Save the Little People!

[Toyboys]

I thought I put together a great Power hitting team with some OK pitching
in Yankee 27. Team has been strugling all season. Where did I go wrong?
See attached:

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/atg2/team/team_other.html?user_id=65926

[Treyomo]

A few things:

1) SP - Osteen is not a great value, and Carleton and McNally are better suited for pitchers' parks.

2) Luck - Powell, Heathcote, and Doby are struggling, but that is partially offset by Gardner's insanely good year.

3) Too much on bench - $5M in 5 subs. There are nickel players as good as most of the subs you have. If you only would have spent $2.5M on subs, that's another 2.5M to drop into better SP.

4) P. Collins - sorry to say this, but he flat out stinks. Ranks with Delancey and Ned Yost as the worst values at catcher. Never hits his card, has bad clutch, and is slow to boot.

Possible changes: Depends on how far you are out of the playoffs. If you are within 5 games, just be patient. If more, I'd perform minor surgery.

Drop McNally, Terry, and Collins. Then, either
1) Upgrade catcher to a big slugger and pick up a sub 1M SP, or;
2) Downgrade catcher to a Rich Gedman type, and upgrade your 4th SP to someone in the 4-6M range.

[richswerb]

I would disagree on Carleton. He's been exceptional for me in hitters parks, and The Maxie Minoso ATGII Analyzer also says that Carleton is one of the best bang for your buck SP in EH parks.

[edbazo]

Trey pretty much covered it. A couple of other comments that I would make is that you have VERY few players who actually take advantage of your park. You might think that Banks and Ruth do, but actually that's not really true... they have so many natural HRs (as opposed to ballpark HR) on their cards that they will hit homeruns anywhere. The best values for your park are guys that have lots of ballpark homers on each side of the card, but don't have many natural HRs. Doby, against righthanders, is an example. Powell is a good value for your park.. he's just hitting in bad luck.

It would worry me that Patterson has as many innings as any of your relievers... set Nelson to setup and close.

You don't really have good tablesetters... Ruth/Banks/Powell can hit 3/4/5, but who hits 1 and 2? Gehringer can hit lead off, but having a guy who gets that many ABs in your park with no ballpark homers is unfortunate. You really want someone who'll be on base all the time, and has a bit of power, at the 1-2 spots, or you'll waste far too many of Ruth's homers.

With regards to Collins... you'd think a catcher with a +.400 for 3M would be a great bargain, right? Only it really doesn't work out that way. Collins is another example of 'Max Bishop syndrome'... much of his .obp is walks, and he runs at a snails pace. That translates into WAYY fewer runs than you would expect, even if you hit him ahead of huge sluggers.

[Toyboys]

Thanks guys; I like the comment about Ruth and Banks. I will also move Nelson to set up and close. Worrell is killing me. I think I'll try to package him in a trade.

I am batting Collins 2nd. I've done much worse than a .361OBP for 3.4 million. He's also tied with Boog in Homers. Where did that come from???

I am batting Gardner 8th. I am afraid to move him up. I do not want him to snap out of this reverse funk he's in. I actually think he is getting some $ and + hits by batting behind Heathcote who is 7th.