Bernard Berrian seems poised to improve his fantasy performance in 2008.
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If you're in a keeper league, you realize the value of identifying undervalued players as quickly as possible -- it's easier to acquire these hidden gems if you're the only one in your league with the inside track on their 2008 performance.
While preparing our overall projections, the plight of my keeper league brethren weighed heavily on my mind. I took a few minutes to see if the Sports Grumblings computer ("Mighty Max") could be tweaked to unearth some of those hidden gems. As is usually the case, the results were eye-opening and provided some excellent insight.
I decided to use the following criteria for my search parameters:
- a
three-year view of the stats (for stability)
- players
whose performance had improved each year (for quality)
- a
WCOFF score which exceeded
the positional average in 2007 (for significance)
Mighty Max was able to highlight several players likely to continue their upward trends. A few may be familiar, others not; according to Max, all of them will likely improve their performances this year. Here's the resulting set of players Max believes will continue to post improved fantasy numbers in 2008:
|
Player
|
Pos
|
2005
|
2006
|
Pct
Diff
|
2007
|
Pct
Diff
|
|
McNabb, Donovan
|
QB
|
191.85
|
237.55
|
23.82%
|
258.80
|
8.95%
|
|
Roethlisberger, Ben
|
QB
|
203.15
|
246.45
|
21.31%
|
307.10
|
24.61%
|
|
Anderson, Derek
|
QB
|
0
|
56.35
|
n/a
|
311.35
|
452.53%
|
|
Brees, Drew
|
QB
|
270.70
|
317.10
|
17.14%
|
329.35
|
3.86%
|
|
Romo, Tony
|
QB
|
-0.20
|
218.35
|
n/a
|
360.45
|
65.08%
|
|
Dayne, Ron
|
RB
|
37.70
|
112.90
|
199.47%
|
141.50
|
25.33%
|
|
Fargas, Justin
|
RB
|
4.70
|
94.00
|
1900.00%
|
166.70
|
77.34%
|
|
Jacobs, Brandon
|
RB
|
51.90
|
122.20
|
135.45%
|
177.30
|
45.09%
|
|
Watson, Kenny
|
RB
|
0
|
64.10
|
n/a
|
207.70
|
224.02%
|
|
Barber, Marion
|
RB
|
113.30
|
204.00
|
80.05%
|
241.70
|
18.48%
|
|
Lewis, Jamal
|
RB
|
165.70
|
196.70
|
18.71%
|
251.20
|
27.71%
|
|
Westbrook, Brian
|
RB
|
226.30
|
334.60
|
47.86%
|
372.40
|
11.30%
|
|
Winslow, Kellen
|
TE
|
0
|
194.50
|
n/a
|
222.60
|
14.45%
|
|
Gonzalez, Tony
|
TE
|
180.50
|
193.00
|
6.93%
|
246.20
|
27.56%
|
|
Berrian, Bernard
|
WR
|
40.70
|
165.00
|
305.41%
|
196.10
|
18.85%
|
|
Welker, Wes
|
WR
|
72.90
|
141.70
|
94.38%
|
280.90
|
98.24%
|
|
Houshmandzadeh, T.J.
|
WR
|
227.80
|
252.70
|
10.93%
|
299.70
|
18.60%
|
|
Edwards, Braylon
|
WR
|
101.20
|
186.10
|
83.89%
|
304.90
|
63.84%
|
|
Owens, Terrell
|
WR
|
159.50
|
281.00
|
76.18%
|
307.00
|
9.25%
|
|
Wayne, Reggie
|
WR
|
218.50
|
271.00
|
24.03%
|
315.40
|
16.38%
|
As with all statistical analysis applied to
human actions, it is not enough to just look at the numbers. You need to have
an understanding of the situation of each player.
