Stats Summary – Finding Value at Defender 2017

This is part three of the four part series about finding the value for each position. This one focuses on finding defender value. Here’s links to the forward and midfielder articles.

For those of you too lazy to read the last posts…. the important column in this table is the rightmost one labeled “Residuals”. The higher that number, the better value a player is.

Cash is King

Even with the massive price compression for defenders, price is still a major factor for how much of a bargain a player is. There are no 6.5 priced defenders in the top 10. The cheaper defenders always come with the risk that they won’t start – guys like Williams, Harris, Burling, Lade. Keep an eye on expected starters. We’ll hopefully be able to spot a cheap unexpected starter like what happened with Steres last year.

That said, there are some pricier sure starters that are worth the cash. Afful, Zimmerman, Morrow, and Matarrita (who had the most bonus points for any player in one game last year) are all guys I like.

SKC’s Jimmy Medranda was reclassified as a defender this year after being a midfielder last year and will reap the extra clean sheet points. He was a bonus point machine last year and seems to be in the starting role this year. Also, teammate Ike Opara has a place in the lore of MLS fantasy as he is a consistently great option …. until he inevitably gets hurt just as people are starting to jump on the hype train.

web_name	2017 Price	team_short	gstarts	Adjusted score	pps	vorp pps	Residuals
Williams	5	COL	15	92	5.87	2.21	1.81
Burling	5	COL	16	86	5.38	1.72	1.32
Harris	5	DAL	21	114	5.33	1.67	1.28
Phillips	5	RSL	23	123	5.22	1.56	1.16
Afful	6	CLB	29	172	5.86	2.2	1.13
Watson	4.5	NE	18	89	4.83	1.17	1.12
Duvall	5	MTL	20	107	5.15	1.49	1.1
Morrow	6	TOR	30	175	5.8	2.14	1.07
Allen	5.5	NYC	19	111	5.42	1.76	1.03
Opara	5	SKC	17	99	5.06	1.4	1.01
Rogers	5	LA	18	94	5.06	1.4	1
Matarrita	6	NYC	21	124	5.71	2.05	0.98
Zimmerman	6.5	DAL	30	180	6	2.34	0.93
Horst	4.5	RSL	25	117	4.64	0.98	0.93
Lade	5	NY	15	76	4.87	1.21	0.81
Ramos	4.5	ORL	11	50	4.45	0.79	0.74
Moor	6	TOR	32	173	5.41	1.75	0.68
Naess	6	CLB	13	70	5.38	1.72	0.65
Burch	5.5	COL	27	137	5.04	1.38	0.65
Sjoberg	6.5	COL	31	177	5.71	2.05	0.64
Glad	5.5	RSL	27	135	4.96	1.3	0.57
Tribbett	4.5	PHI	18	96	4.28	0.62	0.56
Yaro	5	PHI	13	64	4.62	0.96	0.56
Watts	5.5	COL	18	92	4.94	1.28	0.55
Kemp	6	DC	30	159	5.27	1.61	0.54
Hedges	6.5	DAL	26	145	5.58	1.92	0.51
Medranda	5	SKC	22	130	4.55	0.89	0.49
Collin	6	NYR	23	121	5.22	1.56	0.49
Marshall	6	SEA	30	155	5.17	1.51	0.44
Beitashour	5	TOR	29	130	4.48	0.82	0.43
Zizzo	4.5	NY	21	93	4.14	0.48	0.43
Figueroa	5.5	DAL	27	126	4.81	1.15	0.42
Anibaba	4.5	HOU	29	121	4.14	0.48	0.42
Fabinho	5	PHI	28	126	4.46	0.8	0.41
Evans	5.5	SEA	20	102	4.8	1.14	0.41
Tierney	5.5	NE	26	126	4.77	1.11	0.38
Cabrera	5.5	MTL	20	99	4.75	1.09	0.36
Besler	6	SKC	17	92	5.06	1.4	0.33
Bernardez	5.5	SJ	32	152	4.72	1.06	0.33
Oyongo	5	MTL	26	117	4.35	0.69	0.29
Woodberry	4.5	NE	23	93	4	0.34	0.29
Valentin	4.5	POR	18	73	4	0.34	0.29
Wynne	5	SJ	31	135	4.32	0.66	0.27
Waston	5.5	VAN	26	121	4.65	0.99	0.26
Campbell	5.5	CHI	31	146	4.65	0.99	0.25
Powell	5	POR	23	99	4.3	0.64	0.25
Birnbaum	6	DC	26	129	4.96	1.3	0.23
Boswell	5.5	DC	29	135	4.62	0.96	0.23
Brillant	6	NYC	31	153	4.94	1.28	0.21
Abdul-Salaam	5	SKC	26	118	4.23	0.57	0.18
Hines	5	ORL	22	96	4.23	0.57	0.17
Toia	5	ORL	14	63	4.21	0.55	0.16
Zavaleta	5	TOR	14	60	4.21	0.55	0.16
J Taylor	4.5	POR	21	83	3.86	0.2	0.14
Lefevre	5	MTL	12	51	4.17	0.51	0.11
Miller	5	COL	23	97	4.13	0.47	0.08
Steres	6	LA	30	144	4.77	1.11	0.04
DeLaGarza	5.5	LA	23	102	4.39	0.73	0
Franklin	5.5	DC	27	120	4.37	0.71	-0.02
Farrell	5.5	NE	32	140	4.34	0.68	-0.05
Lawrence	5	NY	20	72	4	0.34	-0.05
Jones	5	SEA	29	129	3.97	0.31	-0.09
Harvey	5	VAN	28	111	3.96	0.3	-0.09
Van Damme	6	LA	27	127	4.63	0.97	-0.1
Camara	5.5	MTL	25	109	4.28	0.62	-0.11
Ciman	6	MTL	28	129	4.61	0.95	-0.12
Rosenberry	5	PHI	34	133	3.91	0.25	-0.14
Meira	5.5	CHI	25	111	4.24	0.58	-0.15
Ridgewell	5	POR	22	85	3.86	0.2	-0.19
Parkhurst	5.5	ATL	34	141	4.15	0.49	-0.24
Maund	5	RSL	19	73	3.79	0.13	-0.26
Mateos	4.5	ORL	20	68	3.4	-0.26	-0.31
Vincent	5	CHI	24	91	3.71	0.05	-0.34
Beltran	5	RSL	27	102	3.7	0.04	-0.35
Francis	5	CLB	13	59	3.69	0.03	-0.36
Marquez	5	PHI	33	121	3.67	0.01	-0.39
Parker	5	VAN	28	103	3.64	-0.02	-0.41
Mears	5.5	ATL	31	121	3.94	0.28	-0.46
S Williams	5	VAN	20	64	3.1	-0.56	-0.61
Kappelhof	5.5	CHI	31	119	3.77	0.11	-0.62
Sarkodie	4.5	SJ	12	38	3.08	-0.58	-0.63
Cole	5.5	LA	25	94	3.72	0.06	-0.67
Harrington	4.5	CHI	14	43	2.93	-0.73	-0.79
Francis	5	SJ	17	56	3.18	-0.48	-0.88
Redding	4.5	ORL	15	40	2.6	-1.06	-1.11
Alston	4.5	ORL	22	57	2.5	-1.16	-1.21
Wingert	4.5	RSL	19	41	2.11	-1.55	-1.61

Word of Caution

Defenders are very heavily reliant on clean sheets for their scoring. There is not a lot of correlation from one year to the next about which teams keep the most clean sheets. We do know that defenders have the largest boost when playing at home compared to away. So, it makes sense to always pick home defenders until a team reveals their offense is completely inept.

Since clean sheet bonuses apply to the entire back line who played 60+ minutes, it might be wise to save some cash and get the cheaper options in a unit if you’re playing for the clean sheet. This might mean picking someone like Atiba Harris over Zimmerman or Hedges to save some money and forgo the point upside of the expensive counterparts.

There’s been a lot of speculation this year that having back lines of 4 defenders might make sense. Defender value is good enough this year to justify that strategy if it means you get to upgrade someone like Adi to Giovinco.