Churning Free Agents

[STEVEPONEDAL]

So, fifty games into my first BTT80's league, I am 20 and 31. My pitching sucks and my hitting sucks more.

Many of the FAs now available have churned though several teams to the tune of 6 games for the pitchers and 100 ABs for the hitters.

To find hidden gems t this point are there detils on the crds that I should look for?

For hitters, I look at the on base events for the 6,7 and 8 roll of the die.

For pitchers, I look for non- on base events for the 6,7 and 8 roll of the die.

Is there another approach to take?

Here is my currtent team if anyone has some thoughts.

Thanks


http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/80s/team/team_other.html?user_id=64519

[LMBombers]

I assume you are looking at the injuries to determine card years. You can also look for HBP in the box scores. These can only occur on batter's cards and some players have cards that don't have them and others that do. Beyond that I think it is just intuition and looking at the split stats (L&R).

[STEVEPONEDAL]

Injuries? No, how does that work?

[cplake]

sponedal,

What LM is referring to is examining all injuries that occur in your league. That is usually the best way to nail down a specific year, or eliminate other years. For instance, if a player is injured via the strikeout, find out who was pitching against him and check the card. If the player was injured while striking out against a lefty, find out how many strikeout + injury occurs vs. LHP. It might eliminate certain years (or could reveal only one year where that could have happened).

Pitcher injuries occur less frequently. They are the result of a 6-12 roll (3 sixes) with the DH batting. Check which side the DH bats, then check the box score to see what the play was (flyout, etc.) and lastly check the pitcher's card for the 6-12 left or right.

Also, pay attention to how many games a player is injured. If he has under 600 plate apprearances (PAs) then he is a 15 game injury risk. From 601-679 PAs he can only be injured 3 games max. Anything 680 PAs + is remainder of game max. If a guy goes out for 15 games and he only has one year that he had under 600 PAs then bingo, that's the one.

Hope that helps. Good luck!

[Outta Leftfield]

Injuries are one of the best way to figure out a year, esp. for hitters. Let's say a batter has an injury against a left hand pitcher. In Strato, hitters' injuries occur only during at bats and might involve a series of different results on different cards: e.g. a lineout, strikeout, HBP, etc. If you look at the batter's card, you'll see that an injury vs LHP will occur with a specific event on each card. For example, in one case, the 82 card might involve a strikeout, the 83 card a groundout, etc. If you find that your 3rd inning injury involved a groundout, and there are no other groundout injuries on the card, you'll know the year is 1983. Sometimes, a batting event might correlated with more than one card. The most common event for injuries is "lo max"--lineout into the maximum possible outs. But, in most cases, even if you can't be sure an injury points to a single year, it will often narrow things down and that can help a lot.

By the way, your team seems to me to offer real possibilites. You may not win your division but you can learn a lot by the effort to turn things around. The pitching, for instance, really isn't that bad. An ERA below 4.50 is decent for a starting pitcher in this league, so I'd see Stewart, Dravecky, Witt and possibly Darwin as keepers. Both Knepper and Falcone are pitching well so far. Consider elevating them to the starting rotation. Your bullpen is actually excellent. All in all, I would dump Langford for a cheap RP (.75M) and use the money for more hitting and keep the rest, redefining some of the roles. If you need more cash for hitting, maybe dump Darwin as well.

Hitting wise, your troubles are more serious. You've got to find a way to improve your OBP and power. I'd strongly suggest dumping Boone--you're going to need some offense out of the C spot to turn things around, since overall your hitting is sub-par. Evans is not giving you much at 1B but seems like a recent pickup. Maybe evaluate him further but be ready to drop. You need more offense from 2B than you're getting from Gantner. He's killing you. Seitzer is killing lefties but not hitting RHP at all. Confine him to a platoon role. Since Ozzie is hitting LHP and UL Washington RHP, you might try platooning them.

Dykstra and Carter are hitting pretty well for you, but you need another OF who can hit. Downing is pretty consistent so you might give him a little more time, but be ready to drop. Shelby is flat out murdering you with his .543 OPS. IMHO, he has to go ASAP, and that would give you a good lump of cash. So, summing up, I think you should look for an offensive upgrade at C, 2B and DH--depending on who is in that role, I'm not quite sure-- and closely evaluate the perfomance of your LF and 1B. Platoon at SS and look for other platoon opportunties with your existing players. Consider cheap (.75M+) players with strong platoon tilts to address platoon problems at specific positions. Having considered the whole team, I think you migh want to drop both Langford and Darwin to get cash to upgrade your offense and move Falcone and Knepper into the rotation.

[STEVEPONEDAL]

That was geat. Yes, just within the last week I began platooning, Smith and Washington. I platoon Evans/Hargrove, this season Hargrove is pounding lefties. I did just pick up Evans. He seems to have some decent power.

I just recently started DHing Seitzr, I was looking for anything from him and his BA against righties is rising slightly, but will look into the DH upgrade you recommend.

Thanks

[STEVEPONEDAL]

Well, here is how I ended up. We shall see how it goes tonight.


http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/80s/team/team_other.html?user_id=64519

[Outta Leftfield]

It looks to me like you've made some very good moves. Strawberry is a great addition--somebody must have dropped him? If he's in one of his three really good years he can be lights out. He's a good HR hitter for Dodger since he produced a lot of HRs hitting in pitchers parks.

Since Diaz had a flyout inj vs RHP, you know he's either in 1982 (his best year) or 1986 (a good, balanced year). Since both years have a balanced platoon, and his defense is good, he would seem to be a keeper and you don't need a platoon partner for him. I see that you've picked up Buck Martinez, one of my favorite backup catchers. You don't really need 3 catchers, so I'd be tempted to dump Melvin when you next need some cash. In the meantime, since Diaz is out for 8 games, give Martinez a trial at C. Anyway, you can regard your starting catcher problem as solved--rather cheaply, congrats!--and you can turn your attention elsewhere than catcher.

What I mean by "turning your attention elsewhere" is that my approach to a season is to try to identify my problems and solve each problem in succession. Once I've got a reasonable solution in place to a given problem, I turn my attention to the next problem. You don't want to keep re-solving the same problem. Following this approach, you gradually reduce the number of your problems--funded by cash from your failed players--and you can often end the season with all problems solved to at least a reasonable degree and with a team that is humming along in harmonious synch. In effect, this is the opposite of "churning." It's a steady, consistent approach to problem-solving.

[STEVEPONEDAL]

Outta,

Thanks for the help. I noticed that about Diaz, I am excited to get him back.

I think my next project may be Downing. After last night he is down to .224.

sponedal