Archive of SportingNews.com's old SOM Baseball forum

I'm pretty good at smallball in ATG but I've always been TERRIBLE with it in 200X. Naturally after a good run recently I decided to face my demons. My thought was to play the "reverse" Petco strategy by taking advantage of some of the nice cheap SP values and building an outstanding hitting team around the Barry...

Well...

Got the big guy, and most of the pitchers I wanted, but really did poorly for the players I want in the draft. So I'm in the situation where I really can't find a way to spend all the money I wanted to on quality two way players...

What I've done is spent a lot of money on extreme LH hitters who have some natural HRs on their right side... I know I will lose a lot of outs to my park but the good OBP values are unavailable...

Has anyone ever tried this before? I've tried to spend a little bit more on platoons than I usually do, but I'm still a lot stronger vs. RHP. Fortunately, most of the managers in my division are at the usual 75% rate of righties...

Of course the good SP is gone, so outside of loading up on RP I can't figure any better way to spend my money. Am I doomed? I feel like I am...

Thanks in advance for the input.

[url]http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/2005/team/team_other.html?user_id=39721[/url]

SP
Grienke
*Morris
*Lidle
*Milton
*Moyer

RP
Calero (innings)
Carter (trying him for the first time)
Hammonds
Wickman (maximized 9th inning closer vs. RH only)
Halsey (maximized 9th inning closer vs. LH only)

vs. RHP
1. Giles, Brian (L) RF
2. Clark, Brady (R) LF
3. Bonds, Barry (L) DH
4. Mauer, Joe (L) C
5. Blalock, Hank (L) 3B
6. Hafner, Travis (L) 1B
7. Izturis, Cesar (S) SS
8. Finley, Steve (L) CF
9. Castillo, Luis (S) 2B

vs. LHP
1. Castillo, Luis (S) 2B
2. Bocachica, Hiram (R) CF
3. Bonds, Barry (L) DH
4. Merloni, Lou (R) 1B
5. Blalock, Hank (L) 3B
6. Pratt, Todd (R) C
7. Payton, Jay (R) LF
8. Izturis, Cesar (S) SS
9. Kearns, Austin (R) RF

Luckyman has a good post about the relative value of natural HR's in Petco being higher, and the value of walks being lower.

http://forums-beta.sportingnews.com/viewtopic.php?t=23989

Of course a ton of it is contextual, but if you subscribe to this theory and you're trying to build a strong hitting team in Petco, it makes sense to have direct HR guys like Mauer, but not so much the walkers like Giles, Clark et al... Maybe try to find guys who have a larger percentage of their OBP from hits than some of the guys you have...

Here is a team that has some of your main players. Went heavy on relief; don't have the one-sided Hafner types that you do. Won a championship...


[url]http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/2005/team/team_other.html?user_id=7781[/url]

Things I would definitively do:

1-Release at least one player and increase the value of one RP. Munson is probably the player don't need, given that Pratt's card vs rhp (when mauer will be down) is not bad, at least on-base wise. I think I would also release either Payton or Kearns and start Clark vs lhp---and take the money to better the relief. I would probably take the extra money to release Hammonds and get a good 2-3M reliever who can do the job on days Calero is off or takes off.

2- Hafner is too good to be 6th and (especially) be in front of Izturis. Hafner is the second best card vs rhp after Bonds in the set. Given the depth of your line-up, I would move second, Clark first, Bonds third Mauer fourth, Blalock fifth, Giles sixth but see next point.

3-I don't think I would use Giles with this team. In my opinion, your team would be better with Bonds lf, Finley cf, Clark rf Hafner dh vs rhp, and Bochachica lf Finley cf Clark rf, Bonds dh vs lhp. I would simply cut him, get a 3M for Petco (Franco?? Erstad??) and try to improve on Liddle or Morris.

I've gotta 2nd. getting rid of Giles. I had him in Petco before, and he was a dud. He hit .230 w/ .330 OB before I released him after about 120 games.

Vasquez is a great value in Petco, if you want.

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/2005/team/team_other.html?user_id=17766

I also think you need better RP.

OK I can see Giles is not popular here... Frankly with my lack of OBP I'm afraid to jettison him... (Even if his OBP is all from BBs and #s...) Also afraid to lose Munson with Mauer- sure at home Pratt will be OK but in the HR parks, he can sometimes suck... Not a lot of hits on his card from the right side either...

Not really an option to upgrade SP, it's simply not there. Could indeed do something about the pen, but I'm thinking I have enough. Hmmm, perhaps not with that SP.

Food for thought. I would want a platoon type 1B if I cut Giles Lucky, because I have Merloni who is too good to sit vs. LHP. Erstad is a possibility I guess, I'll look into that.

Thanks for the feedback from you experts. Ed, I would DIE for Abreu and Kotsay on this team, I would guess those two had a lot to do with you winning.

Trying to trade Giles, figuring I won't be able to get what I want, and if that's the case thinking about dropping Giles for Erstad, dropping Kearns and picking up Urbina for Hammonds. Thoughts?

I figure that I can use Oogie as a second setup guy in pitchers' parks and as a LH late inning closer-only on the road.

Well I did it, dropped Giles and Hammonds for Erstad and Oogie. Hopes that works out for me...