For all of you who have been sitting on the edge of your seats, eagerly awaiting an update on my H2H league, you may now breathe a sigh of relief as it’s finally here.

Three H2H weeks are in the books, so let’s take a look at how my team has performed. For a quick refresher on my team and strategy, check out my original article, H2H League Draft Analysis. The basic plan was to draft 8 starters and 4 closers, which would give me more starters and closers than almost every other team, allowing me to win Wins, Saves, and K’s just about every week. Given the 30 inning weekly minimum, there was no LIMA-strategy potential here, so I thought this was the best way to go. I expected to win ERA and WHIP more than half the time as well, as I was confident my entire staff was one of the best in the league. On the hitting side, I ended up drafting Juan Pierre (when he was still the starter) and Michael Bourn, leading me to conclude I’d be winning SBs every week and RUNs and AVG most weeks, hopefully taking RBIs and HRs half the time or so.

I’m happy to announce that I’m in 1st with a record of 21-7-2, after going 6-3, 7-2, and 8-2 in Weeks 1-3. 2nd place sits at 18-10-2, already giving me a 3 game lead. How about the individual categories and if my strategy is working out? I’m 3-0 in RUNs, 2-1 in SBs (Pierre not playing evened the playing field!), and 2-1 in AVG. Surprisingly I’m also 2-0-1 in HRs. On the pitching side, I’m 2-0-1 in Ws, 3-0 in SVs and 3-0 in K’s, so far proving my strategy has been a success.

My hitting has been anchored by the godly David Wright, who thankfully hasn’t been one of the many slow starters this season. Rafael Furcal is having one hell of a bounce back year so far, which is exactly what I was banking on. And Michael Bourn is stealing bases like crazy, assuring I compete in SBs every single week. The only real changes I’ve made to my hitting since the draft was adding Andre Ethier when Pierre lost his job, and picking up Andruw Jones when he was dropped by a panicky owner.

As can be expected on a weekly basis, my pitching has been up and down. Randy Wolf is making me look good, though, after I highlighted him in my Five Players-San Diego Padres article. I guess he’s healthy…for now. Dice-K has managed to walk every man in site, yet still escape with a low 3 ERA and good WHIP. Hopefully his control gets umm…under control soon, or that ERA and WHIP are going to be rising. McGowan finally picked up a W during his last start, and has been the victim of some bad BABIP luck.  Vazquez is picking up where he left off last year- frankly, these results should have come annually given his peripherals. And Edinson Volquez is pitching like Dice-K - walking the farm, but stranding runners at a 91% clip, so hopefully he too improves his control.

What I think I’m learning for H2H leagues are that the 3 ratio categories are so unpredictable from week to week that it’s very difficult to dominate on a weekly basis. Sure, over the long run, the better pitching staff and higher batting average team will probably win more often than not, but I think the categories should maybe be devalued at the draft due to the volatile nature. 

And there you have it, the exciting rundown of 1 of my 4 leagues. My opponent this week has A-Rod, so I’m crossing my fingers that he misses most or all of the week with his quad injury.

Questions, comments, criticisms, praise, expert league invitations? Email me at FBGeneralsMike@gmail.com.