2012 FBF Expert League V

I had a couple of Expert League Drafts last night. First up was the 2012 FBF Expert League V, sponsored by Todd Farino of The Closer Report. It is a 12-team mixed head-to-head league. Standard rosters with a six-man bench, and 5x5 but using OBP instead of batting average.

You can hear some of the guys discussing the draft tonight at 8:30 EST on the Fantasy Baseball Tonight Show, hosted by Blog Talk Radio.

The Plan

Typically I would have used my stand-by strategy of drafting a strong offense and waiting on pitching while avoiding paying a premium for saves. This has worked for me quite often, except in Head-to-Head leagues. I developed a new strategy for H2H leagues this season and used it in this draft for the first time.

The idea was to build a roster that could dominate categories from week to week. So I decided i would go after players with power and speed, even if batting average (or in this case OBP) suffered. When the power/speed guys ran out I would concentrate on extreme speed or power hitters. I wanted a few top starters which meant I would have to take starting pitching earlier than usual. I also wanted to get enough closers to dominate the category or not bother with saves at all.

I think it worked pretty well.

C Jarrod Saltalamacchia Bos
C Salvador Perez KC

1B Pablo Sandoval SF
3B Jose Bautista Tor
CR Paul Goldschmidt Ari

2B Dustin Pedroia Bos
SS Dee Gordon LAD
MI Jose Altuve Hou

OF Alex Gordon KC
OF BJ Upton TB
OF Martin Prado Atl
OF Jose Tabata Pit
OF Matt Joyce TB

U Chris Heisey Cin

Batting Bench - John Mayberry, Ian Stewart, Jed Lowrie

SP C.J. Wilson LAA
SP Madison Bumgarner
SP Jordon Zimmermann
SP Anibal Sanchez
SP Hiroki Kuroda
SP Ryan Dempster

RP Mariano Rivera
RP J.J. Putz
RP Sergio Santos

Pitching Bench - Grant Balfour, Sergio Romo, Carlos Zambrano

So, what do you think.