, and were the inspiration for the movie Moneyball. The Astros have three 12 game winning streaks as the longest in their history.
Expect the unexpected
Tuesday’s win over the A’s brought the Astros to the one-third completed point of the regular season. Isaac Paredes was definitely their best offensive player to that milepost. His “on pace for” numbers were the best on the ballclub 33 home runs and 93 runs batted in. Paredes also led in runs scored with 29. The last Astro to lead the team in all three of those categories was Alex Bregman who did it in both 2018 and 2019. That Bregman was clearly a better player than this Paredes, but Isaac healthy and making “only” 6.625 million dollars this season is a heck of a lot better value than Bregman at 40 mil for the Red Sox, especially given that while Bregman was off to a sensational start for Boston, he’s now out for at least a month with a quad injury.
Hunter Brown is on pace to win 20 games. The last Astro to get there was Gerrit Cole on the last day of the 2019 regular season. The day before that Justin Verlander won his 21st game.
The Cleveland Guardians’ bullpen was awesome last season, by far the best in the league with four relievers who each pitched in at least 74 games posting ERAs of 1.92 or lower, headlined by closer Emmanuel Clase’s microscopic 0.61. One-third of the way through this season for the Astros: Bryan Abreu sat at 1.90, Steven Okert 1.82, Josh Hader 1.57, Bryan King 1.52.
For Astro-centric conversation, join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday. Click here to catch!
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