Welcome back to 2020 Fantasy Lacrosse in Review. In this post we will take an in depth look into each PLL Club’s performance in the 2020 PLL Championship series from a Fantasy Lacrosse perspective. If you missed the Introduction to the 2020 Fantasy Lacrosse in Review and Fantasy Lacrosse in general, you can get caught up here.
Recall that the 2020 Fantasy Season provides us with a small sample size of four games, so all of the analysis here should be taken as a piece of the puzzle but not the full picture. I believe it is important to analyze all the historical data available no matter how small the sample is as long as we keep the context in mind. These four games played in the summer of 2020 were played under extraordinary circumstances and do not define the careers of any player or any team. This is especially important to keep in mind when analyzing a league like the PLL, that is constantly changing and growing year to year with a large amount of player movement through expansion, trades and free agency. Please note all statistical data for this post has been provided in courtesy by Flow Fantasy and their stats API.
Before we dive into the details take a quick refresher of the scoring system for the 2020 Flow Fantasy Season:
We begin our Club by Club fantasy breakdown by looking at league wide trends to get a sense of the overall picture for the 2020 season. 
Looking at the distribution of Total Fantasy Points scored for each PLL Club we see that the Redwoods, Chrome, Archers and Atlas LC’s were relatively even. While the Waterdogs and Whipsnakes LC’s scored a bit more and the Chaos LC scored a bit less Fantasy Points than the middle cluster.
A closer look at the breakdowns for each statistical scoring category below shows each Club’s strengths and weaknesses.
We see that the Waterdogs and Whipsnakes scored about 100 more fantasy points than the middle cluster of Clubs, but took different paths to the top of the scoring chart. The Waterdogs LC thrived on a league leading 115 ground balls, second highest caused turnover total and a strong duo of successful faceoff men. While the Whipsnakes LC shined through their potent offense with league highs in goals and assists with solid performances in all other areas. Turning to the bottom of the chart we see how league lows in goals, assists, and ground balls paired with below average faceoff play hurt the Chaos LC’s fantasy point output.
The fantasy point scoring breakdown by position group below shows which areas of the field Clubs excelled in or had trouble producing in:
Totals
Per Game
A few observations that stick out: the top two Clubs had Faceoff production well above the league average of 58.14. The Whipsnakes Attack unit scored 82 more fantasy points than the next highest unit. The Chrome LC had almost equal fantasy production from their Attack, Midfield and Defensive units.The per game fantasy points by position group shows which units were reliable from game like the Redwoods’ Midfielders, Archer’s Goalies, Whipsnakes’ Attackmen, and Waterdogs Faceoff-men and Defenders. While the Atlas’ Goalies, Redwoods’ Attackmen, Chaos’ Faceoff-men and Midfielders could not be relied on for consistent fantasy production game in and game out.
In fantasy sports, we are tasked with identifying matchups that will produce the most fantasy points for the players on our rosters. To maximize our fantasy potential it is important to target players with the highest expected opportunity for statistical success. One strategy is to identify matchups that have high fantasy point totals. This could be the result of a high scoring back and forth type game, a top offense taking advantage of a weaker defense, a blowout followed by some “garbage time” scoring or individual battles that have a history of being dominated by one side. Below we can see the fantasy point totals for each game of the 2020 Fantasy Season. 
We see that two of the highest scoring games, Whipsnakes-Archers and Archers-Chrome produced two of the highest fantasy point totals. Then the lowest fantasy point total games came from the lowest scoring game, Redwoods-Chaos and one of the most lopsided games, Chaos-Whipsnakes.
In the sections below we will take a deeper look at each Club’s 2020 Fantasy performance. We examine each Club’s style, most and least beneficial matchups, how they stacked up against the league average and positional breakdowns.
Waterdogs LC
Positional Pie
Positional Vs League Avg
| Fantasy Point Totals By Position vs League Average | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 Championship Series Pool Play | ||||||
| Total | Faceoff | Attack | Midfield | Defense | Goalie | |
| Waterdogs | 616 | 134 | 102 | 156 | 178 | 46 |
| League Average | 518 | 58.14 | 131.14 | 138.14 | 140.86 | 49.71 |
| Data: @FlowFantasyInc | Table: @danovertoom | ||||||
The Waterdogs’ 2020 Fantasy Season was surprising in many ways. Most fans, myself included, likely did not expect the newest PLL Club to produce the highest team fantasy point total. Being a newly formed expansion team with a very limited amount of time spent on the field together prior to the Group Play games, it was reasonable to expect the Waterdogs to struggle in forming cohesive positional units. This was especially evident in the most team-based position groups of defense, Goalie and Attack. Despite their real life defense not being great, the Waterdogs’ fantasy defense was the highest scoring in the league. Coupled with their league leading fantasy faceoff unit that more than doubled the league average of fantasy points for the group, they were able to hid their weak points at Attack and Goalie. This combination led the Dogs to fantasy dominance edging out the Whipsnakes by 10 points. With the exception of the Archer’s game, the Waterdogs posted double digit goals and generally created high fantasy points totals (>260 points) for all other 2020 Group Play games. Expand each section below to see how the offensive, defensive and specialist position groups fared for the Waterdogs.
Offense
| Offensive Player Fantasy Summary | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 Championship Series Pool Play | |||||||||
| Fantasy Points | FP PG | Points | Goals | 2pt Goals | Assists | Ground Balls | Turnovers | Caused Turnovers | |
| Attack | |||||||||
| Kieran McArdle | 55 | 13.75 | 14 | 8 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 10 | 1 |
| Ben Reeves | 19 | 4.75 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| Ryan Drenner | 14 | 3.5 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 1 |
| Wes Berg | 9 | 2.25 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| Christian Cuccinello | 5 | 1.25 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 0 |
| Midfield | |||||||||
| Zach Currier | 40 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 16 | 6 | 2 |
| Connor Kelly | 32 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 4 | 1 |
| Ben McIntosh | 29 | 7.25 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| Steven DeNapoli | 25 | 6.25 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 1 | 1 |
| Drew Snider | 18 | 4.5 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 0 |
| Danny Eipp | 6 | 1.5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Kyle McClancy | 6 | 1.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Data: @FlowFantasyInc | Table: @danovertoom | |||||||||
Kieran McArdle on Attack and Zach Currier on Midfield lead the way for the Waterdogs’ fantasy offense in 2020. McArdle secured an offensive high in Fantasy Points by leading the Dogs in points, goals and assists. The Attack unit behind him was relatively underwhelming with Ben Reeves, Ryan Drenner and Wes Berg struggling to find their roles in the Group Play games. Do-it-all two-way midfielder Zach Currier showed his value snagging ground balls all over the field and posting a balanced stat line as the Club’s top fantasy Midfielder. Not too far behind Currier, the Waterdogs had a solid group of Connor Kelly, Ben McIntosh and Steven DeNapoli all scoring 25+ Fantasy Points. The Waterdog’s offense showed solid and balanced fantasy production in 2020, while no one player stuck out as an elite fantasy option.
Defense
| Defensive Player Fantasy Summary | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 Championship Series Pool Play | |||||||||
| Fantasy Points | FP PG | Caused Turnovers | Ground Balls | Points | Goals | 2pt Goals | Assists | Turnovers | |
| BJ Grill | 53 | 13.25 | 7 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Ryland Rees | 43 | 10.75 | 3 | 13 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Chris Sabia | 32 | 8 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Brodie Merrill | 31 | 7.75 | 3 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Noah Richard | 10 | 2.5 | 1 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Patrick Foley | 9 | 2.25 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Data: @FlowFantasyInc | Table: @danovertoom | |||||||||
The defensive unit for the Waterdogs saw solid fantasy production from their top four defenders. BJ Grill led the Club in Caused Turnovers and subsequently led the defense in Fantasy Points. Ryland Rees provided the only scoring production from the Waterdogs’ defensive end coupled with a healthy number of ground balls. Having four defenders posting 30+ Fantasy Points propelled the Waterdogs to the top spot among defenses in fantasy scoring.
Specialists
| Specialist Player Fantasy Summary | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 Championship Series Pool Play | |||||||||||||||
| Fantasy Points | FP PG | FO Wins | FO Losses | FO % PG | Saves | Save % PG | Goals Against | Points | Goals | 2pt Goals | Assists | Ground Balls | Turnovers | Caused Turnovers | |
| Faceoff | |||||||||||||||
| Drew Simoneau | 68 | 17 | 29 | 16 | 65.62 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Jake Withers | 66 | 16.5 | 28 | 19 | 59.51 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Goalie | |||||||||||||||
| Matt DeLuca | 32 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 38.75 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Charlie Cipriano | 14 | 3.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 27 | 34.02 | 32 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| Data: @FlowFantasyInc | Table: @danovertoom | |||||||||||||||
The Waterdogs’ fantasy success came primarily on the backs of their two-headed faceoff monster of Simoneau-Withers. The duo showed that it is possible for two faceoff men on the same team to be fantasy relevant. Drew Simoneau and Jake Withers complemented each other very well, operating in a 1-2 punch capacity rather than a starter and relief dynamic. Both faceoff guys accumulated 60+ points through similar faceoff percentages with Simoneau tallying a couple goals while Withers tallied a couple caused turnovers. Together Simoneau and Withers formed the highest fantasy scoring faceoff unit in the league and provided a chance at value in that one of them could fall to a later round in a fantasy draft.
The Waterdogs began the Group Play games with Charlie Cipriano in the cage. Cipriano struggled in the first three games, posting a save percentage over 50% only against the Atlas LC. Following his injury he was replaced by rookie Matt DeLuca for the final group play game against the Chaos LC where he saved 55% of shots faced. One thing to be aware of when analyzing DeLuca’s fantasy performance is the phantom high scoring game. Goalies and faceoff men accumulate fantasy points primarily based upon their save percentage or faceoff win percentage. Therefore, if a goalie or faceoff man faces an extremely small volume of shots or faceoff opportunities there is a chance that the resulting percentage is greatly skewed high or low. For example, if a goalie enters a game in relief during a blowout and saves or doesn’t save the only shot they face, then they could post a 100% or 0% save percentage greatly inflating or deflating their fantasy performance. Matt DeLuca’s game against the Chrome where he saved one shot and scored 23 Fantasy Points (72% of his total 2020 Fantasy production), is a prime example of this. Overall, neither of the Waterdogs goalies could be relied on for Fantasy on a game by game basis in 2020.
Whipsnakes LC
Positional Pie
