Dave (DVG – MML) gives a detailed breakdown of the newest statistic to possibly help with your player analysis.
New Stat in Team Statistics… +/-
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Dave (DVG – MML) gives a detailed breakdown of the newest statistic to possibly help with your player analysis.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
The “New Stat”
Week 1 MML Team Spreads
Okay, first, let me explain some things about this statistic. The “spread” is the point differential between what a player scores and what his fantasy score is. In other words, a player from LSU scores 20 points, but, his fantasy score (when totaling everything up) is 24 points, giving him a +4.0 spread, for example.
I’ve been doing spreads on individual players since I first started playing in the league and for several years now, I’ve been keeping track of my team’s spread for each week. So, say my 7 player lineup totaled 200 “real” points during their week of play. And, let’s say that my team totaled 260 fantasy points for the week. I then take that number, 60, and, divide it by the number of games my team played that week. Let’s just say that we played 14 games, making my team spread for the week 4.28.
So, what does it all mean, or, rather, does it mean anything? I think it is a good indicator of what a team is not only lacking, but, telling you if the team is going to be a force in the playoffs. Of course, knowing/looking at the individual spreads is important for every GM to do, but, knowing the team spread can help bring it all into focus.
In general, if my weekly team spread is 5.5 or higher, that usually means that the team could be good enough to be a Final Four type of team in our league. Of course, the idea is to average that over an entire season. If you keep track of it from week to week, it helps you to make roster changes to fix any lineup “leaks.” You still have a good shot at 5.0, you can be a good team with 4.5, fair with 4.0 but you are not formidable at 4.0 and you are usually hurting if under 4.0. I say usually, because you may be playing some opponents who are not strong and you can have a strong week regardless of the spread in that case. On the other hand, if you are at 5.5 or higher it does not indicate that your team is far superior-again, unless you can do that week after week-and, even then, that can be fool’s gold. For instance, with individual players, when a spread gets to be greater than 7-8, it often indicates a player who isn’t getting a lot of shots and isn’t scoring a decent number of fantasy points that will help you. I can’t remember the player’s name, but a few years back Vermont had a player who scored about 6 points a game. His spread was around +12. Nice, huh? Not really. That just means that his huge spread only got him to around 18 max. He went over a few times but was often under 18 fantasy points, while still maintaining a huge spread.
I just thought that some of you may be interested, and, I will be listing the weekly team spread totals with comments as you can see below.
Week 1
1. Vindaloos @7.92
2. Virginia Gentlemen @7.07
3. Maize & Blue Bloods @7.0
4. Hillbilly Maulers @6.16
5. North Pole Fightin’ Reindeer @5.53
6. Hardwood Heroes @5.15
7. Prozac Pups @5.1
8. Psychos @5.0 (1-2-Crum Division)
9. Sam Jacobson Went To Class @4.66 (2-1-Tark Division)
10. The Deadwood Gang @4.61 (2-1-Tark Division)
11. Gator Bait @4.46 (0-3)
12. Hoosiers @4.4 (3-0)
13. Deep Valley Grouchos @3.14 (3-0)
14. KC Warthogs @2.3 (0-3)
15. Saluki YRD’s @2.25 (1-2)
16. The Hoop Guru @1.83 (0-3)
What does it all mean? Ahh, you still have to really “read” the numbers like a good offensive player who “reads” the defense. The Vindaloos impressive 7.92 isn’t all that when you break it down. They scored 103 more fantasy points than the players scored. But one player accounted for 54 of those 103 points. One player had a negative spread and one player was only +3.0. They had good performances from 3 players, definitely not sustainable if they are to be a Final Four/championship type team.
On the other hand, the Virginia Gentlemen’s 7.07 spread is real and sustainable. They were right behind Maize &Blue Bloods in my pre-season outlook.
Now, at 7.0 M&BB, looks great, right? Not so fast my friend (apologies to Lee Corso)! They scored less than 20 fantasy points per man (but that’s a different stat I keep) and ran into three teams that out-performed them. A 0-3 first week for my pre-season faves (they have the strongest starting lineup).
The DVG’s had a very poor spread of 3.14 but managed to go 3-0. Again, they played against Prozac (just 10 games for them), The Deadwood Gang (averaged less than 20 fantasy points per player) and, The Hoop Guru, which has the one really weak roster in the league. In their case, I imagine that even though they will soon dump their freshman (he’s not going to play much), they will need a total roster re-vamp. Per player, the DVG’s averaged just over 21 fantasy points per, but, that’s not sustainable as they had one awful performance and one below average one lifted up by two players who averaged over 30 fppg, and, that’s not sustainable. So, they will need to boost their spread (the players who are “good spread” players will have to produce to that level).
5 teams scored 280 or more fantasy points as a team: Hoosiers (327), Virginia Gentlemen (313), DVG’s (296), Vindaloos (292), and, The North Pole Fightin’ Reindeer (280). What did all 5 have in common? They all went 3-0.
Spreads? Vindaloos were #1, Virginia Gentlemen #2, Hoosiers #12, DVG’s #13, and, the NPFR #5. I talked about the DVG’s, let’s look at those Hoosiers going 3-0 at just #12 spread-wise. The Hoosiers didn’t have any players having a horrible week. They had 3 players average 18, 17, and, 16 per game for the week. That type of “mediocrity” does not kill a team. Thus, the next lowest player averaged 23 and those 4 players who scored 23+ lifted the team, which averaged almost 22 per man.
A HUGE reason that having players with good spreads on the roster is that those players can keep a bad or below-average week from turning into a disastrous week. Those players are essential for playoff success. Remember, that having players who have little or no spread, or, are even negative spread players is telling you that they have huge ups and huge downs. So, you can probably afford to have one, maybe two of them in your lineup at playoff time.
I talked about every team in the top 5 except for #4, the Hillbilly Maulers. They had one anemic performance and two average ones. They didn’t have enough high-end performances to overcome it. In their case, having a high spread was the only thing keeping them competitive, although they were 0-3 for the week.
Then, sometimes things just happen and a team that doesn’t do much at all comes out a winner. The Psychos were the only team to get a win in the Crum Division-which features M&BB and Gator Bait. The Psychos, who only put up 206 fantasy points played an easier schedule.
It is about your competition, to a point. The Deadwood Gang (#10 with a 4.61) can probably continue to do about the same each week and come out on top of a woefully weak Tark Division, but, must improve the roster to be a meaningful contender.
Week 2 MML Team Spreads
*For those of you who have read this opening explanation, you can skip down to all the new information, which is indicated by an asterisk*
Okay, first, let me explain some things about this statistic. The “spread” is the point differential between what a player scores and what his fantasy score is. In other words, a player from LSU scores 20 points, but, his fantasy score (when totaling everything up) is 24 points, giving him a +4.0 spread.
I’ve been doing spread on individual players since I first started playing in the league and for several years now, I’ve been keeping track of my team’s spread for each week. So, say my 7 player lineup totaled 200 “real” points during their week of play. And, let’s say that my team totaled 260 fantasy points for the week. I then take that number, 60, and, divide it by the number of games my team played that week. Let’s just say that we played 14 games, making my team spread for the week 4.28.
So, what does it all mean, or, rather, does it mean anything? I think it is a good indicator. Of course, knowing/looking at the individual spreads is important for every GM to do, but, knowing the team spread can bring it all into focus.
In general, if my weekly team spread is 5.0 or higher, that usually means that the team could be good enough to be a Final Four type of team in our league. Of course, the idea is to average that over an entire season. If you keep track of it from week to week, it helps you to make roster changes to fix any lineup “leaks.” You can be a good team with 4.5, okay with 4.0 but you are not formidable at 4.0 and you are usually hurting if under 4.0. I say usually, because you may be playing some opponents who are not strong and you can have a strong week regardless of the spread in that case. On the other hand, if you are at 5.5 or higher it does not indicate that your team is far superior-again, unless you can do that week after week-and, even then, that can be fool’s gold. For instance, with individual players, when a spread gets to be greater than 7-8, it often indicates a player who isn’t getting a lot of shots and isn’t scoring a decent number of fantasy points that will help you. I can’t remember the player’s name, but a few years back Vermont had a player who scored about 6 points a game. His spread was around +12. Nice, huh? Not really. That just means that his huge spread only got him to around 18 max. He went over a few times but was often under 18 fantasy points, while still maintining a huge spread.
I just thought that some of you may be interested, and, I will be listing the weekly team spread totals with comments as you can see below.
*I have left up week 1 for those who wish to compare the two weeks. Best & worst won-loss records shown.
Week 1
1. Vindaloos @7.92
2. Virginia Gentlemen @7.07
3. Maize & Blue Bloods @7.0
4. Hillbilly Maulers @6.16
5. North Pole Fightin’ Reindeer @5.53
6. Hardwood Heroes @5.15
7. Prozac Pups @5.1
8. Psychos @5.0
9. Sam Jacobson Went To Class @4.66
10. The Deadwood Gang @4.61
11. Gator Bait @4.46 (0-3)
12. Hoosiers @4.4 (3-0)
13. Deep Valley Grouchos @3.14 (3-0)
14. KC Warthogs @2.3 (0-3)
15. Saluki YRD’s @2.25
16. The Hoop Guru @1.83 (0-3)
Week 2
1. Deep Valley Grouchos @8.06 (3-0)
2. Vindaloos @7.7
3. Gator Bait @7.3 (0-3)
4. North Pole Fightin’ Reindeer @7.23
5. Maize & Blue Bloods @7.0
6. Hardwood Heroes @6.92
7. The Deadwood Gang @6.64 (3-0)
8. KC Warthogs @5.92 (0-3)
9. Virginia Gentlemen @5.57
10. Sam Jacobson Went To Class @5.5 (3-0)
11. Prozac Pups @5.12
12. Hillbilly Maulers @4.86
13. Hoosiers @3.93 (3-0)
14. Saluki YRD’s @2.6
15. The Hoop Guru @1.54 (0-3)
16. Psychos @0.87 (0-3)
*First, while I normally feel that a team spread of 5.5 for the week is an indication of a championship-caliber team, due to all the seniors and others, etc., etc., getting an extra year, that number may not be the true indicator this year. It’s too early to tell, just two weeks in, but, it may take a weekly team spread average of 6.0+ to run the table this year.
In week 1 the DVG’s managed to go 3-0 with a very bad spread due to playing against weak competition. This week they managed to improve their spread from 3.14 to 8.06 and went 3-0 against better competition. Just as it was unlikely that the DVG’s would be a poor spread team, it is also unlikely that they can maintain a weekly team spread of 8+. The answer is obviously somewhere in the middle, skewed slightly more toward the 8 than the 3. They also benefitted from some huge individual performances from Murray and from “The Cain Uprising.”
Interestingly enough, the Vindaloos managed about the same spread both weeks. What does that indicate? In their case, nothing good since they have 3 studs and just about all of their plus-spread is coming from those 3 players. Including an all time high of +22 for Tshiebwe. They are top heavy. They can be trouble, and could be a Final Four team IF those three can maintain something close to what they are doing now. Gator Bait had a much better spread week in week 2 but a close look shows some issues. Three players who produced well provided most of that spread improvement.
On the other hand, North Pole is showing that they have “upside” as a team when looking closely at their spread. Except for their frosh slot, M&BB showed consistently “good spread” throughout their lineup, which speaks well for them moving forward as far as being a fairly consistent team, week to week.
The KC Warthogs are not as bad as they appear despite being 0-6. They do have a “Jalen Moore problem,” but that should be solved as he starts facing lesser competition. And, they have solved their center problem. I look for them to do much better, record-wise in week 3.
Scoring was up in week 2 compared to week 1 as 5 teams scored 300 or more fantasy points as a team & 4 teams scored 290+: DVG’s (419), Maize and Blue Bloods (378), Sam Jacobson Went To Class (330), The Deadwood Gang (326), and the Hardwood Heroes (307). What did they have in common? The DVG’s, Sam, and, the DG all went 3-0. Spreads? DVG’s #1, M&BB #5, Hardwood Heroes #6, DG #7, Sam #10.
The Saluki YRD’s need to take a look at their roster. When Souley Boum is not only your best guard-but, your only guard, you have a major problem. Bodie Hume may be able to ride a wave but he is fantasy basketball wipeout. Antoine Davis has reverted to the really, really bad Antoine Davis, pre-2020. However, it may be temporary and they can’t drop him from the roster, but, they could drop him from the lineup. And, because he got 3 games I guess, Cisse started at a forward position.
The Psychos just added Ogbaji, so, that will take care of one guard position, but they have two negative spread guards and another who is just a +2.0, so, they need to remedy that.
The Hoop Guru? As I have said, they are dead in the water. What’s disappointing is that they have made ZERO moves in regards to adding FA’s. Fire the GM! The fans deserve better!!!
Guru have made 4 moves at the buzzer for Week 3, so I’m guessing they are listening
I see! And they made some good moves too!
Week 3 MML Team Spreads
For those of you who have read this opening explanation, you can skip down to all the new information, which is indicated by an asterisk*
Okay, first, let me explain some things about this statistic. The “spread” is the point differential between what a player scores and what his fantasy score is. In other words, a player from LSU scores 20 points, but, his fantasy score (when totaling everything up) is 24 points, giving him a +4.0 spread.
I’ve been doing spread on individual players since I first started playing in the league and for several years now, I’ve been keeping track of my team’s spread for each week. So, say my 7 player lineup totaled 200 “real” points during their week of play. And, let’s say that my team totaled 260 fantasy points for the week. I then take that number, 60, and, divide it by the number of games my team played that week. Let’s just say that we played 14 games, making my team spread for the week 4.28.
So, what does it all mean, or, rather, does it mean anything? I think it is a good indicator. Of course, knowing/looking at the individual spreads is important for every GM to do, but, knowing the team spread can bring it all into focus.
In general, if my weekly team spread is 5.0 or higher, that usually means that the team could be good enough to be a Final Four type of team in our league. Of course, the idea is to average that over an entire season. If you keep track of it from week to week, it helps you to make roster changes to fix any lineup “leaks.” You can be a good team with 4.5, okay with 4.0 but you are not formidable at 4.0 and you are usually hurting if under 4.0. I say usually, because you may be playing some opponents who are not strong and you can have a strong week regardless of the spread in that case. On the other hand, if you are at 5.5 or higher it does not indicate that your team is far superior-again, unless you can do that week after week-and, even then, that can be fool’s gold. For instance, with individual players, when a spread gets to be greater than 7-8, it often indicates a player who isn’t getting a lot of shots and isn’t scoring a decent number of fantasy points that will help you. I can’t remember the player’s name, but a few years back Vermont had a player who scored about 6 points a game. His spread was around +12. Nice, huh? Not really. That just means that his huge spread only got him to around 18 max. He went over a few times but was often under 18 fantasy points, while still maintining a huge spread.
I just thought that some of you may be interested, and, I will be listing the weekly team spread totals with comments as you can see below.
*I have left up week 1&2 for those who wish to compare the two weeks. Best & worst won-loss records shown.
Week 1
1. Vindaloos @7.92
2. Virginia Gentlemen @7.07
3. Maize & Blue Bloods @7.0
4. Hillbilly Maulers @6.16
5. North Pole Fightin’ Reindeer @5.53
6. Hardwood Heroes @5.15
7. Prozac Pups @5.1
8. Psychos @5.0
9. Sam Jacobson Went To Class @4.66
10. The Deadwood Gang @4.61
11. Gator Bait @4.46 (0-3)
12. Hoosiers @4.4 (3-0)
13. Deep Valley Grouchos @3.14 (3-0)
14. KC Warthogs @2.3 (0-3)
15. Saluki YRD’s @2.25
16. The Hoop Guru @1.83 (0-3)
Week 2
1. Deep Valley Grouchos @8.06 (3-0)
2. Vindaloos @7.7
3. Gator Bait @7.3 (0-3)
4. North Pole Fightin’ Reindeer @7.23
5. Maize & Blue Bloods @7.0
6. Hardwood Heroes @6.92
7. The Deadwood Gang @6.64 (3-0)
8. KC Warthogs @5.92 (0-3)
9. Virginia Gentlemen @5.57
10. Sam Jacobson Went To Class @5.5 (3-0)
11. Prozac Pups @5.12
12. Hillbilly Maulers @4.86
13. Hoosiers @3.93 (3-0)
14. Saluki YRD’s @2.6
15. The Hoop Guru @1.54 (0-3)
16. Psychos @0.87 (0-3)
*Week 3
1. Deep Valley Grouchos @5.9 (3-0)
2. North Pole Fightin’ Reindeer @5.41 (0-3)
COMMENT: DVG’s are hot. Getting big games (30+) which is over-inflating their spread just a little. NP ran into one opponent with 3 more games, lost to another opponent by one point, and the other by 7. In their case, good spread kept them in the hunt for a win. No player in their lineup averaged more than 18.3 fppg for the week except for that “magic bean,” Justin Bean, who put in 47 but only had one game.
3. Maize & Blue Bloods @4.73 (3-0)
COMMENT: M&BB are back! They have some issues (Kinsey, Murphy, and the frosh slot) but the 2nd best spread of the week + playing two weak sisters helped. The DG did beat three struggling opponents, but, the fact is that the spread is helping them win even with guys who are only playing because they have more games than the usual starters.
4. Prozac Pups @4.68 (3-0)
5. The Deadwood Gang @4.5 (3-0)
6. Vindaloos @4.3
7. The Hoop Guru @4.1
COMMENT: The Hoop Guru hasn’t earned his sobriquet yet, but, he did make some roster moves and saw a significant bump up in spread that made them competitive. KC finally had a decent week (20+ fppg per man) and got some W’s. Lack of having a good player to fill the 6th man slot is hurting them big-time though.
8. KC Warthogs @4.0 (3-0)
9. Hoosiers @3.94 (3-0)
10. Hardwood Heroes @3.58 (0-3)
11. Hillbilly Maulers @3.56 (0-3)
12. Saluki YRD’s @3.0
13. Virginia Gentlemen @2.87
14. Sam Jacobson Went To Class @2.1 (3-0)
15. Gator Bait @1.85
16. Psychos @NEGATIVE SPREAD (0-3)
*Scoring was down from week 2, which actually, gave a more realistic look at how things normally play out as 4 of the top 5 teams spread-wise went 3-0 and 6 of the top 10 went 3-0.
*GM’S: If your spread is consistently below 4.0 your team is drowning and you need to re-tool. Of course, it’s your decision as to whether or not you can do enough with what’s left in the FA pool to have any kind of a shot, or, if you should be fishing for underclassmen in an attempt to build some sort of base before next year’s draft. Going into the draft needing 4-5 quality starters means you’ve lost before the first game has been played.
Week 4 MML Team Spreads
For those of you who have read this opening explanation, you can skip down to all the new information, which is indicated by an asterisk*
Okay, first, let me explain some things about this statistic. The “spread” is the point differential between what a player scores and what his fantasy score is. In other words, a player from LSU scores 20 points, but, his fantasy score (when totaling everything up) is 24 points, giving him a +4.0 spread.
I’ve been doing spread on individual players since I first started playing in the league and for several years now, I’ve been keeping track of my team’s spread for each week. So, say my 7 player lineup totaled 200 “real” points during their week of play. And, let’s say that my team totaled 260 fantasy points for the week. I then take that number, 60, and, divide it by the number of games my team played that week. Let’s just say that we played 14 games, making my team spread for the week 4.28.
So, what does it all mean, or, rather, does it mean anything? I think it is a good indicator. Of course, knowing/looking at the individual spreads is important for every GM to do, but, knowing the team spread can bring it all into focus.
In general, if my weekly team spread is 5.0 or higher, that usually means that the team could be good enough to be a Final Four type of team in our league. Of course, the idea is to average that over an entire season. If you keep track of it from week to week, it helps you to make roster changes to fix any lineup “leaks.” You can be a good team with 4.5, okay with 4.0 but you are not formidable at 4.0 and you are usually hurting if under 4.0. I say usually, because you may be playing some opponents who are not strong and you can have a strong week regardless of the spread in that case. On the other hand, if you are at 5.5 or higher it does not indicate that your team is far superior-again, unless you can do that week after week-and, even then, that can be fool’s gold. For instance, with individual players, when a spread gets to be greater than 7-8, it often indicates a player who isn’t getting a lot of shots and isn’t scoring a decent number of fantasy points that will help you. I can’t remember the player’s name, but a few years back Vermont had a player who scored about 6 points a game. His spread was around +12. Nice, huh? Not really. That just means that his huge spread only got him to around 18 max. He went over a few times but was often under 18 fantasy points, while still maintining a huge spread.
I just thought that some of you may be interested, and, I will be listing the weekly team spread totals with comments as you can see below.
*I have left up week 3&4 for those who wish to compare the two weeks. Best & worst won-loss records shown.
Week 3
1. Deep Valley Grouchos @5.9 (3-0)
2. North Pole Fightin’ Reindeer @5.41 (0-3)
3. Maize & Blue Bloods @4.73 (3-0)
4. Prozac Pups @4.68 (3-0)
5. The Deadwood Gang @4.5 (3-0)
6. Vindaloos @4.3
7. The Hoop Guru @4.1
8. KC Warthogs @4.0 (3-0)
9. Hoosiers @3.94 (3-0)
10. Hardwood Heroes @3.58 (0-3)
11. Hillbilly Maulers @3.56 (0-3)
12. Saluki YRD’s @3.0
13. Virginia Gentlemen @2.87
14. Sam Jacobson Went To Class @2.1 (3-0)
15. Gator Bait @1.85
16. Psychos @NEGATIVE SPREAD (0-3)
Week 4
1. Gator Bait @9.25 (3-0)
2. Hoosiers @8.0
3. North Pole Fightin’ Reindeers @7.1 (3-0)
Comment: The ‘Deers defeated Hoosiers (#2), Vindaloos (#4), and, the VG’s (#10). Hoosiers had only 10 games and almost pulled it out vs. NPFR wihch had 15 games due to fabulous spread.
4. Vindaloos @6.64
5. Hardwood Heroes @6.46
6. KC Warthogs @6.4 (0-3)
7. Deep Valley Grouchos @6.0 (3-0)
Comment: Hardwood (#5), KC (#6) & YRD’s (#9) were no match for the number of games and the number of big games from DVG’s.
8. Prozac Pups @5.87 (3-0)
9. Saluki YRD’s @5.76
10. Virginia Gentlemen @5.06 (0-3)
Comment: Hoosiers, North Pole & Vindaloos (#2, #3, #4) were too much for a VG squad that made the “5.0 spread standard.”
11. Maize and Blue Bloods @4.93
12. Hillbilly Maulers @4.72 (0-3)
13. The Hoop Guru @3.0
14. Psychos @2.69
15. The Deadwood Gang @1.9 (0-3)
16. Sam Jacobson Went to Class @1.83
Comment: Playing The Hoop Guru & The Deadwood Gang gave him the ability to go 2-1 on the week.
Week 5 MML Team Spreads
For those of you who have read this opening explanation, you can skip down to all the new information, which is indicated by an asterisk*
Okay, first, let me explain some things about this statistic. The “spread” is the point differential between what a player scores and what his fantasy score is. In other words, a player from LSU scores 20 points, but, his fantasy score (when totaling everything up) is 24 points, giving him a +4.0 spread.
I’ve been doing spread on individual players since I first started playing in the league and for several years now, I’ve been keeping track of my team’s spread for each week. So, say my 7 player lineup totaled 200 “real” points during their week of play. And, let’s say that my team totaled 260 fantasy points for the week. I then take that number, 60, and, divide it by the number of games my team played that week. Let’s just say that we played 14 games, making my team spread for the week 4.28.
So, what does it all mean, or, rather, does it mean anything? I think it is a good indicator of where your team is. Of course, knowing/looking at the individual spreads is important for every GM to do, but, knowing the team spread can bring it all into focus.
In general, if my weekly team spread is 5.0 or higher, that usually means that the team could be good enough to be a Final Four type of team in our league. Of course, the idea is to average that over an entire season. If you keep track of it from week to week, it helps you to make roster changes to fix any lineup “leaks.” You can be a good team with 4.5, okay with 4.0 but you are not formidable at 4.0 and you are usually hurting if under 4.0. I say usually, because you may be playing some opponents who are not strong and you can have a strong week regardless of the spread in that case. On the other hand, if you are at 5.5 or higher it does not indicate that your team is far superior-again, unless you can do that week after week-and, even then, that can be fool’s gold. For instance, with individual players, when a spread gets to be greater than 7-8, it often indicates a player who isn’t getting a lot of shots and isn’t scoring a decent number of fantasy points that will help you. I can’t remember the player’s name, but a few years back Vermont had a player who scored about 6 points a game. His spread was around +12. Nice, huh? Not really. That just means that his huge spread only got him to around 18 max. He went over a few times but was often under 18 fantasy points, while still maintining a huge spread.
I just thought that some of you may be interested, and, I will be listing the weekly team spread totals with comments as you can see below.
*I have left up week 4&5 for those who wish to compare the two weeks. Best & worst won-loss records shown.
Week 4
1. Gator Bait @9.25 (3-0)
2. Hoosiers @8.0
3. North Pole Fightin’ Reindeers @7.1 (3-0)
Comment: The ‘Deers defeated Hoosiers (#2), Vindaloos (#4), and, the VG’s (#10). Hoosiers had only 10 games and almost pulled it out vs. NPFR wihch had 15 games due to fabulous spread.
4. Vindaloos @6.64
5. Hardwood Heroes @6.46
6. KC Warthogs @6.4 (0-3)
7. Deep Valley Grouchos @6.0 (3-0)
Comment: Hardwood (#5), KC (#6) & YRD’s (#9) were no match for the number of games and the number of big games from DVG’s.
8. Prozac Pups @5.87 (3-0)
9. Saluki YRD’s @5.76
10. Virginia Gentlemen @5.06 (0-3)
Comment: Hoosiers, North Pole & Vindaloos (#2, #3, #4) were too much for a VG squad that made the “5.0 spread standard.”
11. Maize and Blue Bloods @4.93
12. Hillbilly Maulers @4.72 (0-3)
13. The Hoop Guru @3.0
14. Psychos @2.69
15. The Deadwood Gang @1.9 (0-3)
16. Sam Jacobson Went to Class @1.83
Comment: Playing The Hoop Guru & The Deadwood Gang gave him the ability to go 2-1 on the week.
*Week 5
*Note: Every year there is a week in which league-wide, just about every team struggles. One would think that it might be the week prior to or after Thanksgiving, or, Xmas, or, around New Year’s, but, it varies. It just happens. Week 5 was that week this season as even the teams that did well did not do so well in terms of points per game when looking at what the lineups averaged when you divided the total fantasy points scored for the week by the number of games a team played. Hopefully, there won’t be a second week this season like week 5.
1. Maize and Blue Bloods @8.5 (1-2)
Inside the numbers: M&BB did not have a good week despite the spread. Funk (as in Taylor) was in a massive funk, while the freshman Mallette continued to suck. Excellent spreads from a couple of players kept him competitive as the team still averaged just a tick over 20 fppg.
2. Vindaloos @7.75 (2-1)
3. Virginia Gentlemen @7.21 (3-0)
Inside the numbers: Vins have had a great spread every week but haven’t yet had their top 4 scorers (2 recently acquired) in the lineup together and will be a presence come January..
4. North Pole Fightin’ Reindeers @5.84
5. Prozac Pups @5.71
6. Hardwood Heroes @5.0
Inside the numbers. North Pole has been very consistent, something that bodes well for success come playoff time. After a poor first week, Prozac has also been pretty consistent. All three of these teams went 2-1 on the week.
7. Sam Jacobson Went to Class @4.85 (3-0)
8. Hillbilly Maulers @4.75 (1-2)
9. The Deadwood Gang @4.5 (0-3)
10. Hoosiers @4.3
11. Deep Valley Grouchos @4.15
Inside the numbers: Despite a 12-3 record, the “Sam’s” have had two bad weeks so, while they are probably the most improved team and a good team, we still don’t know who they really are.Only the fact that they played the Warthogs, who are in disarray right now, saved Hillbilly from going 0-3. Deadwood hardly had any games, so, their week proves nothing. DVG’s finally came down to earth with a lot of sub-fppg performances.
12. Gator Bait @3.3 (3-0)
13. The Hoop Guru @3.3 (0-3)
Inside the numbers: GB “gamed” the system, so to speak, as they had 16 games, the most of any team during week 5. THG has improved their roster, but their spread continues to sound warning signs about their viability as a playoff team.
14. KC Warthogs @1.4 (0-3)
15. Psychos @1.0 (1-2)
16. Saluki YRD’s @0.53 (1-2)
Inside the numbers: KC goes 0-3 back to back as they are in severe struggle mode. Psychos caught a break and got a “w” vs. The Hoop Gurus.
Week 6 MML Team Spreads
For those of you who have read this opening explanation, you can skip down to all the new information, which is indicated by an asterisk*
Okay, first, let me explain some things about this statistic. The “spread” is the point differential between what a player scores and what his fantasy score is. In other words, a player from LSU scores 20 points, but, his fantasy score (when totaling everything up) is 24 points, giving him a +4.0 spread.
I’ve been doing spread on individual players since I first started playing in the league and for several years now, I’ve been keeping track of my team’s spread for each week. So, say my 7 player lineup totaled 200 “real” points during their week of play. And, let’s say that my team totaled 260 fantasy points for the week. I then take that number, 60, and, divide it by the number of games my team played that week. Let’s just say that we played 14 games, making my team spread for the week 4.28.
So, what does it all mean, or, rather, does it mean anything? I think it is a good indicator of where your team is. Of course, knowing/looking at the individual spreads is important for every GM to do, but, knowing the team spread can bring it all into focus.
In general, if my weekly team spread is 5.0 or higher, that usually means that the team could be good enough to be a Final Four type of team in our league. Of course, the idea is to average that over an entire season. If you keep track of it from week to week, it helps you to make roster changes to fix any lineup “leaks.” You can be a good team with 4.5, okay with 4.0 but you are not formidable at 4.0 and you are usually hurting if under 4.0. I say usually, because you may be playing some opponents who are not strong and you can have a strong week regardless of the spread in that case. On the other hand, if you are at 5.5 or higher it does not indicate that your team is far superior-again, unless you can do that week after week-and, even then, that can be fool’s gold. For instance, with individual players, when a spread gets to be greater than 7-8, it often indicates a player who isn’t getting a lot of shots and isn’t scoring a decent number of fantasy points that will help you. I can’t remember the player’s name, but a few years back Vermont had a player who scored about 6 points a game. His spread was around +12. Nice, huh? Not really. That just means that his huge spread only got him to around 18 max. He went over a few times but was often under 18 fantasy points, while still maintining a huge spread.
I just thought that some of you may be interested, and, I will be listing the weekly team spread totals with comments as you can see below.
*I have left up week 5 for those who wish to compare the two weeks. Best & worst won-loss records shown.
Week 6
Note: Week 6 was almost a copycat of week 5 as most teams really suffered through poor player performances, as the ability to shoot, even among proven shooters, seems to be in short supply right now. Again, lack of games (Covid cancellations & postponed) skewing the results some. Good spreads are helping teams survive the down periods while the number of games is really impacting the wins & losses.
1. North Pole Fightin’ Reindeers @7.9
Inside the numbers: NPFR got just 10 games.
2. Hillbilly Maulers @7.7 (0-3)
3. Hoosiers @6.0
Inside the numbers: +7.7 wasted due to just having 9 games. Of course, mainly two players provided that spread, so, the Maulers were not going to have a great week even if they had another 5 games.
4. The Hoop Guru @5.63
5. The Deadwood Gang @5.54
6. Deep Valley Grouchos @5.3 (3-0)
7. Virginia Gentlemen @5.27
Inside the numbers: DVG’s had a so-so week but had a 2 game advantage over all of their opponents and that was the difference.
8. Saluki YRD’s @4.8
9. Sam Jacobson Went to Class @4.78 (3-0)
10. Hardwood Heroes @4.37 (0-3)
11. KC Warthogs @4.36
12. Maize and Blue Bloods @4.28 (3-0)
13. Prozac Pups @4.00
14. Psychos @4.0 (0-3)
Inside the numbers: Having just 8 games doomed HH. 9 for Psychos. Of course, both teams had “suicide bombers” in the lineup (Watson & Bates, respectively) taking their teams down with them.
15. Gator Bait @3.57 (3-0)
16. Vindaloos @2.83
Inside the numbers: GB on a 9 game winning streak. 9 games and a mediocre 4.0 a lethal duo for Psychos. Un-characteristically bad spread week for Vindaloos, who should see their spread bounce back up.