percent). He could do it all, and his combination of patience, power and contact-hitting ability made him especially valuable in points-based and sabermetrically angled scoring formats.Un

MANHATTAN, Kan. -- Kansas State has earned an unflattering reputation under coach Bill Snyder for its non-conference scheduling of weaker opponents from schools that often have a direction in their names.The Wildcats went to the extreme opposite this season.Kansas State opens up against No. 8 Stanford on Friday night, a marquee matchup against the Rose Bowl champions and star Christian McCaffrey on national TV kicking off the slate of weekend games.It will be the first time since 2001 that the Wildcats open the season on the West Coast -- back then it was the Southern California juggernaut under Pete Carroll -- and the first time they will face a ranked opponent in their opener since Auburn in 2007 under former coach Ron Prince.I tell everybody this is a game like any other game, Kansas State linebacker Mike Moore said. Theyre a highly ranked team and this can propel our season, but if we do our job and do what the coaches tell us, we can have a great game.The Wildcats, plagued by injuries during a 6-7 finish a year ago, tend to open at home or against lower-level opponents. The idea is to ease into the season, build some confidence and give younger players deep down the depth chart a chance to see the field before the Big 12 Conference grind.But the league has encouraged teams to schedule tougher non-conference games in the hopes of boosting its chances of landing a team in the playoff. As a result, the Wildcats face Stanford, Oklahoma takes on No. 15 Houston and Texas hosts 10th-ranked Notre Dame.Those teams are a far cry from South Dakota, the Wildcats opener a year ago. Or Stephen F. Austin, their punching bag to kick off the 2014 season.Its a challenge, (but) I dont relate that to necessarily what it means to our program, Snyder said. I think its a great opportunity in regards to this set of young people. I have great respect for Stanford and we all know where they are in the rankings, certainly well deserved. Its obviously a challenge but its an excellent opportunity for the young people here.Snyder said there is no greater sense of urgency playing a marquee brand such as Stanford in Week 1, even if his players may feel differently. Every game carries the same weight to himI think coaches have that same sense of urgency regardless of who youre playing, he said. You can say youd want your players to as well and I do, but it ought to be at the heightened level regardless of who theyre playing. That may be the case but I cant assure you that it always is. Maybe it is for some right now in different circumstances.A softer opening might have been especially beneficial this season with Kansas State quarterback Jesse Ertz and safety Dante Barnett returning from season-ending injuries.Ertz was announced as the starter on Monday, completing his comeback from a torn ACL that he sustained in the first game last season. He will try to turn around an offense that was ninth in the Big 12 in passing offense a year ago, and shuffled through so many different faces under center that wide receiver Kody Cook was eventually pressed into duty.Barnett will be relied upon just as much on defense, where the senior will try to direct a group that allowed more than 450 yards and 31.5 points per game last season.We are going on the road and playing one of the Heisman finalists from last year, he said. We are also playing one of the top-10 teams in the country, so I cannot wait for the atmosphere. Troy Loney Jersey . 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Scott Niedermayer Jersey . - Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie never doubted he would bring back coach Dennis Allen for a third year despite back-to-back 4-12 records. If this is indeed the end for Prince Fielder -- and all indications are that it is -- itd be a shame if hes remembered more for the neck surgeries that prematurely ended his career than his fantasy prowess spanning the better part of a decade.Fielder possessed prodigious power, but more importantly (and somewhat forgotten in recent years), he was one of the games most durable players.On three occasions -- 2007, 2009 and 2011 -- Fielder finished ranked among the 20 best players in fantasy baseball per our Player Rater. Not coincidentally, those were his three best individual seasons in terms of home runs (50 in 2007, 46 in 2009 and 38 in 2011), RBIs (141 in 2009, 120 in 2011 and 119 in 2007), runs scored (109 in 2007, 103 in 2009 and 95 in 2011) and OPS (1.014 in 2009, 1.013 in 2007 and .981 in 2011).On five occasions -- 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2015 -- Fielder turned his fantasy owners a profit; for these purposes well define that as his Player Rater finish being of better rank than his preseason average draft position. In each of those campaigns, he improved his home run total by at least six, his RBIs by at least 37 and his OPS by at least 67 points compared to the season before it.Even more than Fielders Player Rater accomplishments, or his performance relative to draft cost, however, during the first eight full seasons of his career he was lauded for his durability. From 2006-13, Fielder appeared in a major league-leading 1,283 games, nine more than Adrian Gonzalez, and his 10,994 innings played at first base topped the position, by 126 1/3 over Gonzalez. Fielders 5,500 trips to the plate during that span trailed only Ichiro Suzukis 5,586.In four different seasons, Fielder played all 162 of his teams scheduled games, and in each of those years he started aall 162.dddddddddddd During the divisional era (since 1969), Cal Ripken (10) is the only player to have more seasons making 162-plus starts.His iron-man nature helped make Fielder one of the most reliable sources of counting numbers, which largely explains how he was able to be a top-25 overall draft pick in ESPN leagues for seven consecutive years (2008-14).From 2006-13, Fielder hit the fourth-most home runs (283, eight behind Albert Pujols), drove in the fourth-most runs (860) and had the 12th-best slugging percentage among players with at least 2,500 plate appearances (.528); he had the second-most walks (724, 60 behind Adam Dunn), the fourth-most times hit by pitch (104) and he had the 11th-best on-base percentage (.390). Fielder also did so with a better-than-league-average strikeout rate of 17.4 percent (the leagues average was 18.3 percent). He could do it all, and his combination of patience, power and contact-hitting ability made him especially valuable in points-based and sabermetrically angled scoring formats.Unfortunately, many fantasy owners -- especially Fielders in 2014 or 2016 -- might be more apt to remember him for his disappointments. Cervical fusion surgeries prematurely ended both of those campaigns, one on the C5-C6 disks in his neck on May 27, 2014, and most recently on the C4-C5 disks in his neck on July 29, resulting in Player Rater finishes that almost assuredly will be more than 600 spots beneath his ADPs in either year.Still, even if Fielders Texas Rangers career wasnt as promising as initially anticipated, his tenures with the Milwaukee Brewers and Detroit Tigers were something to celebrate in retrospect. ' ' '