For Fantasy Sake

Cam Newton signed a one-year deal with the New England Patriots on Sunday evening What should you expect from 2015 MVP quarterback? Quarterback Cam Newton signed a one-year-deal with the New England Patriots worth up to $7.5 million, per league sources who told ESPN's Chris Mortensen and Adam Schefter . After suffering several injuries over the last couple seasons, including a Lisfranc injury that cost the quarterback 14 games last year, the Patriots have found their answer under center. It’s important to note that learning the Patriots playbook has been notoriously difficult and given the late timing of this signing I would follow reports out of New England very closely over the coming months to see if Newton is even ready for Week 1. Newton certainly provides an upgrade over 2019 fourth-round pick Jarrett Stidham or journeyman quarterback Bryan Hoyer and provides a small ray of hope to all those fantasy owners with New England pieces. The 2015 MVP finds himself right back i...

Willie Calhoun is currently out with a jaw fracture after being hit in the face with a pitch, how will he respond at the plate after returning? Sometimes injuries hit your fantasy baseball team out of nowhere, kind of like a fastball to Willie Calhoun's face. This week's column is about figuring out the value of Calhoun coming off an unexpected injury. Make no mistake: Calhoun was going to be a breakout candidate this season, but he had to take a long road through the minors to reach this point. He struggled after being the key piece of the Yu Darvish trade in 2017. Calhoun still found a way to make his debut that season playing 13 games, and he seemed poised to grab a roster spot in 2018. However, Calhoun started 2018 in the minors for his "defense" (arbitration). Calhoun didn't take the demotion well, voicing his displeasure and having his numbers drop to a concerning level batting .229 by the end of April. Calhoun's time fi...

While the Pittsburgh Pirates think spending money is an Oberyn Martell level tactical mistake, some MLB teams did the unthinkable this off season. Teams like the Cincinnati Reds and the Chicago White Sox had a crazy idea to spend money on making their teams better. To keep the Oberyn analogy going, here are some faces in new places with five players who can strengthen your team in 2020. Gerrit Cole, NYY, SP  He was the best pitcher in baseball last season so a change in venue shouldn't matter too much for Gerrit Cole. He was in the 97th percentile for velocity, 96th in spin rate and 99th in K rate according to baseball savant. The expected batting average against him was .184, so he had the arm of a God last season. You would think by moving to Yankee Stadium that has a reputation as a launching pad that would hurt his overall numbers. However, Alex Chamberlain used stat cast data to calculate a park factor for each stadium. Surprisingly, Minute Maid Park in Houst...

If you play keeper or dynasty fantasy baseball, you may want to consider trading players like Jose Altuve and Yulieski Gurriel. Sell and fade your Houston Astros fantasy baseball players. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has put the Astros in the jackpot this season. Manfred has been falling all over himself for about a month while doing nothing to change the situation after his slap on the wrist penalties were handed down over the sign-stealing scandal that has rocked the league to its core. This just leaves MLB players to police themselves with their own backward brand of justice under the "unwritten rules of baseball." I hate the unwritten rules of baseball. They are dumb, and they need to go away. Throwing at players accomplishes nothing. Do you want justice? Try winning the game. However, the level injustice that is being allowed to occur has put a target on every one of Houston players' backs considering the over-under for the times the Astros player...

Nick Madrigal could just hit his way into a prospect laden White Sox lineup (NBC Chicago) Like Morpheus searching the Matrix, I think I've finally found the one. A slappy little fast guy without any real power who is worth rostering. Nick Madrigal 2B Chicago White Sox Highest level: AAA Age: 22 ETA: Early 2020 Now most players who lack the ability to hit more than 10 home runs in a season should be left on the waiver wire, or at least be a catcher. Madrigal has found a way to transcend his inability as a hitter by maximizing what he's good at, he doesn't strikeout. Across three leagues last year, Madrigal set a minor league-low 3.3 percent strikeout rate. Additionally, he's not just a tough out -- he produced a slash line of  .331/.398/.424. After being drafted by the White Sox in 2018, Madrigal seemed advertised as a guy who was going to be an asset at the top of the lineup as a single and maybe score kind of asset. However, he took an even greater ...

Will Jo Adell be the latest prospect to set the league on fire upon callup? Get Ronald Acuña Jr. on your team. This should be the first step to winning every fantasy baseball league every year for the foreseeable future. However, unless you’re blessed with the top pick in your fantasy draft you’re going to have to identify the next Acuña before his meteoric rise to stardom. Last season, we saw the future of the league be turned over to prospects who even average fantasy players knew were going to be some of the best in baseball the moment they stepped onto the diamond. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Fernando Tatís Jr. and Eloy Jiménez -- those names were drummed into our heads so often we knew they were coming, like an offspeed pitch at a Houston Astros' home game. Everyone knows these players and their value is already really high just like this season Wander Frano, Luis Robert or Casey Mize are trending the moment they take the rubber or pick up a bat, so this article isn...

The strategy is simple ... play Christian McCaffrey; win all the money. Every week.  He did it again. Like he does every week. He just gets it done. Christian McCaffrey is a machine. A robot. A man among boys. All the cliches. They all apply here. You're not getting away from him. Even at the $10.5K price tag this week on DraftKings. He's a lock every week at this point until he reaches Russell Westrbook and James Harden price territory -- shouts to all the NBA DFSers out there ... you know what I'm talking about. This weekend against the Packers is no different. They've seemed to have given up on trying to defend the run at all of late, and have been torched by backs throughout the season. McCaffrey's gotten insane amounts of work week in and week out, and there's no reason that we should believe it would change at all this week, even with him carrying an injury tag and getting in limited practices. He's their horse. A few years back, eve...

With six teams on bye, a lot of the top options we usually go to on DraftKings, like DeAndre Hopkins, won't be available to play. So who are we going to this week with so many fantasy studs on the sidelines?  It's officially Bye-Nado. With six teams on bye, which, obviously, shrinks the slate; but with so many teams having their week off, it diminishes the talent pool. The teams that are on bye: Denver New England Philadelphia Washington Jacksonville Houston Obviously, Washington, and even Denver to an extent, are outliers on this list. The other four, however, have fantasy-viable players up and down their roster.  New England: Tom Brady, James White, Sony Michel, Julian Edelman, Mohammed Sanu and Pats DST Philadelphia: Carson Wentz, Jordan Howard, Alshon Jeffery, Zach Ertz Houston: Deshaun Watson, DeAndre Hopkins  Jacksonville: Leonard Fournette, D.J. Chark There are some fantasy heavy-hitters in that list above. But the more important fac...

If James Conner is ruled out this week, it might be pertinent to lock Jaylen Samuels in every lineup at $4,000.  With news still yet to drop about James Conner's status after sustaining a shoulder injury, the week's biggest question hangs in the balance. Will James Conner sit and allow us to play all the Jaylen Samuels at $4,000? The slate is starved for value and, it's likely if Conner does sit, Samuels is going to be the most popular play on the slate. With the top-tier running backs being so expensive -- Christian McCaffrey is $10K and Dalvin Cook is $9.5K -- their ownership levels will be directly correlated to Conner's status. The most-common build will be to use Samuels in order to fit in one of those expensive options. So, should the news break that Conner is out, expect McCaffrey and Cook to draw more ownership, which puts you in the position of two things: How many shares of Jaylen Samuels do I play? How much McCaffrey and Cook do I want? ...

DraftKings looks to be raising prices on players who put up big games or garner large ownership percentages, but the middling players aren't decreasing in price at all. In a week where you're going to need some value, Phillip Lindsay could be your huckleberry.  How about that trade deadline, eh? One of my favorite tweets about the, uh, less-than-rousing-to-say-the-least deadline came from ESPN's Field Yates . A comprehensive recap of the NFL trade deadline: — Field Yates (@FieldYates) October 29, 2019 Sums it up perfectly. It also jives with the excitement that is being exuded about this Week 9 DraftKings slate. Don't believe me? Check the game totals put out by Vegas -- 40 percent of the slate has game totals of 41 or less, and only two games at 50 or more. Games with 41 or less: Jets at Dolphins 41 Redskins at Bills 37 Titans at Panthers 41  Browns at Broncos 39 Games with 50 or more: Lions at Raiders 50.5 Buccaneers at Seahawks 51.5...

Latavius Murray went absolutely off again, scoring 39.7 DraftKings points  and was the third-highest-scoring player on the slate. Having the lead role  at $5,800 should have been a signal to everyone to play him, especially in  a primo matchup against the Cardinals.  Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. That ... that right there? That's the only thing we need to be saying about Latavius Murray . With Alvin Kamara ruled out again in Week 8, all DFS players should have found the way to lock Murray into their lineups. In large-field tournaments, he was only 28 percent owned, which is far too low based on the first week we saw him take the feature-back role with Kamara out. He should've been close to 50 percent owned at $5,800. Especially considering Drew Brees was making his return and teams would have to start respecting the quarterback play a little bit more than when Teddy Bridgewater was under center. That matchup with the Cardinals...

It seems as if Leonard Fournette finds his picture on every column I write, but with the usage he's getting and DraftKings refuse him to price him appropriately, I'm going to continue to tout him. The positive touchdown regression is coming, and when it does, it's going to be a barrage. He's a cash-game lock.  This time a week ago, it was the beginning of the #KoviStrong✊ movement that myself and two co-hosts of For Fantasy Sake  started. We partnered with QC Custom Tees to create the T-shirts and raise money for Kovi and his family as they traveled to Peoria, Ill., and Evanston, Ill. numerous times to get the treatment and surgeries he needed as he battled viral myocarditis.  Our attempt to raise money for the family has been great, and we've received many orders from all of you who read this column, listen to the show and live in the Quad-Cities community. Your support has been so overwhelming we at For Fantasy Sake can't say thank you enoug...

With Kerryon Johnson being placed on IR, it looks as if Ty Johnson will be the lead back in Detroit. At $4,900, Ty Johnson will probably be one of the most-owned value plays on the Week 8 slate.  Apparently, the NFL decided that THIS week was the trade deadline. A handful of trades went down. Not that we care about all of them, but some have fantasy impact, and we can't overlook them. Trades the matter: Momammed Sanu to the Patriots: Not only does Sanu get a bit of an upgrade heading to New England and having Tom Brady as his quarterback, but it likely tells us a little something about another wideout in New England. If the Pats felt the overwhelming need to give up a second-round pick for Sanu, the outlook for Josh Gordon is probably worse than originally anticipated. *Update: Gordon was placed on IR and may be waived by the Patriots.  Emmanuel Sanders to the 49ers: I tweeted out yesterday that I never thought I'd say a receiver leaving a Joe Flacco-led team wo...