the mistakes ive made in expert leagues the past few years

[ttwarrior1]

its very simple, pitching wins. I will draft a studd sp in round 1 and 2. Im tired of going to free agency and picking up sp.

Winning wins, strikeouts, era and whip is just too much for other teams to overcome.

I will also never draft a low batting average guy ever again. You can always find free agent first baseman and outfielders.

Not sure its possible, but if i could get johan utley next year id consider that too.

[pokerplaya]

For me my most recent mistakes include:

Thinking Soriano was going to take a big hit to his numbers in RFK and dealing him for Abreu.

Not trading Teixeira for Howard in early April. In my defense, I don't think anyone would have made that trade when it was offered to me. I can't see the future. Teix surely was ranked over Howard by just about everyone on April 15th. Still, I'm playing that team now, in the 2nd round of the playoffs and I'm down 8-3. If I had Howard instead of Teixeira, I probably wouldn't have even seen him in the playoffs.

Dropping Matt Cain. I cannot remember what goofball I picked up in his place, but I would have liked to have Matt Cain in my keeper league. He's going to be special. But I believed the hype, and I'm stuck with the un-royal King Felix.

Not having a balanced team. This is what killed me - I'm short on power, but traded Berkman for Crawford simply because I value Crawford more highly as a long term keeper commodity. However, this year, and in these playoffs, I really could use another big bat.

We'll that's about it. Specific mistakes that have hurt me quite a bit.

[PlayingWithFire]

going for over the hill, old players in a dynasty while giving up worthy players. Ryan Garko and Joey Gathright for 1 month of Jim Edmonds(who was waived to make space for...Kevin Kouzmanoff and David Newhan, gulp) isn't worth it. And Garko has been great since the call up.

[tol1l1yboy]

I still have a shot at winning it all but the one mistake I have made the last 3 years is trusting my young pitchers to a fault. Bonderman, Verlander and Francis have killed me. Kazmir and Papelbon's injuries forced me to start subpar pitchers for them as well. I still have the number 1 pitching staff but in crunch time I have been forced to start guys that are obviously tired and who should have been moved when their values were so way out there that I could get supreme value for them.

At least I had the foresight to pick up (and hold onto) Cain when he was dropped midway through the year

However I disagree with the first poster. Look at the first 10 pitchers drafted and how many of them are either out right now, have missed significant time or have just sucked? The only guy I can think of that I would consider drafting in the first 3 rounds is Santana. Nobody else is worthy of a pick that high because of the risk involved with pitchers.

[Ender]

Not one team in our playoffs(14 team league, deep rosters) still has two top 10 type pitchers in it and only 1 of the 4 has even one of the top 10 type pitchers in it. H2H pitching is all about depth, I still think taking a pitcher early is a big mistake. However you need to pick up real depth at the position so when one tier 2 pitcher goes cold you can bench him and have another one to play and so you can maximize 2 start guys.

[1337_Dude]

its very simple, pitching wins. I will draft a studd sp in round 1 and 2. Im tired of going to free agency and picking up sp.

Unless your league has more pitching categories then hitting categories, then it's actually very equal.

I don't see a point in drafting pitching early, unless his name is Johan that is. The rest of your pitching staff can be put together very late and still be very good. A lot of top pitchers were able to be had very late.

[Simulacrum]

Next year, I will not forget-

do not draft closers

do not draft guys who only bring steals to the table

do not draft any low average guys, ever (sexson )

[brandnew]

My list is:

Draft guys who get 10+ SBs at EVERY position (MOST IMPORTANT)

Draft 4-5 closers

Don't be hesitant to grab young top prospect pitchers! Some turn out to be studs in their first years!

(I always believed that stud rookie pitchers would only have a brief period in which they would succeed, maybe 4 starts, and then hit a huge wall, and end up with below average numbers. I had a chance to grab Verlander, Liriano, and Weaver, and didn't.)

Don't go with the best arm in a potential closer's situation, grab the guy who will likely get the job; managers can be idiots! (Zumaya)

[tinfoilxtouch]

In Yahoo H2H, where ERA is the tie-break for the week, pitching-oriented teams do have a slight edge come playoff time.

That being said, I've really only followed two rules this year, and have done fairly well so far: 1) Don't draft anyone who bats below .275, and 2) Don't draft any pitcher with a low K/9. Those things tend to stay pretty consistant throughout the season when compared to other stats.

[whoseyourdaddy12]

My list is:

Draft guys who get 10+ SBs at EVERY position (MOST IMPORTANT)

catcher? 1b?