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Fantasy Football The Next Level: How to Build a Championship Team Every Season
Leading fantasy football prognosticator David Dorey provides a "concise and intelligent game plan to beat the competition" in this expert guide (Tim Green, New York Times Bestselling Author of Dark Side of the Game ).
Between 20 and 30 million people play fantasy football each year. Now, Fantasy The Next Level goes beyond stats and projections to teach readers a proven approach to drafting and managing a team that succeeds - in any league. Dorey's wealth of tips, tools and techniques - based on two decades of fantasy football expertise - will help experienced players and newcomers alike win their championships every season.
Learn how
Understand the true value of each position to your team's success using LAG analysis
Get a handle on your league's scoring system and use it to your advantage
Keep your focus and your discipline on draft day using the Advanced Draft Tracker
Ignore the hype surrounding last year's superstar--and build your team with players who will produce this season.
Between 20 and 30 million people play fantasy football each year. Now, Fantasy The Next Level goes beyond stats and projections to teach readers a proven approach to drafting and managing a team that succeeds - in any league. Dorey's wealth of tips, tools and techniques - based on two decades of fantasy football expertise - will help experienced players and newcomers alike win their championships every season.
Learn how
Understand the true value of each position to your team's success using LAG analysis
Get a handle on your league's scoring system and use it to your advantage
Keep your focus and your discipline on draft day using the Advanced Draft Tracker
Ignore the hype surrounding last year's superstar--and build your team with players who will produce this season.
- GenresSports
320 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 9, 2009
David Dorey is an entrepreneurial football fan. He first develops a website devoted specifically to fantasy football (one of the first, if he is to be believed), expands the site to include a variety of creative statistics, and begins to offer a variety of pay services to the ever-expanding base of fantasy football players. As if this was not enough, he proceeds to write a book: Fantasy Football: The Next Level – How to Build a Championship Team Every Season. The title is, of course, self-aggrandizing. However, I would agree that the reader who follows Dorey’s suggestions will, barring bad luck, be competitive on an annual basis (at least I hope so, as I am taking his ideas into consideration this season).
What fascinates me about Fantasy Football: The Next Level is Dorey’s emphasis on statistics. Dorey makes the claims that “in all ways, fantasy football is a statistical pursuit.” He admonishes readers to ignore hype and look closely at statistics. Yet, he also cautions against focusing on misleading statistics that, in fantasy world, are not as relevant.
On these points, I agree with Dorey. Statistics can be used to work around “luck.” Yes, there is luck involved in fantasy football. No one can predict player injuries or aberrational performances. But, there is some luck involved in nearly all games that require no physical ability (cards, board games, etc.; for example, I recently read about a man who was indicted for gambling, and took his case to a state supreme court on the grounds that, if played by professionals, poker is not actually a “game of chance” and, thus the state gambling law does not apply). A competitive player of any such game will accept that this luck exists, but seek to find ways to minimize its impact. “Luck” should be construed as “random error” predicated by the rules of the game. Competitive players attempt to work around this “random error” by minimizing the probability of its occurrence; by attempting to take what is within the player’s control to reduce the negative impacts of what is out of the player’s control.
All this to say that there is definitely a right way and a wrong way to play fantasy football. There are ways for fantasy managers to make logical choices that can improve their odds of fielding a consistent team. Through statistics, Dorey sheds light on some of these choices. He relies on trend analysis to: (1) identify the earmarks of fantasy “studs”, “sleepers” and “breakout players”, and (2) defend his claims regarding factors that, for each major position, indicate fantasy value.
Dorey places these statistics in the context of a fairly coherent “system.” The strength of the system lies in his recommendations for off-season evaluation of statistics. The system can be used to create customized draft “cheat sheets”, and to develop a sound draft strategy. On the latter note, Dorey emphasizes close analysis of one’s own league results. Idiosyncratic rules and scoring in individual leagues impact the relative worth of different player positions.
While Dorey’s book is statistics heavy, he is not so naïve to suggest that there is a magic formula to be applied. No matter how you cut it, there is logical guesswork involved in fantasy football. However, Dorey does a good job of demonstrating what to look for when making these guesses.
What fascinates me about Fantasy Football: The Next Level is Dorey’s emphasis on statistics. Dorey makes the claims that “in all ways, fantasy football is a statistical pursuit.” He admonishes readers to ignore hype and look closely at statistics. Yet, he also cautions against focusing on misleading statistics that, in fantasy world, are not as relevant.
On these points, I agree with Dorey. Statistics can be used to work around “luck.” Yes, there is luck involved in fantasy football. No one can predict player injuries or aberrational performances. But, there is some luck involved in nearly all games that require no physical ability (cards, board games, etc.; for example, I recently read about a man who was indicted for gambling, and took his case to a state supreme court on the grounds that, if played by professionals, poker is not actually a “game of chance” and, thus the state gambling law does not apply). A competitive player of any such game will accept that this luck exists, but seek to find ways to minimize its impact. “Luck” should be construed as “random error” predicated by the rules of the game. Competitive players attempt to work around this “random error” by minimizing the probability of its occurrence; by attempting to take what is within the player’s control to reduce the negative impacts of what is out of the player’s control.
All this to say that there is definitely a right way and a wrong way to play fantasy football. There are ways for fantasy managers to make logical choices that can improve their odds of fielding a consistent team. Through statistics, Dorey sheds light on some of these choices. He relies on trend analysis to: (1) identify the earmarks of fantasy “studs”, “sleepers” and “breakout players”, and (2) defend his claims regarding factors that, for each major position, indicate fantasy value.
Dorey places these statistics in the context of a fairly coherent “system.” The strength of the system lies in his recommendations for off-season evaluation of statistics. The system can be used to create customized draft “cheat sheets”, and to develop a sound draft strategy. On the latter note, Dorey emphasizes close analysis of one’s own league results. Idiosyncratic rules and scoring in individual leagues impact the relative worth of different player positions.
While Dorey’s book is statistics heavy, he is not so naïve to suggest that there is a magic formula to be applied. No matter how you cut it, there is logical guesswork involved in fantasy football. However, Dorey does a good job of demonstrating what to look for when making these guesses.
January 12, 2010
I wish I could have the 5 hours of my life back I spent reading this book. For some reason, it is nearly impossible for me to stop reading a book I don't enjoy, but this was almost the first time it happened.
I can sum up the entire book in 1 sentence- pick the players for your fantasy team who are going to do well, and don't pick the players who are going to do poorly. How one figures out who is going to do well and who isn't is anyone's guess.
I find Dorey's website www.thehuddle.com to be full of very helpful information and tidbits, which makes the suckiness of this book all the more surprising. It's almost like an emperor with no clothes situation- the book was a complete joke, and everyone is supposed to pretend there was some redeeming quality to it.
david dorey- you can have my money, but give me my 5 hours back.
November 4, 2009
How does someone who doesn't know anything about football learn how to play fantasy football? Yep, I bought this book. And, just like last year, my team is not doing so well. More to follow.
November 5, 2009
My fantasy football team is dominating... depending on how you define dominate (I'm in last place.)
November 5, 2009
My fantasy football team is dominating... depending on how you define dominate (I'm in last place.)
Want to Read
September 17, 2011Never got around to this one and ran out of renewals
August 19, 2014
It served its purpose. I'll write back at the end of the season.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews