SuperHAL bullpen and the

[apolivka]

I thought some people might be interested in this team, just since I think it's fairly unusual. I put together a 2009 team with matchup type starters who rarely went long into games, and used Angel Guzman as a super reliever and Bingo--233 innings and 17 wins. All totaled up, I got 555 relief innings out of this squad, including three guys with 100+ relief innings and three guys with 10+ saves.

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=281004

It had the best record in the league, but lost game 7 in the finals, after my bullpen choked away a 4 run lead, of course. :roll:

I used "regular" bullpen 90+% of the time. Most of my starters were not on either quick or slow hook, just let HAL decide when to take them out, and I think he did a very good job with that. I ended up with only 7 complete games, which I think was about right with mostly S5 starters. Team ERA was 2nd in the league.

Other strange stat--Check out George Kottaras. 46 doubles and 47 RBIs!?!?

[visick]

This has to be one of the most "interesting" teams I've seen in awhile.

Without pulling out a calculator, it looks like you've spent equally on hitting and pitching.

I'm surprised with these hitters that you made the playoffs, let alone get into the finals. Had you not overspent on pitching, I think things would have been very different.

[apolivka]

Well, it was a 60M league, and 10 out of 12 parks were pitcher's parks. I picked an injury riddled offensive squad with some above average backups and got fairly lucky with injuries, with my my team only being injured 144 total games. I also had great team speed, and very good defense for a 60M league. Fortunately, I ended up outscoring my opponents by almost 100 runs. Had the park mix been less favorable, I certainly would have struggled to score enough runs.

But this squad was a pitching experiment only, it was just a bonus that I won. I think 7 of my top 10 draft picks were pitchers, and I pretty much got them all. All my starters were heavily slanted one way (except Volquez), and I would match up my starters each night to my opponent. Then HAL would typically bring in my much stronger and "even" bullpen in about the 5th or 6th. So, I think all my starters did much better as a group then they ever would have done as part of a "normal" 5-man rotation because they generally avoided teams that they were weakest against.

Anyway, it was a fun way to run a team. I'm not advocating it as a way to win, it's just fun seeing how many ways there are to do it! I wish more people would post their "interesting" teams.