First Team, Looking for Feedback

[streak69]

Hey this is my first team on here. Just want some feedback from some vets who know how the sim actually treats things. Thanks

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/2005/team/team_other.html?user_id=24881

[LMBombers]

Hi streak69 and welcom to TSN SOM!

Minute Maid field is slanted towards RH power hitting. Therefore Robertson and Willis are not best suited for your park. You would then have two choices to pick from. Jake Peavy is an outstanding pitcher but his is not a *SP, which means he needs 4 days of rest instead of 3. Since you already have Clemens, Buehrle & Pavano who are all *SP you could drop or trade Peavy and get one more *SP to have a 4 man rotation. If you want to keep Peavy then with the money you get for dropping Willis and Robertson get another RH SP who can be either a *SP or not because it won't matter. Part of the salary pricing structure takes into account if a SP is * or non-* so you get more bang for your buck if you go with all * pitchers or all non-* SP. I don't know how much is added to the salary of a SP for the * rating but it is something. Don't trash your staff because of it.

It has been my experience that really slanted RP (9R or 9L for example) don't fare very well because HAL (the computer manager who runs the games) doesn't take them out soon enough and lets them pitch too much to their weak side. Farnsworth and Cordero are ok but not great. Cordero is on the weak end of the list of reliable closers. I would drop Cordero and get Looper, Otsuka, Hoffman or Rivera if you can afford it. If you can't afford it I like Smoltz or Percival better and they are cheaper.

Mike Stanton, Cormier, Harper, Cruz or Tavarez would be good for your park.

Overall you have some great hitters for Minute Maid! The rule of thumb is that you need to have a 1 or 2 fielder for your up the middle defense (2B, SS & CF) You can maybe get by with a 3 at 2B if he can hit, like Loretta for instance. However you never want to start a 4 at any of these positions no matter how they hit. You won't face too many LHP in Minute Maid so I would drop Wily Mo Pena. I assume this is a DH league. If so you can let Soriano be your DH. Either use him at DH or get rid of him. Do not start him in the field except as an injury backup for a few games. You need to get a CF. Andrew Jones or Tori Hunter would be the best choices if available. If not Rowand, Kotsay or DeJesus (if platooned) are the next best for Minute Maid.

This ought to help you get started anyway. Good Luck!

[tersignf]

Welcome!
At MinuteMaid I think you need to dump Robertson and Willis, but would be helpful to know the other parks in your div. Pavano is a value there. Since you have Pavano, Clemens, Buerhle...I'd look for one more RHP with a *, like Maddux would be great.
The rest of your SPs should be cheapest you can find, if you have those 4. I've seen Buerhle go either way...wouldn't get rid of him without knowing the rest of your opponents, but gotta be cautious--he's not clean on BPHRs on the RH side.

Your bullpen needs help--need a guy who's shaded as better against RHs like Cordero, but I think you need a solid killer from the right side (and there's no shortage of them)--Cordero may not be a great fit if you come up with a Benitez or Isringhasuen for instance...but a Dotel might be great as a cheap RH closer to complement one of the stud RPs out there.

So, in terms of balance, you prob need to reorient some of that SP money toward relievers, and maybe an extra mil or too toward pitching in general (28-30 mil for an 80 mil league in Minute maid I would think is a basic guideline).

I really don't like your offense at all.
Few key points to live by in Minute Maid:
1. You want all N-power among your RH hitters
2. You want to have your biggest offense investment to be in a solid RH all-around hitter
3. You need RHs who can hit righties for avg and power, then for protection against an occasional reverse lefty you might need a cheap reverse hitting RH hitter (but they're easy to find).
4. Focus your lineup dollars on your starters...right now seems like lots of waste on the bench--please give an idea of what your thoughts are for lineup and who'se going where.

Definite no-go's: Soriano, Womack, Nix--all pretty much dead money.

Your offense, right now needs work. You have no RH hitter who scares RHPs, and that's very bad in your park. Abreu is a very good player, but he's going to hit for a low average in your park and will be bringing his 4 into the OF every night--

First things first...maybe post FAs (can just cut/paste the first couple pages of hitters and pitchers) and advise what the other parks in your div are...
Cheers

[tersignf]

Sorry LM...must've posted simultaneously...you like the offense as it stands?
LMs got more experience, so for the new guy, you may want to defer to his judgement...
I just didn't see any real spark there, with ARod being pretty average against RHPs and sure to see lots of them, I figured he needed some more punch. Agreed on the pitching though definitely

Of course, Lopez, Lee, and Bay are all nice for that park but still shaded to left side overall and with ARod that just gets tilted even more...I guess that was my point that I maybe didn't make well

[durantjerry]

1)I don't like J Lopez. I used him in Wrigley, which is a similar RH park and he was weak for the $$$. I used a platoon of the ex-Minny LH catcher and one of the cheapo's that kills LH pitchers and it was pretty good for short $$$.
2)D Lee the same as J Lopez. Decent, but too expensive to be just decent IMO. There should be better 1B options.
3)2B-you need a good defender who can hit a little. Carroll might work there as he is decent defensively and hits rhp's well, as you will face more rhp's than left in MM.
4)DH-I like a platoon in RH parks of B Williams and M Sweeney. Bernie puts up top of the order stats when only facing lhp's and Sweeney can bat in the heart of the order and kills rhp's. Bernie also has 600 PA's and can fill in when Sweeney gets hurt as he is still decent vs rhp's. I think you do lack a RH hitter that hits rhp's well.
5)CF-one of the above posts covered this pretty well.
6)Closer-Percival would do well there if only allowed to pitch the ninth. Smoltz is slightly better and would also work. I use cheap closers and they do well when only allowed to pitch the ninth in a favorable park situation. Look for a low WHIP, as the #HR will be nullified vs LH hitters in MM.
7)I think you also need a decent middle man and a decent lesser reliever. Lesser guys for MM are Gregg, Burba and Tucker. Mota is a cheap middle man that is half decent at low cost. At the high end, the RH from St. Louis who dominates RH hitters(about $5.80) would be great there.
8)Peavy is good and has high trade value, as does Buerhlie. You should trade one of them depending on who's left(4 man vs 5 man rotation). If Carpenter was left, I would grab him and trade Buerhlie. I used Dreiss(*) there and he was surprisingly very good, but it may have been a fluke. If going with a five man, you may want to grab someone like Maddox, who would be great in MM, but you have to grab some cheapo's to mix in when going to the big HR and LH ballparks.
Just some ideas based on my 3 or 4 seasons in RH parks.

[JdEarly]

In response to the above post, since you are new I will give you the names of the players DJ was talking about. The ex-Minny catcher, I assume, is Pierzynski, and the righty killer from St. Louis is Kiko Calero. That way you can look them up by name rather than by team and player history. And "Dreiss," I think, is Ryan Drese.

Anyway, yeah, a list of the parks in your division would be greatly helpful, as it would help us to see exactly what you are up against. Your priority when putting together a roster is to be able to win in your home park - a secondary priority would be to make a team that should be competitive in the parks in your division.

Sean Burroughs is dead money. Even if you were playing in a park that heavily favored left handed batters, he would be a horrible fit. He should be gone as soon as you get a chance to move him. Also, is Adrian Beltre available to play 3B? He would pound the righthanders that you are sure to see, and more than likely post a monster season that A-Rod wouldn't even come close to in Minute Maid.

At catcher, I think you would save a lot of money if you moved Javy Lopez and grabbed a couple of catchers to platoon. Javier Valentin (8R) and Yorvit Torrealba (5L) seem like they would be a good pairing for you in Minute Maid - a couple of right handed bats that fit well in your park and can complement each other nicely. All for about $2.5 million, instead of almost $6 million with a bad glove and weak arm.

Derek Lee could post some nice numbers in Minute Maid, but is J.T. Snow available? He would add another high OBP lefty to your lineup so that a hard righty wouldn't be able to come in and shut you down. I think between Snow and Abreu, that would be enough quality from the left side to keep teams honest, no matter where you're playing.

Jimmy Rollins will produce for you at short. He is my favorite SS in the set this season.

Second base you might want to add a little bit of defense or a heavy serving of offense. Scutaro isn't good enough either offensively or defensively to make up for his shortcomings on either side of the ball. He won't committ many errors, which is good, but a lot of base hits will get by him that wouldn't get by someone with a better range rating. I've seen playoff teams starting Neifi or Tomas Perez at 2B when they couldn't find a good bat with a good glove up the middle, and using the saved money elsewhere. Just a thought.

This is going to sound a little hyprocritical after I spoke so highly of J.T. Snow, but Jason Bay's injury rating scares me a little bit. For almost $5 million, I would want a player that could be out there every day. Bay's injury rating and Wily Mo Pena's preference of left handed pitchers might make them poor fits for your team over the course of an entire season. I would keep Abreu in right, try to pick up Andruw Jones or Torii Hunter for center, and maybe someone like Lew Ford or Brady Clark for left. You either want OBP or power - both would be best.

Soriano might make a decent DH for you... I haven't used him at all, so I can't recommend him or say anything against you using him. Good luck with that.


Pitching... I think that I would try something a little more risky than what everyone else is telling you. I have gone with a rotation featuring 2 * pitchers and three regulars, and it's worked pretty well. I would keep Clemens and Pavano and Peavy, and drop your other three starters. In their place, I think that A.J. Burnett and Brad Penny would fit nicely.

You should have enough money left over to pick up a couple of cheap situational relievers - Neal Cotts for a reverse lefty in your bullpen would be solid in my opinion, and either Jim Brower or Dave Burba as a hard righty. In your park, with two 1 inning relievers, I think it would help you greatly to have an 11 man pitching staff, featuring 6 relievers. You should have quite a few high scoring games, and just that one extra arm down in the pen should allow you to rest your guys more often, so you're not risking games by sending a tired arm out to the mound so often.

In closing, it does depend somewhat on the parks in your division, but I would drop these guys in favor of others: Buerhle, Willis, Robertson, Lopez, Lee, Womack, A-Rod, Burroughs, Bay, Pena and possibly Alex Sanchez. Good luck, and I will be checking back in, just in case you have any questions about anything that I have said.

[streak69]

Other Parks in Division

Petco
Camden Yards
Safeco

[streak69]

Made adjustements after waivers, how does it look now?

[durantjerry]

1)C-IMO it's not good to invest big $$$ in lefty killer catcher in MM. You will see more RH SP's than usual, probably around 70%, so you'll have $4.0+ sitting on the bench 2/3 of the time. There are not many righty killing catchers. Irod probably the best. Estrada might be good as he hits RH well and won't waste many #HR. You could always platoon him with a lefty killing cheapo.
2)Sweeney is good, but is better as a DH as it's easier to replace his offense at the DH position. Also, he's weak defensively. I think you would be better served cutting Soriano, moving Sweeney to DH and getting a decent 1B, as it's a plentiful position.
3)Giles OK as lefty killer with Beltre, as you have to replace his bat in the middle of the order vs lhp's, as he's not that good.
4)Rollins and Beltre are excellent selections.
5)Beltran not ideal, as many of his #HR will be outs vs rhp's.
6)Bigbie seems like a bargain, but he doea get hurt and you should look for better.
7)You need more bullpen IMO. Your starters are good, so you can get by with a short pen. I think you need at least one good guy($3.00+ reliever).
8)You need to trade Peavy. Check out the other teams and see if you can find a fit. F Garcia would be nice, as he costs about the same and fits your park.