JD Drew injury risk

[STEVEPONEDAL]

Maybe it is too late since the league starts tonight but anyone have any thoughts on this Great American Ballpark team? I also have an RFK, US Cell and a PNC Park in the division.

One of my concerns is an injury-prone JD Drew for 5 mill. Are people using him or staying away from the injury risk.

Thanks

sponedal


http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/2007/team/team_other.html?user_id=9905

[maligned]

You're always entering a high risk/high reward with a big injury guy. I use injury guys and tend to have success. With this said, you're spending WAY too much to carry two backup outfielders. If I were you, I would make your second outfielder a .50M guy and dump Bautista. A guy like Denorfia will fill in as your main reserve outfielder just fine. With Drew/Thames/Matthews, Denorfia will end up with about 250-300 plate appearances, while a second .50M outfielder would end up with about 30-50 plate appearances. Drew will go for about 500-575 plate appearances on average.

I would invest the money you save, plus the .91M you still have left on a better bullpen. I'd upgrade Sanchez for sure. He's a nice arm in the mix of a strong bully, but he'll get killed by lefties constantly if he's your primary arm--especially with your hard righty starting pitching that will put tons of lefties in your opponents' starting lineups.

If you can upgrade to a Joel Zumaya or Joaquin Benoit as your R2 or get a killer closer and swap out Wickman for an R2 of about the same price range, I would do it.

[STEVEPONEDAL]

Thanks maligned,

Call me crazy, but I was going to use Bautista to platoon with Rolen?

sponedal

[maligned]

You did the right thing to not use Rolen in a platoon. For his pricetag, he's not skewed nearly enough to the right to be a platoon guy. Plus, his defense more than offsets the slight offensive upgrade you would get with Bautista hitting against lefties. Rule of thumb for any platoon against lefties: keep him under $1M unless your righty is an injury risk. Also, don't look to platoon a righty masher until you get into the under $3M range for most guys. Even a guy like Thome probably shouldn't be used in a platoon situation in an $80M league because of all the money you're wasting not having him in against righty relievers late in games. Good luck!

[maligned]

A couple more thoughts: with your remaining 1.5M, you could upgrade one of your relievers to a solid R1. As you sit right now, your cheapy relievers will get a ton of innings.
Finally, you can manage your cheapy relievers better if they're extreme guys that you can set on "avoid righties (or lefties)," "quick hook," and "max 1-2 innings pitched." Hal will use them effectively this way and leave your top relievers in for more innings.

[STEVEPONEDAL]

When you say a solid R1, is that based on WHIP, balance against RHBs or endurance or something else? I do use your suggested settings for my specialists.

Thanks

sponedal

[maligned]

I simply meant higher quality than what you have (maybe a guy in the 2.2M range instead of one of your cheapies). I like your plan of having low ballpark HRs in your park--especially with a US Cellular in your division.

I just noticed another thing as well, as long as we're chatting: Your division is loaded with hard righty and reverse lefty pitching. It wouldn't hurt to look at doing something rather than Thames in leftfield. You could pick up Ibanez instead. Or, you could pick up Hinske or Dellucci or Matsui and platoon with Cody Ross, if he's available (gotta love those HRs against lefties). As you sit right now, your average hitter will be 1R. Your average divisional opposing pitcher sits at 3R as of 6:12pm. This is a huge advantage for your opponents with all the right-handed hitters you have.

[maligned]

I still think 1.7M on Kielty is much too much--you'll only need a right-handed hitting lefty smasher 1 out of every 16 divisional games.
Everyone else you face is a righty or reverse lefty (which Ibanez will do fine against).
Damon Hollins (.72M), Nate McLouth (.73M) or even a .5M guy like Choo Freeman will be just fine for hard lefties.
Again, I'd recommend upgrading your pitching. Although you're fine being slightly slanted toward hitting in a hitters' park, you generally want to stay close to a 48M/32M hitting/pitching split.

Have a nice evening. Again, good luck!

[STEVEPONEDAL]

Thanks Maligned.

I thought would get better OBP with Kielty. I also haven't found anyone RP-wise who is low enough BPR for me.

sponedal

[Roscodog]

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/2007/team/team_other.html?user_id=407

I've only used him once and used him sparingly against lefties to try and avoid injury as much as possible.