Jon Barry All-Stars, Feb. 24

Each week I look at the top players available in my fantasy basketball league to determine the Jon Barry All-stars, named after waiver wire favorite Jon Barry.  At year’s end, the player earning the most Jon Barry points will be named Jon Barry MVP.

I’m making a change to the system I use to determine the Jon Barry All-Stars.  Too many injured players are appearing in the top 5 available players list; this week, Al Jefferson, Jason Terry and Andrew Bynum make the list, and none of them are Jon Barry All-Stars.  Had I tracked this list throughout the season, these injured players probably wouldn’t matter, but at this point they’re creating problems.  Jon Barry was memorable because he was always available to pick up, healthy (this isn’t actually true), and mediocre.

From now on, injured players, as defined by the Yahoo! little red health box, will be omitted from the Jon Barry All-Stars.  The top five ranked, non-injured players will comprise the list.  Also, I’m going to assign players points based on where they are on the list.  First receives 1 point, second 0.9, third 0.8, fourth 0.7, fifth 0.6.  I’m pulling a Nate Silver, tweaking my model, and going back to recalculate players’ scores.  Here are the new rankings (the results of the model):

This week’s rankings (total score):

• Jamario Moon (3.0)
• Matt Bonner (4.6)
• James Posey (4.3)
• Udonis Haslem (1.3)
• Erick Dampier (1.2)

Jon Barry All-Stars, Feb. 16

Each week I look at the top 5 players available in my fantasy basketball league to determine the Jon Barry All-stars, named after waiver wire favorite Jon Barry.  At year’s end, the player appearing most often in this list will be named Jon Barry MVP.

Another big drop shifts the race, while the leading candidates narrow to two.  This week’s five (total appearances on the list in parentheses):

Al Jefferson (1), Jamario Moon (2), Andrew Bynum (2), Matt Bonner (4), James Posey (4).

As expected, injured Delonte West falls out of the top 5.  Injured Jefferson is dropped and will probably remain on the list through the year, since he’s already put up strong enough numbers to give him good value for the season.  This makes me a little nervous, as the purpose of the Jon Barry MVP award is to recognize an active player who’s just not quite good enough to get added, but nonetheless hangs out atop the waiver wire all season.  Had I been keeping track all season, Jefferson would have no chance to win the award, and as it stands, I see Bonner and Posey as much likelier options, but I wonder whether I need to tweak the system so as to omit injured players.  For now the list stands.

Jon Barry All-Stars, Feb. 9

Each week I look at the top 5 players available in my fantasy basketball league to determine the Jon Barry All-stars, named after waiver wire favorite Jon Barry.  At year’s end, the player appearing most often in this list will be named Jon Barry MVP.

Bit of a shake-up this week as a couple players got dropped into the top of the waiver wire and one other player got picked up.  This week’s five (total appearances on the list in parentheses):

Jamario Moon (1), Andrew Bynum (1), Matt Bonner (3), Delonte West (3), James Posey (3)

Delonte West falls 3 spots, having been at the top of the list the previous two weeks.  He’s injured, so he’ll keep falling, and as soon as he gets healthy, someone will pick him up.  That leaves, as I predicted, Bonner and Posey as the favorites for the Jon Barry MVP award.  However, Moon presents a new potential competitor.  Unlike Bynum, he wasn’t dropped because of injury, but rather because of his benching.  Given that he put up decent fantasy numbers throughout the year, and that he’ll continue to get some play time, he may be able to sneak in and take the award.  Either Bonner or Posey could get picked up any time.