a SP* Question

[LMBombers]

I think Liriano (or any such high priced S/R in any of the SOM games) is too expensive to use as a RP. I would either start him or drop him. Schilling must be either #1 to go every 4th game or #2, or lower as long as there are all *SP above him in the rotation. Otherwise he will have to sit out an extra day every so often.

I reccomend dropping your two *SP and picking up another SP. I like all your non-*SP on your team. Get another and have a great 5 man staff staff! Bonser is a good value low priced SP.

[coyote303]

I had really good luck last season with one really good SP* and the rest SP. It also occasionally gave me some flexibility in who to start if an opponent was particularly good or weak against one side or another.

Of course, there are the purists who will argue that you should have all of one or the other.

[Spider 67]

I've had good success (made playoffs) with a mixture of * and non-* SPs. If you start the * every 4 games (using "Per-Game Starter" to overide your "Rotation") you will have some of your other starters either missing a start or delaying to 6 games. I don't think I ever let the "Rotation" decide my starter during the entire season.

It gives you good flexibility for match-ups with opponents and ball parks.

in my current season (I'm in playoffs right now), I've used 4 * SP's and have sometimes wished I had better options. I could have picked up a better spot starter (one who is better in either a hitter or pitcher park), but did not do so. However, that may be an expensive way to get a bit better pitching mix.

[teamnasty]

I like your non* pitchers also, but I think Liriano can have HUGE value as a superreliever. Pitching him 150+ highly leveraged innings in close games is arguably the optimal way to use him, as opposed to starting him every 5th day. Part of the reason for this is the paucity of quality lefty relief in 2007, but in your case you've got Ryan and Thornton so Liriano isnt needed as much in relief. Keeping him as a starter is fine under your circumstances, but I dont buy the "dont mix * and non* starter argument". Its ok for rookies to follow that advice, but an experienced manager could play "matchups" around the base of Schilling to great effect....ie "platoon" Hamels and Bonser depending on which opponent youre facing. If it was me I wouldnt have cut Schilling, but now that you have youre committed to Liriano as a starter. Two parting comments, your offense aint good enough and you should flip Thornton for a quality righty reliever of similar salary in order to balance out your pen. Good luck.

[LMBombers]

There are several reasons NOT to use Liriano or any other high priced S/R as a RP only.

1. You lose value as he is valued much higher for his starting abilities. If he were a RP only he would cost less, therefore you are not optimizing your team salary value.
2. Instead of shutting down a team from the 1st inning he will many times only enter a game when you are already behind. Even if he shuts down your opponent for several innings you may never rally enough to win. If he had started the game shutting down the other team you may only need 1 or 2 runs to win the game.
3. Having a 7M+ S/R in your pen will generally cost you the cash needed to have 2-3 other decent RPs in the pen. He can't pitch every day in relief. Also having that much in one RP could possibly reduce how much you can spend on your rotation as well depending on the make-up of your team.

I would rather take his salary, add .50 to it for the filler RP you would also have to have in the pen, and take two 3.75ish RPs if you weren't going to use him as a starter.