Archive of SportingNews.com's old SOM Baseball forum

First off, I have never played Strato online or the board game so I really had no idea what to do. Here is the link, wasn't exactly sure what i was going for but I think I did alright. The season begins on Monday the 21 so I still have time to make some changes if need be.

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=82782

I also have four other teams that the season has already started if you have time here are their links as well.

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=83327

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=82776

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=82658

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=82652

Thanks in advance for your feedback, it is greatly appreciated.

Top link : Your pitching should be good enough to win some close games . Your wasting a lot of money on platoons in hitting . It may work but then again it may not .

Your three "extra" non* starting pitchers need to be turned into 1 good * starter. You have 2 extra 3Bs (keep Parrish) and 1 extra CF (Pettis) -- cut your extras and upgrade where you can -- catcher would be #1 place to upgrade in your lineup.

Someone may disagree with me here, but here's my thoughts:
1. I absolutely positively agree that you need to exchange Carman, Garrelts, and Sebra for one SP* stud.
2. I assume by the amount of hitting you have that this is a DH league, but here's your core: Diaz, Joyner, Sandberg, Griffin, Jacoby/Presley, VanSlyke, Pettis, and Barfield. This is your optimum defensive arrangement.
3. I suspect that McReynolds is part of a DH platoon, but it's unclear who the other half of it is. I don't think there is one.
4. Dump Parrish and Horner. Either try to upgrade a different position, maybe 1B or C.
5. You are in a moderate-to-pitcher's park, so you need obp from your hitters and maximize your pitching options. And while the pitchers can totally be tweaked to maximize, I am less confident about the hitters. I see no Raines, Gwynn, or that type to be the big leadoff obp type.
6. I like your pen, but maybe convert Mathews, who will never see the light of day, to another lefty RP who can dominate one side (e.g., 8L or 8R type) in a pinch.

Good luck!

Thanks for the input. I have dumped Horner and picked up Garvey to be my LHP platoon with Joyner. I have also released Hatcher. Because the league is a 100M league there is absolutely no SP* left worth taking, although what do you think of

Charlie Leibrandt

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/league/player.html?player_id=36943&year=1986

Also what do you think if I were to drop Parrish and pickup either Dwayne Murphy or Harlod Baines to be my RHP platoon to McReynolds. I'm leaning toward Murphy but he is a 2 injury risk but has the better obp.

I have not used Leibrandt, but I have heard good feedback from those who have used him. Give him a shot, esp. in Comiskey where I think he could be effective.

As others have suggested, don't go overboard with platoons, which is a mistake I have made, and still make. Just because a guy is tilted one way or another does not automatically mean he should be platooned. A good example would be McReynolds. If you platoon him, you are taking a great power source and good defensive outfielder out of your lineup over half of the time. Consider the rest of your lineup; if you have a power bat who tilts righty, for example, that could balance things out in a different sense. Even if McReynolds has a lower average against lefties, he still will ideally average around .288 and ideally hit around 26 HRs based on his numbers for that year... would you want those numbers on the bench half of the time? Platoon when both players are average, or when there is a defensive deficiency, but choose wisely.

I basically have been platooning in 3 spots every now and then . Catcher , 3B and DH but not all on the same team . I generally am using 1 or 2 platoons @ team in the afformeantioned areas. When I do platoon it's generally players who cost less than 2.5M . 5M for both equals one E guy. You don't need to platoon Joyner as an example . he will hit . :wink:

Joyner at Dodgers

Joyner, Wally (L, 4R) vs. L 26 10 1 1 1 3 2 5 .385 .429 .615
1B vs. R 92 28 5 0 2 9 7 9 .304 .347 .424

I posted on another topic that I had seen liebrandt dropped in several leagues, so I thought I should go back and check what he was doing...

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

I thought he was worthless, but it lookes like it depends on how he gets used and how he matches up.

So these are the two lineups that I came up with.

Lineup vs. LHP
# Name (Bats) Pos Def BA OBP SLG Bal
1. McReynolds, K. (R) LF 2(0)e9 .288 .358 .504 4L
2. Van Slyke, A. (L) CF 2(-3)e13 .270 .343 .452 3R
3. Sandberg, R. (R) 2B 1e5 .284 .330 .411 2R
4. Barfield, J. (R) RF 1(-5)e3 .289 .368 .559 1R
5. Presley, J. (R) 3B 2e16 .265 .303 .463 2L
6. Parrish, L. (R) DH .276 .347 .509 1L
7. Griffin, A. (S) SS 1e25 .285 .323 .364 3R
8. Garvey, S. (R) 1B 2e8 .255 .284 .408 4L
9. Lavalliere, M. (L) C 2(-2)e3 .234 .318 .310 E


Lineup vs. RHP
# Name (Bats) Pos Def BA OBP SLG Bal
1. McReynolds, K. (R) LF 2(0)e9 .288 .358 .504 4L
2. Van Slyke, A. (L) CF 2(-3)e13 .270 .343 .452 3R
3. Joyner, W. (L) 1B 1e17 .290 .348 .457 4R
4. Barfield, J. (R) RF 1(-5)e3 .289 .368 .559 1R
5. Parrish, L. (R) DH .276 .347 .509 1L
6. Sandberg, R. (R) 2B 1e5 .284 .330 .411 2R
7. Griffin, A. (S) SS 1e25 .285 .323 .364 3R
8. Jacoby, B. (R) 3B 3e26 .288 .350 .441 2R
9. Diaz, B. (R) C 2(-1)e8 .272 .327 .380 E

With these players on my bench.

Pettis, Gary S CF 1(0)e8 .258 .339 .343 1L
Lee, Manuel S 2B 3e8 .205 .241 .269 E