Fine tuning of MFL10s

By Tod Burros
Tod Burros The purpose of this article is to make sure those of you like myself who do a lot of MFL10 or best ball leagues are doing all the little things that can put ourselves in optimal positions to win each draft. This is not a beginner’s article but an article on fine tuning or optimizing your MFL10’s.

Here are the list of key ways to supercharge your MFL10’s I have come up with
1-Pay attention to Bye Weeks
2-Stack QB with WR/TE from the same team
3-Mix in rather than ignore High Risk players who have upside at ADP
4-Take your time Drafting and use an ADP tool

Often when I draft I have 4-5 players I have ranked tightly to choose from and to mix my exposure’s up from who are ranked on the same tier. These suggestions help me to choose which player to draft from a tier. They are not meant to be used to choose players from lower tiers but rather to as the title suggests fine tune your selections of players you have ranked in similar tiers.

Pay attention to bye weeks.
I have never paid a ton of attention to bye weeks in season long Fantasy Football. Having the ability to do waivers or make trades allows me to draft the optimal top ranked player in a tier when I draft. Season long is broken up into 13 individual weeks so losing one week isn’t a huge deal if you can get a lot of your byes out of the way
But because MFL10’s are not based on wins or losses each week but point accumulation that same strategy can cause you to lose valuable points as the example below shows

week 5 week 6 week 7 week 8 week 9 week 10 week 11
RB 1 20 x 20 20 20 20 20
RB 2 15 15 x 15 15 15 15
RB 3 12 12 12 x 12 12 12
RB 4 8 8 8 8 x 8 8
Points per week 35 27 32 35 35 35 35 234 total points


week 5 week 6 week 7 week 8 week 9 week 10 week 11
RB 1 20 20 x 20 20 20 20
RB 2 15 15 x 15 15 15 15
RB 3 12 12 x 12 12 12 12
RB 4 8 8 x 8 8 8 8
Points per week 35 35 0 35 35 35 35 210 total points


As you can see in the example having that one week where you take a goose egg rather than splitting your points out costs you 24 points vs having your bye weeks split up. So mix up your bye weeks especially amongst your best players to maximize your output over the season is one way to increase the opportunity for production in best ball leagues..

Stacking QB with Receivers from the same team
I think most of us who play fantasy football also play DFS at this point. In DFS stacking is pretty universal among those who know even basic strategy when it comes to the NFL. If you are not familiar with the term stacking it means pairing your Quarterback with one of his receivers. The theory is if your QB has a big game then very likely the receiver will also. And since the goal is to score as many points in one week as possible getting that “extra” can get you to the top of leaderboards and win the big money which is stacked in the top 1% of tournaments.. Well as we discussed in bye weeks scoring as many points in a week as you can is also important to MFL10’s.In fact Bestball is similar in a sense to if you combined 16 weeks of DFS on one team So stacking becomes a very viable strategy in best ball. Even better since you always have extra QB and WR on your roster a bad week from your QB/Receiver might not hurt at all if your other players have a good week. And if your QB and receiver have a huge week
together you can supercharge your points that week vs your competition

Mix in rather than ignore High Risk players who have upside at ADP
In analyzing my MFL10’s over the last few years I have realized I have missed some key opportunities because I was too risk averse. Often being risk averse is a good thing. I avoided almost completely all the injured players last year which meant my teams were not hurt by Jamaal Charles. But it also meant that I missed out completely on Jordy Nelson who turned out to be the second highest scoring WR in MFL10’s last year.

I am not advising going the other way and drafting a ton of guys who are high risk but I am saying take a player and figure an exposure percentage that you are comfortable. In DFS we talk often of fading a person. But fading doesn’t mean you have to have zero shares of that player.

A great example of how I personally missed out on a good opportunity because of fear was Jordan Reed two years ago one of my favorite TE talent wise I avoided 100% because of concussion concerns which is a very valid concern. However why I would completely avoid someone with so much talent who I could take in the 14th round I don’t know.

This year I put Martavis Bryant as one of the players who have huge upside but are also risky. You can get Bryant in 6th round of MFL10’s at least 15% of the time. Where in the past I might have worried before he was reinstated that he wouldn’t I was taking shares of him. He is one of those guys who if healthy could be a top 24 WR. He also catches long passes for TD’s which make him a perfect best ball WR.

So look carefully at these risky players with huge upside. Find an exposure percentage you are comfortable with and draft them to that exposure. If they blow up you will thank me. And if they don’t having 5-15% of them won’t hurt your overall portfolio too much.

Take your time Drafting and use an ADP tool

Is so easy when drafting in multiple MFL10’s and desiring not to hold up drafts to just make a quick pick on your phone..

I love myfantasyleague.com but the ADP that shows up when you are picking is not nearly as good as some other’s you can find on the internet. It uses too long a period of time and it seems to include more types of leagues than just best ball throwing off the results.

I use Rotoviz best ball app when drafting and I find it easily worth the $30 a yr subscription just for the app nevermind some great articles as well and other features. Using the best ball app I can look at my exposure to players, you can view ADP in general and my favorite is the option to use YOUR LEAGUE. By punching in my league number I can see all the players left to choose by ADP.

I can then see who the marketplace is saying is the best values left on the board when I pick. I can also sort by position which not only helps me to see who is available but by viewing recent ADP data I can also see who might fall to my next pick supercharging both my current and possibly future picks.

So take your time when picking added to the other steps I have outlined I believe will take whatever strategy you are employing and supercharge it.

Remember MFL10’s are basically a winner take all league. So we need to be aware and diligent to do all the little things to maximize our chances of winning

Questions? You can find me on Twitter @TodfromPa or you can listen to my Run to Daylight podcast on Blog Talk Radio or ITunes. If you’re in an MFL10 with me say hello and good luck with your games.