Archive of SportingNews.com's old SOM Baseball forum

Expert and non expert advice is welcomed ..........

I posted a poll about this team a few days back and now their record has dropped to 64-65 and obviously I'm missing something here.

As an "experiment", I built a bomber team but I made sure that everyone on the team was rated a "1" defensively, had low errors and a good OF and C arm, plus I added a quality bullpen.

Here's the team:

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/atg2/team/team_other.html?user_id=110111

The players generally seem to be getting the job done. Take a look at the team rankings within the league .......

Offensive Categories:

#1 - Runs Scored
#2 - Run Differential
#1 - Hits
#1 - HR's
#2 - Team Batting Average
#1 - Team Slugging %
#3 - Team OBP

Defensive Categories:

#1 - OF Assists
#1 - Double Plays turned
#1 - Least Passed Balls allowed
#1 - Least Stolen Bases allowed
#3 - Team Fielding %
#2 - Run Differential


I was sure this team was a winner when I built them, but they have never put it all together. And yet, look at the numbers ... they are solid offensively and defensively and the pitching has been more than adequate for a "Bomber Team".

Here's how I'm batting them:

Lineup vs. LHP

1. Trammell, Alan (R) SS
2. Morgan, Joe (L) 2B
3. Simmons, Al (R) RF
4. Snider, Duke (L) CF
5. Carter, Gary (R) C
6. Yastrzemski, Carl (L) LF
7. Werber, Bill (R) 3B
8. Cooper, Cecil (L) 1B
9. Pitcher P

Lineup vs. RHP

1. Morgan, Joe (L) 2B
2. Yastrzemski, Carl (L) LF
3. Snider, Duke (L) CF
4. Simmons, Al (R) RF
5. Cooper, Cecil (L) 1B
6. Trammell, Alan (R) SS
7. Werber, Bill (R) 3B
8. Carter, Gary (R) C
9. Pitcher P

I'm open to suggestions about batting order, lineup or pitching changes.

Since you opened it up to us hacks :wink:

Too much Pen? That team looks better than my bomber teams, some that have won 85-90 games :?

It looks better than my most recent:
[url=http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/atg2/team/team_other.html?user_id=109168]Oceans[/url]

Bad luck, and/or HAL was due to be mean to you?

From the numbers you posted, it must be pitching that is the problem.

You can try batting Werber 2nd and Simmons 5th both ways.

r u using aggressive relief and quick hook on your starters?

Your ERA in Baker is very acceptable, anytime you are under 5.00, i am happy! :)

Your slugging is a bit low tho, usually i consider it a failure if i am under 500 slugging. HR numbers are low also, again, I consider around 2 per game as a successful slugging team, and you are quite low in this area.

Carter is a big disappointment so far for you (.430 slugging, only 23 hrs??), and I honestly think werber is a bad fit here, although I realize you are trying to keep 1's everywhere, someone with power at 3B is generally not hard to find, and I would substitute power over defense at 3B anytime.

Other than that....bad dice rolls?? I have had slugging teams that I just don't understand, sort of like this one for you! Sometimes it just does not happen the way we like...keeps us coming back for more!

my .02 :)

Using Diamond Dope's Pythagorean calculator, your expected record is 72-57.
I'd start living right if I were you, Coach. :wink:

The Bill James Pythagorean theory does not translate to ATG, because many leagues are filled with a combination of extreme pitching teams and extreme hitting teams.

You see a lot of mediocre slugging teams with a high run differential because they win 9-3 but they lose 3-2.

With the good defense on this squad, I probably would have spent more on starting pitching as they will not fatigue as quickly with the superior defense. That being said, I would try a couple things:

1. Set all starters to max 6 IP, but set Relief to conservative so HAL is not using your entire pen every game.
2. Set lineup in order of descending OBP. Snider/Yaz need more AB at the top. Werber bats 8th regardless.

Too much pitching.

For all the offense, your 6-7-8 hitters vs. R's, Trammel, Werber, and Carter are only slugging .430 to .458 range with a combined on-base of only .328.. add to that the pitcher's spot, or random PH'ers and the bottom 4/9th of your lineup is just "average"... I think you paid for the defense at the expense of that extra offense, and the defense is "holding down" the other team when you're winning games 7-4 anyway. I don't think the defense is helping as much as it should (Werber, Trammel have double digit E's and Snider has 8 already, even though he's an e5). I would have abandoned the infield defense for some higher OPS. Just my lil ol opinion.

I think the problem is Murphy. He is an R2 yet he has your most relief innings. With 9 losses even with a good ERA he is losing you games. I don't know how you have your pitchers set but HAL seems to be spreading your saves around. I would switch in this case to Giusti as setup against righties with Baumgartner as lefty setup and Murphy as closer for righties and Kid Speer as closer for lefties. Giusti and Baumgarner will get most of the innings then as they should and give your team to come back and win more often.

I find it difficult to blame lack of hitting when you are going to score 950 with Carter sucking so much. However that is partially due to not a whole lot of lefties thrown at you and Morgan, Coop and Yaz have been aided.