Strategy in $60M/24 team leagues

[dharmabums]

I've joined my first $60M/24 team league and am wondering how those two changes make things different from the $80M/12 team leagues I've been in so far.

Does the $60M cap pretty much eliminate Albert (or Joe Mauer) as a player? Can I more or less re-scale the draft suggestions from The Formula and other strategy discussions, which seem to be mainly based on the $80M salary cap? I'm suspecting that matching the field and your players is even more important with the lower salary cap and double the number of teams. Is that true? And if so, are there certain parks that have a greater advantage in the $60M/24 team leagues, than they did in the $80M/12 team leagues? Is platooning a more important strategy in the $60M/24 team leagues?

Bunches of questions, but basically -- how does the game change when I shift from $80M/12 teams to $60M/24 teams?

Thanks for your help. Looking forward to the new season.
dharmabums

[gbrookes]

I've done 2 so far. I really like the format. By my calculations, this is the format that is most similar to a real major league baseball team or league. My calc is that the average MLB team would have a cap of $67 million using strat-o-matic player salaries, assuming that you distributed the player pool over all of the actual MLB teams. Being at $60 isn't perfect - $70 might be better. So it is like you are in a somewhat small market MLB team.

All of the comments you made are pretty much bang on. It IS hard to have a high salary player. The highest I had on either team was Torii Hunter - $6.94 million, and Reyes (SS) at $6.58 (they were on both teams). At the risk of being boring, the 2 teams had very similar rosters. One team was in a non-DH league - I think this is easier for a $60 mil cap league, since you don't have to get that extra player to be the DH - saves you money!

My ballparks were Nationals and Fenway for the 2 teams. The team strategy was small ball, running, and good OF arms. I like this strategy anyway, but in a $60 cap league it is hard to lay out the big bucks for sluggers, so it may provide an incentive to use a small ball strategy.

You definitely have to find good value for money wherever you can. Platoon is one solution. Just finding bargain players is another solution. One of my favourite platoons in 2008 was at 3b - Luis Rodriguez and Aurillia. Value picks for 2008 (for small ball esp.) included Crawford (LF - 2.12), Pierzinski C $2.25, Blanco C $1.27, Snider DH $1.48. Other team members included 1b - Nady or Connor Jackson, 2b - Kinsler (have to live with his defense, but great small ball and clutch hitting - had 113 RBIs on one team!), Reyes, Ichiro Suzuki (or Rios), and HUnter. Pitchers included Happ, Matsuzaka (one year had 19 wins and 3.18 ERA), Liriano, McClung, Maine (these last 2 great fits for Fenway or Nationals with few BP Hrs to LHB), BJ Ryan, Corcoran, Hanrahan, Mahay. One 1 team I had enough $ to get Buddy Carlyle, who ate innings and performed very well for just 2.14 M.

Results -

Goldeyes5 (Fenway) - 90 wins, lost semis, runs for - 752 and against - 678, ERA 3.83, avg./ob/slugging was .295 (!)/.347/.437 with 63 triples, 192 SB (53 CS). Blanco hit .300/.332/.393, Jackson hit .324/.419/.479, Kinsler .305 /.354/.486, Aurillia 370 AB, .357/.381/.519, Luis Rodriguez 388 AB .396/.337/.369 with great bunts and H&R's, Reyes .267/.326/.415 with 63 SB, Snider 543 ABs .306/.355/.451, Rios .288/.336/.441, Hunter .274/.329/.443, Crawford 488 AB.287/.352/.412.

BlueBombers (no DH) - 99 wins (!) (Nationals), lost finals, runs for - 712 and against - 647, ERA 3.63, avg./ob/slugging was .278 /.333/.405 with 237 SB (!!) (75 CS). Pierzynski hit .294/.325/.415, Nady hit .286/.364/.447, Kinsler .305 /.368/.507 with 113 RBIs (!), Aurillia 313 AB, .294/.338/.425, Luis Rodriguez 398 AB .271/.309/.322 with great bunts and H&R's, Reyes .302/.368/.476 with 79 SBs (!), Suzuki .305/.353/.380 - 49 SBs, Hunter .280/.336/.470, Crawford 448 ABs .286/.342/.402.

On both teams, Crawford would tend to start against R balanced LHP, but sit out against L balanced LHP (with a platoon LF - Freel, Pierre or Bloomquist filling in).

For me, B.J. Ryan is a good value pick for closer, at 3.0 M. His stats were 0-5, 51 saves 8 BS, 3.25 ERA, and 3-4, 47 saves, 10 BS, 3.00 ERA, respectively. In the DH league at Fenway, the ERA's for SPs were all 4.00 to 5.00. At Nationals, with no DH, the ERAs were all 3.00 to 4.00. The key to the pitching staff was getting great value for money out of Liriano, McClung and Maine, all of whom performed well at Fenway and Nationals. Matsuzaka (3.16) and Happ (3.18) did VERY well at Nationals with no DH. Happ benefits hugely from good outfield arms (Suzuki Hunter and Crawford).

One request - let's make this into a long thread. I am very interested in other peoples experiences. Please let me (us) know how this works out for you as well!

BTW - I really prefer the $60 mil caps, since it allows you to have a free agent pool to draw upon, even in a 24 team league.

:)
Geoff

[gbrookes]

For the Goldeyes, Luis Rodriguez's batting avg. was .296, not .396.

Interesting - for the BlueBombers (at nationals), Hunter had 101 runs and 100 RBIs!

:)
Geoff

[Spider 67]

I've been in two 24-teams leagues also. Unfortunately my Raccoon were in the same division with Geoff's Goldeyes - I finished with 85 wins. My other was Retails who won the playoffs - 92 wins for the season.

I agree with the salary comment - would rather see 70 MM, since there a large number of high priced played sit as free agents.

I used roughtly the same approach as Geoff. Redtails championship team runs were 657 - 592. Billingsley (25 wins) and Meche (21) were keys to staff (also had Happ) with Fuentes as key relief. I loaded up on defense (Mcouth, Rollins, Roberts, Zimmerman, Kendall). I think that was key. Made one significant roster move dropped Konerko for a platoon of Shelton and Aybar at 1B. Bargins were Lind in LF, Shelton, and Milledge. This team was very weak on power (75 HR).

The Raccoon also used Billingsley and Meche with poor results for both, but Masterson did well. Both teams had Laffey (better than expected) as a 5th starter. Didn't invest enough in 2 or 3 higher-priced hitters (Suzuki was highest at 5.12M) and had way too many concurrent injuries - wasn't careful about inj ratings. Lind also was a bargain on this team. Mather was key offense (.239, .308, .524). This team had good defense, but not near the quality of Redtails - 101 errors vs. 75.

Retails - 3.44 ERA, 1.29 WHIP, .252 BA, .322 OBP, .367 SLUG
Raccoon - 3.80 ERA, 1.42 WHIP, .269 BA, .330 OBP, .411 SLUG

[gbrookes]

I had Happ on one team (BlueBombers) and Sampson on the other. Happ worked out best for me.

I have had Masterson on other teams of mine for 2008. I really like him as a pitcher. I think he works great in a small ball park (his real MLB park was Fenway!), since he gives up no BP singles to lefty hitters, but gives up lots of BP Hrs to lefty hitters. I especially like his many GB A readings on his card. Unfortunately, he doesn't hold runners well. Overall I like him a lot for a small ball park. I have less experience with the other pitchers spider mentioned.

Geoff