MLS Fantasy Advice: How form and total score can shed light on some of the MLS MVP frontrunners

I was reading the comments in Matt Doyle's MVP/Golden Boot race Q&A from Thursday and came across some interesting points that got me thinking.

Are some candidates more of a team MVP than a league MVP? Is the player in stellar form to close out the season? Is their team at the top because of that player's accomplishments?

However you look at it, the player who wins MLS MVP will definitely be deserving of it. But, since we're speculating and throwing names out there based on stats, we have to take a look at this from a MLS Fantasy Manager perspective.

First off, players who missed time because of international duty are going to be affected, same as they will be in the voting process at the end of the regular season.

Clint Dempsey missed six league games during the World Cup, but still has 117 total points this season – good enough to put him in a tie for 27th overall. He's averaging 6.5 points/game. So, add in another 39 points to his total for the games missed and he's now at 156 points – good enough to put him in a tie for 3rd overall (with Diego Valeri).

Form

Players who are hot at the moment are among the top players being mentioned right now in the MVP race. Here are the top six players in MLS Fantasy based on form.

Form in fantasy can be a bit deceiving, but it's still a good way of interpreting who is on their "A" game. Other than Omar Gonzalez, all the names in the above chart have been mentioned in the MVP discussion at one point or another over the past few days. Why? Because they're hot, and thus on our mind.

Landon Donovan just won the Etihad Airlines Player of the Month award for August, Sebastien Le Toux has a goal and four assists in his last two games, Lee Nguyen has four goals and one assist in his last four, and so on.

Form is great – and it will definitely play a deciding factor in who wins this award – but which player has been the most dominant thus far?

Total Score

MLS Fantasy is a numbers-based game, so it can be a useful tool when comparing players, even when they occupy different positions on the field. Defensive players are awarded bonus points just like offensive players. As are goalkeepers.

It's not a be-all, end-all indicator by any means – player-evaluation alchemy, it's certainly not – but it's definitely worth a look. Here are the top 12 players in the game right now based on total score.

I've heard several names from the table above mentioned as MVP candidates over the past couple weeks, but some of them haven't been mentioned at all.

Donovan, Robbie Keane, Bradley Wright-Phillips and Thierry Henry have and will continue to receive a lot of attention this year. But what about Diego Valeri and Javier Morales?

They may not be the sexy picks right now, but Portland has jumped to fifth place in the West and Real Salt Lake are holding steady at No. 3. If either of these two teams make a run up the table and finish the year strong, these two players will probably be the driving forces behind it all.

With that said, it's still way too early to name a frontrunner for MLS MVP. Heck, it's still too early to name a top three or even a top five. We can speculate – you just read this whole article about that very subject – but with 7-10 games left for each team, it's anybody's award for the taking.