Archive of SportingNews.com's old SOM Baseball forum

Just threw a couple teams in for giggles after a long hiatus and have a team that is really struggling on offense even though I don't think they should be.

This team spent 75% of it's budget on offense yet is DEAD LAST in the league in BA, OBP and SLG .......

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=377663&stats=sim&onroster=1

They have faced nearly 80% RHP's but it is a well balanced lineup which really shouldn't be affected by that.

The lineup also has great team speed and low gbA's as an added bonus.

I realize they're playing in Petco, but they actually are performing ever so slightly better at home than on the road.

Any Thoughts??? Suggestions??? Is it too early to panic???

[quote:302c6c3b65]They have faced nearly 80% RHP's but it is a well balanced lineup which really shouldn't be affected by that. [/quote:302c6c3b65]
But they have been and will be. Five of your offensive starters are balanced toward left hand pitchers. That's not good utilization of your resources. Facing 75% RHP should warrant additional RH leaning batters.

Maxie

Need more LH hitters and you picked a pitchers park but drafted a bunch of non-dominating SP pitchers. Normally if you pick Petco, you spend a higher $$ % on your pitching. I don't like Alomar on your team even though he is a switch hitter - go for high walks/OBP. Get some guys on base for Speaker. And rejig your catchers - $8 million+ for those two? Two much!!! Good luck, Mark

Your team OPS is ridiculously low for having spent over 80% of your budget on hitters, even in Petco. I've seen a few teams try to play in Petco at $80 million with no DH and the ones that I recall have been unsuccessful - a quick check shows that the best of them finished at 79-83 with an OPS of .718 and a pitching staff of almost $27 million.

Possibly there are others I have seen that succeeded, but when you're paying under $16 million for your pitching staff on an $80 million cap, even in Petco, you should be able to have an OPS of .750 or so as a team.

Your lineup should consist of a couple of high OBP guys, followed by as many guys with 40+ hits as you can afford, followed by defensive scrubs at key positions.

See the discussion of small-ball theory a few topics below. Believe Petro - he's had more small ball teams than most of us have had teams.

Although I know what you mean when you say you spent 75% on offense - in reality you actually spent a lot of that on defense. You have all "1" defenders with great catcher and outfield arms. That cost you some of that 75% spent on offense. I do not think that is bad, but it does mean you are not going to find that 75% spent for offense show up as a high OBP and a potent offense. Terry, Dandridge and Ichiro seem to be underproducing but the rest are at about the level I would expect.

Despite that great defense and playing in Petco your pitching is hurting too with an ERA at 4.79. I agree with orienting the offense more toward right-handed pitching but would hesitate to tear things apart too much. You are due for better days.

33 games is too small a sample size but having said that to answer your question regarding your offense the only player that's hitting for anything is Speaker. Terry & Ichiro will eventually hit better. Sometimes you have to be patient.

Your new pickups should do OK. I think you spent too much on catching & SS though - at 80m that is a luxury - for the money you spent on Vizquel & Mackey you could have spent that money to get an all around bopper for the middle of your lineup with lots of XB (cheap Joe DiMaggio card) FWIW

in a word... Petco

Not sure if it was because of injury, or if HAL set the lineups, but one reason could be this... I see several games where Dandrige was batting cleanup vs. lefties and Biz Mackey was batting cleanup vs. righties :roll:

Aside from lower average, having little slugging at cleanup behind Speaker seems like a waste...

[quote:6e349af23a="wjanssen"]in a word... Petco[/quote:6e349af23a]

Yeah, in Forbes '57, each of your players would hit .040 higher.
So the guys hitting .250 would be hitting .290 and the guys hitting .270 would be hitting .310 and you would be feeling good about your team.
So next time you load up on good singles hitters, use Forbes '57

Here's an 80 mil DH team in Petco. This team won its division, even while significantly underperforming its Pythagorean record.

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=370021

Like it or not, this is a formula for winning in Petco at lower caps.