MLS Fantasy Rekrap: Fantasy Draft Time Treatise, Part 3

All right, opening day is nearly here. If you are like me, you’ve been toiling away in your fantasy hovel endlessly tinkering with your lineup until it is perfectly set up for you to spend next week trying to figure out what went wrong. Last time we looked at the players from every team to keep an eye on and now we’ll look at who I think will have a good game for the opening week.

Add

Keeper - David Ousted of Vancouver is playing the Philadelphia Union in a game that has 0-0 draw written all over it. If you don’t like him, Zac Steffen with the Crew has a good matchup against Chicago.

Defense - I think it is a good strategy to pick a defender from the same team as your keeper so you double up on clean sheet points. For Vancouver I like Tim Parker and in Columbus I’d take Harrison Afful.

Midfield - Miguel Almiron! He’s on PKs and will take some set pieces, I like our matchup against New York too. Luciano Acosta from DC United is playing a Sporting Kansas City that can’t keep people from scoring. Finally, I’m taking Diego Valeri against Minnesota United since he’s a bonus point champion and it’s the Loons’ first game.

Forward - Fanendo Adi, Portland Timbers (see Valeri, Diego). I really like Giovani dos Santos against FC Dallas, I think he’s going to break out this year and will start in week 1. For a more budget option, take a look at Patrick Mullins with DC United, I just know there’s going to be goals in their game against SKC. Finally, I think Josef Martinez will keep his hot streak from preseason going against New York, get him in.

Avoid

Avoid players with a lot of name recognition that don’t offer a lot for fantasy like Alejandro Bedoya (M - $7.5). While Bedoya is a tireless water carrier for the USMNT doing important work connecting the defense and midfield, he is priced for his MNT cache. Another one to pass on is Darlington Nagbe who loses out on a lot of points because the Timbers have Diego Valeri.

Mix Diskerud (M - $6.5) scored a goal in NYCFC’s first games the last two years, he won’t start for them possibly ever again and is the most overrated thing to come out of Norway since the band Ylvis. What does the Fox say? Avoid Mix.

Kenwyne Jones - I’m a little iffy on Jones, I want to think he’ll come in, poach some goals, knock in some headers, and end with 15ish goals this year, but I wanted more out of him in the pre-season to justify giving him a look this week.

Sacha Kljestan and Bradley Wright-Phillips - Both of them started last season ice cold and Sacha started 2015 that way too. Add to it that they’ll be playing in Vancouver mid-week and the there could be rotation with the Red Bulls starters. Plus, I think they will have some adjusting to do without Dax McCarty.

Javier Morales (M - $9.0) - I don’t like him this year. I know he’s going to a team with an explosive offense that likes to move the ball a lot but he’s priced pretty high, I doubt he’ll play a full 90 or even go 75 minutes most games, and I think that’s too much risk to take on for such a high price. People have been announcing his demise for years but I think this is the season the clock runs out for Jorales.

Tim Melia (G - $5.5) - I got burned so bad by Melia last year that I’m putting him on this list, stay away from him and SKC’s defense.

Need more advice?

If you want more advice check out the MLS Fantasy Boss site, the resources and articles from the MLS Fantasy page, and the Fantasy MLS subreddit for rate my team advice, injury news and more.