Breaking News as Hoops Season Ends

On the last day of the fantasy basketball season, my squad miraculously snuck into a tie for second place, having sat in third for months.  Props to the Hurricane, who elected to bench our three best players–LBJ, Paul Pierce and Rashard Lewis–all of whom did not play.  And congrats to the first place guy, the first ever to beat Hurricane and I, who had a 16.5 point advantage in a 12 team rotisserie league, which is pretty remarkable.  He led the league nearly all year with a team that featured top-pick Chris Paul, healthy Yao Ming, career-year Troy Murphy, bounce-back Ray Allen, finally-got-it-together Andrea Bargnani, and yay-Mike-D’Antoni Nate Robinson.

In other breaking news, Jon Barry MVP Matt Bonner got added on the last day of the season, by the very team I said should pick him up (after I emailed the manager).

With hoops and hockey done, attention will focus on baseball for now, until fantasy football season, or something else pops up.

Matt Bonner is a Funny Looking MVP

Matt Bonner is a somewhat odd choice to win the Jon Barry MVP.  On top of actually looking funny, I can think of a reason to doubt Bonner’s award.  He’s an unconventional player, a big man who shoots the 3-ball, and unconventional players can present balance problems in fantasy sports, especially when using rotisserie scoring. 

Matt Bonner Projected to Win Jon Barry MVP

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.

Here are the top competitors in the Jon Barry MVP race, with this week’s score and season-long score:

• Matt Bonner, 1.0, 10.5
• Jarrett Jack, 0.9, 0.9
• Rasual Butler, 0.8, 1.6
• Delonte West, 0.7, 2.9
• Steve Blake, 0.6, 0.6
• James Posey, 0, 7.6
• Udonis Haslem, 0, 4.0

With only a week or so left to play, it’s safe to say that Matt Bonner will win the Jon Barry MVP trophy.  Congratulations to Matt, who will also star in an upcoming film with Jon Barry, who’s actually just one of Ali G’s alter-egos.

Meanwhile, here are the standings in my lone fantasy basketball league:

• League leader: 92 points
• 2nd place: 75 points
• My team: 71.5 points
• 4th place 68.5 points

Thus it’s also safe to project that the Hurricane and I will not win our league, after a moderately disastrous season.  2nd and 4th are both remote possibilities, but we likely finish 3rd.  Next year, when planning our draft, I plan to experiment by using Bonner, Posey, Haslem and West as examples of replacement players.

Jon Barry All-Stars, Mar. 30

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.

Last week set an all-time high for traffic, beating our debut week back in September 2008.  Da juice is good,  yeah?

Not sure who you all are, but I hope you’re enjoying the site.  Feel free to drop a comment if you have a request, question, or, uhhh, comment.

This week, Matt Bonner cements his status as favorite for Jon Barry MVP, with his top competitor dropping out of the top 5.  This week’s list (total points on the season):

• Matt Bonner (9.5)
• Chris Duhon (1.8)
• Rasual Bulter (0.8)
• Udonis Haslem (4.0)
• Delonte West (2.2)

Jon Barry All-Stars, Mar. 23

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.

This was the first week I looked at the Jon Barry All-Stars and said “whoa, that guy’s available?  I should pick him up.”  Chris Duhon’s been struggling lately, but on the season he’s been pretty solid.  Might add him, might now.  Here’s the list (full season score):

• Matt Bonner (8.5)
• Chris Duhon (0.9)
• Delonte West (1.6)
• James Posey (7.6)
• Joel Przybilla (0.6)

Jon Barry All-Stars, Mar. 16

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.

A couple new entrants this week, as Delonte West reverses his being erased from the list due to injury by making it again.  Here’s the top five (total score on the season):

• Matt Bonner (7.5)
• James Posey (6.9)
• Delonte West (0.8)
• Udonis Haslem (3.4)
• Brad Miller (0.6)

Jon Barry All-stars, Mar. 9

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.

This week’s five (total points on the season):

• Ronny Turiaf (1.8)
• Matt Bonner (6.5)
• James Posey (6)
• Chris Anderson (1.3)
• Udonis Haslem (2.7)

Matt Bonner continues to slowly build on his lead in the two-man race.  There are enough impressive swingmen available in the league that I think Posey probably won’t see an add.  Bonner might, if someone wants a center who can shoot the 3-ball.  For now, the Jon Barry MVP trophy is Bonner’s to lose.

Why Jon Barry matters

I’ve typed the name Jon Barry a ton recently.  I’m tempted to change the name of this blog to youlikeadajonbarry.com.  I envision Jon Barry’s mom googling him and stumbling onto this site, and being very confused, though perhaps somewhat amused.

The reason I’m interested in Jon Barry, and in Matt Bonner and James Posey, who look like this year’s Jon Barry MVPs for my league, is that they illustrate an interesting concept for fantasy purposes: they’re the best available replacement player (BARP).  There are a number of interesting observations to make about BARPs:

• They tend to outperform a lot of owned players.  Bonner and Posey are ranked 67th and 91st in my league, in which 144 players are owned.
• Presumably then, most managers would be well-served by adding them and dropping someone off their team.
• Managers generally don’t do so, and the same players appear near the top of the waiver wire all season long.

Jon Barry All-Stars, March 2

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.

This week’s top 5 (total points this season):

• Matt Bonner (5.6)
• James Posey (5.2)
• Udonis Haslem (2.1)
• Erick Dampier (1.9)
• Chris Anderson (0.6)

At the top, it’s a two-man race between Bonner and Posey, who’ve been on the list every week since I started this feature.  Bonner has the edge, but either of them could get added at any time.

I’m writing a post about the significance of the Jon Barry All-Stars in thinking about fantasy sports, and I’ll also write soon about my prep for the upcoming fantasy baseball season.

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)