Looking For Feedback On My Team

[The Godfather]

This is a $60m league where you can protect 10 players at the end of each season. A slide in the last week (2-8) is going to cost me the Wild Card so I don't think my team is terrible but it could definitely use some tweaking. Now I'm trying to get ready for next season.

Offense is definitely my team strength and I picked Dodger Stadium '78 as my home park. I wanted a "neutral" park that wouldn't kill my pitchers but that would let my hitters do their thing. Of course, I never can decide on a ballpark strategy. Am I supposed to pick a park that plays to my strengths (hitting) while letting my pitchers get killed? Or am I supposed to pick a park that helps my pitchers while letting my hitters tough it out?

Here is my team:

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=346379

What am I doing wrong (or right)?

I wasn't concerned with C, I went primarily with defense there. I start Adair at 2B and Deshields at DH (batting 1st or 2nd). Sosa won't be returning, almost 100 RBI but he missed over 50 games. Too much to deal with in a $60m league. Edgar Martinez hits well at 3B but misses 25-35 games per year and isn't the greatest defensively. I know RP Doug Bair will not be back, that was an experiment gone bad.

My protected list is:

SP - Ames
SP - Wiltse
RP - Myers
RP - Gossage
1B - Palmeiro
2B - Deshields
SS - Garciaparra
3B - Martinez
CF - Rice
RF - Burroughs

[visick]

You're in a hitting park and you essentially have 2 positions where you are not going to get much, 3 if you count DH.


Adair/DeShields and your catchers.

visick

[AeroDave10]

Mike,

Those neutral parks are almost never the way to go. ATG appears to be best suited to have an extreme stadium and tailor your team to that. A balance of hitting and pitching, while good in real baseball, just seems to be like stepping on the brakes and accelerator simultaneously.

You only have one lefty power hitter (Palmeiro), so I'd consider ditching him and going for some type of Minute Maid or Hilltop stadium and maximizing the HR power on the right side (Burroughs, Martinez, Sosa, Garciaparra). Pick up a left-handed hitting high OBP guy to put in the #2 slot, and maybe keep Rice (or someone like him, lefty with high BA) to bat #5 or #6. I might consider pooling some money together to get a big-time righty slugger like Hornsby, McGwire, Thomas, Rodriguez, Pujols, FRobinson, or Simmons. As you alluded, you'd better make sure that big bopper has at least 600 PAs, if not 680+.

I think it's a good strategy to save your money at C. Just get some guy that can shut down the running game since there are a lot of inexpensive players that can steal bases, and I'm sure the league is littered with those kinds of guys (e.g. Vince Coleman, Omar Moreno). I'd probably pick one other position (usually 2B or SS), to have a really inexpensive guy that just plays great defense.

If you're going to stay cheap on SP, I'd definitely get two very solid relievers with low bpHR and make sure you rig the settings so they pitch as much as possible (at least 250 IP combined). I'd rather have a $4m RP in the game than a $4m (or even $6-7m) SP. Don't waste money on third and fourth RPs. They should only pitch garbage innings for you, anyways.

[The Godfather]

Thanks for the feedback!

My thinking at 2B was that Adair was a cheap good glove who would play 150+ games. Deshields is my full-time DH because of the $60m salary cap, plus I needed a speed guy to pair with Sam Rice at the top of the line-up. I thought Deshields was a good value for the price. I thought about downgrading at SS because of the errors but Garciaparra had done well for me.

I thought my plan of action should be strengthening the bullpen by diverting money from RF (Sosa) and one of my SP. I have enough offense where I think I can survive having a strong-armed RF who won't miss much time and can still hit a decent amount. I also thought about downgrading RF and one SP, and upgrading 3B and one RP slot.

And I also have to decide if I need to change parks. I've never had any of my teams do well in an extreme hitting park so I'm a bit skeptical about that (especially since my pitching is already getting killed).

By the way, I won the Finals in this league (a few seasons ago) with about 85% of the same roster...

[The Godfather]

Any other feedback?

So far, it sounds like I should maybe downgrade a SP and upgrade a RP. Also, get a more dependable slugger in RF, or maybe downgrade RF and upgrade 3B?

If I do any of those moves, is there a downside to staying in my current ballpark?

Again, I appreciate the insights and critiquing.

Mike

[nels52]

My biggest suggestion would be try and improve the defense especially if you're trying to get more bang for your buck in your SP's.

Obviously I don't know the specifics of the league and who's available etc. but I'd say if you plan to keep Martinez or especially Burroughs be open to having them DH. I'd have to imagine that those iron gloves are really killing alot of your starters (keep Hendrix btw, he's great).

I don't know if you NEED to upgrade to a stud reliever. You definitely could but that's alot of money in 60 mil. Regardless though, I don't think you need that much depth in the pen.

Sounds like a really fun league, I think your team looks good. Best of luck

[honestiago1]

For 60M, I'd run a 5-man, non-* rota with strong relievers. You can often get better SP's for the same money when you buy 'em without the *. Since it's a 60M league, the hitting is probably going to overwhelm the pitching anyway, so a strong pen is almost an essential, unless you're trying to bomb everyone into submission, and simply ignoring pitching anyway.

Because pitching is on the whole poor, your hitters should do better than normal, as well. So I don't think Deshields is a bad pick at all, but I'd probably play him at 2B, here the bat is an asset, rather than at DH, where you can get a pure hitter on the cheap. Deshield's 3 at 2B isn't wonderful, but he will probably hit enough to justify his place in the lineup at 2B. Andyou can can always def replace him late in the game. If there's no cap on single player salaries, you might spend big on one bat. Big hitters can carry the offense in 60M leagues.

[The Godfather]

I had originally started Deshields at 2B but he was committing a lot of errors and my team was generally giving up A LOT of unearned runs. I made some adjustments to my corner OF's and started a good glove at 2B while moving Deshields to DH. Those changes ended up propelling me to the title that year but I still had a ridiculous amount of unearned runs by the end of the season.

My teams since then have had different corner OF's and different RP (other than Gossage). I've changed one or two of the SP since then too.

So I think I'm on the right track, but I can't seem to pick the right pitchers if my life depended on it . Listening to some of the comments, it sounds like adequate SP and a solid bullpen may be the way to go. I agree, your RP are going to have a daily outcome. I may be spending a bit too much on SP (maybe at the #2 spot?). Also, I think I can find a good (cheaper) replacement for Sosa in RF. That would free up money for the bullpen and maybe 3B too.

Does that sound right? Trim some money from SP and RF, and upgrade a bullpen spot (and possibly 3B)?