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FanDuel: SB Nation One Day Fantasy Leagues
Many of you play in season-long leagues, while more and more of you are playing one day fantasy leagues. If you like the action of the one day leagues, make sure you join the FanDuel/SB Nation one day fantasy baseball leagues. All you need to do is click on the link below and join a league.
- Starts 1pm Sunday Sept 13
- First place wins $100,000
- $5 entry, top 46,000 teams win cash
- Salary cap format - pick who you want
FanDuel/SB Nation Fantasy Football League: Week 1
Fantasy Football Rankings and more
The 2015 fantasy football season is only a few weeks away and our fantasy football writing team is busy updating their position rankings for standard and PPR leagues, which will publish this week. Jacob Adler published his QB Rankings for 2015, with Aaron Rodgers and Andrew Luck atop his rankings, and you can find the rest of his rankings in the link below:
2015 Running Back Rankings - Standard Leagues
With that said, here is a link to all of our early position rankings, sleepers, value picks, top rookies and more:
Fantasy Football 2015: Early position rankings, sleeper and busts for PPR Leagues
Roto Roundup
Red Sox outfielder Hanley Ramirez will be playing a new position in 2016, first base, and should see some time there before the season ends as well. Now that GM Ben Cherington is gone, Hanley, who can't play the infield or left field, will try to play first base for the first time in his career over the last 5-6 weeks of the season. Here is a tweet from Red Sox beat writer Pete Abraham on the position switch yesterday:
Hanley to 1B is an official thing. Lovullo said it’s a possibility he’ll play there before the season ends.
— Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) August 25, 2015
So, this is new GM Dave Dombrowski telling all Red Sox fans that Cherington's idea to play Hanley in left field was a colossal failure. Right now he is just a DH and first baseman going forward, so he will have to produce at the plate and stay healthy for his owners going forward. Hopefully the position switch will keep him on the field and in the Red Sox lineup, but he seems to get those nagging injuries that keep him out of the lineup for 3-4 games at a time, several times a year. Hanley will lose shortstop and third base eligibility in 2016, eligible only in the outfield and DH, so his fantasy value will take a hit as a result.
Since returning from the disabled list, Nationals starter Stephen Strasburg has looked like the Stephen Strasburg from 2014 instead of the Stephen Strasburg from the first three months of 2015. Last night, he limited the Padres to 2 runs on 2 hits, a walk and 7 strikeouts in 6 innings in the Nationals win. The win moves his record to 8-6 with a 4.14 ERA, 1.24 WHIP and a 95-21 strikeout to walk rate in 87 innings. His season stats now look a lot more respectable. In his last four starts, Strasburg has given up just 5 earned runs in 26 innings or work, with a 32-3 strikeout to walk rate. He appears to be over his first half struggles on the mound, as he has lowered his ERA by 2.5 runs going back to the end of May.
Indians top prospect, shortstop Francisco Lindor, is quietly having himself a solid rookie season in Cleveland. Last night, he went 3-4 with a double, run scored, and 3 RBI in the Indians win over the Brewers. The big night at the plate improved his slash line to .306-.341-.433 with 7 home runs, 29 runs scored, 30 RBI and 3 stolen bases in about 270 plate appearances. The power is a bit of a surprise, as I thought he was going to be a solid BA speed type fantasy hitter, but he appears to have a little more power than most expected. His performance thus far will shoot him up my shortstop rankings in the offseason.
I was down on Lindor's teammate Michael Brantley in my preseason outfield rankings, but after dealing with some back issues earlier this season, he is having a fine season at the plate. Last night, he filled up the box score, going 3-4 with 2 home runs, 3 runs scored and 4 RBI in the Indians win over the Brewers. The big night at the plate improved his season stats to .320-.391-.483 with 11 home runs, 38 doubles, 55 runs scored, 72 RBI and 14 stolen bases in 112 games. After putting up a 20 home run, 20+ stolen base season in 2014, Brantley is doing his best to approach the 20-20 club once again in 2015. He will probably fall short of 20 home runs, but should exceed 20 stolen bases with a solid last five weeks of the season.
Astros ace Dallas Keuchel continues to dominate American League hitters, as he walked onto the mound at Yankee Stadium last night and tossed seven shutout innings, giving up just 3 hits, no walks and striking out 9 in the Astros 15-1whitewash of the Yankees. Keuchel needed only 88 pitches to get through 7 innings, en route to his 15th win of the season, to go with a 2.28 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and an excellent 165-42 strikeout to walk rate in 185.2 innings this season. He has given up two runs or less in 17 of his 26 starts this season, and has a very good shot at winning the American League Cy Young award right now. Chris Sale and Corey Kluber are his only competition at the moment, and I see the voters giving Keuchel more love than those two aces in October.
Kuechel's teammate Evan Gattis received lots of love back in March, as he was ranked among the top 5 catchers in some rankings. Known for a low batting average and huge power, Gattis has delivered for his fantasy owners and met preseason expectations thus far in 2015. Last night, he went 2-4 with two walks, a home run, 3 runs scored and 4 RBI in the Astros 15-1 win over the Yankees. The big night improved his season slash line to .241-.274-.450 with 20 home runs, 51 runs scored and 67 RBI in 120 games. With about 5-6 weeks left in the season, Gattis is on pace for 26 home runs and 85 RBI, which would be great if he still had catcher eligibility in 2016, but he has not played one game there this season. He will only be eligible at DH and in the outfield for those of you who play in leagues which require 10 or more games to qualify at a position on draft day.
Fantasy Rundown
If you are looking for more fantasy baseball or football coverage, look no further than Fantasy Rundown, which provides links to all of the best fantasy content on the internet.