Fantasy News

It’s called karma. You try to call out a guy on his picks, and it’s bound to come back to bite you.

That’s how it played out with Rob Dammers of Ringwood, N.J.. I questioned some of his picks back in July, while tabulating the entries in the Fantasy Index Open and low and behold, Dammers was the first-place finisher in the kickers portion of the competition.

Dammers, a senior tech analyst, was the only competitor to finish with over 49,000 points. In second place was another guy from the sciences. Biochemist Joe Russo from San Diego. Manny De Jesus Jr. from Gilbert, Ariz., finished 3rd.

Dammers’ top 20 got off to a subpar start. He had Mason Crosby as his No. 1 kicker, and Shaun Suisham at No. 2. Those were below-average selections. But he ranked Shayne Graham 6th, 5 spots higher than anyone else in the field. Graham scored a solid 138 points, and that rewarded Dammers nicely against the rest of the field.

This competition, recall, is just like the Experts Poll in the magazine, but it’s open to everyone. Anyone who wants to send in their picks prior to July is welcome to. (We had the early deadline because we wanted everyone to do their own work, rather than perhaps using the Fantasy Football Index magazine as a crutch.)

Scoring is complex. Every pick scores in varying levels. In the past, we’ve used a 20 to 1 scoring system. You rank a guy first, his production gets multiplied by 20. You rank him 2nd, he gets multiplied by 19, and so on. But the flaw in that scoring system is that it makes the No. 1 pick worth 20 times as much as the 20th pick.

This year, we’ve softened the scoring system, making the later-round picks more valuable. Now, it’s 30 times for a No. 1 pick, 29 for No. 2, 28 for No. 3 and so on, down to 11 points for the 20th picks. So now the No. 1 pick is worth only about three times as much as the 20th pick.

With that Shayne Graham pick, recall, Dammers ranked him 6th. Graham scored 138 points, and for Dammers that got multiplied by 25 (31 minus 6) . So Graham contribued 3,450 points to Dammers score. That was his differene-maker pick.

I did lousy in this category, scoring in the bottom third (maybe the bottom quarter) . I was crushed by two picks. I had Neil Rackers and Randy Bullock in my top 12. I was confident those guys would be 16-game players and good scorers. Washington had signed Rackers to a nice free agent deal, and the Texans drafted Bullock (I figured he would be in that Shayne Graham spot) . And frankly, I don’t regret either of those picks.

But neither Bullock (injured reserve) nor Rackers (released) even played. A lot of competitors (including myself) took big fat zeros in that spots, killing our scores. But we have plenty of time to bounce back. There are five other categories to score before we crown the overall winner.

It may be over a week before I get around to finishing the scoring on this thing. I’ve got other things on my plate. Most notably, I’ll be researching playoff games on Monday and Tuesday. Sorry for the delay, I’ll get to it as quickly as I can.

The overall winner of this competition will earn a spot in the Experts Poll in the 2013 edition of the magazine, competing alongside the industry experts.

The winner will also hoist a massive trophy donated by Affordable Trophies.

—Ian Allan


FANTASY INDEX OPEN -- KICKERS
   Points   
   49,318   Rob Dammers (Ringwood, N.J.) senior tech analyst
   48,698   Joe Russo (San Diego, Calif.) biochemist
   48,284   Manny De Jesus Jr. (Gilbert, Ariz.) student
   48,217   Cole Houchens (Carrollton, Tex.) sales
   48,193   Richard Meyers (Huntsville, Ala.) quality engineer
   48,153   Keith Mason (Sumter, S.C.) buyer
   47,715   John Moore (Sea Isle City, N.J.) real estate agent
   47,689   Brian George (Billings, Mont.) sales
   47,592   Moishe Steigmann (Milwaukee, Wis.) rabbi
   46,992   Ralph Traino (Youngstown, Ohio) accountant
   46,980   Sam Hendricks (Lynchburg, Va.) football writer
   46,941   Michae McAninch (Naperville, Ill.) network engineer
   46,907   Scott Sachs (Huron, Ohio) headhunter
   46,873   Shane Scott (Toronto, Ont.) teacher
   46,857   Jared Smola (Rochester, N.Y.) football writer
   46,838   Mike Nease (West Chicago, Ill.) football writer
   46,707   Brian Staines (Gibsonia, Pa.) teacher
   46,644   Jeff Tefertiller (Oklahoma City, Okla.) IT
   46,505   Adam Locke (Lynnwood, Wash.) teacher
   46,434   Jason Pilon (Blaine, Minn.) office grunt
   46,402   Adam Holtz (Rochester, Minn.) football writer
   46,176   Andy Gough (Dallas, Tex.) IT project manager
   46,006   Daniel Bowman (Liberty, Mo.) government employee
   45,869   Michael O'Brien (Brighton, Colo.) fingerprint examiner
   45,791   Joshua Smith (Olympia, Wash.) staffing scheduler
   45,744   Bob Tecca (Minneapolis, Minn.) IT manager
   45,744   Mike Sarmento (San Jose, Calif.) sales manager
   45,679   Scott Anderson (Lakewood, Colo.) professional desk driver
   45,428   Dish Adams (Los Angeles, Calif.) football writer
   45,397   Steve Tortora (Wallingford, Conn.) management
   45,345   Kevin Cuozzo (Boston, Mass.) payroll
   45,338   Ty Tietjen (Brandon, S.D.) teacher (math)
   45,159   Eric Huber (Milwaukee, Wis.) football writer
   45,032   John D. Smith (Mount Laurel, N.J.) warehouse supervisor
   44,997   Robert Honaker (Baltimore , Md.) Education
   44,985   Isaac McNally (Billings, Mont.) car salesman
   44,936   Bill Mason (Huntersville, N.C.) operator
   44,908   Richard Jackson (Berkeley, Calif.) attorney
   44,872   Sean Chi (San Jose, Calif.) attorney
   44,854   John Lanfranca (Kansas City, Mo.) firefighter
   44,822   Bob Adelman (St. Louis, Mo.) sales
   44,788   Ken Yuen (Arlington Heights, Ill.) attorney
   44,709   Craig Smith (Ozark, Mo.) attorney
   44,555   Bill Rehor (Culver City, Calif.) screenwriter
   44,528   Nathan Priest (Hagerstown, Md.) teacher (substitute)
   44,526   Jamie Alberts (Sturgeon Bay, Wis.) banker
   44,392   Kevin E. Smith (Philadelphia, Pa.) student
   44,328   Brian Laskiewicz (Randolph, N.J.) attorney
   44,327   Kirk Kennedy (Pink Hill, N.C.) teacher
   44,182   Scott Kopischke (Menomonee Falls, Wis.) sales engineer
   44,058   Ed Borcky (Wallingford, Pa.) operator
   44,056   Marc Price (Kelowna, B.C.) law firm administrator
   43,946   Miguel Tames (Miami, Fla.) sales
   43,908   Steve Simon (Waterloo, Iowa) dental technician
   43,529   Bradley Wolfrum (Alpharetta, Ga.) business owner
   43,509   TC Cannon (Oklahoma City, Okla.) sales
   43,501   Rustin Paul (New York, N.Y.) attorney
   43,436   Kevin Weakland (Tracy, Calif.) DBA
   43,219   Jim Bukowski (Chicago, Ill.) accountant
   43,156   Mike McIlraith (Fort Worth, Tex.) mechanical engineer
   43,117   Ed Weiss (Parsippany, N.J.) accountant
   42,984   Russell Ditnes (Jamison, Pa.) attorney
   42,912   David Dorey (McKinney, Tex.) football writer
   42,894   Zach Leavitt (Highlands Ranch, Colo.) accountant
   42,800   David Erickson (Los Angeles, Calif.) camera assistant
   42,742   Anthony Borbely (Taylor, Mich.) college student
   42,686   David Di Gregorio (Norristown, Pa.) retired clerk
   42653   Ian Allan (Seattle, Wash.) football writer
   42,532   Treavor Phipps (Salem, Ind.) steamfitter
   42,361   Daniel Williams (Murrieta, Calif.) appraiser
   42,050   Jim Nienaber (Georgetown, Ohio) wholesaler
   42,017   Chris Rito (Martinsville, Ind.) chemist
   41,970   Chris Hertzberg (Austin, Tex.) attorney
   41,970   Chris Hertzberg (Austin, Tex.) attorney
   41,875   Tod Denison (Bakersfield, Calif.) materials manager
   41,864   Adam Thygeson (Portland, Ore.) teacher
   41,861   Michael Crow (Orion, Ill.) systems engineer
   41,830   Patty Saderholm (Elko, Nev.) graphic artist
   41,780   Rob Carraher (Lincoln, Neb.) student
   41,691   Mike Craig (Kokomo, Ind.) electrician
   41,577   Maurile Tremblay (San Diego, Calif.) attorney
   41,570   Todd Weigel (Milwaukee, Wis.) blackjack dealer
   41,490   Michael Stanco (Clermont, Fla.) pro wrestler
   41,428   Manny De Jesus Sr. (Gilbert, Ariz.) insurance agent
   41,384   Geoff Maleman (Redondo Beach, Calif.) public relations
   41,294   Jim DiLorenzo (Grayslake, Ill.) production planner
   40,965   Justin Colver (Draper, Utah) Medicare sales
   40,870   Pete Meyer (Merrill, Wis.) sales
   40,819   Jason Spann (St. Louis, Mo.) software engineer
   40,484   Paul Kuchar (Schaumburg, Ill.) teacher
   40,254   Stephen McKenzie (Red Wing, Minn.) business owner
   38,699   Dana Duffield (Rochester, Minn.) software engineer
   37,485   Mark Burns (Runnemede, N.J.) sales manager

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