Sports & Fantasy Sports Blog

Author: Billy Jones Introduction Hey fantasy football fam, welcome back to my blog! As the best ball summer rolls on, I find myself diving deeper into the captivating world of Best Ball Mania II and III data, provided as part of the Best Ball Data Bowl. A few months ago, I stumbled upon an intriguing article penned by Hayden Winks of Underdog Fantasy . He explored the optimal timing for drafting running backs in previous Best Ball Manias, presenting appealing visualizations and thought-provoking analysis. Although I found it fascinating back then, I hadn't fully succumbed to the best ball obsession that now consumes me (100+ drafts complete and it’s not even July 4th). Fast forward to the present addicted state, I decided to revisit Winks’ article in hopes of finding some new insights now that I had a much deeper understanding of the best ball and draft market. As I got into the article once again, my curiosity was piqued, compelling me to wonder about what insights could be gained

Author: Billy Jones Introduction In the world of best ball fantasy football, where trades and roster management are off the table, every decision made during the draft becomes crucial. As I mentioned in my last post, I recently finished my 100th draft of the summer and I now feel like I have a good sense for the pockets of the draft and some common nuisances that one can run into when trying to build the optimal roster. Today I am going to put on my "Bye Week Bros" hat and address a particularly annoying week that has been plaguing me during my best ball drafts. This particular week keeps resurfacing, causing headaches and frustration as I strive to assemble the million-dollar roster. While some within the best ball community may dismiss the impact of bye weeks on player selection, let's explore the bye week situation that I keep running into issues with. BBM Basics For those who may be less familiar with Best Ball Mania (BBM) by Underdog , it’s a unique and immensely pop

Author: Bill Jones Introduction Hey there, fantasy football analytics fam! Welcome back to the blog. Today, we're diving back into Best Ball summer as I continue my exploration of the Best Ball Mania data provided through the Best Ball Data Bowl. Best Ball is the perfect format for those looking to draft during the summer fantasy downtime and offers a twist on traditional fantasy football by eliminating the need for weekly roster management. I’m a little over 100 drafts in on Underdog ($5 and $7 Puppy and Poodle tournament are too hard to resist) and I feel like I have a pretty good sense for the current draft market. The most annoying thing about drafting on Underdog right now is the current Wide Receiver landscape, as Wide Receivers fly off the board at an outrageous rate (Adam Levitan’s tweet demonstrates this perfectly). This wide receiver obsession got me wondering and I dug into the data to see what historical BBMs could tell us about the importance of scoring by position by

Author: Nick Knowles Introduction The greatest regular season team, in terms of points, lost in game 7 of the first round versus the Florida Panthers. The worst part, the Bruins had a 3-1 series lead, and they had the opportunity to win the series in game 5 in the OT period, game 6 with a one-goal lead with less than ten minutes to go, and game 7 with a one-goal lead with one minute to go and the OT period. To put it lightly, the Bruins sank further than the famous ship, the Edmund Fitzgerald (RIP Gordon Lightfoot). I will say, I do take some ownership for the loss as a fan because, after the game 5 loss, the first song I heard the next day was “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” From there, I had a bad feeling that we would lose the next two games. Anyways, the Bruins went all-in this season with the contracts that captain Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci signed and the trade deadline acquisitions that they brought in. These two events, including the near doubling of David Pastrnak

Author: Bill Jones Introduction Hey football analytics fam, welcome back to my blog! As the best ball summer is upon us, I can't help but immerse myself in the wealth of Best Ball data that is available with the Best Ball Data Bowl . In this blog, I’ll continue my studies and explore the most basic question when thinking about roster construction and advancing from one’s pool into the playoffs “How many points does this team need to score?”. By uncovering this simple figure I can begin to process the best ways to construct my BBMIV rosters. Get ready to join me on this thrilling journey, as we navigate the intricacies of Best Ball and unlock the secret to advancing to the BBMIV playoffs. Let's kick off this Best Ball summer with a bang! BBM Basics For those who may be less familiar with Best Ball Mania (BBM) by Underdog, it’s a unique and immensely popular fantasy football tournament. Best ball is a fantasy football format where participants draft a team and then have no in-sea

Author: Billy Jones Introduction Welcome to the fourth part of my blog series where I perform an analytical review for tight end fantasy performance from 2022. In this blog, we will be wrapping up our initial review of the tight end position in the 2022 season through the lenses of a few familiar statistical measures. Just like part 2 of this series, we will be using average and standard deviation to review the consistency of performers but instead today we will be looking at attempts and yardage (touchdowns are just too low volume – the results look very wonky). So, whether you're a seasoned veteran or a newcomer to the world of fantasy football, this blog will provide valuable insights into the performance of quarterbacks in the 2022 season, so let’s get started! Statistics 101 (skip section if you read part 2 of this series) As we continue down our analytical review, we are going to use specific data science concepts as tools to help us gain insights. As referenced in the intro,