Introducing Dread
It has been a very busy off-season for me on the tools front. I was able to roll out a second version of the FADS worksheet which helps owners determine player auction values based upon their league’s setting which include available salary cap, scoring and roster requirements. Owners can then base the player values off of last year’s performance or they can enter projections for the coming year. I also released HAL which gives owners a tool to determine what areas of their team are getting too old for the owners liking while also providing crucial information about the make-up of their team and how each position compares to the NFL average age and years of experience for that same position.
Rolling out both of those tools was a huge undertaking and required a lot of time and focus in order to complete. However, they both pale in comparison to what I feel is my best tool yet, Dread.
Simply put, Dread is your personal drafting assistant. Everyone reading knows just how crucial it is to have the best draft one can have when establishing a dynasty. Dread looks at your league’s starting lineup requirements as well as the position your team holds in your startup draft. It then suggests which player you should draft based on the opportunity cost of each position.
As an example, say you have the 10th pick (1.10) in your draft. You are torn between drafting wide receiver or running back. Let’s say that the top wide receiver available is Dez Bryant and the top running back available is LeSean McCoy. Dread goes out and looks to see if both teams between your current and next pick 2.03 selected nothing but running backs or nothing but wide receivers before your next pick, what the best pick would be. Let’s say Larry Fitzgerald would be the next wide receiver available in this scenario and Alfred Morris would be the next running back available. Based upon the scoring for your league the difference between Bryant and Fitzgerald turns out to be a 9% difference while the difference between McCoy and Morris is a 10% difference. Dread would recommend drafting McCoy because taking Bryant over McCoy could cost your team points during the course of the season, and let’s be honest, every point counts!
The great thing about Dread is it is based on your league’s scoring and it allows you to specify when a certain position should be considered so that Dread won’t recommend a kicker any earlier than you want it to! Additionally, Dread won’t suggest and free agent players, so while Aaron Hernandez may appear to be a great selection, he’s obviously a free agent for a reason.
To be clear, you shouldn’t place all your faith in draft in the hands of Dread, that would be foolhardy as Dread doesn’t know anything about sleepers, nor does it know about changes in situations. What Dread does do is give you another set of extremely analytical eyes on your draft. It will provide you with the best deals available based upon last year’s performance. It also will be extremely useful to last minute drafters as it provides a tailored cheat sheet based on your league’s scoring while dynamically changing to reflect how your draft is playing out.
To use Dread simply enter the year the draft is occurring and enter the MFL league ID of your league and press the “Connect to League” button. You will need to wait a minute or two and then specify which round you would like Dread to begin considering each position. After you have set those parameters and when your pick is on the clock, press the “Next Suggested Pick” button. After a couple minutes of processing, Dread will provide the user with the best player to select with that pick. Each time your team is on the clock press the “Next Suggested Pick” button and Dread will give your it’s best determination based upon the scarcity of the position, the performance of the players remaining on the board and worst case scenario planning.
In the future I’d like to add functionality to grade an owners draft and compare it against the draft that was suggested by Dread. I’d also like to provide a way to allow for projections to be incorporated into the process. Finally, I’d also like to factor in DFL player rankings into the decision making process. However, based on the resources currently available, as well as a rapidly shrinking draft season, I felt it was best to get Dread released to the public in its current state. In its current state Dread is already an extremely powerful tool to be added to any drafter’s toolset. In the future Dread will absolutely be the go-to tool for all serious drafters.
Please enjoy this tool and if you have any questions or comments feel free to post them in the comments below and either I or another DLF member will get to them as soon as we possibly can. Thank you for your continued support!
Follow or contact The FFGhost on Twitter @TheFFGhost
