Pushing runs across

[STEVEPONEDAL]

First of all, this SOM is a blast. This is my second Back To The Eighties team and I am learning new things all the time. Also, what a great community is out there for helping us rookies.

In the league I am in now, less than 2 weeks into the season, I am in second place in the league and first in my division but only by a game. I have a couple of other teams in my division hot on my heels. One of the reasons is that I am having trouble pushing runs across the plate.

I am playing in Dodger Stadium. Most of the other parks in the league favor the hitters. Thus far I am doing well both at home and on the road.

I am currently in sixth place in the league in run scores. There is a gap of about 30 runs between me and the bunched up top five. Now I am in the top 3 in hits and top 4 in BA. In several of my losses I outhit my opponent.

Recently, I have had my managerial settings at aggresssive to conservative depending upon the arms in the outfield for baserunning. Normal to aggressive depending upon my opponents OCS%. I am always on conservative for hit and run since I don’t really have the personal to use it often. In the last 3 games, I had no steal attempts against a good catcher. I did have a couple of ballplayers thrown out trying to score from 1st and one from 2nd. My opponent did have some strong arms in the outfield.

My lineup against lefties is: Molitor DH, Grich 2B, Brett 3B, Cabell 1B, Matthews LF, Pena C, Burleson SS, Lemon CF, Lowenstein RF

My lineup against righties is: Molitor DH, Cabell 1B, Grich 2B, Brett 3B, Lowenstein RF, Lemon CF, Pena C, Dwyer LF and Burleson SS.

I believe I have Grich’s .294 year and Molitor’s .270 year and Jim Dwyer’s .285 year.

Overall, I feel good about the offensive players that I have at this time. I think I may need to shakeup the order of my lineup against righthanders so I don’t leave as many men on base. You would think I was the Oakland A’s.

Anything else that I may be missing here?

Thanks

Steve


http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/80s/team/team_other.html?user_id=67360

[tyches_coin]

I've never played 80s and have a pretty mediocre record in the 200x series, so there is a very good chance I have no idea what I'm talking about.

The one thing that stands out for me is that only Brett had positive clutch on most of his cards. Alot of your guys had years where that had very negative clutch. I'd be willing to bet that your batting average with two outs and runners in scoring position is well below your batting average in other circumstances. I don't know how many clutch chances would have cropped up this early in the season but it could have cost you a few runs.

Secondly, it doesn't look like Molitor has played alot, so if he's been injured or just recently acquired it may be too early to judge your production.

[STEVEPONEDAL]

Now that is something I hadn't even considered. I will take a look.

[cummings2]

I usually run the bases on normal, rarely ever do I go to conservative otherwise I end up leaving men on base that could've and should've scored...also I rarely go to agressive...just my "tendencies".

I just took a peek into your team, don't have much time right now, but are you batting Lowenstein-Brett-Pena 3-4-5? From the little that I saw I would probably bat Brett-Pena 3-4...at least Brett 3rd.

However I have never played the 80's game.

How are you doing on sacs and squeeze plays and H&R on the stats page? Would you mind pasting here your stats so far?

I think you are right, your offense should have a few more runs knocked in.

For lineup stuff I always refer to the Newbie Advise thread, it' still what I go by.

Well, you just swept the Jabbers pretty good, hopefully the trend will continue.

[durantjerry]

1)I wouldn't put a lot of effort into worrying about changing settings based on the opponents arms. Pitchers have as much if not more effect on running than catchers and chenging based on OF arms is iffy IMO. All I know is every time you get more aggressive, your % goes down. I would rather keep stealing on conservative and take my 70%+ rate of success at year end. If the same parameters apply to rinning the bases as stealing, I wouldn't go above normal no matter who I played.
2)I think your predicament is somewhat typical of teams with less power. I had a recent team where I was about tenth in offense and had about the same BA and OBP as the team that was first. IMO, it's somewhat of the nature of the beast when you are not hitting a lot of HR's.