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We just passed the 1/4 mark of the season so we’re long overdue to provide a mildly interesting roundup of our ‘expert’ league teams.  It’s been a mixed bag so far.  We’ve struggled in our expert mixed leagues (LABR, Y! Friends & Family) and, at this point, are playing for pride.  We’ll wait until the end of the season for the full post-mortem as the only pick that we’re really torturing ourselves over is drafting Tim Lincecum over Greinke in the LABR league (we still have no idea what possessed us on Lincecum as Greinke was higher in Point Shares and at least I’ve had a bad ownership experience with Lincecum (1st round pick 2 years ago in NL-only).

Luckily, we’re doing better in our single-league teams – most notably our DraftDay high-stakes AL-only league where we’re in contention despite underperformance by high-priced Red Sox (A-Gonz, Lester), a hurt Longoria, and a 1st place team having the craziest power luck season we’ve ever seen (Encarnacion, Hardy, Kelly Johnson, AJP).

Note: All the $ comparisons come from the closest league format covered in the Player Rater.

LABR – 15 Team Mixed (Snake)

Our Place 11th (63 pts)
1st place Fred Zinkie of MLB.com (120.5 pts)
Last place Todd Zola of Mastersball.com (46 pts)
Good picks Madbum (6th, +$4), Anibal (10th, +$7), Colby (14th, +$10), Jim Johnson (16th, +$18)
Bad/disappointing picks Longoria (2nd, hurt), Lincecum (3rd, -$32), Storen (8th, hurt), Marmol (10th, -$20)
Notable Trades & Pickups ($100 FAAB) Tony Campana ($1-FAAB)
140 character summary Why Lincecum over Greinke and Weaver? Where are A-Gonz and Nellie’s HRs? Nice comeback, Rios. Wish we picked Beltran. Feb drafts suck.

Y! Friends & Family – 13 team Mixed (Snake)

Our Place 10th (59 pts)
1st place Andy Behrens – Y! (94 pts)
Last place Derek Carty – BaseballProspectus (53 pts)
Good picks Adam Jones (5th, +$40), Beachy (7th, +$20), Colby (20th, +$18), Moustakas (12th, +$6)
Bad/disappointing picks Cliff Lee (3rd, -$10), Choo (7th, -$10), Berkman (8th, hurt), Alexei (10th, -$25), Marmol (11th, -$25)
Notable Trades & Pickups Josh Reddick (FA)
140 character summary Lee has 0 wins?! Middle rounds killed us-Votto/McCutch/C. Lee/CC/A. Jones solid top 5. Shitty closer luck (1 pt in SV), Walker over Altuve?!

DraftDay – 10 team AL (Auction) (note: I posted an article on their site as well about deep league bench strategy)

Our Place 3rd (66 pts)
1st place Derek Carty – BaseballProspectus (81 pts)
Last place Non-blogger (28 pts)
Good picks Adam Jones ($22, +$25), Peavy ($6, +$30), Milone ($3, +$17), Trout ($4, +$13), Sale ($9, +$11), Colby ($14, +$10), Luke Scott ($5, +$10)
Bad/disappointing picks A-Gonz ($33, -$17), Longoria ($31, hurt), Bourjos ($18, -$24), Lester ($22, -$12), Walden ($12, -$11), Weeks ($14, -$8)
Notable Trades & Pickups ($260 FAAB) Beavan + FAAB $ for Valencia (blech), Casey Janssen ($1 FAAB)
140 character summary A-Gonz/Longo – ugh. Fickin’ Lester. Brutal closer luck (Only 3 SVs! Walden quick axe, F-Cord, Janssen on bench for 4 SVs, K-Rob hurt).

FantasyPros911.com 12-team AL – Tied for 2nd place (2.5 pts off lead).  Great offense so far led by overperformance by Adam Jones, Josh Reddick, and Kyle Seager.  Pitching has been a disappointment so far aside from Milone and Capps.  Need Lester and Scherzer to pitch well and hopefully have surplus Saves to trade at some point between Capps, Bailey, and Janssen.

CBS 12 team AL – 2nd place (1 point off lead) – Miracle pitching led by Peavy, Sale, and Jim Johnson.  Lineup stitched together after string of injuries (Longoria, Morneau, Reynolds, Cespedes, Iannetta).

CBS 12 team NL – 7th place (35 points off lead) – brutal CI luck (Gaby, Zimmerman, Sandoval), SP has disappointed (Anibal, Nolasco solid…D. Hudson + Cahill blech). Casilla saved our ‘pen after Guerra got replaced.

Y! Hero Sandwich 12 team mixed – 6th place (41 points off lead) – Solid offense led by Josh Hamilton, Bruce, Moose, and Moobs overcoming Goldschmidt/Alexei/Choo disappointments.  Pitching has potential but disappointed so far – CC, Romero, Latos, Anibal, Colby, Masterson.