When you do a ton of leagues, and you use the same cheat sheet in all leagues, your teams either do well or they struggle. This season, my teams have struggled. Common reasons for the struggles include Ryan Braun, Hanley Ramirez, Brandon Morrow, Joel Hanrahan, Derek Jeter, Sergio Santiago, Cameron Maybin, B.J. Upton etc. You get the point. Injuries and poor performance have sunk a bunch of my teams in the first half this season in what might be my worst half season performance in recent memory. But I'm always honest, so I'm calling myself out.
TOUT WARS (15 team mixed): I made a deal. Had to do something to wake up this disappointing team. I dealt my guy, Sergio Romo, to get back Ernesto Frieri. I lose ratios but pick up Ks, and the saves should be fairly equal. The sweetener to the deal was the addition of Brandon Crawford. I know he's slumped of late hitting .196 the past three weeks, but I had Pedro Florimon at SS with Jeter still sidelined. Enough said. I also dropped two arms in David Hernandez and David Phelps. I added, took two shots in the dark really for a $1 each, the Cubs' Blake Parker and the Mariners 'Yoervis Medina. If one of them hits and becomes the closer for his team I'll have a nice trade chip to deal (I've currently got Veras, Frieri and Jansen).Notable bids: Brad Miller ($12), Chris Archer ($9), Justin Ruggiano ($6), Jonny Giavotella ($4), Juan Francisco ($3). Mid Season Standing: 12/15
LABR (12 team, AL-only): I thought I had a deal, a whopper of a move involving Jacoby Ellsbury being sent away for some power, but it fell through in the end. Still trying to deal some of my speed (Nate McLouth or Jacoby Ellsbury). At the midway point my team has 113 steals. My AL ONLY TEAM HAS 113 steals. It's crazy. Seems likely everyone has at least six on my squad. Hard to make deals in this league though since there are very restrictive moves allowed which basically means if you do a deal it pretty much has to be a position for position move (or something like an OF/P for a P/OF). I took a shot that Medina ($3) could get some saves in Seattle as I added him at the cost of Jake McGee.Notable bids: Brad Miller ($28), Brett Wallace ($24), Jose Alvarez ($6), Jonny Giavotella ($6) Engel Beltre ($2). Mid Season Standing: 4/12
FSTA (13 team mixed): Daniel Descalso went bye-bye, thankfully, as Asdrubal Cabrera returned from injury. I added J.B. Shuck ($17). With Peter Bourjos sidelined with injury, and Mike Trout dealing with that minor leg thing, it seems likely that Shuck will see ample playing time for a few weeks and he might be seeing a lot of time out of the leadoff spot for the Angels. I also let go my two-start add from last week, Kevin Correia, who went thud. I added, Blake Parker ($27) in yet another league. We'll see if it works out.Notable bids: Jacob Turner ($43), Lonnie Chisenhall ($37), Brad Miller ($31), Esmil Rogers ($27), Zack Wheeler ($21), Joe Blanton ($17), Chien-Ming Wang ($14) Mid Season Standing: 10/13
SIRIUSXM EXPERTS (12 team mixed): I made four moves this week even though I'm pretty much out of FAAB money. I'm so low on funds, I have $8 of $100 left, so I have to play the zero dollar add game which means I have to be proactive and take a lot of risk cause I wont be able to compete for guys once their roles change. For zero dollars I added three guys: Carlos Villanueva, Wade Davis and Eric Stults at the cost of Stephen Drew, Joel Peralta and Rick Porcello. Stults should be fine. Literally hours after I added Davis he needed 69 pitches to record three outs, the most pitches thrown in baseball history when only three outs were recorded. Nice. I thought Villanueva might become the Cubs closer if Kevin Gregg was dealt, though the news came out after bids where accepted that Parker not Villanueva would seem to be in the lead for that job. With Dexter Fowler dealing with injury I needed an outfielder, so for $1 I added Rajai Davis and dropped Lance Berkman.Notable bids: Logan Morrison ($2), Eric Young ($2), John Axford ($2), Darwin Barney ($2)Mid Season Standing: 10/12
SIRIUSXM LISTENER LG (11 team mixed): This is the only league with an open waiver-wire. I added Martin Perez for Michael Wacha and moved on from Yan Gomes by adding Yasmani Grandal.Mid Season Standing: 8/11. By the way, this stupid free waiver-wire, I'm at least going to point this out as a factor in the standings. There is a fella in this league who literally must live with ESPN on 24/7. He's added every free agent that's become fantasy worthy almost immediately. I’ve made 23 moves over the course of the season, he's made 79.
K-BAD (12 team mixed): Stop me if this sounds familiar. I let go Kevin Correia and adding Yoervis Medina ($11). I dropped Andrew Bailey and added Blake Parker ($28).Notable bids: Evan Gattis ($77), Jason Hammel ($33), Wellington Castillo ($13), Mike Carp ($11), Lonnie Chisenhall ($10), Jonny Giavotella ($10). Mid Season Standing: 8/12
FANBALL (13 team mixed): This league has been a disaster from Week 1. This week I let go of Yunel Escobar to add Raul Ibanez, the second time I've owned Ibanez this season. My outfield is decimated with injury right now with Cameron Maybin and Ryan Braun on the DL and Dexter Fowler all beat up. I also dropped Phelps to add Parker ($1).Notable bids: Jurickson Profar ($12), Tony Cingrani ($10), Jacob Turner ($3) Jhoulys Chacin ($2). Mid Season Standing: 13/13
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