We have a tremendous roster of the best fantasy experts in the industry this year. On board for the 2009 Fantasy Baseball Roundtable are :

Jon Williams: RotoExperts
Tim Dierkes: RotoAuthority
Rudy Gamble: Razzball
Jason Collette: Fanball.com
Brett Greenfield: FantasyPhenoms.com
Adam Ronis: New York Newsday
Derek Carty: The Hardball Times
Patrick Cain: Albany Times Union

Every week we will be posting questions to the panel. Due to time constraints we won’t get answers every week from everyone. Each week one of the guys will submit the question, and will post the responses on his site. It was a lot of fun, and we got to have some great discussion last year, and 2009 should be an even bigger success.

FantasyPros911.com bats leadoff, so this week we asked:

What was your biggest fantasy disappointment from 2008? What is your goal for 2009?

Jon Williams: My primary goal in my fantasy leagues last season (aside from winning them all) was to avoid making bad trades. Trading is my weakness anyone who has been in a league with me knows it. I have irresistible urges to trade. I never make trades not because I need to make them but because I get a high from doing it. Understand, you can’t sucker me into making an Albert Pujols for Carlos Silva deal, but if you catch me in the right mood I’ll part with minor leaguers like Matt Wieters and Pablo Sandoval for short term fixes that I could have easily found on the waiver wire. My biggest disappointment in 2008 (aside from not winning all my leagues) is that despite knowing my weakness and making a conscious decision to eliminate it, I made more than one bad trade.

The 2009 season will be different. Not only will I win all of my leagues but I will avoid making bad trades as well. I know I can do it. Another of my weaknesses is to try weird strategy ideas, such as the time I drafted the all black, left-handed pitching staff. That did not work out well. This season I will put aside my strange whims (in most of my leagues anyway) and work from start to finish to put a hurting on my league mates. I win more than my fair share as it is, but I am in it to win them all this year. I am easily in a dozen leagues this coming season and I have been playing this game longer than most. I have yet to have the perfect season – a first place finish in every league. Is that the cockiest goal I could conjure up? Maybe, but it is also the same goal that all of us should have every season.

Patrick Cain: 2008 Disappointments:

Cliff Lee. Surely, I said Cliff Lee would drop off. Surely his rate stats would come back to earth. Couldn't have been more wrong. That and why, oh why, did I ever think Travis Hafner would do anything other than disappoint. A strong end to 2007 was a compelling case, but Pronk flopped. And lastly, a great lesson to learn for all....CHECK THE WEATHER. In a competitive H2H league I got bumped out of the playoffs in the semis when I played relievers who were rained out and benched one who would go on to get a save. That save was the difference for making it into the finals, which I would have won.

2009 Goals:
Auction better. Last year I stepped out of my comfort zone and entered a 20-team auction with some great managers. I held my own finishing 4th or 5th. If I had been more patient during the draft I could have made I run at the top 3. I believe the winning manager didn't make a bid within the first 100 names auctioned.

Keeper goal: Find a 7th keeper. Chris Young was the heir apparent ... until he regressed in 2008. That's left me scouring for a keeper to accompany Arod, Braun, Fielder, Beltran, Peavy and Hamels in my 12-team dynasty.

Patrick DiCaprio: My biggest disappointment in 2008, without question, was the dismal performance of my team in an Expert League That Shall Not Be Named. I went with an all-reliever/all offense strategy, which worked in a vacuum as in roto stats my team was solid. But it was a Head-to-Head league that Tim Dierkes should have won. Lesson learned: be careful to fully evaluate the roster positions. The league had a very short offensive roster, so that my offensive advantage was muted due to the shallowness of the pools; and every week I got hammered in wins and Ks.

Goal in 2009 is to reverse this finish in the FantasyPros911.com Expert League. There is one hell of a tough roster of experts in that league, and since there is a real First Prize, a cruise, it is a big carrot. Sadly, our Commissioner, Tony Cincotta, has said I cannot actually get the cruise (sort of like those sweepstakes where friends and family cannot win) so if I win the prize goes to the champion of the Blogger’s league. So you roustabouts in the Blogger’s league had damn well better root for me!

Tim Dierkes: My biggest fantasy disappointment in 2008 was failing to win it all in my two H2H leagues.  I had good teams that made the playoffs in both, but either through my poor management or something else, I did not win it all.

My goal for '09 is to win without turning over half my roster, though I know that's not going to happen.

Brett Greenfield: My biggest fantasy disappointment of 2008 was putting my faith in Corey Hart.  After 505 AB's of 24/23 with a .295 AVG, Corey Hart took a step backwards last year.  His AVG dropped to .268 and he regressed in four of five rotisserie categories. 

173 innings of a 3.12 ERA and a 1.10 WHIP, along with nearly a K per inning was what Chris Young provided in 2007.  In 2008 he was nailed by an Albert Pujols liner and was never the same pitcher.  I relied heavily upon him in drafts last year and was extremely disappointed.

My goal for 2009 is to find this year's version of Edinson Volquez, Jair Jurrjens and Zack Greinke again.  I think we are headed in the right direction with Jonathan Sanchez, Zack Duke and Jered Weaver.

Rudy "Sir Gamblahad" (Ed. Note--at Rudy's request--feel free to make fun of him at Razzball.com)Gamble: My 2008 biggest fantasy disappointment was the spoiled threesome with Jamie Kotsay and Jennie Finch (tell us more about your fantasy site, Rudy!) because Jeff Francouer broke up the imagined orgy, crying and wanting to be held.  This guy was always an AVG risk because he has no plate discipline but he completely collapsed.  Supposedly he had a really slow bat (http://razzball.com/2009-braves-fantasy-baseball-preview/) which sapped his power.  He hurt me in both expert leagues.

My goal in 2009 - besides dreaming up a scenario to satisfy that threesome fantasy - is to limit top 10 round busts.  

Derek Carty: To be completely honest, there were no disappointments for me in 2008.  Sure, I ended up being "wrong" about some players, but the process used at the time was perfectly fine, and we will always be wrong about some players.  It is unavoidable, simply because some players will be lucky and others unlucky.  I've come up with many new metrics and means of analysis since the beginning of last year (and since the end of last year, even), so the process in 2009 should be even better than 2008.  That's the best we can do - keep building on the knowledge that we have and keep getting better.  2008 was a great year at THT as we've begun to expand and add a number of incredible new writers, and we keep trying to pump out excellent content.  It's all about helping the readers, and from the number of thank you e-mails I got at the end of the season, I think it's safe to call 2008 a success.

The goals for 2009 are the same as 2008 - keep improving and keep helping readers, be it through new means of analysis, new strategies, fresh ways of thinking about things, or however this can be accomplished.  I'm not going say it wouldn't be nice to win LABR, the Fantasy Pros 911 league, and the rest of my expert leagues, though :-D

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Tori Hunter and Dominance
written by tonycincotta, March 18, 2009

2008 Dissapointmentso I have to say anything, I picked Tori Hunter for SB's and he turned into Wes Unseld ?

2009 Goals: It appears I am in 10 leagues for the 2009 season. Some , more prestigous than others. My goal is 3 titles out of ten. I am not sure if that is too modest.

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written by Jim, February 09, 2009

2008 Disses... Conor Jackson and Maicer Izturis not getting 600 ABs, the collapse of Rich Hill, and Mr. Atkins's waist line.

2009 Disses...Adrian Gonzalez playing another 81 at petco, the cubs giving away rich hill along with generally buying over building and the mentioning of Zach Duke in the above article.

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written by Beanster, February 07, 2009

Violating my Don't Draft Pitchers Before the 7th Round rule to take Justin Verlander and Aaron Harang. Ouch.

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written by DRAFTAHOLIC!!!, February 07, 2009

Biggest Heartache of 2008...Verlander bust, Alex Gordon and Billy Butler not measuring up and Miggy doing a bit less than he should have....

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,,,
written by schmee, February 06, 2009

whiners

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biggest disappointment
written by Chris L, February 05, 2009

My biggest disappointment was being #1 all season long in a 6x6 H2H league (extra categories were OBP and K/BB) only to "lose" the championship. It wasn't that i lost, but how i lost. After a two week championship round, my team and my challenger's were tied in all categories. The tiebreaker was ERA and my opponent had barely won that category. that's it. season over. on top of it all, i had shields and hamels scheduled to go on the last day, but didn't because both teams were in the playoffs. I'm still bitter and like a sore "loser" refuse to recognize the outcome.

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