Congratulations are in order for Scott Sachs of Perfect Season Fantasy Football. He’s the winner of the Defense category of the 24th annual Fantasy Index Experts Poll.
Using our complex scoring matrix, Sachs totaled 34,896 points, outperforming the other 19 analysts. Perfect Season won the Experts Poll in 2012.
The field includes two reader qualifiers (the top two finishers from the 2013 Fantasy Index Open) and they performed well, finishing in the top 4. Tom Deskovitz from South Lyon, Mich., finished in the 2nd, just 12 points back, while Michael Livengood from Ward, Ark., finished 4th.
Chris Liss from Rotowire was the 3rd-place finisher in this category.
The Eagles were the key player at this position, scoring 171 points, 27 more than any other defense (scoring is based on 6 points for touchdowns, 2 for takeaways and 1 for sacks). But Philadelphia appeared on only half of the entries. Sachs and Deskovitz were the highest on this defense, ranking it 14th.
As a reminder on the scoring, every pick at every position counts. The higher you rank a player, the more that production counts towards your overall score.
In the case of the Eagles, if you ranked them first, you would receive 4,275 points (171 x 25). If you ranked them 2nd, that would be worth 4,104 (171 x 24). In the case of Sachs and Deskovitz, they received 2,052 points for their Eagles ranking (171 x 12). So with that pick, they gained 705 points against experts who put one of the 105-point defenses in that slot – Colts, Jaguars or Giants.
You’re trying to win on the margins in this competition.
It should be about a week before I get the scoring completed on this thing.
| EXPERTS POLL -- DEFENSES | ||
|---|---|---|
| Rk | Team | Points |
| 1. | Scott Sachs | 34,896 |
| 2. | Tom Deskovitz | 34,864 |
| 3. | Chris Liss | 34,629 |
| 4. | Michael Livengood | 34,609 |
| 5. | Bill Enright | 34,490 |
| 6. | L'Roy Anthony Hale | 34,177 |
| 7. | Bryan Hough | 34,157 |
| 8. | Michael Nazarek | 34,155 |
| 9. | Micah James | 34,154 |
| 10. | Scott Pianowski | 34,100 |
| 11. | Lenny Pappano | 34,015 |
| 12. | Paul Charchian | 33,944 |
| 13. | Alan Satterlee | 33,935 |
| 14. | Michael Fabiano | 33,834 |
| 15. | Mike Clay | 33,743 |
| 16. | Cory Bonini | 33,674 |
| 17. | Bob Henry | 33,638 |
| 18. | Sam Hendricks | 33,567 |
| 19. | Tony Holm | 33,259 |
| 20. | David Dorey | 33,138 |
This scoring system isn’t necessarily perfect. Especially at the other positions, where players potentially play in a game or two and then miss the entire season, a couple of bad picks can really sink you. With the injuries, a big part of the deal is just winding up with guys who’re actually out there playing.
I discussed this at the Fantasy Sports Trade Association convention last year with Chris Liss of Rotowire. He suggested a scoring system where pickers are given some relief for injuries and total busts. I agree, since in a typical fantasy league, you’re allowed to make waiver moves along the way.
So I will also score these picks using what I’ll call the ‘Floor’ scoring method – the Liss Method. In that one, if your player doesn’t rank in the Top 20, then he just gets thrown out. Everyone gets at least top-20 value for every pick, and then you only get rewarded for production that’s even better. At defenses, for example, the 20th-best defense scored 105 points. So if you happened to select the Jets, Saints or Raiders (who scored under 75 points) we’ll wave that off. We’ll assume that somewhere along the line, you were able to pick up a top-20 defense to replace the poor selection.
This scoring method is experimental for this year. We’ll see what the results look like and maybe implement it in the future. And it will have a bigger impact at the other positions, where guys like Adrian Peterson, Dennis Pitta and Carson Palmer have a huge impact on scores.
At the defense position, it’s appropriate that the inventor of the scoring system – Chris Liss – moves up from 3rd to 1st, edging Sachs and Deskovitz. Cory Bonini of KFFL.com is the biggest gainer, moving up from 16th to 4th. Michael Fabiano of NFL.com is the biggest faller, dropping form 14th to 19th.
| EXPERTS POLL -- DEFENSES (Floor scoring) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Team | Points | Prev Rk |
| 1. | Chris Liss | 3,748 | 3 |
| 2. | Tom Deskovitz | 3,534 | 2 |
| 3. | Scott Sachs | 3,278 | 1 |
| 4. | Cory Bonini | 3,168 | 16 |
| 5. | Michael Livengood | 3,163 | 4 |
| 6. | Micah James | 3,119 | 9 |
| 7. | Bill Enright | 3,048 | 5 |
| 8. | Bryan Hough | 2,963 | 7 |
| 9. | L'Roy Anthony Hale | 2,959 | 6 |
| 10. | Lenny Pappano | 2,826 | 11 |
| 11. | Michael Nazarek | 2,768 | 8 |
| 12. | Scott Pianowski | 2,670 | 10 |
| 13. | Mike Clay | 2,617 | 15 |
| 14. | Bob Henry | 2,586 | 17 |
| 15. | Paul Charchian | 2,554 | 12 |
| 16. | Alan Satterlee | 2,549 | 13 |
| 17. | Sam Hendricks | 2,538 | 18 |
| 18. | Tony Holm | 2,462 | 19 |
| 19. | Michael Fabiano | 2,357 | 14 |
| 20. | David Dorey | 2,350 | 20 |
—Ian Allan