Scobel Wiggins Photography

Best Early Round Draft
Early round picks are hard to judge, since there are so many great players available it's tough to miss on one. Cara Crouch is a great pick in the first round, but so are all the players there. Looking a few rounds out from the first and second, I thought the Huddle got great value for Manu in the fourth round and Five got a good pick in Sarah Griffith there as well. Michelle did well with picking Angela Lin in the 6th round, but the best in my view was the double 5th-6th round picks of Anne Mercier and Alyson Walker by UltiVillage. That defensive combo takes the cake for great picks in the early rounds.

Best Late Round Draft
A great fantasy team relies on good early picks as a core, a great late round picks to dominate the league. Some players here I honestly don't know and cant judge the late round value accurately, but I really liked Michelle's 9th round VY and Lakshmi pick, as well as the strong defensive picks in the last round Sarah Blyth and Anne Pogoriler. But the best pick I think is a tie between the offense pairs of Lauren Casey and Kate Wilson by The Huddle, and Kath Ratcliff and Jaime Nuwer by UltiVillage. Both pairs are already on the same team (with good chemistry already) and to get solid contributors like that out of the last round on offense is impressive.

Best Defense
This is a tough call between Michelle's team and Rob's UltiVillage team; both look pretty scary on paper. In the end, Michelle's team gets the nod because Rob forgot to put any handlers on his D team and put them all on the O. Seriously Rob, 7 handlers on Offense is a bit much. Or maybe its genius? The other team cant possibly have seven squirlly defenders, right? Anyway, move one of those handlers over to the D and you might have won out, but in the meantime for speed and completeness, Michelle's D team looks the best. Sadly, her O-team would be great in 2004 but its 2009 now and the winner of that goes to...

Best Offense
The Huddle. Good early round picks, great late round wrap-up, good combination of cutters and handlers. Manu and Sachiko would have to be the main cutters, with Slap and Kate continuing; Alex, Deb, and Lauren in front of them with the disc. This looks pretty complete to me, nice work Huddle.

Best Team
Very tough call but after some back-and-forth I give the nod to UltiVillage. Rob, in order for you to win I'm making an executive decision and moving two of your handlers to Defense. Lets say Katie Forth and Kath Ratcliff to Defense, and two cutters to Offense - maybe Lindsey Hack and Alicia White. Now you're on to something. With these moves I like this team for the combination of all-world defense, speed and throwing skills on offense, and balanced attack. If you need a coach, Rob, let me know. Congratulations.

Dutchy is a Dartmouth(!) alum and coaches UC-Berkeley. This year he is playing with the Bay Area's Revolver.