2012 Fantasy Football Week 9 Rankings

These are my 2012 Fantasy Football Week 9 rankings as of Friday Nov. 1st @ 6:00 PM EST.

Byes: New England, New York Jets, San Francisco, St. Louis

Defense and kicker rankings are not included so if you have questions regarding those positions, feel free to ask on twitter @FreeRotoAdvice or comment on the post and I will respond ASAP.

Harden to the Rockets Trade Reaction

Throughout the preseason, there were reports of extension talks between the Thunder and the reigning sixth-man of the year, James Harden. It was widely believed that they wouldn't be able to keep Harden after having already signed Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook to max deals and having recently signing Serge Ibaka to an extension. However, after Harden rejected a 4 year, $52 million deal from the Thunder over the weekend, the writing was on the wall that his time in OKC was coming to an end.

Late Saturday night, Thunder GM Sam Presti decided to take matters into his own hands and traded James Harden along with Cole Aldrich, Deaquan Cook, and Lazar Hayward to the Rockets for Kevin Martin, rookie Jeremy Lamb, two first-round picks and a second-round pick. For the Thunder as a franchise it's a great win, but let's look at how the fantasy value of each of the players involved are affected.

Preseason Fantasy Basketball Standouts

With the 2012-13 NBA preseason almost coming to an end, it's a good time to look back at some of the standouts from the past few weeks of preseason action. While preseason success is far from indicative of success in the regular season, preseason stars are often able to build on that success by earning more trust of their coaches and entering the regular season with lots of confidence.

Fantasy Basketball Sleepers, Busts and More

With the start of the fantasy basketball season around the corner, it was felt that there would be value in outlining some names of players to keep in mind when drafting. In this article, none of the names listed will be discussed, but if you have a question as to why any of the names were included or not inlcuded, feel free to comment on the article or ask on twitter @FreeRotoAdvice.

For more information as to feelings on players, check out the Point Guard (PG), Shooting Guard (SG), Small Forward (SF) and Power Forward (PF) and Centers (C) previews.

This article refers to rotisserie leagues using 8 categories. The 8 categories are: FG%, FT%, Points (PPG), Rebounds (RPG), Assists (APG), Steals (SPG), Blocks (BPG) and 3-pointers (3PT), NOT including turnovers.

2012 Fantasy Football Week 8 Rankings

These are my 2012 Fantasy Football Week 8 rankings as of Sunday Oct. 28th @ 10:40 AM EST.

Byes: Baltimore, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Houston

Defense and kicker rankings are not included so if you have questions regarding those positions, feel free to ask on twitter @FreeRotoAdvice or comment on the post and I will respond ASAP.

2012-13 Fantasy Basketball Center Preview

Here are my preseason rankings for centers in a standard 8-category rotisserie league. Point Guard (PG), Shooting Guard (SG), Small Forward (SF) and Power Forward (PF) previews are also available.

The 8 categories are: FG%, FT%, Points (PPG), Rebounds (RPG), Assists (APG), Steals (SPG), Blocks (BPG) and 3-pointers (3PT), NOT including turnovers. Player position eligibility for these rankings are based on ESPN's position eligibility, so they may be slightly different to the ones used in your league.

Week 7 Injury Roundup

Injuries are the bane of every fantasy owner's existence (unless of course you are the owner of the injured player's backup). Since football is such a physical sport, a player's likelihood of getting injured is extremely high. As a result, it's very important to handcuff your RBs so that in the event of an injury, you have a backup plan ready to go. In Week 7, some very prominent players suffered injuries that will have major fantasy implications for the rest of the season. These injury situations are discussed below:

2012-13 Fantasy Basketball Power Forward Preview

Here are my pre-season rankings for power forwards in a standard 8-category rotisserie league. Point Guard (PG), Shooting Guard (SG) and Small Forward (SF) previews are also available.

The 8 categories are: FG%, FT%, Points (PPG), Rebounds (RPG), Assists (APG), Steals (SPG), Blocks (BPG) and 3-pointers (3PT), NOT including turnovers. Player position eligibility for these rankings are based on ESPN's position eligibility, so they may be slightly different to the ones used in your league.

50 Fantasy Football Fun Facts: Week 7

We are now finished 6 weeks of the 2012 NFL season. Here is a look at some interesting or surprising stats for the season so far and some fantasy football implications. All stats are through Week 6 and do not consider any games played afterwards.

1. Robert Griffin III has 379 rushing yards through 6 games this year, more than DeMarco Murray, Darren McFadden, Matt Forte and Trent Richardson.
2. RGIII also had 6 rushing TDs on the year. That's more than any RB not named Arian Foster.

RGIII has been extremely valuable because of his elite rushing ability

2012 Fantasy Football Week 7 Rankings

These are my 2012 Fantasy Football Week 7 rankings as of Thursday Oct. 18th @ 4:30 PM EST.

Byes: Atlanta, Denver, Kansas City, Miami, Philadelphia, San Diego

Defense and kicker rankings are not included so if you have questions regarding those positions, feel free to ask on twitter @FreeRotoAdvice or comment on the post and I will respond ASAP.

2012-13 Fantasy Basketball Small Forward Preview

Here are my pre-season rankings for small forwards in a standard 8-category rotisserie league. Point Guard (PG) Rankings and Shooting Guard (SG) Rankings have also been released.

The 8 categories are: FG%, FT%, Points (PPG), Rebounds (RPG), Assists (APG), Steals (SPG), Blocks (BPG) and 3-pointers (3PT), NOT including turnovers. Player position eligibility for these rankings were based on ESPN's position eligibility, so they may be slightly different to the ones used in your league.

2012 Fantasy Football Week 6 Rankings

These are my Week 6 standard league rankings as of Saturday Oct. 13th @ 5:30 PM EST.

Byes: Chicago, New Orleans, Carolina, Jacksonville

Defense and kicker rankings are not included so if you have questions regarding those positions, feel free to ask on twitter @FreeRotoAdvice or comment on the post and I will respond ASAP.

2012-13 Fantasy Basketball Shooting Guard Preview

Shooting Guard (SG) is likely the thinnest position in fantasy basketball. Last year, only 10 of the top 50 players (and 28 of the top 100 players) had shooting guard eligibility. As a result, drafting a shooting guard that you can count on is of utmost importance.

Here are my pre-season rankings for shooting guards in a standard 8-category rotisserie league. Point Guard (PG) rankings have also been released and are available here. 

The 8 categories are: FG%, FT%, Points (PPG), Rebounds (RPG), Assists (APG), Steals (SPG), Blocks (BPG) and 3-pointers (3PT), NOT including turnovers. Player position eligibility for these rankings were based on ESPN's position eligibility, so they may be slightly different to the ones used in your league.

Vick Ballard: Five Reasons to Temper Expectations

Written By: Avi Vandersluis

In the wake of Donald Brown’s knee scope (expected to miss 2-3 weeks), fantasy owners flocked to the wire for the other Vick, newly-appointed Colts starting RB Vick Ballard (33rd in the Week 6 RB Rankings). Taken with their fifth round pick in the draft, Indy liked the promise Ballard showed rushing for 1189 yards and 10 touchdowns, with an average yards per carry of 6.1, as a senior at Mississippi State in 2011. But four games into his NFL career, Ballard has failed to impress much of anyone, let alone fantasy owners, plodding along for a whopping 42 yards on 21 carries (2 YPC) and adding a single reception for another 4 yards. Now, with a golden opportunity to prove himself at the pro level, picking up Ballard for your team is not a bad idea, especially with juicy matchups against the Jets and the Browns in the next two weeks. But here are five reasons to temper your expectations that Ballard will take your team to the next level. 

Ryan Williams Out For The Year

Coming into the year, the Arizona Cardinals RB situation was a big question mark. Beanie Wells came into the year as the supposed starter, but talented Ryan Williams was waiting in the wings. Ryan Williams was coming off a serious knee injury suffered in the preseason last season but looked like the more talented and explosive back. As a result, he was a big sleeper of mine, despite the obvious offensive line issues.

Ryan Williams was lost for the year with a shoulder injury, what now?

2012-13 Fantasy Basketball Point Guard Preview

Point Guard (PG) is one of the most important positions in fantasy basketball. Seeing as the ball is in their hands a lot, a fantasy team's PGs are weak it's almost impossible to compete.

Here are my pre-season rankings for a standard 8-category rotisserie league. The 8 categories are: FG%, FT%, Points (PPG), Rebounds (RPG), Assists (APG), Steals (SPG), Blocks (BPG) and 3-pointers (3PT), NOT including turnovers.

Ryan Mathews Loses Job?

Today was a tough day for Ryan Mathews' owners as Jackie Battle (who started ahead of him in Week 4) was moved ahead of Mathews and was listed as the San Diego's first-team RB on the Chargers' official website.

Ryan Mathews was moved down to the RB2 on the Chargers' depth chart, but what does that mean going forward?

2012 Fantasy Football Week 5 Rankings

These are my Week 5 standard league rankings as of Sat Oct. 6th @ 10 AM EST. Also, check out Breakouts and Breakdowns from Week 4 to get more insight into my thoughts regarding the rankings.

Byes: Dallas, Detroit, Oakland, Tampa Bay

Defense and kicker rankings are not included so if you have questions regarding those positions, feel free to ask on twitter @FreeRotoAdvice or comment on the post and I will respond ASAP.

Week 4 Breakouts and Breakdowns

Week 4 was a great week to start your top QBs as Rodgers, Brees, Brady, Newton, Peyton Manning and Matt Ryan all finished as top 6 QB options this week.

This column, however, discusses the surprise stars (breakouts) and injuries (breakdown) that occurred in Week 4 of the 2012 NFL season and the fantasy implications of those performances.