Archive of SportingNews.com's old SOM Baseball forum

Could someone tell me why this team is doing so poorly. With the players I have the team should have won more than 25% of its games.

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=366728

The team looks better than the record. 140 M AND 200 M are always a bit of a crapshoot. Coors only adds to the confusion. You have to figure all the other lineups are stacked so your not gaining any edge at home. Not thrilled with Veal and Nick Maddox at this cap but your bullpen looks good. Im currently in a couple of 140m leagues [challanging for first in one and off to the slowest start ive ever experienced in the other [ 5-16 ] in the other and I thought it was a great team when the season started. The only thing that is for certain is that nothing is for certain. Have patience and maybe the rolls will start to go your way.

I dont play 140, but your pitching and defense seem light for 140, even for Coors. Hack in CF and a 2 at SS at 140M seems tough...maybe one or the other, but both may be too much, considering you have a couple weak pitchers for the cap.

Have a couple cards that are not big values--the R1 eck and sandberg.
A couple hitters are underperforming,especially on the road. You aren't really outhitting at home, and in coors, you need to mash.

On offense, Wilson should be the DH...you really don't have a balanced lineup. Not much from the left side, nor mix of tablesetters. Seems like a tough righty will tame it, even if Matthews picks it up, which he should.

At 140M I would expect a few of the top shelf cards in Coors--Bonds, Ruth, Mantle, even Gehrig, Gibson, Foxx, Mays, Bagwell...

Aaron is your most expensive hitter...that seems inadequate at this cap when playing at Coors, even though Hack is a suitable DH.

Maybe not losing at a 1:3 ratio, but I wouldn't expect a winning effort from this team, but caveated by not having looked at your opponents. I'm sure I'm wrong! Well, hope I'm wrong and they turn it around. Good Luck.

I like the players you have (with the exception of the back
end of your rotation), but not put together as a team like this.

Here is a thread that sums up a lot of things:

http://forums.sportingnews.com/viewtopic.php?t=9842

Two highlights from the thread that apply especially to this team:

[b:7581becd5c]OBP before SLG [/b:7581becd5c]

[b:7581becd5c]get a guy with a high, over .400 if possible, OBP to lead off[/b:7581becd5c]

This thread was written back in ATG3 or early. At $140 mill in ATG6,
I would put the bar of the lead off hitter at .420 or higher.

HR hitters start to get seriously diminishing returns after about
6 big time HR-bats, after which point, getting players on base for
the HR hitters do a much better job of scoring runs. This really
hasn't become much of an issue until ATG6 -- now you can overload
your lineup with HR threats. Its really fun to do, but not an optimal
use of the players.

[quote:1c1b9c130d="theavgjoe"]With the players I have the team should have won more than 25% of its games.[/quote:1c1b9c130d]
First off, prove this statement to be irrefutable and then we'll talk.

Simple analysis:

Your SP aren't strong enough to compete at 140, specifically your #3 and #4 SP.

Not enough emphasis on OB in your lineup.

Playing Hack Wilson in CF. Wonderful bat, but costing you runs in CF.

In a 140 cap league there probably aren't any alternatives on the wire either, that would be my guess.

It is too late to salvage much, but you can learn. BTW, I am in the league but not your division (full disclosure). You have entirely too low OBP for park and team, your 3rd & 4th SPs are decent $100M guys, they have no place in $140M leagues.

Figure it all out before hand, but:

Drop Maddox and Veale.

Drop Raddatz and McClure and pickup less than $1M biased pair.

Pick two fielders to drop, probably Mize and Banks, maybe Eddie. Replace one with a pure fielder, maybe Crosetti or Burleson at SS.

Pickup Norm Cash, move Simmons to CF and get two $8-9M SPs. With whatever is left get someone with a 2 range to play LF with as good OBP and 15 run as you can get for the $$.

Your lineup (by position):

Campy
Greeny or Mize
Sand
Eddie or scrub
Banks or scrub
LFer
Simmons
Aaron
Hack

Set your SPs to F7, hope you stay in games late and take your chances.

Best of luck!

sschu

All the advice these guys are giving you is good advice. But even with your mistakes your team should not be this bad. You are on thje receiving end of some very bad rolls/luck. Listen to these guys, and learn from your mistakes and hopefully next time you will have much better luck.

Too much money spent on your bullpen.

Several good points have been made. Add 1 more. If you are going to pick a hitters haven as your home park avoid pitchers with #s on the cards. You have given 100 HRs to Radatz.

The upper cap leagues can be deceiving. What may look like an allstar lineup can easily be average to poor. And as the player pool grows it is becoming even easier to dupe yourself in to thinking you have a good team. But when teams are matching your Ernie Banks with an Arky and your Simmons with a Bonds, Ruth, etc you can get overmatched fast. Not saying these are not good players. But you need to step back and take a long honest look at the rosters you are going against. You can have a lineup of allstars and still not be good relative to the other teams.

You might look at your league and take a close look at the teams in pitcher's parks who might not care as much about Radatz having #s on his card and see what kind of trade can be made. I have seen him have good seasons in the right park and thus may have trade value.

And bad luck can compound things in a hurry. Someone mentioned Veale is overmatched at 140 cap level. The 0-11 record would seem to confirm that. Clemens on the other hand is mix of bad luck and getting killed when the rolls fall on batters cards. Nothing you can do about something like that except say ouch.

Assume you traded for Eckersley somewhat recently. If not then your settings that only geth him 12 innings while Radatz racks up 100 need adjusting.