First Crack at $60mil

[motherscratcher]

Finished my one and only (so far) $60mil league not long ago. Ended up 78-84. Not catastrohic, but Ill be honest, I thought I had a darn good team going in.

Anyone have any thoughts as to where I went wrong?

[url]http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=346667[/url]

Not to shabby ROI from Jim Barr (wish I'd started the season with him) and Willie McGee IMO.

[rburgh]

One thing that jumps out is that all of your pitchers except Barr gave up more (most a LOT more) HR on the road than at home. You must have had a league full of parks that favored power.

I've done two $60 million leagues. One was in a league where it was mandatory for all teams to use Turner Field, and there was no DH. That team had offensive stats similar to yours (.281-.349-.397 with 786 runs vs. your .306-.358-.421 with 816 runs scored). But my hitting budget was about $36.5 million and yours about $39.4 million.

Pitching-wise, I coaxed a 3.94 bullpen ERA out of McBean, Joe Dawson, Al Hrabosky 82, Jim Duffalo, and Ed Vandeberg, at a cost of barely over $4 million. Your bullpen ERA was 4.89, and (counting Lerch) its salary was $5.37 million.

And my starters combined for a 3.88 ERA and a 71-51 record. The team overall was 87-75 and made the playoffs.

My second attempt was a pre-WW2 league with no DH, in Griffith NeL, and I ran out a $22.5 million pitching staff, with a rotation of Rogan, Urban Shocker '20, Monte Pearson, and Tom Zachary '26. The bullpen was a little pricier; workhorses Jesse Haines and Lloyd Brown combined for a 3.10 ERA in 261 innings for under $3 million.

The offense was surprisingly efficient - it put up a season of .285-.355-.377, which looks horrible, but scored 843 runs. I totally abandoned the HR ball, as only 6 of my hitters (and one P) homered and we were out-homered 82-34. But somehow the runs crossed the plate, and the team stole only 68 bases. That lineup was Sugden, Bill Terry 34, Stanky 45, Heinie Zimmerman (.266-.298-.370-4-87 for $0.93 million), Arky Vaughan, Jo-Jo Moore, Dom Dimaggio, and Elmer Flick.

I'm not sure why the second team did so well - it won 90 games. But looking at my two teams, and at yours, I can see a couple of differences that obviously mattered.

1. My starting rotations were more expensive, and more effective, than yours. The first team above had a rotation that came in at about $19.5 million, and pitched 1100 very effective innings. The second came in at about $16.75 million, and had a 4.10 ERA in 1043 innings. Yours had a 4.65 ERA in 924 innings.

2. I spent less on bullpen, with better results. I suspect this was mostly a function of the other ballparks in the league, since your top 2 guys of Smith and Delock pitched almost exactly the same number of innings as my guys Haines and Brown, but my guys allowed 101 R (90 ER) and yours 119 and 111. I have used that Smith card several times, and it's usually pretty good. And you got what I consider to be a great year out of Delock.

3. My team that won 90 games stole as many bases as yours had CS. I suspect you ran too much for your own good, even though your SB percentage was outstanding. Still, a 70% success rate for steals is barely break-even. Don't forget, when you have an asterisk guy on 1B, he adds almost 10 points to the hitter's batting average.

4. Most of your pitchers that underperformed (Sadecki, Smith, and, to some extent, Lolich) have cards that are much better against LHB. Your two cards that clearly overperformed (Barr and Delock) are both much better against RHB. I suspect that you may have failed to adequately adjust your pitching staff to account for the other teams' ballparks and lineups.

[motherscratcher]

Thanks rburgh

I think you're right. Looking back at the league, I didn't account for the opposition like I should have. Two of the teams in my division were EXTREMELY right handed hitting. Going with cheaper 6R Sadecki instead of 4L Sadecki would have made sense. Also, it would have freed up some cash for me.

Also, I like the looks of that Lolich card, especially in my park, but it was just the wrong league to use him in. Should have gone with someone who is E or slightly R there. Same goes with Dave Smith.

I liked my bullpen. Those guys have low BPS cards. They were just not good enough against right handed hitting. That's why Delock had such a good year, though.

I wish I had a do-over on this one. I feel like this team, even though it finished under .500, wasn't all that far from contention.

I don't know why Hal was so run happy with this team. I had the steal settings on normal