Archive of SportingNews.com's old SOM Baseball forum

Hello all--

I currently set in first place at 27-15 with a four game lead in my division. I play extreme "small ball" with pitching. I currently lead the league in pitching and play at Memorial Stadium.

Ron Hunt is my second baseman, rated 2e18. He just got hurt and will be out 14 games (ouch). My replacement at the moment would be Woody Woodward who is 3e16 defensively.

Looking over my pitcher's cards, there are a ton of "2bx" results at the seven number in a lot of columns. With this being the case, and given my teams defensive/pitching philosophy, this got me thinking if I need to make a move.

I figure I have a couple of options:

1. Play Woodward at 2B and see what happens.
2. Cut Hunt and pick up Julian Javier who is 2e27 with a decent, but not as good as Hunt's, batting card.
3. Cut Woodward and Bill Russell to make room to pick up Bobby Knoop, rated 2e16 (I think I could swing that but I need to re-check the math).
4. Cut Woodward or Russell and pick up Don Mason, 2e41, with just an ok bat and a horrible error rating.

Thoughts? And as another question, with the x rating, what comes into play there? Is it the error rating, range rating or both? If it is simply the error rating, I may hang with Woodward though, if I understand how it works, I may lose out on some DPs. I could live with that for 14 games but I can't live with "error city" especially considering the frequency 2bx would appear to come up on my pitching cards. Thoughts? Thanks.

There's still along way to go in your season. Given the details that you have shared, I would tend to stick with Hunt and Woodward. I understand the desire for the best possible defense, but Hunt (IMO) is the best option for the long run of the options listed. Woodward is a decent value for the money.

Javier is good, but just not that much of a better option to tkae that salary"hit" of 20%.

Knoop and Mason are not so good; Woody is also valuable because he plays SS in case of an injury there.

IMO, if it later in the season or if you are afraid of getting buried in your division, you consider a move for Javier, but not at this point in your season.

The thing about Ron Hunt is that he gets injured a lot. So, you should have planned for this by drafting a backup plan for the inevitable injuries. Woodward is a fine replacement against lefties only. Marty Martinez is a great backup at 2nd against righties and a good pinch hitter. If Martinez isn't available, consider Rojas (he's always available) or stick with Woodward. If you're playing small ball, maybe there is a way to make good use of Woodward for bunting or hit-n-run.