First Time on SOM

[Dr.MAyhem]

Is this a decent team for 2003?
http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/2003/team/team_other.html?user_id=122936&stats=actual

[chasenally]

I can't help you with your team as I am not good at this, but this is a very fun game. Good luck to you and let the rolls always go your way.

[CHARLESBELL]

Welcome to TSN Strat!

Better minds than mine can weigh in but here is my take on your team.

Pitching - Prior and Williams should do fine, but Lackey is not a good fit given the homers he gives up against RH batters. Your pitching staff in general is vulnerable to RH hitting power hitters, which is what your park favors, so you may have trouble with the long ball. Beck is a good closer, but he too has too many BP homers on the right side for my taste. You need a good setup man, too. Kinney and Abbott, with their R3 and R4 relief ratings, are likely to pitch a lot more innings than you want them to. You don't need 7 pitchers who can start; at least one should be converted to relief only, maybe both.

Your defense is weak. You didn't play jwilson in your first series, was that a mistake? It looks to me like you started soriano at 2b, and roberts at ss? Your pitching staff will mutiny. Start jwilson at ss, and roberts at 2b. If I recall the 2003 season is less forgiving of errors, so in the future consider at least a 2 at 2b as well as at ss and cf. With both corner OFers a 4 that is going to result in more x-chart hits as well.

Assuming pwilson is your cf, you don't need both byrnes and rowand on your bench. Unless you are trying to protect a high injury player, you shouldn't spend a lot of money on your bench, so I'd try to trade one of them for a better setup relief pitcher. If you can throw kinney or abbott into the deal it would give you a little more cash to work with as well.

Hitting wise you have good power, but I don't see a lot of OBP. You need a couple of high on base players for your sluggers to drive in, which you don't have. Soriano is probably tradeable, and trading him for a good defensive 2b with high OBP would help you. I expect you'll see a lot of RH pitching, and you have some protection for that with posada and palmeiro, and even pwilson as an 4R, which is good.

You should have fun with this team regardless, and I see you did win your first series, so you are off to a good start. Good luck!

[geekor]

no it isn't.

Please people post these questions BEFORE the season starts. there are so many good value free agents left, we could have been so much more help without the 20% cap hit. Hidalgo is basically Shef with Def but more injury prone. Your def isn't very good, and your pitchers (besides the first 2) don't match your park.

Ok, first thing is cut loose the dead weight. You have no need for Rowand, Byrnes and Burnitz. That's a lot of $$ sitting on your bench doing nothing. You only need to pick up 2 replacement, (minimum 13 hitters), make them under 1 mil, closer to .50 and still be useful the better. I suggest J McDonald and K Garcia.

Now that would give you 4.564 mil in $$.

Then we'll leave you hitting alone (not perfect but you cna't take too much cap hits or it will kill your team) and move to your pitching, which will get killed in the long run.

We have to get cheap here so bear with me. Dropping Kinney, Robertson for Veres + Remlinger. Drop Saurbeck for Eyre. Drop Levine for Nelson and pick up Ligtenberg without dropping anybody. Now you have 1 hard RHP and 1 hard LHP, plus 1 reverse RHP and 1 reverse LHP plus a cheap mop up guy. Set each specialist to avoid thteir bad side, quick hook, max 1-2 innings. Also set the 2 reverse pitchers to avoide before 6th (veres/remlinger) and set the 2 hard specialists to avoid before 7th. Leave Nelson (cheap mop up) alone. That should leave you 4.144 mil

continue in next post.....

[geekor]

here comes the tricky part. Making the bottom of your rotation decent while getting the top of your bullpen good.

You have a few options, which is why I continued on another post:

#1:

First decide if Beck is for you. His whip is good, but he is loaded with BP Hr's (please go to the strategy section of this forum and read the newbie advice guide if you don't know what that means). He is not a good fit for your park. the ones that are are cheaper but will have worse WHIPs, or are more expensive. Personally I prefer the cheaper ones, but it's your decision. Borowski, Rivera, Lopez, Taverez, Isringhausen, basically you don't want and BP Hr's vs RH hitters, or 1 max. Or you could keep beck and his good WHIP and hope he doesn't blow too many games. I like taverez myself, as I had good luck with him in the past. This part plays into how much $$ you have left for other parts though.

#2

Fix the rotation.

This part depends on you having to set your per game starters for every series. It works well, but takes your time. You could pick up Dreifort/Reed platoon for the 5th spot (dropping Lackey and Abbot). This means you have to see when they will pitch, and if they are going to face more RH hitters or LH hitters and start the appropriate one.

Assuming you keps Beck, that would leave you 4.512 mil for 1 last SP. Piniero probably the best choice there, giving you 3 * sp's, and then the 4th will be started by Saarloos, or you platoon (every 8th game basically).

Assuming you have less money for upgrading your closer, you could grab F Garcia for a cheap 3rd * sp. Or if you kept Beck then you could grab a good setup man in Sullivan or Cressend.

sorry if I sound mean. Especially at the beginning, everyone's teams do bad. You pick up a lot of the nuances of the game by playing. Look at the other teams in the league also and get a feel for how teams are constructed, and please, even with me sounding like an A$$, have fun, OK?