Archive of SportingNews.com's old SOM Baseball forum

Hi,
I have had about 25 ATG teams,but never a winning record. I know I'm terrible at this but always love my teams before the season starts. Please give me your expert opinions on this team (park=Candlestick)
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Pitchers (10)
Name T End. W L S IP H ER BB SO ERA WHIP BAL Release:
Koufax, S. L S9*/R3 26 8 2 335.2 216 76 71 382 2.04 .85 1L 10.73M
Boston #21 R S8* 24 4 0 254.0 179 70 67 238 2.48 .97 1R 10.34M
Lonborg, J. R S7* 22 9 0 273.1 228 96 83 246 3.16 1.14 1L 5.41M
Drysdale, D. R S8*/R3 23 12 1 308.1 270 95 66 210 2.77 1.09 2R 4.12M
Merritt, J. L S8/R3 5 4 2 76.2 68 27 20 61 3.17 1.15 9L 2.51M
Faber, R. R S7/R5 11 9 0 162.1 185 69 45 45 3.83 1.42 E .54M
Stigman, D. L S5/R3 4 2 4 70.0 59 34 33 70 4.37 1.31 1R .50M
Nelson, G. R R2 3 3 5 74.2 55 13 17 38 1.57 .96 2R 3.38M
Pina, H. R R3 6 3 8 88.0 58 27 34 41 2.76 1.05 9R 1.14M
Lasher, F. R R3 5 1 5 48.2 37 18 22 32 3.33 1.21 5R .92M


Hitters (15)
Name B P Def. AB R 2B HR RBI BB SB BA SLG OBP BAL Release:
Simmons, T. S C 3(+2)e3 539 73 29 23 97 32 0 .269 .451 .309 1L 1.91M
Zimmerman, J. R C 2(-1)e1 154 8 1 1 11 12 0 .214 .253 .275 1L .50M
Plummer, B. R C 3(-1)e4 159 17 7 1 19 24 1 .182 .245 .291 E .50M
Chance, F. R 1B 1e18 474 103 24 3 71 70 57 .319 .430 .419 1L 4.94M
Collins, J. L 1B 2e7 262 38 5 7 43 34 3 .225 .347 .314 5R .50M
Whitaker, L. L 2B 1e18 558 90 25 13 56 62 6 .289 .407 .360 4R 4.10M
Adair, J. R 2B 3e18 414 47 17 3 35 17 1 .271 .338 .302 1L .57M
Boyer, K. R 3B 1e24 628 100 30 24 119 70 3 .295 .489 .365 E 4.69M
Garrett, W. L 3B 2e24 400 38 11 1 39 40 4 .218 .268 .290 1R .50M
Trammell, A. R SS 1e14 555 85 34 14 69 60 19 .314 .468 .380 1L 6.36M
Horton, W. R LF 4(-2)e8 512 68 20 36 85 49 0 .285 .543 .348 3L 4.44M
Dimaggio, D. R CF 1(-3)e6 534 85 24 7 73 66 10 .316 .427 .393 E 4.92M
Averill, E. L CF 2(0)e11 118 10 4 2 20 5 0 .280 .381 .309 2R .50M
Campbell, B. L RF 3(0)e12 297 56 15 8 44 45 2 .283 .448 .377 1R 2.37M
Martin, J. R RF 2(-1)e6 215 34 16 6 28 18 6 .260 .447 .318 1L 1.43M
I - currently injured



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For what it's worth, I would dump Boyer for a cheaper option like Weaver, Pendleton or Collins. And I would dump Martin and Campbell in RF for a guy like Muesel, Furillo, Valentine, Clemente, Heathcote or S. Rice.

A link would allow us to give more specific options for you. Here are some off the cuff observations, without being aware of your division foes & FA alternatives:
* I'd drop Merritt & get a LHRP. Lasher & Pina are redundant.
* I like your SP. Nelson is very good, but rest of pen can be better.
* Simmons needs to go. Also, you don't need 3 catchers.
* Pare down to 13 offensive players. Garrett is a drop candidate.
* Horton & Campbell/Martin would be upgrade targets for me.

Team has the SP nucleus to do well with some additional work. Best of luck.

Randy

Randy pretty well summed it up for me, but I'll tell you what I would do if I were building a Candlestick team:

Your starters are fine, though I don't like Drysdale, many do.

In your pen, Merritt, Stigman, Pina & Lasher should go. Replaced by Wade, Fosnow, Hall, Miller, Martinez, Giusti.

The following hitters must go also: Simmons, Whitaker(?), Boyer, Horton, Campbell.

Possible replacements include:

Simmons = Schalk, Gibson, Sanguillen, Cochrane, O'Neill(?)
Whitaker = White, Evers, Doran, Fox, Collins, Gehringer
Boyer = Steinfeldt, Collins, Pendleton, Weaver, Gardner
Horton = Tons of guys with better defense and speed. Heathcote, Meusel, Cuyler, Jackson, Devore, Wilson, Moore, etc, etc, etc ......
Campbell = Same as Horton

I'd drop Lonborg or Drysdale and certainly keep Merritt and Stigman. I'd keep Faber as a spot starter on the road to spell Merritt and Stigman in unfriendly parks. Those guys aren't bullpen guys, they are excellent value 4th starters!! If there are more than 3 bomber parks in the league, I'd get a Ruether, Speer, Frock, Cvengros etc. as well so you never get stuck with Stigman or Merritt starting in an unfriendly park. Simmons [b:83c1fea05b]is[/b:83c1fea05b] completely wrong for your park. Boyer too is not a good fit for your park. Ditto with Horton. Actually both LF and RF are currently disasters.

Basically, you've overspent on pitching and need to beef up your offense with some park-appropriate hitters.

I'd keep Whitaker for sure -- just treat him as a platoon player. When I don't get one of the better 2nd baseman I usually use either Evers or Whitaker as the right half of a platoon, generally with Mazeroski. Whitaker is seriously underrated IMHO.

Actually, upon further reflection, I'd keep Whitaker, Chance and Dimaggio and rework the entire rest of the offense.

Good luck.

No offense, but I look at that team and I think it sucks.

I hear you guys analysis and I'm scratching my head.

My brain says you are no doubt correct.

But my eyes get hazy and I want to fall asleep 'cause the dudes look so zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

There must be tons to this game that I don't understand;

Once again, no offense, I'm just a newbie poppin' off