Congratulations to Chris Liss of Rotowire.com, who demolished the field in our best-ball Fantasy Index Mock Draft league. Liss finished with a record of 140-36 and a terrific .795 winning percentage.
Each year we conduct a mock draft in May, and the results appear in Fantasy Football Index magazine. The experts -- professional fantasy football analysts, plus the reigning champion of the Fantasy Index Super League -- assemble teams that compete during the season on a 'best-ball" basis. Each week, every team competes against all 11 other teams in the league. The teams aren't managed. The owners don't pick a starting lineup and there are no free agents. Instead, each team is awarded its best possible starting lineup after the games are played each week.
Liss spent four of his first five picks on running backs, but only one -- Jamaal Charles -- was a superstar. Montee Ball (3rd round) and Lamar Miller (4th) were relative duds, as was LaMichael James (13th). Ryan Mathews (5th) was decent.
Despite doing just-OK with his running back strategy, Liss hit big on his other picks. He got by with only two quarterbacks -- Andrew Luck (6th) and Alex Smith (11th). He hit big on receivers Demaryius Thomas (2nd) and Josh Gordon (7th), and successfully cycled through a bunch of hot-this-week fill-ins.
Congratulations also to David Dodds of FootballGuys.com, whose 101-75 record placed second.
Scott Sachs of Perfect Season Fantasy Football finished tied for third with Mike Beacom of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association. Sachs finished with slightly more points (19,074-19,019).
It had to be a satisfying season for Sachs, who was savaged by the other expert analysts in Fantasy Football Index after spending two top picks on quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers (1st) and Tom Brady (4th). Using similar strategy, Sachs finished second overall in the Fantasy Index Mock Auction.
Sachs surely can claim validation of his strategic acumen. However, we don't claim that these standings are a true measure of each analyst's skill. Sheerly through bad luck, some teams lost key players and were unable to replace them through waivers.
With that disclaimer, here are the final standings:
Fantasy Index Mock Draft League - Final Standings, 2013 | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Company | W | L | T | PCT | PF | PA |
Rotowire | 140 | 36 | 0 | .795 | 22649 | 18422 |
Footballguys | 101 | 75 | 0 | .574 | 19294 | 18727 |
Perfect Season Fantasy Football | 97 | 79 | 0 | .551 | 19074 | 18747 |
Fantasy Sports Writers Association | 97 | 79 | 0 | .551 | 19019 | 18752 |
Fantasy Football Warehouse | 87 | 89 | 0 | .494 | 19239 | 18732 |
Fantasy Football Life | 86 | 90 | 0 | .489 | 18766 | 18775 |
CBSSports.com | 84 | 92 | 0 | .477 | 18645 | 18786 |
Draft Sharks | 83 | 93 | 0 | .472 | 18348 | 18813 |
FFMastermind.com | 82 | 94 | 0 | .466 | 18744 | 18777 |
FFChamps.com | 82 | 94 | 0 | .466 | 18447 | 18804 |
SuperLeague Champion | 81 | 95 | 0 | .460 | 18084 | 18837 |
KFFL | 36 | 140 | 0 | .205 | 14982 | 19119 |