Unreal Fantasy Beat Gives Mike Trout A Big Win Over Manny Machado

Steven Cheah9/19/2023 8:15 PM

Sean M. Haffey. Getty Images.

Monday Night Football can be the best of times but also be the worst of times for fantasy managers. Going into MNF Manny Machado needed just 23.79 points out of Chris Olave and Najee Harris to secure a win against Mike Trout who caught a bad beat to start 0-1 to open the season. The pair was projected to score 27.70 points, but you never know what's going to happen in primetime.

Manny ended up falling due to a pathetic effort from the Steelers offense and due to Chris Olave's foot being ruled out of bounds here on this would be TD.

Brutal way to lose from Manny and Trout gets a much needed win.

Meanwhile, Davey Pageviews is reeling and off to a 0-2 start despite being 6th in the league in points scored. And Eric Hosmer may be sitting on a title contender with this squad that is leading the league in points despite a 1-1 record.

Tony Pollard, Rachaad White, Keenan Allen, TJ Hockenson, and Garrett Wilson?! Imagine if Aaron Rodgers was healthy?! He also made a savvy pickup with Puka Nacua who seems to be the real deal. He's also got the RB2 Kyren Williams on the bench. Hosmer is LOADED and should be playing around Christmas.

The trio of Joc Pederson, Alex Wood, and Austin Barnes held onto 1st place despite a lackluster score with one of their top RBs (Aaron Jones) on the injured list.

Meanwhile, Alex Bregman and Brian McCann went Patrick Mahomes very early (Round 2) and their stkill position depth really suffered. They've got a deep bench, but got some tough performances Sunday from Alexander Mattison, Calvin Ridley, Brandon Aiyuk, and Dameon Pierce.

Mike Napoli's squad is firmly in 2nd place as the only other undefeated team in the league.

He put up 132 points without his #1 pick/PPR machine, Austin Ekeler. His team is stacked with the leader in the clubhouse for MVP, Tua Tagovailoa and strong skill position players across the board. Meanwhile, defending champ Wil Myers is on the ropes and in last place. Travis Kelce returned but still didn't hit is projection and his postional guys Jamaal Williams, AJ Dillon, and Javonte Williams haven't lived up to the hype yet.

The former Guardians duo of Austin Hedges and Shane Bieber got just enough out of the Nick Chubb and the Browns D/ST to secure a much needed win after starting the year in last place.

However, this team's outlook got a lot worse with their top two RBs (Nick Chubb and JK Dobbins) both done for the year. They'll have to start some combination of Samaje Perine/Jerick McKinnon/Tank Bigsby/Gus Edwards/Roschon Johnson. None of those guys start for their own teams! Jake Marisnick and Andrew Benintendi have gotten huge returns from Justin Jefferson and Nico Collions. They'll also be able to feast with Justin Herbert and Jefferson playing each other this week in what should be a shootout.

Lastly, Mike Moustakas got a much needed win. His team is hurting with Saquon Barkley and potentially Joe Burrow missing time. He's already got Diontae Johnson out, so he can't afford more injuries with only 1 IR slot.

Meanwhile the new guys JT Realmuto and Kyle Schwarber got a major bounceback performance from newly acquired Daniel Jones but only had one other player in double digits, a surefire recipe for disaster.

Here's where we stand after two weeks.