What's wrong with this team

[KLima]

I've had some hard luck loses but overall my team has been pretty bad early

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=79954

[RICHARDMILTER]

Your team looks alright to me, however I do not know if it is a 80 million dollar team or a 100 million dollar team. I see you have just over 1 million dollars you have not spent. Any expert will tell you; "You want to maximize your money!" I am not an expert. However I see some gamers make the same mistake, and that mistake is wasting money on a backup to a player that can not get hurt. Donny Baseball played in 162 games in 1986. Therefore he can NOT get hurt. The same can be said for SS Tony Fernandez and I have seen seasoned gamers have backup SS for him. This is a waste of money! I am not saying your backup to Don Mattingly is a waste of money , but it might be! Are you using him as a pinch hitter? I will let a REAL expert pick apart the rest of your team. But one last thing: sometimes you can have a great team, and just some early bad luck. Strat-O-Matic is like real baseball you might have the best team on paper, but the ball does not bounce your way! Hang in there , only time will tell if you can turn it around, and some better luck will help! I have seen teams start 4-14 and end up in the playoffs. GOOD LUCK TO YOU! Sorry I could not be more help. I will leave that to the real experts! They have helped me plenty. This is a good community!

[RICHARDMILTER]

Your top two starting pitchers are awesome. Floyd Youmans will come around. He is done well in every league I have seen. Your team is hitting alright, you just need your pitching to come around. I think you have probably just had some really bad luck. Hopefully you can get hot and win 7 or 8 out of 10. And that will get you right back in the thick of things!

[Free Radicals]

Your playing @ Fulton Co 13-13-13-13 which means your pitching is going to get knocked around sometimes . Your pen is kinda weak for the park also . I would have done things differently with the pen . It's only the 1st few games and I wouldn't get real worried until after you played 24-30 games . If it continues then panic ! :shock:

[Palanion]

Quick glance feedback:
1. Your offense leans a bit to the left, meaning you will hit lefties better than righties. It appears as though the ratio of RHP vs. LHP you will face in your league is a little bit more than 2:1, so you are at a little bit of a disadvantage 2/3 of the time.
2. Floyd Youmans is a strange card. First, he has no ballpark singles vs. lefties. Despite being listed as balanced (E), I think he is better against lefty hitters, though he walks more. He is also a terrible fielder (4e21) and quick teams will burn him (+9 hold). He also has a high gbC count, no gbB nor gbA. However, he has an excellent strikeout rate, and decent overall whip. Still, he's probably better suited for moderate-to-pitcher's parks.
3. Charlie Leibrandt probably has too many homers on his card to be really effective there.
4. Doc Gooden leans to the left. And he really does. He's got a good card, but he has almost three homers on the left side, which again might be too high for that park. Still, he's a legitimate ace and could anchor just about any 1986 team.
5. I assume that Randolph os your leadoff hitter. A decent run rating (1-15) and decent obp. However, you may have some problems with your #2 hitter. I don't see anyone who has low DPs. Probably your best overall choice is Brett with 15 DPs, but his high walk total may make your offense station-to-station.

Overall, I think you need to pay attention to your run differential. Right now you've given up 24 more runs than you've scored. You want to turn that number around. Pay attention to pitching matchups and lineups. You are in a definite hitters division with those other parks, so you're pitching will be batted around, so be patient but not hands-off.

Just my two cents. Good luck.

[tomwistar]

I think having a catcher with a good arm is important in 1986. There are a *lot* of guys who can steal. On one of my teams, I dropped Ashby (+1) for Skinner (-1) and the team began to win a lot more games, even though Skinner can't hit for crap. That's an area that you could look to improve if things keep going poorly. (Although Slaught is a pretty nice hitter, so I wouldn't give up too quick.) You've got a lot of money tied up in backups and Aguilera, so it gives you a little room to maneuver financially if you need to.

[216 Stitches]

Discount my opinions somewhat, I haven't played strat so long

15 unearned runs on 10 errors is very unusual. As you have a good D, your rate of unearned runs should slow down considerably. Í am also guessing your team also won't continue to commit >1 error /game.

Gooden is one of only a few elite pitchers in the 86, definetly expect things to get better with him.

Youmans. Candiotti have fared well in the leagues I am in. Youmans ERA is a 2 game aberration. But boy have these two given up a lot of SBs. That matters in the close games. (After 130 games in one league, Youmans record stands at 20-11 with a 3.31 ERA...It looked even better before my team beat him with a grand slam in the 6th...I digress).

Liebrandt has been dumped in many of the leagues I have been in. You might be seeing the real Liebrandt. My guess is sooner or later you will get tired of being uncompetetive EVERY time he pitches. Maybe you should upgrade him sooner,....???

Edit: I did some fact checking on Leibrandt... he gets used sparingly (probably as a spot starter). Here are some of his actuals for records
when he was on the transaction wire (dropped or since being picked up):

1-3 with 4.86 ERA
2-0 with a 4.08 ERA (actually, was picked up)
1-6 with a 6.69 ERA

Still, its bad luck to give one pitcher 10+ runs support per game come away with an 0-2 record, even Liebrandt.

On another topic, someone said he has heard good things about Liebrandt.

[KLima]

Thanks for the advice guys. I'm now 4-8 with a sweep last night. I tried to built my team on defense and hitting with some pitching. I wasn't thinking when it came to the ball park (I'm a Braves fan). I did have a ton of unearned runs the first 2 series which was unusual.