Defense not all it's cracked up to be ...

[kaina7]

I just drafted a Safeco team and I am planning to play Utley and KGJ.

Other parks in my division are Yankee, Petco and Kauffman.

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/2006/team/team_other.html?user_id=1244

I normally don't play 3's up the middle so this will be a first for me. I had Ellis and DeJesus, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity for more bombs.

Would you stick with this or switch back to the better defensive team?

[cirills]

Based on what I have been seeing I would stick with what you got! :wink:

Certainly over Dejesus and Ellis where the defense seems to come at too high a cost (imho).

[CHARLESBELL]

I have my very first 2006 team starting play tonight. I'm glad to see this post because I have tried and tried to find a good fit that included at leasst 2s up the middle and finally decided that the ones available were simply too costly for the loss of offense. My entire starting lineup will be 3s with a 4 in RF.

The only thing I couldn't bring myself to do was play 1b-5 delgado at first (dropped him for howard).

At least I feel a little better not forcing a better defense at a high cost in offense. But will have to see how it works out.

[bleacher_creature]

[quote:88d8674d44="kaina7"]I just drafted a Safeco team and I am planning to play Utley and KGJ.

Other parks in my division are Yankee, Petco and Kauffman.

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/2006/team/team_other.html?user_id=1244

I normally don't play 3's up the middle so this will be a first for me. I had Ellis and DeJesus, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity for more bombs.

Would you stick with this or switch back to the better defensive team?[/quote:88d8674d44]

This seems sound to me (Utley and KGJ in SAFECO). This ballpark favors LH hitters even more this year, and these two will flourish in terms of the longball.

SAFECO is an underused park IMO. Make sure you have some relievers who have no BPHRs vs LH hitters of course, and remember that you can get away with a few BPHRs vs RH batters on some of your pitchers.

[kaina7]

Thanks for the input! I did keep Utley, but I got Sizemore to play center instead of KGJ. I was afraid of the injury risk to Hafner and TClark so I got some stability and defense in center. Since I have high ba and obp at 3b I wanted more pop at 2b with Utley.