How will this speed team do?

[Assmeriten]

DH league, starts on Halloween. Had 4th pick in waiver draft then saw my #2 pick go #1 and my #1 pick go number 2. Had to change on the fly in FA. Did make 1 trade before the waiver draft which I think will help. Traded Baker and Sax for Doran and W. Wilson. Ended up improving my defense big time compared to the initial players I wanted. HoJo now moves from 3rd to DH. Drissen takes over at 1b for Collins.

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/80s/team/team_other.html?user_id=60279

[rookssa1958]

Probably mediocre.

The teams with the SB's never win, HAL won't let you play legit small ball. 1 HR negates multiple steals.

Still, it is always fun to try.

[bjs73]

[quote:e36b8d102d]The teams with the SB's never win, HAL won't let you play legit small ball. 1 HR negates multiple steals.[/quote:e36b8d102d]

I don't know about that...

[url]http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/80s/team/team_other.html?user_id=52279[/url]

This is my best example of the small ball team being dominant. Only 85 team HR's and .389 team slugging = 95 wins and a championship? I think this has got to be one of the lowest team HR totals to win a championship. 300+ steals though.

Thing about making a small ball team win is that you've got to dominate the league in two or more categories. For me, with this team, it was my bullpen. The one-two punch of Orosco and Sutter helped seal the deal on 70% (or better) of my victories.

Throw in 2-3 offensive players with career cards, good D, and decent pitching and you've got a potential winner on your hands.

[honestiago1]

You're going to hit, because it's Fenway. However, I believe the value of speed is maximized in pitcher's parks, where the value of advancing the extra base becomes more pronounced since fewer players get on base. I think your speed advantage will be less in Fenway, as will your pitching and defense. Everyone's lineups automatically improve there (including yours). Think a hitter's park hurts your team overall.

I had a similar team in Wrigley (though my pitching was not near as good as yours). Raines, Butler, Sandberg, Strawberry, Hojo. Got stolen bases and homers, and ended up 80-82. However, as I said, I did have poor pitching (mediocre year out of Key, Soto gave up tons of HR's, and I picked up Sutcliffe's '84 year too late to help me). I ended up winning games (when I DID win) with offense.

My next team, I went whole hog pitching, bunting, h&r'ing and SB, with mostly good defense (Whitaker, Clark, Fernandez, Harrah, Wathan, DwMurphy, Matthews, P. Bradley). That team doesn't wow anyone with offense, but it has posted 16 shutouts (as a team) and an ERA under 3.00.

Anyway, I think you'll win more than you lose because you have Clemens, Morris, Jackson and Henke. I'm not entirely sure about how many games you'll win, but I do think that Fenway is going to cost you some games. Of course, if a majority of those .300 cards come in (Raines, Wilson, Wathan, to name 3), you might end up outscoring people. At least you'll be competitive in small parks, as well as at home!

[KingLouie]

I think small ball is lots of fun. I've got a team with Ozzie Smith, Willie Wilson and few other good-glove speedsters in Oakland. Tonight is the seventh game of the finals against a power team in the Kingdome.

My belief is that great pitching is more important for a team like this than any other factor. I was lucky that my higher priced starters were in pretty good years--and luckier that I drafted or later found a couple of 75-centers who could get it done. Without those cheap pitchers in good years, I'm guessing I would have been struggling to get to .500

But, as I say, it was a lot of fun, and I'd try to put together a team like this again (Maybe with a little more power).

[honestiago1]

You're on the mark when you say "great pitching." Small ballers have to put the brakes on the other team. You can be successful, but you'll have a lot of series where you outscore your opponent by 2-3 runs total while winning 2 of 3. I had one series where my little ball team only scored 6 runs but won 2 of 3 (a pair of shutouts). They're doing well, but I wouldn't call them the best team in the league. The other team vying for best record has MUCH better offense than I do, and has been top 5 in pitching all year. My pitching has to be MUCH better than his in order to win, in my opinion, as his offense gives him some margin for error. It's funny, because my team doesn't have a lot of team speed, either. My only AA stealer comes off the bench. The rest are A-B guys who can handle the bat. Make sure not to neglect the bunt and H&R -- they do hand in hand with base stealing.