Archive of SportingNews.com's old SOM Baseball forum

Man oh MAN is Dennis Eckersley proving to be a huge waste of money. I traded Gorman Thomas for him earlier in the season (with some other peripheral guys thrown in on both sides) mostly because I was curious. After getting by just fine in previous seasons with the Gene Garbers of the world, I wanted to see what it would be like to have a so-called "dominant" guy slamming the door on wins. Over the last 25 games (as I fell out of first and then kissed it good bye), Eck has had a stretch of EIGHTEEN STRAIGHT GAMES when he didn't so much as throw a single pitch, followed by 3 losses in 4 appearances over 7 games.

The boos are raining down. I'm still holding out hope that I can get into the playoffs and then be shown a reason why anyone in their right mind would shell out over 6 mil for a closer.

Anybody else have any Eckersley horror stories, or any tales of glory?

I usually find a bunch of $1.5MM - $.75 relievers for the 'pen. Usually I find relievers in excess of these amount as a waste of $$$.

Good luck!

He's the best pitcher in the game. The problem with most people is that he's coming from the bullpen to do his job. (And yes, I do realize that Clemens and Hershiser are in this game too.) My thought processes on pitching and quality bullpen guys are different than most people.

Eck doesn't always fit into my budget but I do try to get him whenever I can. Depends on what type of team I am building. The worst he's ever given me is a 1.43 WHIP in Fenway on his '91 card.

His career data with me is:

ERA - 3.36, WHIP - 1.15, 82 career saves in 4 DH league seasons.

ERA - 1.25, WHIP - 0.82, 44 career saves in 2 No DH league seasons.

I own him on 2 other of my active teams and he's doing well. Fitting him in is all about managing the budget. As far as why he failed to appear in 18 straight games? Who knows? Were there save situations? Do you have your bullpen set to maximize or regular? Do you have a strict cutting order for bullpen relief? Where do you play? What is the league hitting for an average in BA/SLG/OBP? What is the standard deviation of those averages?

I realize that I am probably the only one that feels this way about bullpen relief but I've been able to scrape by for a few wins here and there.

[quote:670c033eac]I realize that I am probably the only one that feels this way about bullpen relief but I've been able to scrape by for a few wins here and there. [/quote:670c033eac]

Yeah, VERY few :lol: :wink:

I've won 100 more games than you, but I've lost 1,000 more games than you (ouch, that hurts to say that)

BJ, I'm really impressed with those numbers from Eck. I must be doing something wrong with him -- I've only had him a couple times, and I've never had the stomach to keep $6.10 mill hanging in my bullpen when I can find guys that can hit 60 HR in a season while my pitching wins 60 games that same season .... what is wrong with THAT thinking??? :shock:

I have found that some $3 mill guys tend to do very well for me, and I have a handful of $1.5 - $1 mill guys that I use alot that do well. Eck, Quiz, Jesse, its easy to lose patience when you're paying $5mill +

Here's my line on Eck:

G 14; W 1; L 3; S 2; IP 35.2; H 56; ER 34; BB 29; SO 29; ERA 8.58; WHIP 2.38

I kept playing him knowing that those numbers had to turn around, but they kept getting worse.
Makes me believe that there is a sixth card that sucks that randomly gets assigned to somebody each season, and Eck was the lucky one this go-round.

[b:5c9ceffc20]seanreflex said:[/b:5c9ceffc20]
[quote:5c9ceffc20]I've won 100 more games than you...[/quote:5c9ceffc20]

I've been trying to catch you but we keep joining the same leagues! Good luck tonight in the Panzerbuster league. I think I've been spoiling the party for some of those teams out west.

Also good luck in the finals of the Epic League as well. I can't believe my team lost a 9 game lead in the last 50 games... :roll: I really liked my squad's chances until the final 12 games.

[b:5c9ceffc20]kptnfmrs said:[/b:5c9ceffc20]

[quote:5c9ceffc20]G 14; W 1; L 3; S 2; IP 35.2; H 56; ER 34; BB 29; SO 29; ERA 8.58; WHIP 2.38
[/quote:5c9ceffc20]

Wow. That's just sick for Eck. Where are you playing? What ballparks are in your division? What settings are you using? Is this a slow pitch softball league? Egads. Stats do rebound though but that's a pretty tall order there.

[quote:a17d34d54a]As far as why he failed to appear in 18 straight games? Who knows? Were there save situations? Do you have your bullpen set to maximize or regular? Do you have a strict cutting order for bullpen relief? Where do you play? What is the league hitting for an average in BA/SLG/OBP?[/quote:a17d34d54a]

I appreciate hearing about your success with Eck, BJ. I was looking at the records page and see that Eck's biggest save years were in pitcher's parks, where obviously there'd be more close, low-scoring games. Maybe that's part of my problem of getting the most out of him: I'm playing in Jack Murphy with a spotty starting staff and a pretty powerful lineup, which means plenty of blowouts on both sides. I think that had a lot to do with Dennis' 18 game vacation. Also, half of the games were a nine-game losing streak (a weird year: my team's on pace to win 97), and during that streak I had "maximize" selected on the closer usage option, which I guess means "never bring in closer unless it's a save situation." I use three relievers to get to Eck, and they're all having OK years (Lavelle, Minton, Tekulve), so maybe Hal figures there's no need to take them out if they're not completely falling apart.

[quote:a17d34d54a] What is the standard deviation of those averages?[/quote:a17d34d54a]

Now I feel stupid. The what now? :?

[quote:57948e8333]during that streak I had "maximize" selected on the closer usage option, which I guess means "never bring in closer unless it's a save situation."[/quote:57948e8333]

I guess this brings up a very good point ... what exactly does MAXIMIZE closer mean? does it mean that pitcher doesn't enter game unless its a save situation? I didn't really think of it that way

any thoughts?

[quote:a09095844f="seanreflex"][quote:a09095844f]during that streak I had "maximize" selected on the closer usage option, which I guess means "never bring in closer unless it's a save situation."[/quote:a09095844f]

I guess this brings up a very good point ... what exactly does MAXIMIZE closer mean? does it mean that pitcher doesn't enter game unless its a save situation? I didn't really think of it that way

any thoughts?[/quote:a09095844f]

I believe MAXIMIZE closer means exactly what you two have said above: "never bring in closer unless it's a save situation"--what never? Well, hardly ever. This is pretty much the way ace relievers are used today. The term closer indicates the role: use this pitcher to close out games in save situations.

But to me, setting the closer on Maximize is a bad strategy. I think you get better results by setting your closer setting on "regular" and putting your best reliever in the setup role. That way, your best reliever pitchers more innings and can enter close games whether they are "save" situations or not. Just my two cents. :wink:

By the way, good luck to everyone in the Panzer league tonight--especially, good luck to me, since I'm going to need it. :D

[quote:767abbe068="bjs73"]Wow. That's just sick for Eck. Where are you playing? What ballparks are in your division? What settings are you using? Is this a slow pitch softball league? Egads. Stats do rebound though but that's a pretty tall order there.[/quote:767abbe068]

Funny you should ask.
I'm playing in Riverfront, with Wrigley, Astrodome, and Fenway in the division.

Lots of Kingdomes in other divisions but most of that junk was in the division.

I've played him in Riverfront before and he was awesome.

Settings I think are typical. Started out trying to use him to set up Sutter (who's also having a bad year but I'm out of options so sticking with him.)
Switched Eck to closer with Sutter setting him up but that didn't work any better.

Poor Eck... Had a severe case of bad dice.