Archive of SportingNews.com's old SOM Baseball forum

My first time using Forbes. I currently have Doby in CF (season starts tomorrow). I know he won't hit worth a leak in my park, he's there for the D. The question is: In Forbes, would you rather have Doby in CF for his D, or upgrade the position offensively with someone like S. Crawford, who is a CF2, +1 arm, e12? Crawford gives me speed and better offense, but is a pretty big drop in D from Doby. My starters, as they stand currently:
SPs - Cicotte, McLain, Koosman and Cuellar. (There is a Dunn in my division, along with a Polo and Three Rivers).
C - G. Carter
1b - K. Hernandez
2b - Schoendienst
SS - Bowa
3b - Rolfe
LF - C. Jones
CF - Doby
RF - Furillo
Any advice appreciated. :)

well bowa wont hit in your stadium very well either. any chance of making him crosetti and upgrading doby to dawson? better speed will hit in your park plus other division parks. good at dunn. just a thought.

I was facing the same decision once, in ATG1, in an extreme pitchers
park (Forbes). Dropped Doby for Crawford who hit a ton - BA .319
slug .457 OBP .363 with 120 RBI. Team won 95 games and then a
Championship so for me it certainly was the right decision.
Having said that I wil admit that I don't think I have used him since,
and I have had a lot of small ball teams, favoring Speaker, D. Dimaggio,
McCoskey and F.Alou.

I think you are all right as is. Doby and Carter work well together. Bowa is a no stick. You might think Crosetti and put the extra in starting pitching but I think it is balanced pretty good now. Here's how I would bat them. As you can see I don't follow the norm.
L/R
Jones
Schoendienst
Furillo
Rolfe
Hernandez
Carter/Doby
Doby/Carter
Bowa

If there are enough LHP (& there could be, with a Dunn team in the division), Chet Lemon could be another option worth consideration. I have him in a neutral park currently & am pleased with the results. Willie Davis is his caddy vs RHP.

Thanks for the comments/suggestions. There are quite a few pitcher's parks in this league, so the pickings are pretty slim on the FA wire for pitcher park type players. No Dawson or D. Dimaggio available. The only SP on the wire that would be an upgrade for me is Hubbell. To go from, say Koosman to Hubbell, would require cuts elsewhere, like downgrading Cueller to a real scrub type #4, ala Splittorff, for example. Don't think I want to make that move. I like Hubbell, but I think Koosman will be fine for me. Crosetti not available either, but even if he was, not sure I'd use him. Crosetti wouldn't hit a lick for me either, and he'll make more errors than Bowa. If Bowa plays good D, steals a few bases and bunts some guys to 2b, I'll be happy with the money spent on him. I've used him several times, and he's actually not hit THAT terribly for me. I can live with him in the #8 spot.

I actually thought about Lemon. He would be excellent for me in MY division. But, in the other divisions, they are RH dominated. I was even thinking of a Doby/Lemon platoon, but just couldn't justify the $$. Was considering a Geronimo/Lemon platoon for a while, as well, but would still need to come up with 1.5m to make it work. Plus, with Geronimo in CF vs RHs, that would make my entire OF 15 game injury risks, which makes me kind of nervous.

Matty Alou, if available, could fill the Lemon platoon & might be a better Forbes fit.

A Willie McGee / Cesar Geronimo platoon has worked very well for me.

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/atg2/team/team_other.html?user_id=59687

Doby is killer in leagues where there is lots of pitchers parks because he shuts down other teams running games, which makes a big difference.
Also, few people notice, Doby's OBP against LH pitching is actually fairly decent.
With Doby and Carter, you are shutting down alot, I would keep both of them and try to build your offense elsewhere.