Round 1 of MLS Fantasy is in the books, and as Schuyler Redpath pointed out yesterday, defenders took home most of the points, earning nine out of a possible 20 clean sheets this weekend.
If you’re looking to bolster your roster by transferring in a quality defender, two good stats to look at are recoveries and CBIs. Along with recoveries, clearances, blocks, and interceptions – CBIs for short – earn defending bonus points. Players earn one fantasy point for every six CBIs and one for every six recoveries. Defensive bonus points, while not typically as lucrative as clean sheets, are much more consistent:
| Top 20 Defenders, CBIs and Recoveries Per 90 minutes | |||||||
| Player | Team | Price | Pts | CBI | Rec | CBIR/90 | Bonus |
| Laurent Ciman | MTL | 7.5 | 7 | 19 | 12 | 31.0 | 5 |
| Chad Marshall | SEA | 8.6 | 10 | 23 | 6 | 29.0 | 4 |
| Steve Birnbaum | DC | 7.6 | 10 | 13 | 12 | 25.0 | 4 |
| Bobby Boswell | DC | 9.1 | 9 | 16 | 8 | 24.0 | 3 |
| Ronald Zubar | NYR | 7.5 | 5 | 12 | 8 | 23.7 | 3 |
| Raul Rodriguez | HOU | 7.6 | 9 | 15 | 8 | 23.0 | 3 |
| Axel Sjoberg | COL | 4.6 | 8 | 18 | 4 | 22.0 | 3 |
| Zach Loyd | DAL | 7.6 | 9 | 10 | 12 | 22.0 | 3 |
| Donny Toia | MTL | 5.0 | 5 | 9 | 13 | 22.0 | 3 |
| Chris Schuler | RSL | 8.6 | 8 | 18 | 4 | 22.0 | 3 |
| Jamison Olave | RSL | 8.1 | 9 | 20 | 2 | 22.0 | 3 |
| Damien Perrinelle | NYR | 6.5 | 4 | 16 | 5 | 21.0 | 2 |
| Jermaine Taylor | HOU | 6.6 | 9 | 12 | 8 | 20.0 | 3 |
| Leonardo | LA | 7.1 | 9 | 13 | 7 | 20.0 | 3 |
| Matt Besler | SKC | 8.6 | 0 | 10 | 5 | 19.6 | 1 |
| Jose Goncalves | NE | 8.9 | 2 | 9 | 10 | 19.0 | 2 |
| Kendall Waston | VAN | 8.5 | 3 | 11 | 8 | 19.0 | 2 |
| Eric Gehrig | CHI | 5.0 | 3 | 15 | 3 | 18.0 | 2 |
| Bakary Soumare | MTL | 7.0 | 4 | 10 | 8 | 18.0 | 2 |
| Omar Gonzalez | LA | 9.2 | 11 | 9 | 9 | 18.0 | 2 |
Scaling the total of the CBIs and recoveries on a 90-minutes basis will give you a good benchmark for the top defensive bonus scorers. If a player averages 20 CBIs and recoveries for each 90 minutes he plays, he'll earn around three bonus points per game. Damien Perrinelle was a little unlucky in that regard: he was two CBIs and one recovery away from additional bonus points last weekend.
Laurent Ciman, Ronald Zubar, and Donny Toia all posted decent round scores, even without a clean sheet, because of defensive bonus points. Ciman had a ridiculous five defensive bonus points – which would be worth as much as a goal to a midfielder or forward. I’ll have my eye on him to see if he can reproduce those numbers against the New England Revolution in Round 3. The bargain player of the week was Colorado’s Axel Sjoberg, who had 18 CBIs to go with a clean sheet, earning eight points for the low, low price of $4.5m.
Are you planning on bringing in more defensive reinforcements for round 2? Let me know who you have your eye on in the comments below!
