2024 Round 23 DiffeRANCHals

Every week, I’m going to go over my suggestions from last week, and determine if they were a good or bad pick based on position and points. To describe in detail the ranking system, here is the metric: bust = 3 or fewer points (or not starting/on the bench), average = 4-5 points, good = 6-8 points, great = 9+ points. Players not available for selection I am disregarding and not counting as a positive or negative in the article.

DGW Scoring: Bust = 6 or fewer, Average = 7-9, Good = 10-12, Great = 13+

Week 22 Final Results: 

Matt:

• Bjørn Inge Utvik – Bust (4 points)
• Petar Musa – Bust (6 points)

Brandon:

• Mo Farsi – Bust (6 points)
• Hector Herrera – GREAT! (16 points)

Ranch:

• Erik Thommy – Good (12 points)
• Fafa Picault – GREAT! (24 points)

2024 Full Season Results: 21 Great, 23 Good, 21 Average, 65 Busts

Matt Results: 7 Great, 5 Good, 9 Average, 23 Bust

Brandon Results: 7 Great, 8 Good, 8 Average, 20 Bust

Ranch Results: 7 Great, 10 Good, 4 Average, 21 Bust

Welcome back to week 23 of the diffeRANCHals article! What… even… is… this… place? What is this… fantasy, you speak of? W– just kidding, a month isn’t that long, right?

 

Either way, with Leagues Cup (almost) wrapped up, it’s time to get back into our favorite types of picks, diffeRANCHals, as MLS Fantasy action returns for Week 23!

Brandon: Tim Ream, $8.0m (or Adilson Malanda, $7.9m) (Defender – Charlotte)

As it happens to be, Charlotte (for whatever reason) is top of the pops for me, booking our half-dozen picks this week. On the backline, it’s the Queen’s City newest center-back addition in Tim Ream getting a nod from me. Ream steps into a group that has outperformed defensively this season, conceding just 27 times in 25 matches. The USMNT defender is expected to bring a ball-playing quality to Charlotte’s existing clearance-heavy approach — both of which are good for bonus points in Fantasy — and even if he doesn’t start, Malanda (and even further, central partner Andrew Privett, $7.2m) have done exceedingly well already, with both registering 22 and 24 bonus points from passing and clearances, respectively.

Ranch: Yeimar Gomez Andrade, $8.4m (Defender – Seattle)

With the earliest game of the slate, we have Minnesota vs the Seattle Sounders. Being a Sounders fan, I know quite a bit of history when it comes to the matchup between these two teams. The biggest stat to be aware of is that Seattle leads Minnesota overall with 13 wins, 2 draws, and 1 loss in their entire history against each other. What does that mean? Well, chances are that Seattle will win, even though they are on the road. Is it guaranteed? Of course not, nothing is guaranteed in MLS. However, should Seattle win, I expect either a cleansheet or a goal to come from Yeimar. Rusnak has been delivering in some beautiful cornerkicks and set pieces over the last few weeks (and Leagues Cup games), which have boosted the scores of defenders. Since Jackson Ragen is questionable with concussion protocol, Yeimar is the pick for this game. Early defense slot too!

Matt: Diego Gomez, $7.4m (Midfielder – Miami)

Per usual, Inter Miami has no issue scoring goals. But without Messi, one of their best attacking threats has been Diego Gomez who played incredibly at the Olympics for Paraguay and has also had 5 goal contributions for Miami over the past 3 games. Telling you to target Miami’s offense at home where they are averaging 2.54 goals a game is easy enough, but their opponent, Cincinnati, makes it that much more convincing with how broken they are at the back. Even prior to Leagues Cup they allowed 10 goals in their last 5 away games. Miami should have no problem finding the back of the net here and Gomez should be heavily involved.

Ranch: Marcel Hartel, $8.5m (Midfielder – St. Louis)

Marcel Hartel. The coolest name of the new signings. It just rolls off of the tongue. Hartel is a new #10 attacking mid who plays alongside Eduard Lowen for STL. During Leagues Cup, Hartel was pivotable in quite a few different goal opportunities. With STL heading to Portland, who is without Evander, I expect that STL will walk all over them after picking up their stride during Leagues Cup. As a reminder, since the break was so long, Portland is among the top 5 Western Conference teams in goals against. With that knowledge and the absence of Portland’s best midfielder, that will leave the midfield open for STL to take control of, and hopefully score some goals! (I also am very in favor of Portland not playing well, if you haven’t figured that out by now).

Matt: Alonso Martinez, $8.0m (Forward – NYCFC)

It’s hard to move away from the chalk forward picks this week. But if you need to make up some ground a sneaky good move could be to target an awful Chicago team on the road. Not only will they struggle to create chances, but they will give up chances too, currently averaging 1.69 goals against away from home. One player who could really take advantage of that is Alonso Martinez. While he’s had some time coming on as a sub during Leagues Cup, Martinez has had a goal and 2 assists over his past three starts. While NYC really tries to solidify home field advantage for as much of the playoffs as possible, they are going to use this home stretch as an opportunity to score goals and collect as many points as possible. Because of that, Martinez should be able to get on the end of some really good chances against this Chicago side.

Brandon: Karol Świderski, $8.5m (Forward – Charlotte)

At the other end of the pitch for Dean Smith’s side, many were surprised to see the Polish forward back in the reckoning — especially under the circumstances in which his initial loan move to Hellas Verona transpired back in January. However, with St Louis’ Simon Becher yet to be added to the game (as of the time of me writing this paragraph), that leads me to go with the other notable forward returnee to MLS. Though Świderski didn’t feature much for Charlotte during Leagues Cup, he did put up a 9-point game against Austin before the break, and seems set to be sticking around until the end of the season in MLS, even featuring in a closed-door friendly on Thursday.