Archive of SportingNews.com's old SOM Baseball forum

Starting an SBC team, and was wondering if anyone has ever tried to cut costs by platooning Lou Merloni and Eric Valent at first base. They're not horrible defensively (3e5 and 3e8, respectively), so I guess my main question would be this: what sort of offensive production could I expect out of the two of them?

Other parks in the division are Petco, Jacobs, and Shea. I'm thinking of sticking them in the seven or eight hole in the lineup.

Valent is terrible in that park, and IMO not strong enough overall to platoon anywhere.

Merloni is another story.

I think you would be better off with Mark Sweeney (COL) or Adam LaRoche instead of Valent in that platoon.

that platoon is fine, but just in the wrong park. valent will waste all 6 of his ballpark hr's vs righties. otherwise, valent/merloni is nice IMO, to bat as your 7 hitters on both sides.

Thanks guys. I will definitely keep Merloni, and will see what happens in waivers. If I am able to land Pujols, I will probably stick him at first base and try to move the platoon elsewhere so I can save the money. I'll keep you posted.