Unfortunately, I haven’t had much opportunity to write lately as things have gotten crazy busy at my day job (lately, a day and night job). That, in addition to managing as many leagues that I do (not to mention having a newborn), has made it difficult to say the least to find the time to write (notice the time stamp).

On a general note, I am having the fantasy season from hell this year (at least on the dynasty front) which honestly hasn’t exactly given me extra motivation to write. Some teams that were really good (or so I thought) are now languishing in the standings. It is still early in the season, so things can change, but I’m not feeling good at all about 2010 and am now having to make some tough strategy choices in those leagues.

The FFPC’s $750 Dynasty League is one of those leagues. I wouldn’t call my team there a dominant team by any means (yet), but I fully expected to at least make the playoffs and compete for a bye. Well, we’re almost a third of the way through the season, and I am tied for second...from the bottom! Worse yet, I don’t own my own 2011 1st rounder (although the picks I do have, if the season were to end today, would be the 1.1, 1.3, 1.4 and 1.9, so not really complaining about that).

My excuse, well, quality depth was always an issue for this team, and this issue makes excuse number one. It is hard to build that quality depth when you trade away the startup picks that I did in order to acquire 4 2011 1st rounders. I wouldn’t change what I did if I could, since I am a big believer that multiple high 1st round rookie picks can be made the foundation of building a dominant dynasty team.

Anyway, right out of the gate (technically before the gate even opened), Sidney Rice goes out for at least half the year (likely all of it). That put me behind the eight ball early for 2010. Then, MJD has knee problems early on making it two of my top 3 players dinged up or out and, with my only other top 3 player being Greg Jennings, that made 3 for 3 in disappointing starts for my supposed “Big 3”. My 4th best player? Well, that would be Marques Colston (knee scope over the summer) who also has disappointed early. And now, Darren McFadden, the only ray of hope so far this year, is out of commission for a critical potential come back week (and possibly longer).

Excuse number two, I spent my FAAB dollars poorly from a redraft perspective (and likely from a dynasty one as well). I spent the vast majority of it acquiring Kareem Huggins before the season started. I decided to spend what I did to acquire him believing at the time that he represented my best opportunity to acquire an impact dynasty player long-term. Unfortunately, Huggins went down early with a groin problem so I have yet to see if this investment will ultimately pay off, but right now it looks like a really bad move and has stunted my chances of competing in 2010. The dollars would have been way better spent on Peyton Hillis, Mark Clayton or the like, but to be fair, I probably would have blown all of it on Brandon Jackson anyway knowing me. I actually acquired Clayton with big dollars in a good number of dynasty leagues this year, but only because Brandon Jackson was already rostered in those leagues. In the leagues where he was not rostered, I got him. Blind bidding and acquiring free agents is not exactly my strong suit.

Excuse number three, I have made some poor WDIS choices, none more costly than last week’s benching of Ricky Williams in favor of...Bo Scaife!!! I ended up losing a critical game last week by less than 2 points as a result. It didn’t help my cause that Tom Brady threw up such a dud score last week either.

With my back against the wall, I decided to bail on 2010. Probably premature, but I’d rather pull the trigger a little early versus a little late. The team whose pick I owned (that would be 1.9 if the season were to end today) and I worked hard the last few days ironing out somewhat of a big trade. I traded Marques Colston, Ricky Williams and the other team’s 2011 1st for Vincent Jackson, Deon Butler (which would have been the other team’s drop player) and my own 2011 1st back. Note that although the other team was currently slated at 1.09, chances are that pick would have eventually settled in at the 1.5-1.7 range barring any trades. Also, chances are my own pick would have settled in at 1.4-1.6 so the upgrade to my pick wasn’t THAT big of a deal (even though post-trade, my pick now will likely fall into the 1.1-1.3 range). The other team, well, they come out of it pretty nicely and now have a much better chance at making the playoffs.

My team is now as follows (key players):

QB: Tom Brady
RB: MJD, McFadden
WR: Jennings, VJax, Sid Rice, B. Edwards
TE: Tony Gonzalez

My 2011 picks if the season ended today: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4.

I still have more moves to make, in particular moving Tony Gonzalez to a contender, possibly even MJD for the right price.

Next up: An update on the $1250 FFPC Dynasty League where I made four trades recently (two of which were pretty big).