Advice to Novice Owners - It Is Usually Best To Stand Pat!

[lafayette1]

I'm a newbie at this, but I think some players are way overpriced, and the total money value doesnt necessarily align with their talent. So, even losing the 20% value during the season could be justified.

For instance, I have this player Raeburn, over $% million, whose card is bettered by quite a few players at 2 mill and slightly more. I'm just keeping him as a backup for a star, but injury prone OFielder.

This guy's card stinks at 5 mill, and I don't really know how they fix some of these prices.

[Play By The Rules]

Raburn is a very good small ball player, although the one time I had him he sucked it up vs. LHP. A guy that has a smallball team in my division has hit hitting like .370, it's ridiculous!

[lafayette1]

Really, on Raburn? Well, that's good to know. Thanks for the input, since I'm doing more smallball than anything else.

[Dpick33]

Where can you find how many players have been on your team or how many moves you have left?

[mfsleeze]

The only caveat I'd point out to this advice (which is great, by the way), is you have to remember your first 18 games and your last 36 are against your division. So a slow start could also be the sign of problems in matching up with your division, which will reemerge late in the year. I get a kick out of people who complain about "getting unlucky down the stretch" when it's a matter of how you match up with your division.

So you need to decide if it's a poor matchup situation or just underperformance.

[visick]

To elaborate more on what mfsleeze said...

If I'm in contention heading down the stretch and it's before the add/drop deadline, I'll look back to see how I faired against my divisional rivals. I'll then look to see if they made any moves.

If they loaded their lineup with lefties, I'll grab a hard LH down the stretch. Or visa versa. If they made SP changes, I might make a move or 2 to help me adjust to their changes.

I think an important thing to look at here is your stats. Sounds stupid but I'm guilty of not looking at them at times. How are you fairing against RH's or LH's? At home? On the road?


visick

[ArrylT]

Just as an addendum to the thread I started - both team examples that I showed - and started off 12-24 (.333) turned their seasons around and finished not only with winning records but also clinched playoff berths.

The 2003 squad finished 85-77 - which means it went 73-53 over the remaining 126 games (.579).

The 2005 squad finished 92-70 - which means it went 80-46 over the remaining 126 games (.634).

So in conclusion, in cases where you felt you had a solid team pre-season, it is often best to let the season play out, rather than make rash changes for the sake of shaking things up.

There will always be times where changes are necessary or needed - but in those cases it is still best to think the moves through first.