Guerrero for Newbees

[honestiago1]

Pete played in a pitcher's park, so he'll hit anywhere, we all know that. You're right to be leery about Pags and Decinces, unless you get D's big card. Of course, it doesn't hurt to carry a couple of big bats for road games, too.

[AdamKatz]

Well, I got Pedro and Herr for second. got 2 solid pitchers.

However, no good CF opened up. I took Gorman Thomas. - should hit some HRs even in Royals. Then, Reggie Jackson opened up. I I now have an outfield of Gorman, Reggie and Gwynn. Not exactly a Royals outfield-and 2 of my division rivals are in royal as well. Should I get Greenwell back?

Dwayne Murphy and Phil Bradley are both also availble.
Maybe I should have taken Willie Wilson, but he only has 2 good years.


Also, should I switch any of my pitchers for Fernando V.?

[honestiago1]

DwMurphy is a good picther's park selection, though his average is not going to be very good, under most circumstances. He'll give you HR's, Walks and outstanding def. Good lower of the order bat in most years, a 7th with pop, for example, and can hit higher in good years (including as high as 2nd, where he can use that A bunt rating).

Phil is a solid bat, a good fielder, whom I don't think will hurt your team no matter what year he gets. Adds to team speed, draws walks, and should produce a .750 OPS year no matter what.

All of Willie's years are usable. His bad years are .270's and he's a '1' at two positions. Bad OBP, of course, and not exactly cheap if he ain't hitting.

Might want to see how Fern do before dumping him. I'm not a fan of Fern, but there aren't to many 8's, and it's a big advantage if he comes through. If I were dropping Fern, it'd be to get a cheaper pitcher and to upgrade hitting, or upgrade relief. What lefties are available? Are there any who are actually better?

Overall, I'd see how your guys do. You're defiitely going to get some K's, though, with Jax and Gorman (I've never liked Gorman, which is strange, since he's a RH Dwayne Murphy, whom I DO like).

[Outta Leftfield]

I don't think there's anything wrong with using a power hitter in Royals, as long as they have other skills as well. So I would say yes to Reggie, Gorman and Guerrero because Reggie and Pedro hit for average and walks and Gorman has a lot of walks and great defense. And their HR's ARE valuable--25 or 30 HR in Royals may be just as valuable as 50 HR in the Kingdome.

The guys I would avoid are the one dimensional HR hitters--guys like Kittle and Kingman. More than half their value is in HR--not much defense, not much OBP. So you really lose most of their reason for being if you put them in an anti-HR park. Still, after two seasons in Royals, I'm very much in favor of the multi-talented HR hitter in that park. As a case in point, I've got a team in Royals now that, after 84 games, is on a pace to score 950 runs. This team has a bunch of high OBP guys who also have power: Jack and Will Clark, Whitaker, Trammell, Dw Evans, Rickey H in a HR year. They've hit 120 HR (4th best in the league) in 84 games, but they've only given up 85--and that's what matters, I would contend. The raw homer total doesn't matter as such--what matters is how you do relative to your opponents. If you can out-homer your opponents in your games against them, in whatever park, you've won the homer battle. The other three battles are the BA battle, the walk battle and the error battle.

As I see it, there are these four battles a team tries to win vs its opponents: HR, BA (or hits), walks and errors. The HR battle is one of the most important. Anyway, if you can win three of those battles (I usually target HR, walks and errors) and tie the fourth, your team will probably win more than its share of games. And it's just as important to win the HR battle in Royals as anywhere else. So multi-dimensional power hitters in Royals seem to me the way to go. If it were me, I'd keep Reggie and Pedro and I'd try to get Gorman back, assuming he's still available. Also I would avoid putting Pedro at 3b. Those extra 28 errors, or whatever, vastly outweight any disadvantages to having him in the outfield. That will lose you the error battle right there.

I really like your pitching staff, by the way.... Team overall looks very good.

[honestiago1]

I thoroughly neglected to consider the "flyball b?" on batter's cards when considering, weighing, what have you, OF versus IF defense. Every batter has the flyballs that allow testing an OF's arm. Without actually checking, I would assume there are more flyball rfB? than lf on batter's cards because of the preponderance of LH bats in the lineups of 12-team league's versus the RH majority of pitching. Certainly, there are tests of cf arms even more so.

So, defensively, the priority obviously is something like:

1) SS/2B (can't over estimate the importance of 1's in the middle [if you can get 'em])
2) C (versus the running game, obviously, a more constant presence than CF; pb and T ratings also give the position more potential impact on games)
3) CF (pitcher card x's and plenty of flyball b?'s, as well as single advancements; rates pretty close w/catcher, I think)
4) RF (because of the X on pitcher's cards AND the ? on batter's cards)
5) 1B/3B (defense is a bonus; wide splits make it more important to have better fielders here than in LF)
6) LF (though arm rating can have an impact at times).

Once again, strat more or less mirrors real baseball, though it cannot [yet] simulate a catcher's ability to handle pitchers. That would be an VERY interesting addition to catcher ratings. If there was a mechanism by which a catcher could improve pitcher performance, we might see more thought put into drafting those light-hitting, but excellent handlers of staffs. Have no idea how that would be done, though.

[AdamKatz]

Yount Guerrero and Jackson in 3,4,5 seemes like enough power. Gorman in the 6th slot didnt seem as good as Phil Bradley. The problem is that I havene too many OFs. I can either have Gwynn (RF-1(-2)), Lacy(LF 3(-1)) and Bradley (CF 2(0)) with Reggie as DH or Gwynn (CF 2(-2), Reggie (RF 4 (-2) and Bradley (LF 2(0) in the OF with Lonnie Smith as DH. I hate to have Lonnie Smith sitting on the bench but dumping LAcy would wreck my D and he is not much worse than Lonnie.

n general, I am having trouble figuring out who are the best CFs for Royals. The best fielders are all power hitters.

[cplake]

I've used Puckett in pitcher's parks and he seems to do well. His homerun production suffers, but his batting AVG doesn't. He should bat about .300-.330 and get you around 20 homers playing in Royals Stadium.......

[AdamKatz]

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/80s/team/team_other.html?user_id=65159

This is my current team. I am looking for advice on this team but my questions are general in nature. I have only done this 3 times (this is the fourth) and each team I have has done progressively worse. My first team had 102 wins. Then Boggs and Gwynn went 1 for 40 in the playoffs. My second team was a game out of the wildcard. My third team seemed really good. Until the games started. I had Yount, Boggs, Carew and Lonnie Smith all in their worst years! Anyway....

1. with respect to pitching I dumped Andjar to get Higuerra. I thought two lefties and two righties in the rotation was optimal. Should I have dumpred B.Smith instead? or just not taken Higuerra? It seems to be that alot of the vets value lefties higher than their stats would otherwise tell. The reasoning, I assume, is that your opponent can't fill up with lefties to punish you. Being a reverse lefty makes Higuerra more valuable, but you can get the same WHIP/ERA from manay 5 million dollar righties.

2. In order to get Higuerra I also had to drop Lee Lacy. Now my OFs consist of Gwynn, Jackson, Bradley and Lonnie Smith. I can either have a 1(-2) in left, 2(0) in center and 4(+2) in right or have a 4(-2) in left, 2(-2) in center and a 2(0) in left. The second option seems better but I hate to miss out on the 1 gwynn provides in center and LF is not as important a defensive position as right.

3. I dumped Joyner for Hargrove. I think that was probably a mistake. I am in Royals so I am valuing BA and OBP high. Setting aside the Joyner issue, am I overvaluing Hargrove? He has no HR capabilities. Would I be better off with Kruk, Phelps, Durham, Thornton, Horner, Aikens or Driessen (all of whom are free agents)? Even at Royals?

3. The available free agent pitchers are Andujar, Browning, Alexander and Deshais. the best avialable hitters are Lee Lacy, Dwayne Murphy, Oglvie, Barfield, Luzinski and, of course, Dusty Baker and Sixto Lezcano. Are any of these guys better than Bradley. In one of my other leagues I had Canseco and Jackson in the corners and I didn't make the playoffs (even though I was ranked third in pitching and third in hitting). Not sure if it had anything to do with my W-L but I think having two 4s in the OF is not a good idea. and don't forget I already have the stellar fielding ability of Pedro Guerrero at 3rd.