Fantasy News
We named Scott Sachs of Perfect Season Fantasy Football the winner of our Experts Poll on Sunday night. That after careful scoring of all 2,400 picks submitted by the experts. (Well, not all of the picks – we don’t score the overall section.)
But in our opinion, climbing to the top of the fantasy heap involves more than just happening to come up with one good season. You’ve got to do it year after year. Scott Pianowski of Yahoo!, Pretzel May of Fantasy Draft Master and David Dorey of The Huddle come to mind as guys who had off years this season but have tended to be very good in the past.
We’ve been doing the Experts Poll since 1991, and we keep the scores for all them. So every year at this time (a few days after naming the champ), we like to take a step back and look at the big picture. Who’s really the master of the fantasy dojo?
The process goes something like this: for every expert you come in ahead of in a given year, you get a “win”. Every expert who outperforms you (using our complex scoring system) results in you getting a “loss”. Scott Sachs, for example, is our current champ. He gets a 19-0 record for the 2012 season. Chris Liss came in 2nd, so he went 18-1. Alan Satterlee came in 3rd; he goes 17-2. Got it?
The only other wrinkle is that names and companies change. Pianowski, for example, currently works for Yahoo!, but he competed under the Rotowire.com banner in the past. Now Rotowire.com is using Chris Liss. So is Rotowire’s career number Liss’ or a combination of Liss and Pianowski? And should Pianowski’s career numbers for Yahoo! include his work with Rotowire.com?
There are a bunch of situations like that, involving many of the companies and analysts.
So we’ll present it both way. On one chart, we’re showing the individuals. That’s the name of the person who competed. Any guy who’s competed in the last two years and has three career seasons is shown. (Scott Sachs has competed only twice, so he’s not listed – he’s not eligible for the current title belt.).
On the “individuals” chart, it also shows the company where the guy currently works (but stats could also include previous employers).
On another chart, we focus just on the company and ignore the individuals. On this one, some of the companies have three different guys who have competed. Others show only a portion of an individuals work.
Anyway, our current individual leader is Scott Pianowski, with a career record of 197-56. He’s worked with FantasyGuru.com, Rotowire and Yahoo! Sports over the years.
Pretzel May was the career leader entering this season; he finished 6th, 1st and 2nd the previous three years. But he went only 3-16 in the poll this season, slipping to second on percentage points. He works for Fantasy Draft Master.
EXPERTS POLL -- CAREER LEADERS (Individuals)
Shows all individuals competing in 2011 or 2012 with at least three career appearances.
Wins Loss Pct
197 56 .779 Scott Pianowski, Yahoo! Sports
59 22 .728 Pretzel May, FantasyDraftMaster.com
164 65 .716 Bob Henry, Footballguys.com
81 38 .681 Jon Millman, Fantasy Football Champs
172 81 .680 David Dorey, The Huddle
35 22 .614 Mike Beacom, FSTA
48 33 .593 Alan Satterlee, Dynasty Rogues
152 115 .569 Michael Nazarek, Fantasy Football Mastermind
109 87 .556 Chris Liss, RotoWire.com
33 29 .532 Gregg Rosenthal, RotoWorld
43 38 .531 Christopher Harris, ESPN
172 158 .521 James Serra, First Place Sports Software
43 43 .500 Tony Holm, FantasySharks.com
139 152 .478 Lenny Pappano, Draft Sharks
82 90 .477 Nathan Zegura, The Fantasy Consultant
109 163 .401 Jeffrey Kamys, Dr. Stats Fantasy Sports
35 65 .350 Sam Hendricks, Fantasy Football Guidebook
36 69 .343 Cory Bonini, KFFL
22 78 .220 Louis Tranquilli, BFD Fantasy Football
If you want to instead focus on the companies, rather then the men, than Yahoo! Sports is the leaders. That record shows only Pianowski’s latest work, not including what he did in his earlier years.
Second place in the company category belongs to Fantasy Draft Master (which has had Pretzel May picking all along).
And our third-place company is The Huddle, with David Dorey. Dorey tends to do nice work. He’s got a good feel for this competition. But he had an off year in 2012, going just 4-15 against the field. The big picture suggests that’s an outlier year for him.
EXPERTS POLL -- CAREER LEADERS (Companies)
Shows all active companies with at least three seasons.
Wins Loss Pct
83 17 .830 Yahoo! Sports
59 22 .728 FantasyDraftMaster.com
172 81 .680 The Huddle
67 33 .670 Dynasty Rogues
182 90 .669 Footballguys.com
163 90 .644 Fantasy Football Champs
146 107 .577 RotoWire.com
152 115 .569 Fantasy Football Mastermind
43 38 .531 ESPN
43 43 .500 FantasySharks.com
96 100 .490 KFFL
139 152 .478 Draft Sharks
82 90 .477 The Fantasy Consultant
35 65 .350 Fantasy Football Guidebook
22 78 .220 BFD Fantasy Football
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Posted by SCOTT SACHS | Jan. 22 at 09:15 AM
You guys are the best of the best and, although I'm still the new kid on the block, I'm glad to have the honor of competing! Bring on 2013!