Team starts out 18-36 Wow!

[macnole]

Regardless of small ball or big ball...
I think it's true that a winning strategy is more likely when the largest investment is made in your strengths, to accentuate.

So, if a lefty team, better have more salary toward lefties. If a small ball team, more toward guys that play small ball (avg, natural XBHs, OBA, speed, defense, low DPs for hitters).

Maybe Kiner in a case where more than half your opponents are in extreme hitter parks...but otherwise you are paying for BPHRs--and he is the largest single investment you made in your small ball team...about 11% of your total salary. About one sixth of the salary of your daily lineup...that's a lot for a player not suited to where he will play half his games.

[lafayette1]

I'm takin' notes guys...keep it coming.

[The Last Druid]

-90 runs at 1/3 through the season is way more than luck. It's an unmitigated disaster.

You are in dream division for small ball. But the two Forbes teams that are tearing up the league are significantly better. But all is not yet lost.

Let's look at the mudville nine, leading your division at 37-17.

Johnson, Walter (1913) R S9*/R5 36 7 2 346.0 232 0 44 38 243 9 1.14 0.78 E 10.98M
Walsh, Ed (1910) R S9* 18 20 5 369.2 242 0 52 61 258 5 1.27 0.82 E 10.79M
Tiant, Luis (1968) R S9*/R3 21 9 0 258.1 152 0 46 73 264 16 1.60 0.87 1L 10.45M
Higbe, Kirby (1946) R S6*/R5 17 8 1 210.2 178 0 71 107 134 6 3.03 1.35 E 3.34M
Nielsen, Scott (1986) R S7 4 4 0 56.0 66 29 25 12 20 12 4.02 1.39 2R .50M
Percival, Troy (1995) R R2 3 2 3 74.0 37 0 16 26 94 6 1.95 0.85 E 5.38M
Wade, Ben (1953) R R3 7 5 3 90.1 79 40 38 33 65 15 3.79 1.24 E 1.13M
Christenson, Gary (1980) L R2 3 0 1 31.1 35 23 18 18 16 4 5.17 1.69 6L .50M
Bair, Doug (1988) R R2 0 0 0 13.1 14 0 6 3 8 2 4.06 1.28 9R .50M

Hitters (15) min. 13, max. 17
Name B P Def. AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS BA OBP SLG BAL Salary
Cochrane, Mickey (1929) L C 1(-3)e7 514 113 170 37 8 7 95 69 8 7 6 .331 .412 .475 E 6.03M
Myatt, Glenn (1934) L C 4(+2)e7 107 18 34 6 1 0 12 13 5 1 0 .318 .392 .393 4R .77M
Connor, Roger (1889) L 1B 2e14 496 117 157 32 17 13 130 93 46 21 0 .317 .423 .528 E 8.55M
Mazzilli, Lee (1986) S 1B 4e16 151 28 37 5 1 3 15 38 36 4 4 .245 .401 .351 6R 2.39M
Avila, Bobby (1954) R 2B 3e20 555 112 189 27 2 15 67 59 31 9 7 .341 .402 .477 2L 3.94M
Backman, Wally (1984) S 2B 3e18 436 68 122 19 2 1 26 56 63 32 9 .280 .360 .339 4R .70M
Boggs, Wade (1986) L 3B 2e21 580 107 207 47 2 8 71 105 44 0 4 .357 .453 .486 1R 7.27M
Appling, Luke (1936) R SS 2e32 526 111 204 31 7 6 128 85 25 10 6 .388 .474 .508 1L 7.52M
Sand, Heinie (1926) R SS 4e36 567 99 154 30 5 4 37 66 56 2 0 .272 .346 .363 E .54M
Weintraub, Phil (1934) L LF 4(-1)e15 74 13 26 2 0 0 15 15 10 0 0 .351 .461 .378 5R 2.34M
Alou, Jesus (1973) R LF 4(+2)e7 163 17 46 5 0 2 19 3 12 0 0 .282 .304 .350 7L .91M
Cardenal, Jose (1980) R LF 4(+2)e10 95 12 25 3 0 0 9 11 9 0 1 .263 .327 .295 9L .52M
Combs, Earle (1927) L CF 1(+3)e10 648 137 231 36 23 6 64 62 31 15 6 .356 .414 .511 3R 4.63M
Jackson, Joe (1911) L RF 1(-3)e6 571 126 233 45 19 7 83 56 0 41 0 .408 .468 .590 6R 9.11M
Collins, Shano (1920) R RF 3(-2)e12 495 70 150 21 10 1 63 23 24 12 9 .303 .339 .392 6L 1.21

That's a very good, but not great (value) pitching staff. Tiant is a monster value in your division. Johnson a keeper. Walsh is overpriced in your division. He has no ballpark homers. You want pitchers with lots of ballpark homers because your division turns them to outs and they are much cheaper. Higbe doesn't have any #'s either but is the most underpriced pitcher in the entire AGT 6 set -- by far. Percival though is a gross waste of money with those starters. This guy has a lot of good value platoons, Mazzilli, Weintraub vs righties; against lefties I would only worry about Collins. Alou and Cardenal have great averages but aren't usually productive at either scoring or knocking guys in. So I wouldn't be afraid of them. I would want to throw lefties against this team all day, but not backward righties like Satchel. This team has some premium small ball guys: Boggs, Combs (yes even in CF but I prefer to dh him myself), Jackson and Appling. But note that 3 of these guys are lefties and two are significantly diminished against lefties. Also let him start Avila every game against lefties. His glove makes up for his bat.

Against this team I would keep Score (no pun intended) and get rid of the rest of your starters. I'd want Sadecki, Short (the cheaper) and maybe some guy like Nehf or the cheap Antonelli. You want pitchers with low whips and lots of homers. You get an effective staff at bargain basement prices this way. (I would actually spend more on pitching, check out my teams in the next post, but these[b:0c85ed1c09] are [/b:0c85ed1c09]mid season adjustments).

The second place Bayshore club spent too much on pitching given that he has Dale Murray too. He does have some small ball greats: Cobb, Frisch, Terry and Lindstrom. That's hard to compete against. But you can. That team slugs .368 vs. lefties. Get the picture?

Remodel your pitching with lefties. Both of your two division opponents have some solid resources but they also wasted some. Punish their mistakes.

If you are in a 20% drop league you might want to wait until game 129 to make these changes. Otherwise take advantage of the 10% penalty and make the changes NOW.

[The Last Druid]

I'll copy links to all of my recently completed 100M small ball teams (just the ones that come up on my recently completed teams list).


http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=349834

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=352347

A very competitive invitational league also featuring the interloper with his -400 run differential inflating the West standings.

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=353604

Murray and Pedro were 1-2 in the Cy Young but Murray should have been MVP as well.

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=354797

A 24 team league where I was doing very well before a late season collapse. Of course dropping 11 players (Charleston and Schoendenist were killing me) was what really did me in.

[nels52]

100 mil can be pretty unforgiving. Every team has SO much talent so you had better utilize every last 100K. You gotta ask yourself: Is spending 5, 4, and 5 mil on guys like Larkin, Simmons and Lofton really the best way to spend your money? Same goes with pitching. The higher the cap the more iffy a mid priced (4.5-6.5mil) starter becomes. You spent a lot on guys that are fairly likely to bomb. I'm a huge fans of guys like Lofton in real life. I know it's real tempting to take guys like this I mean, he hit .317 that year, is a 1 in center, bulletproof, ridiculously fast for UNDER 5 million?!?!?!?

Bottomline: he sucks ESPECIALLY in 100 million. ATG6 is brutal; Lofton96, like hundreds of other Greats, just doesn't do his role in a potential lineup (bat leadoff and GET ON BASE) well enough to warrant 5 million bucks. Same with Larkin in a big way.

I like having win-conditions in Strat. Guys that can and will win me a good share of games. As I distribute money across a pitching staff I try and make sure where it goes (Maddux, Johnson, Martinez, Pete) WINS me games. Skimp where you can and spend on your elite weapons.

I like that Sisler card but I like the expensive one more.


Most managers would admit they went through some/a lot of growing pains in Strat. Now Petrosian and Weinberg are about ready to get into a a fistfight over their Strat manhood but thats another story......

You've got some good things on you team and some other things you'll learn from. Learn from your mistakes and you'll be fine. Oh and welome!



[quote:0676072fda="Petrosian"] So I don't waste a dime on guys like Kiner who are well worth their price in bomber parks but who aren't worth much at all in your park. [/quote:0676072fda]

I generally agree with this principle but I am intrigued by Kiner in small-ball, just not the expensive one. I hate that one in fact. The 6.64 million dollar Kiner does the same thing the expensive Kiner at a very comparable level for 4 million less. Granted you need to face a ton of lefties as he's a 3L. I'm pondering using him at DH in 100 mil at DH behind Duffy, Sisler and Rogan. Rogan might be my second-basemen so maybe I know nothing.... :lol:

[Stormcrow2012]

Kenny Lofton bats last for my team. Thanks for all the advice.