The Fantasy Defensive

Reward Defense for Defense

In my fantasy league, Defense and Special Teams are categorized into a single group. I understand that and I am fine with that. The one issue I have is that a kick returner can run the ball back for a score and get 16 points if he takes it endzone to endzone. That is more than Peyton Manning gets if he throws the ball 99 yards for a touchdown. He'd only get 7 points for that feat. A quarterback is rewarded 1 point for every 50 passing yards and 6 points for a touchdown. The D/ST is rewarded 1 point for every 10 yards and the same 6 points for a touchdown. 

I'm fine with the D/ST getting points for an explosive play made by a special teamer. My issue is that the defense isn't rewarded for being a good defense. The top 5 defenses in the NFL allow an average of 15.6 points per game. In my league, being one of the top 5 defenses in the league rewards you 1 point. 

That is where my issue lies. Defense isn't rewarded for serving its main purpose in the game. It's given points for behaving like an offense. As my friend Kyle and fellow league member put it, "I want defense to be rewarded for being the best defensive unit, not for being the best offensive defense." 

I agree that a defense should be rewarded points for takeaways and turnovers but some stats like 4th down stops don't really mean anything, but you still get 1 point for it. Here is my revision to make defense more meaningful. Our system currently rewards a team that records a shutout 10 points. I think that number is extremely low for the amount of work that is required to make that happen. I'm proposing a new scoring system that makes defensive defense much more important and takes away some of the special teams dominance.

What the Old Looks Like, What the New Should Be

Listed below is how my fantasy league currently rates defensive points, next to it are the adjustments that I think should be made and a reasoning why. If there is no adjustment then I am fine with it being the same.

Sack = 1

INT = 2

Fumble Recovery = 2

Touchdown = 6

Safety = 2

Block Kick = 2, 3 points (If a kick is made then you gain 3 points, so if you stop one you get 3)

Return Yards = 1 point per 10 yards, 1 point per 50 yards (You shouldn't be able to double up what a QB can do if he makes a play for the same yardage that has the same result)

Points Allowed 0 pts = 10, 30 points (It's almost impossible to hold a team scoreless in the offensive NFL. There should be a bigger reward for a defense doing that.)

Points Allowed 1-6 pts = 7, 20 points (Holding a team under a TD is almost just as hard. It isn't quite a shutout but it should surely receive more than 7 points) 

Points Allowed 7-13 pts = 4, 15 points (This is still better than the top 5 teams in the league give up per game. Therefore it should be rewarded properly.) 

Points Allowed 14-20 pts = 1, 10 points (Holding a team under 3 TDs will usually result in a win if you have a good offense. Therefore you should get some points for doing that. Only 8 NFL defenses average less than 20 points per game.) 

Points Allowed 21-27 pts = 0, 22-27 points = 0 (I agree with this one but I want to raise the number to 22 points. If you give up over 3 TDs in a game then you are about average and shouldn't receive anything. If you hold a team to exactly 3 TDs, I propose 5 points for your team.)

Points Allowed 28-34 pts = -1, -3 points (If we're paying a defense for being good, we should make a team pay if the defense is bad. If you give up more than 4 TDs per game then you're one of the 8 to 10 worst in the league.) 

Points Allowed 35+ pts = -4, -10 points (Yes, you lose 10 points if you give up 5 TDs or more. There should be bigger rewards and penalties for good and bad defense. According to the system now, a terrible defensive game can be wiped out by 40 return yards.) 

4th Down Stops = 1 (I'm going to restructure this stat completely. Instead of 4th Down Stops, I'm going to make it 4th Quarter Stops. Every time you stop a team in the 4th Quarter from scoring you get 1 point. That gives a team a bonus for playing well on defense at the end of a game when it matters most.)

There is my restructuring of the fantasy defensive points. Now let's take an example of two teams this season and see what their points would be now. 

In week 4, the San Francisco 49ers only gave up 11 points and their fantasy point total was 13. With my new adjustments they would get 15 points to start with the great defensive performance. They had 0 return yards so that doesn't change anything and then we add in their 9 points for 7 sacks and 1 interception they had to give them 24 points. 

Let's take a team that gave up some big points in a game but still had a high scoring day because of other reasons. Last week New England gave up 30 points in a loss to the Jets but our scoring system gave them 27 points. Is a bad defense really worthy of that? 

In the new system we start them off with -3 because of what they gave up. Not a big change but it lowers them a little bit. Next we add 6 points for 4 sacks and an INT. Now they have 3 points. They had 154 return yards. Is that worth 15 points? No! They get 3 points for that. Now they have 6 points. They returned the 1 INT for 79 yards and a TD. I give them return yards for INTs so they get 7 more points for this play. Now that we've done this adjustment, the New England Patriots in a 30-27 loss get 13 points instead of 27 points. 

In my eyes this new system makes all the sense in the world and is a brilliant idea. If you think the same then you should propose these changes to your fantasy leagues. Leave any comments for adjustments that you think would be helpful and fair. 

The Selig Fault: The Many Issues of Baseball

A Quick Note

It has been an extremely long time since I have posted anything to this blog and I have good reason for that. I was in a very serious car accident about 3 1/2 months ago and have been focused on rehab from that. I am focused on getting this blog back running. Enjoy! 

A Pastime, That's All It Is

If you read my stuff before my accident, you know I love bashing baseball. If you didn't, today you'll learn that I love bashing it. 

Over the past several weeks and months, I've had some free time on my hands when not in rehab. In that time, I've tuned into way too much baseball. It did it's job. It passed the time for me. That's what baseball does. In my neck of the woods, the Pirates had their first positive season since I was 2 years old. That was nice for people who remember the 1970 Pirates who were successful. I've said for years that Pittsburgh shouldn't have a baseball team so I wasn't exactly on the edge of my seat hoping the Buccos would win but I did tune into a lot of baseball this season. 

In my time of watching baseball I have seen many things that absolutely perplex me. Baseball is the only sport where a fan can interfere with the game and get away with it. It just happened the other night. J.J. Reddick, Josh Reddick (sorry nobody knows the names of the Oakland players) tried to rob a home run in game 4 of the ALDS against Detroit and some goofball reached over the fence and tried to grab the ball. Now the evidence was inconclusive if Reddick would have actually been able to rob the ball, but it really looked like he had a chance to bring it back. 

On top of that MLB has an antiquated officiating system, extremely slow play and a plethora of other problems. Today I want to look at some of these issues and how silly they would be if they were in a different sport.

Slow Play, But It's Okay

Baseball is the only sport that doesn't have a game clock or set pace of play to it. You constantly see these batters put their hand up and step back after walking into the batter's box. Once you step into the batter's box you should have to stay there and bat. You shouldn't be allowed to walk around after every pitch, readjust your batting gloves, send a text message, etc. It's ridiculous. The pitcher does the same thing too, though. It adds so much time to the game. If baseball truly wanted to make their games quicker and more excited then this would be a rule. Once you're in the box you have to stay there the whole at-bat. Also, pitcher's can only toss the ball to a base twice without throwing a pitch to the plate. 

But Tim...that gives an unfair advantage to guys trying to steal.

No it doesn't. You don't need to throw the ball over to first base to stop a guy from stealing. Do it once if the guy is really lagging off the bag and you think you can get him. If not, throw to the batter and rely on your catcher to make a good throw. If you're that worried a guy is going to steal, pitch out to the catcher and have him toss it to the bag. You shouldn't get free roam of tossing it to your first baseman over and over. You should have to throw a ball to the batter and if the base runner presents that much of a threat. 

If you got the next batter up to the plate quicker, kept the pitches coming quicker and didn't have all of these extracurriculars going on after every pitch you could cut 30 minutes off a game. 

Other Sports Keep it Moving

NFL: Imagine if there wasn't a play clock in football. They could just mosey up to the line and a defensive player could just call infinite timeouts to adjust his cleats before Peyton Manning snapped the ball. 

NBA: How about we get rid of the five second inbound clock. Maybe we should allow players to hold the ball in the back court as long as they want. Shot clock? We don't need one of those. I want to see Miami beat Oklahoma City 21-15 and watch Russell Westbrook dribble for 22 minutes. Then we can start keeping pointless statistics like dribbles per half (DPH) time spent with the ball in your own backcourt (BCTPH) and a bunch of other great acronyms that the people in the stands sit there and keep track of with their kids. 

Let The Fans be More Involved

This is my favorite part of the MLB experience. If you are an outfielder chasing down a ball near the fence at most stadiums, you'll probably have some yahoo reaching over the fence to try to interfere with you. It should be interference but the rule is so ambiguous that even when we think it was broken, the umps don't know how to actually call it. I don't think I need to go on and on ranting about why Joe Schmo in the first row down the third baseline shouldn't be able to interfere with a player trying to catch a foul ball. Or do you not see a problem with that? Do I need to go on?

It's part of the game, Tim. The fans pay for those seats and they can't actually interfere with the athlete, they can just stand in his way and try to snatch the ball.

Oh yeah, there's nothing wrong with the fans interfering with games. Let's see what it would be like if they could interfere with other sports. 

NFL: I propose we start to allow fans to bring in kites, remote controlled helicopters and any other flying objects that could block a pass or kick. Yes, that sounds preposterous because the NFL doesn't give many opportunities for the fans to interfere with the game play.

NBA: Same thing goes for the projectiles in the stadiums. You want some pressure on that free throw. How about 150 fans are allowed to toss a football at the hoop at the same time you're shooting the FT? I'm fine with it. Maybe we promote the sideline fans to play defense occasionally. If you can intercept a pass with at least one foot out of bounds and you don't touch a player while you're defending it, it's a fair play. 

Soccer: Doesn't it make you laugh when that random streaker runs through a game over in Spain? I say we promote that. If you streak during a soccer game and can get the ball within 5 minutes of running onto the pitch, you get a penalty kick for whichever team you'd like. (Yes, I said pitch. I know soccer terminology.) 

Do I need to continue? I think you understand the point i'm making about these issues with baseball. The game is antiquated. It takes too long for a 9 inning game to be played. Several ALDS games went over 4 hours. None of which were extra inning games. They were 9 innings and over 4 hours. That's a half hour or more per inning. 

Along with this extremely long and boring process we call a baseball game is the fact that the audience can reach over the fence and touch a ball and get away with it. Add to that the fact that baseball doesn't know how to promote their stars. 

I enjoy baseball in small doses. I have to have something else to watch on another channel to flip back and forth because I don't want to see someone standing there for 8 minutes adjusting their gloves after every pitch. 

So, the reason I called this the Selig Fault is because he is old and out of touch. But, there is hope baseball. Selig announced that he is retiring after the 2014 season. To all of the people who are in control of choosing his replacement, please find someone hip and connected. Take someone who works under Roger Goodell or David Stern. Find a guy who will use technology like instant replay properly, someone who will take measures to speed up the game and make it more exciting, and someone who knows how to promote Yasiel Puig properly. That's what is needed baseball. That's what you must do. I wish you the best of luck!