I won my first World Series!!!

[MrHacktastic]

[quote:494d13b8a3="apolivka"]Great job with this team. I actually remember helping you with it before you started playing. Don't remember if you took any of my advice, but I do remember (later) telling you not to drop Murphy.

You had some of the very consistent money '86 players (Youmans, Stewart, Ozzie, Pendleton, Gwynn, Canseco) plus, you got some amazing performances out of some fairly marginal guys (Horner, Knight, Quiz, Ward). You got, quite possibly, the single best '86 Ray Knight season ever.

I doubt I would have predicted 93 wins and a title for this team, but the key is to make the playoffs (which certainly seemed possible) and then see what happens. Never panic, especially when you are winning! I usually find that waiting out the other teams that do panic is an absolutely key strategy! :)[/quote:494d13b8a3]

Actually your advice was very helpful and greatly contributed to me not dropping Murphy. I was about ready to drop Murphy and sign Fred Lynn but didn't. His defense was awesome all year of course and his offense came through when it counted most. He had to actually hit in the middle of the order as the injury bug hit hard. I doubt I would have won without Murphy on my squad. Thanks for the help.

[MrHacktastic]

[quote:6e3c9b8b4c="apolivka"]Great job with this team. I actually remember helping you with it before you started playing. Don't remember if you took any of my advice, but I do remember (later) telling you not to drop Murphy.

You had some of the very consistent money '86 players (Youmans, Stewart, Ozzie, Pendleton, Gwynn, Canseco) plus, you got some amazing performances out of some fairly marginal guys (Horner, Knight, Quiz, Ward). You got, quite possibly, the single best '86 Ray Knight season ever.

I doubt I would have predicted 93 wins and a title for this team, but the key is to make the playoffs (which certainly seemed possible) and then see what happens. Never panic, especially when you are winning! I usually find that waiting out the other teams that do panic is an absolutely key strategy! :)[/quote:6e3c9b8b4c]

You also helped me with advice right after the draft. This is what you said:

"There is no way you should have Sheets ever catching for this team. Four of your five starters have +3 or higher holds. Sheets arm is +2 and his T rating is 20 (the worst). Teams are fast in '86 and will steal you blind and Sheets will throw it into the outfield at an alarming rate. Even with a good catcher, that many + holds are dangerous in 1986.

Ozzie can go down for 15 games, so he needs a decent backup.

Randolph is fine, he'll make up for those errors. I would bat him 1st (NOT 2nd) in the order or he'll hit into a zillion double plays behind Gwynn who will be on 1st a lot.

You are spending too much on pitching. All four of your starters are 5.3 million or higher, I probably wouldn't have more than two at that price. I like smith and franco, but after that, you really should have "cheapies" in you pen. Those other guys won't pitch enough to be of value (if you setup your pitching strategy right). So downgrade those relievers.

Use that money to upgrade your offense. I think the spots that need the most work are catcher, then third base, then backup ss, then maybe LF. (Although I've actually seen Sierra used fairly effectively)

Needs a few tweaks, but not a bad effort. "

You were right on the money about Sheets. I only let him catch one game I think against a slow team and even then he was unusable. Sundberg became my full-time catcher. I signed Ward to play LF after you noticed the hole there. Randolph was awesome and Ozzie won the gold glove.

Come to think of it I basically followed all your advice lol. I dropped Nate Snell as you pointed out I was spending too much on my bullpen. This is the money that allowed me to have enough to sign Ward (playoff MVP with 19rbi in 12 games). I signed Gagne to be a backup SS and 2B(he had 7 playoff RBI's when Randolph got hurt). I was really wanting to test my theory on Ray Knight's production and I was more than happy with the results as they were even better than I expected as my everyday 3B.

All new people should get their advice from you. Thank you. You practically won this title.

[MrHacktastic]

I have had Bob Horner for both my seasons. Here are his stats:

Bob Horner
[img:adec76a605]http://cnt.toppsmillion.com/img/cards/1987-BB-TS1-660-NA_F_285x412.jpg[/img:adec76a605]

Field AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLUG
BOS 643 88 180 31 1 38 133 60 90 .280 .339 .509
CLE 611 89 161 18 2 34 114 46 79 .264 .319 .466
[color=red:adec76a605]PLAY 52 10 16 2 0 2 8 6 9 .308 .379 .462[/color:adec76a605]
[b:adec76a605]TOT 1254 177 341 49 3 72 247 106 169 .272 .329 .488
[/b:adec76a605]

Not bad averaging 36 HR and 123.5 RBI

[Stormcrow2012]

That's awesome, the first one is always the hardest, at least it was for me.

Nice 1987 Topps Bob Horner card!