The Secret Formula 2010

[durantjerry]

Dan Uggla-worst season by anyone ever?
[url]http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=287822[/url]

[AeroDave10]

Jerry,

That is certainly a tough one to explain, though I'm not sure if it's the worst season by anyone in SOM ever. Maybe you could start another post to get some candidates for that one.

I think players seem to struggle when surrounded by too many other high-priced players, whether they are a high-priced or low-priced player. Whether it is admitted or not, I do think that some kind of control is exhibited over the performance of the cards, and if you have all of those guys that have to live up to such high expectations, someone has to suffer.

Uggla seemed to get some incredibly bad luck combined with the circumstance I described. He certainly was in the right ballpark to excel. He must have been a good clubhouse guy. Did he pitch at all for you guys? He couldn't have done much worse than most of that staff ;)

[Irahays]

[quote:d83e98ca48="durantjerry"]Dan Uggla-worst season by anyone ever?
[url]http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=287822[/url][/quote:d83e98ca48]


372 homeruns.......

[J-Pav]

[b:81dd68e467]Jerry[/b:81dd68e467]:

Thx for posting your team - an interesting experiment in the true spirit of the [i:81dd68e467]Old Guard[/i:81dd68e467] days!

For your consideration: Uggla scored 66 runs for $1.44 to Pujols' 137 for $12.84. That's one half the runs for [i:81dd68e467]one ninth[/i:81dd68e467] the price. Ignoring the avg/obp/slg line for a minute, why don't you consider this a very [i:81dd68e467]good[/i:81dd68e467] thing? In hindsight, do you think a high obp tablesetter platoon like Castillo/Theriot would have served you better?

[AeroDave10]

Not to butt in too much, but I think Uggla scored 66 runs IN SPITE OF his .266 OBP. This suggests heavily that the other 8 dudes on the team were pushing him across rather than Uggla doing the work. You simply can't ignore his OPS because that's his independent contribution (hence it's widespread growth in popularity among baseball enthusiasts in recent years).

[J-Pav]

I was ignoring the OPS for the very reason that it's not pleasing to the eye. If the Castillo/Theriot line was 66 runs scored and .275/.345/.350, would that be considered a successful season?

[durantjerry]

[quote:d03cd3f970]Ignoring the avg/obp/slg line for a minute, why don't you consider this a very good thing?[/quote:d03cd3f970]
You must be a silver lining guy, big time! He did bat second alot vs rhp's, which pushed his runs up. I kept waiting for him to break out, and waiting, and waiting, and waiting, ......................

[AeroDave10]

I checked the 2009 non-theme 80M leagues I was in this year, and the lowest OPS of qualified players was Ian Stewart (.517) playing in Fenway Park by newbie manager dseuss:

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=280416


I think it may be rare to find that many qualified guys with an OPS that low since most managers, despite the best advice of vets, can't help but pull the trigger to drop a player before he can amass enough at-bats.

FYI, I saw Elvis Andrus at or near the bottom of quite a few of those leagues, too, though Stewart's mark was considerably lower than any of the others.

[J-Pav]

I do try and be the glass half full guy! :D

Now don't take this the wrong way :( , but the point that I'm trying to make is this:

Runs scored - runs allowed > 100 = much joy joy.
Runs scored - runs allowed < 100 = much gnashing of teeth.

Uggla's role as the $1.66 guy was perfectly acceptable, in my opinion. On my last ring team (which I mentioned above - in Camden), Uggla scored 69 runs with a pleasing to the eye line of .248/.365/.482 (32 HRs and 80 RBI).

My point is this: your team asked the question "Can I overpower teams with $70 spent on offense?" and the answer came back as a "no". The high powered offense was too much of a good thing. The better question would be: How [i:ff62b2fc37]little[/i:ff62b2fc37] can I spend on offense to score 750 runs and how [i:ff62b2fc37]little[/i:ff62b2fc37] can I spend on pitching to give up only 650?

Which brings us full circle: on average, $30 mil of pitching and $50 mil of hitting gets the job done [i:ff62b2fc37]most frequently[/i:ff62b2fc37] (not saying that other ideas can't/don't work). And that $50 mil of hitting is optimized with a spread somewhere between the 6-6-6-5-5-5-4-4-4 and 9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 models. [i:ff62b2fc37]Voila![/i:ff62b2fc37]

[AeroDave10]

J-Pav,

Here are links to all of my 2009 teams (80M, no theme) with record, standing, and result. I've done pretty well in my leagues, except for one** when I tried to make Jason Bartlett work (and he didn't). I'd love to get your take on any of these, as well as enter them in as evidence for those newbies trying to pick up any pointers. I've used a variety of stadiums and players, so there is clearly more than one winning strategy.


92-70; 1st in Central (1st overall); Lost Finals
http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=261873

86-76; 1st in Central (3rd overall); CHAMPS
http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=271623

89-73; 1st in Central (3rd overall); CHAMPS
http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=281422

90-72; 1st in East (1st overall); Lost in Semi-Finals
http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=287654

78-84; 3rd in Central (8th overall); missed playoffs**
http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=290452

I have three others in progress, and I can certainly post those later if people are interested.