Bonus Points: Finding the best performers from last weekend

With Round 1 of MLS Fantasy now in the books, we can finally start diving in to the stats that will help us determine the top fantasy performers. This week’s Bonus Points is going to separate out the top players both by position and by key price ranges, which will help us identify some of the expensive and budget contributors in the league.

There are a couple of caveats to this data. The first is that I’ve excluded goalkeepers in these numbers, as they don’t generate a significant number of bonus points, and their overall score is largely dependent on clean sheets. I’ve also excluded players that played less than 45 minutes in their match last week.

I’ve broken down the numbers on three major statistics:

Points Per 90 Minutes

Looking at the points scored per 90 minutes of play will be a lot more useful after a few rounds have passed, but a couple of numbers stood out to me. Luke Boden was on pace for 10.5 points if he had played more than 60 minutes, which is pretty outstanding considering he didn’t notch a goal, assist or clean sheet. Mike Magee’s 17 points in 45 minutes are just ridiculous. It’s definitely worth watching to see if he continues to play the role of a super sub or if he winds up earning starting role.

Attacking Bonus Potential Per 90 Minutes

The addition of several extra ways to earn points in this season of MLS Fantasy means that it’s even more important now to find the players that can earn bonus points. For “Attacking Bonus Potential,” I’ve added up all of the ways a player can indirectly earn offensive points (crosses, key passes, big chances, passes, fouls earned and shots) and calculated how many points the player could have earned in a given 90-minute match.

This number is going to be higher than the actual number of attacking bonus points a player earns, simply because the player isn’t always going to get exactly the number of a particular stat needed to earn the point. However, it does give a good indication of which players are contributing the most actions in a match to give them opportunities to earn extra points.

Boden, Magee and Diego Valeri all had heavy involvement in their team’s attack – Valeri racked up a goal’s worth of points just on attacking bonus. David Villa was a bit unlucky not to earn a higher score, as he was just one foul and one shot away from two extra points.

Defending Bonus Potential Per 90 Minutes

This is the same idea as the Attacking Bonus Potential, but with defensive actions: clearances, interceptions, blocks, tackles and recoveries. Rookie Kip Colvey had an impressive first outing, recording four interceptions, two tackles and four recoveries in his first 45 minutes for San Jose. Victor Cabrera earned four points last weekend despite conceding twice, as he registered defensive bonus points for clearances, blocks and interceptions.

Don’t Panic about the Numbers Just Yet

One week is not a great sample size, so as the season goes on we will get a better indication about which of these players will continue their strong start – and which were one-hit wonders. That being said, after looking at all this, I’m strongly considering picking up Valeri!

Which stat were you most surprised about from week one? Let us know in the comments below.