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It’s halfway through the season so it’s time to share how well (or poorly) we’re doing in our various fantasy baseball expert leagues.  Rather than rehash good/bad draft picks (you can see that in our last update), I’ve just noted what place we’re in, who’s in 1st/last, a twittersque summary of how each team is doing, and then, to show we’re good sports, some praise (and unintentional jinxing) to the current 1st place teams.

The only team of ours that’s had any significant change is our Yahoo! Friends & Family league where we went from 10th to 8th but gained 11.5 points.   There are 8 teams between 87.5 and 70.5 points with the other 4 between 46.5 and 53.5 points.  So we’re 17  points from 1st and 17 points better than the 9th place team.  While our team would still be a longshot to win, it at least has a chance should our big hitters stay productive (McCutchen, Votto, Adam Jones) and our SPs have strong 2nd halves.

Our performance to date makes us look like a bunch of Rizzutos (i.e., know nothing about the National League).  Not sure why our success has been limited to AL-Only other than the fact that we struck gold with a few of the same players across the teams (Peavy, Sale, Adam Jones, Tom Milone, Casey Janssen are all on 2 of the three teams….imagine Longoria – who’s on two of teams – stayed healthy).  Fingers crossed that Longoria gets healthy and one of the minor league prospects we’ve stashed (Mike Olt, Danny Hultzen, Russ Canzler) pans out.

LABR – 15 Team Mixed (Snake)

Our Place 11th (64.5 pts)
1st place Steve Gardner of USATODAY (113.5 pts)
Last place James Quintong of ESPN (44.5 pts)
Previous 140 character max 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.
Updated 140 character max summary FU Lincecum. U2 Ichiro. Play a full week Yoenis. Play at all Longoria. That early July surge to 80 pts sure was nice. Here’s hoping for 8th.
Attempted praise Great job Steve. Looks like we’ll now be 0-2 against you in expert leagues. Didn’t like your team coming out of the draft (had you 2nd to last in projected standings) but sure looks like you knew something I didn’t.  Capuano and McDonald turned out pretty well for Reserve picks. Your 17th round pick of Carlos Ruiz sure looks a smidge better than our 9th round Jesus Montero pick.  Can’t believe you’re in first in a 15 team league yet last in Saves – that’s a hard one to pull off.

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

Our Place 8th (70.5 pts)
1st place Dalton Del Don – Rotowire (87.5 pts)
Last place Scott Pianowski – Yahoo! (46.5 pts)
Previous 140 character max 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?!
Updated 140 character max summary Gained 11.5 pts in 2nd quarter. Still in striking distance. Love Dread Pirate. Welcome back Marmol. Need big 2Hs from Lee, CC, and Berkman
Attempted Praise Dalton – 1st place with A-Gonz, Jennings, and Lester in your top 6 picks.  Impressive.  Encarnacion in pick #191 and Casilla in the reserve round certainly helped. 7 teams within 17 points of first place – should make for an exciting 2nd half!

DraftDay – 10 team AL (Auction)

Our Place 3rd (67 pts)
1st place Eric Kesselman – stock broker/high stakes poker player (82 pts)
Last place 2 Non-bloggers/poker playing tandems including someone who won a WSOP bracelet this year (tied at 36 pts)
Previous 140 character max 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).
Updated 140 character max summary Crazy good/lucky with SPs so far. Peavy/Sale/Colby as a 1-2-3 with Quintana/McAllister also helping mask Lester. Trout amazing. Need Longo.
Attempted Praise Awesome job, Eric. Great job selling high on Hamilton (130 AB/.400/30/18/44).  You really stepped in it with Plouffe (thought we were lucky with Brandon Moss) – hurts even more since our team needs power and we had Valencia at the time of the pickup. When’s the bottom going to fall out of Trumbo already? Hope we can give you a run for the pennant.

FantasyPros911 12-team AL (no public link)

Our Place 2nd (86 pts)
1st place Nick Minnix – KFFL (89 pts)
Last place Patrick DiCaprio – FantasyPros911 (36.5 pts)
Previous summary 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.
Updated 140 character max summary Offense fading a bit but a healthy Markakis should help. Pitching staff ended 1st half on roll.  Can win if my pitching stays hot.
Attempted Praise Nick – you’re on a roll.  You bested me last year (89 to 80 pts) in this league and have been leading this league practically all year. I gotta say that my roster’s looking stronger going into the 2nd half so better get ready to start spending some FAAB.

CBSSports 12 team AL (no public link)

Our Place 1st (83.5 pts) – 3.5 pts lead
1st place Razzball
Last place Jeff Boggis – Fantasy Sports Empires (43 pts)
Previous summary Miracle pitching led by Peavy, Sale, and Jim Johnson.  Lineup stitched together after string of injuries (Longoria, Morneau, Reynolds, Cespedes, Iannetta).
Updated 140 character max summary Miracle pitching continues – only 4.5 points from a perfect 60. Can only go down. Hopefully offense makes up pts. Healthy Longo would help.
Attempted Praise Um, great job us!

CBSSports 12 team NL (no public link)

Our Place 7th (58.5 pts)
1st place Bernie Pleskoff – Rotowire (97.5 pts)
Last place Patrick Davitt – Baseball HQ (32 pts)
Previous summary Brutal CI luck (Gaby, Zimmerman, Sandoval), SP has disappointed (Anibal, Nolasco solid…D. Hudson + Cahill blech). Casilla saved our ‘pen after Guerra got replaced.
Updated 140 character max summary Offense is ok, should be better. C’mon J-Up & Zimm. Quantity over quality SP strategy backfired. Dickey, Capuano, or Miley would’ve helped.
Attempted Praise Good job Bernie.  Hard to see how 97.5 pts came out of your roster – which sounds like a criticism but really is meant as a compliment (it’s a lot easier to win if you hit the lottery w/ a couple of fluke players like Ruiz & Dickey).  Tough break with Beachy out for year.  Nice job with $2 Lohse and $3 Ellis. Good luck in the 2nd half.

Yahoo! Hero Sandwich – 14 team mixed (no public link)

Our Place 11th (62.5 pts)
1st place Rstein – not sure if blogger or Y! commenter (105.5 pts)
Last place Pete – not sure if blogger or Y! commenter (54 pts)
Previous summary 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.
Updated 140 character max summary Team sunk 5 spots since quarter-mark. Awful SP luck cont’d – 3 pts total in ERA/WHIP. Thx Romero and Latos! This team should’ve contended.
Attempted Praise Rstein – didn’t you also win last year?  Insane pitching with Zimmermann, Gio, Sale, and Capuano.  Nice job overcoming disappointments and injuries like A-Gonz, Pedroia, Markakis, and Ethier.

Battle of the Fantasy Gods – 14 team mixed (no public link) League run by Sky of our Fantasy Football Blog

Our Place 3rd (90 pts)
1st place Rich of FantasyPros911(96 its)
Last place Scott White of CBS (55 pts)
Previous summary We were in first place up until about a week ago.
Updated 140 character max summary Injuries to Longoria and Beachy have hurt us, but not much since the league is shallow.  Poor streaming (there’s no benches in this league) have not helped.  Though we’re still right in thick of it.
Attempted Praise There’s no FAAB and a few teams have just checked out, and, as previously mentioned, no benches, so waivers are filled to the brims with players.  It feels kinda like a ten team league.  So Rich has stayed slightly above us on grabbing hot bats and streaming.  It’s going to be a battle to the end.

Blog Wars – 14 team League run by Scott, Minor League Prospect writer

Our Place 1st (111 pts)
1st place Razzball (111 pts)
Last place Fake Teams (40 pts)
Previous summary We’ve led the whole year.
Updated 140 character max summary Hasn’t been close, and that’s with having Ike Davis as our first baseman, and having to sit Mark Reynolds for despicable play.  This is Blog Wars, but feels more like we’re the Brits and this is the Anglo-Zanzibar War of 1896.
Attempted Praise Zanzibar was able to bounce back and produce some the world’s finest canoes.