by The Last Druid » Sun Jan 29, 2006 8:35 pm
Listen carefully. I'm going to help you because Satan (aka Frank Bailey) is in your division.
You have two Dunn's in your division and Yankee 27.
Your pitching staff is inspired. Love your starting 4. Koufax and Clemens are ideal for your park and ideal against Dunn teams. DO NOT TINKER WITH YOUR STARTERS. You nailed them the first time. In fact your whole pitching staff is just about perfect as is. Well done!!
Your hitters are another story. The keepers are Weaver, Robinson, Cobb, Chance. However, I see Robinson as viable only at 3rd or 1B. So you really can't keep all three (him Chance and Weaver). As much as I would hate to lose him Weaver should go. Robinson and Chance may end up being your main offensive threats after Cobb. DiMaggio, although superb, is a tad iffy only because of payroll issues -- you did spend rather a lot on pitching. Dempsey and Crosetti are not suited for your park. Doran is an acquired taste. You can do better.
Dempsey is bad because his offense won't help you. Much of his offensive production is just walks. And given that he is slow and would bat 7th or 8th he is basically useless, especially next to Crosetti.
Crosetti has some marginal value in a hr park because of his ballpark hr's. In Forbes all he has going for him is his iron man status and his glove. I'd use Durocher first. He hits lefties reasonably well and more importantly clutches up. Thus he may end up clearing the pitcher a bit more as Hal may often walk him with two out and someone in scoring position. The game is simply too competitive to allow 2 Mendoza candidates in the starting lineup.
I'm not sure who the free agents are so I can only offer some general solutions. Although I love DiMaggio he loses all his ballpark hr's in your park and in the two Dunn parks. That's 105 games with no ballpark hr's for starters. I would prefer the lesser Dimaggio for your team but my real choice would be Billy North. You can bat him second behind Chance and have nice speed and OBP at the top of the order. And you save 7+ Million.
At SS look to see if Chapman is available. For your park I would rank the SS's in this order for desirability.
Yount
Smith
Wagner
Trammell
Bowa
Pesky
Chapman
Aparicio
Fernandez
Concepcion
Wills
Surely one of them is available. All are much better than Crosetti in Forbes. Wouldn't draft Banks or Ripken in your circumstances.
Assuming the good second baseman are all taken, Whitaker usually isn't. I often platoon him with Mazeroski. One possibility may be Evers. With the money you save on him you could even keep DiMaggio and still upgrade SS.
I'd probably take Grote before Dempsey unless I was in a DH league. Grote's OBP sucks but at least he can moves runners along and will definitely out RBI Dempsey in your park. If he's available grab Battey. He is an excellent 5th or 6th hitter for your team. He clutches up nicely, hits well, walks alot and hits into few double plays.
Then you'll need a LF. Who you get totally depends on whether you keep Dimaggio. Check back with me when that's resolved.
Let's say you make the suggested changes. Here's a possible lineup.
Chance
North
Cobb
Robinson
Battey
Chapman
LF
Evers.