Help in Oakland

[voovits]

It's funny how I like giving advice to others, yet when it comes to my teams I'm so indecisive.

So anyway, I just drafted a team in Oakland Coliseum and I have a few questions. I'd like to know what everyone thinks.
I'm trying a strategy of heavy starting pitching, and I got all the main pitchers I targeted so I'm happy there.
On the offensive side of the ball is where I'm currently in unknown territory.
I missed out on only a couple of guys, but I ended up with some players I'm not very familiar with. more specifically, Wynegar, Lemon and Cliff Johnson
What do you think of Lemon as a starting CF? I don't know why but I tend to look past him when looking for players, I like his D and he can get hit by a pitch with the best of them, but to me his cards look a little too overrated and overpriced. Not to mention him being a 15 game injury concern.
Johnson I think is too much weighted to the left side, so I'm not sure about how good he is.
Wynegar seems OK as he walks a lot, but I never recall using him either.
Another concern I have is that I may have a little too much homerun power for a pitchers park. has anyone had success with a high homerun team in a pitchers park?
I have 2.79 million free cash, but the #11 waiver pick so I'm not figuring on getting anything good through waivers.
What do you think?
Here's the team if interested. The league has a lot of experienced vets. It should be interesting.

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/80s/team/team_other.html?user_id=143780&stats=actual

[gutter huggers]

Looks like you are hoping for a lot of 1-0 games, and figuring out which of your four is on a bad roll. Hershiser, Clemens, Higuera, and Stieb, no hope there. You are lucky to be 0-0.

[Ducky]

I'd be worried that you won't score more than 2-3 runs per game at best. You may not give up many, but you still have to score to win.

[voovits]

Well it seems the general concern is my having spent too much on pitching.
I spent that much on purpose to see if I could win and how it plays out that way.
I'm trying to see what I could do to make the offense good enough to make the money spent on pitching worthwhile.

[chess2899]

I am currently in Oakland with 3 SPs in their best year and it has been a struggle. My offensive power is practically nonexistent and I have more power than you. I have had six 1-0 games, 4 of which Scott pitched, and 2 losses.

I won't be back to Oakland. It has been too frustrating without a slugger. I lost Cooper to his worst year in the beginning/

Good Luck!


http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/80s/team/team_other.html?user_id=140823

[Paul5757]

I don't much like Wynegar (and especially in your case). To paraphrase Forrest Gump, he's like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get. Sometimes he'll hit lefties, sometimes he'll hit righties, sometimes he won't hit at all. Your team's gonna be offensively challenged, so I think you'd be better off with a known quantity at CA. I'd get someone who can hit RH pitchers consistently.

Johnson's a bad fit for you too. His power is negated by being in Oak.

Since Remy might need a platoon partner, I'd get a 2b who can hit LHP pitching better.

Lemon's should be OK in 3 of the 5 years...It's his two power years that might be bad for you.

I don't think Parrish at 3b is a good fit either.

Generally, I would look to players who hit a lot of doubles and who hit for high average. Those players aren't very popular, so it's possible to spend more on pitching and be successful in a pitcher's park, in my opinion.

[tkkjlsoup]

I am in this league so I probably shouldn't say too much, but . . . . For doubles and power and OBP you need Greenwell, who is available on the FA wire. Keep Lemon, dump Wynegar, dump Johnson. You can do better than Wynegar. Johnson is too expensive for what you get IMO. Wynegar and Johnson are guys to use when all else fails.

If I were you I would put Greenwell as my first waiver pick. With all the smallball parks in our league he won't last long.

Look at Harrah or Oberkfell for 3B. Stearns or Scoscia for C. Or offer me a trade for Pena at C -- he doesn't fit well in my park.

Good luck (except when playing tkkjlsoup's team)!

[voovits]

Lots of helpful info so far. I have an idea or two for now.
I had played and won in pitchers parks before, but not in a long time. This team may not work out the way I would like it to, but I had always wanted to try this particular setup with the extra strong pitching.
If it's failing too miserably, I may abandon the strategy and trade off a good pitcher for some hitting, but not yet.
It's funny because 2 guys who would have fit my park well are ones I missed out on in the draft. Puckett and Carew. I got Lemon and Johnson in their place. Yuck.

[gutter huggers]

I had a team similar to that setup, and enjoyed it. In the A-dome. A 3.26 era, but 11th in offense. It won 91 games, the division, had 5 Basestealers, with at least an A rating, in the starting lineup.

Sutton was 23-9, Palmer 23-11.

Hell, Manny Mota would bat fourth, batted .375, and led the team in RBI's with 83.

Pitched 20 sho's, but got sho, 12 times.

The problem was, without home field in the playoffs, against a 70's fenway park team, it was hopeless.

So, I guess my advice would be to load up on basestealers, and hope you don't end up with out HF in a hitters park, if - when you make the playoffs. And yes, as someone said, look for players who hit doubles, rather than HR's.

But, it was a fun team. Good luck with your experiment.