Team racing toward basement! Please Help!!

[PaddyLanePounders]

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/80s/team/team_other.html?user_id=67520

Not sure what to do about this team which has lost 9 of last 12.

In addition, my wife is making fun of me. "You spend all that time playing and your team still sucks!"

Me: "Well, the other players have a lot of experience and put in plenty of time also. It is very competitive." :oops:

Wife: "Excuses. Excuses. Your team still sucks and your not doing anything around the house. I should give you a broom so you can experience what it's like to sweep something!" :twisted:

Is it to soon to cut:

Black
vs L 54 ab .315 avg
vs R 209 ab .306 avg
appears to be his 1985 worst year card

Tekulve
vs L 13 ab .308 avg
vs R 25 ab .320 avg
appears to be his 1980 worst year card

Are there other moves that I should be taking a good look at?

[Jimmy_C]

Fitch...my wife says...

"Ozzie Smith is NOT a pinch hitter. He needs to be on the field at all times...Never ever let him sit on the bench".

Ozzie's "D" is a valuable commodity, and there is no better defensive ss than the Wiz.

[Panzer ace]

Not sure about Black. He is underperforming, just a question of how much? Keep in mind his ERA is almost half a run better than your team average. It doesnt look like he is killing you. Your pen looks like it is where you should spend some of your cash. It is still tough to gauge with so few innings in the pen. 3-9 is a bad stretch, but not the end of the world. I have started a season 5-16 and made the playoffs. Dont make moves because of your record. Make moves because of the cards you think you have.

[bjs73]

I like your cash flow options here. You've got 3 million in the bank to make an addition between now and game 142. This will come in handy when you are ready to spend it.

Do you have Benedict's best card? If so, get a .75 backup catcher and dump Gedman now. That'll take your cash flow up over 5 million.

With the remaining cash you have several options:

1. Pick up someone for a tryout for your pen.
2. Make some trades. When you are cash heavy, you can make deals for more expensive players from another team that wants lower value type players and boat load of cash.

But really, you are in a panic mode because of the first deadline. I'd sit with what you've got except for maybe dumping Gedman for a .75 catcher so that you are as cash heavy as possible after the deadline.

It costs you not one penny more to buy after the deadline but you will lose an additional 5% salary if you don't make a dump that you should make now.

I see no indications that you've got the worst year of Black or Tekulve. There's not enough data there to know or not know. Personally, I'd sit back with Black and Tekulve a little longer and wait for someone to get crazy enough to dump a starter from their own panic.

Soto hits the waiver wire more often than he should. Check his stats with his current team. If he's underperforming for him, offer a trade in which he gets some of your cash at the end of the deal. Soto would be a good fit in almost any season at Royals and would be an upgrade over Black regardless. If the guy has no offense, he could keep or dump Black, and start cleaning house looking for position players. You never know til you ask.

Eventually, someone will cut a starter based on small sample size stats and that will be to your advantage should Black not come around after another 5-6 starts.

Remember to constantly benchmark your pitchers' performance against the league pitching stats.

[seanreflex]

Fitch,

tell your wife to shut the hell up and get back to the kitchen where she belongs. That's your biggest problem :lol:

Seriously, though, I don't know that I would make any moves either. Your ENTIRE lineup is playing solid -- looks like you just picked up Gedman, so why not see if you've got a good year with him. I agree with Panzer, I think it's too early to tell if you have a bad card from Black or Tekulve.

Don't give up on Randolph too early either -- his defense is great, and his bat WILL come around. His OBP is way too high in all 5 seasons for him to stay down there long. Every other position is solid, with 1's up the middle and Tartabull crushing the ball and Brett WILL get hot, clearly you don't have his bad card.

Look to offer up Black in trade like BJ suggested.

Also, tweak your lineup a little --- study your L/R splits and move your players around a little to get some Left Right Left Right in your batting order, and to get the top OBP at the top of lineup, your SLG in the middle, etc.

HANG TOUGH and DON'T PANIC !!!

Good luck,

Sean

[Outta Leftfield]

[quote:279d4865e2]HANG TOUGH and DON'T PANIC !!! [/quote:279d4865e2]

As bjs and seanreflex suggest, this is key advice to a manager whose team is struggling. A lot of teams fall apart because the manager panics during a slump and dumps players who are actually in good years. Your team looks fundamentally sound to me and 18-21 is not such a bad record. Certainly you can recover from that. In acquiring Gedman, Forsch and Cowens, you may have already made the moves you need to make to help your team win. You need to give them time to show what they can do.

One thing to keep in mind is that 4.50 is usually about league average for pitcher ERA--a result of all the great hitters and serious HR parks you find in this league. So a 4.24 ERA for Black is really not too bad. If your team starts hitting a bit more, his record could turn around quickly. Your other starters all look pretty good. Hoyt has an excellent WHIP, which probably points to one of his good years. I would ride those starters a bit longer, for sure.

As Panzer Ace suggests, you may want to upgrade your bullpen--and also try to get more work for Garber. Try making him your setup man and set him on slow hook, which will significantly increase his innings. meanwhile, you've got 3M to spend, plus $$ you could get by cashing in, say, Farr. Can you get a top reliever with that cash?

Definitely keep Ozzie and Randolph playing everyday at SS and 2B. Since you've got Gedman, I would be for keeping him and platooning him with Benedict, at least until you see if he's in one of his big years. Gedman might give you some needed power. As seanreflex suggests, look at your platoon numbers and play with your battling order. Move players up and down depending on how they hit lefties and righties and platoon guys who can't hit against one side. You've got a lot of platoon options with this roster.

And give your players a chance to get hot. As Panzer Ace says--try not to drop a player because they're not producing. Instead, try to drop them because you have reason to believe they're in a bad year. There's no compelling reason to believe any of these guys are in bad years, though I would harbor some doubts about Farr. :D

[PaddyLanePounders]

It has me thinking that there is still realistic hope despite the current slide.

Injury shows Benedict to be in his 1981 5L year. He is hitting RHP well 83 ab .301 avg, but I was thinking he is bound to plummet eventually so obtained Gedman to hit vs RHP. Maybe I've undervalued Benedicts ability to continue hitting RHP?

Was thinking of platooning U.L. at SS vs LHP and Ozzie vs RHP. If I have UL's best year and Oz's worst, is that still not advisable?

In this league drop/adds are much more than I expected from reading posts about 80's strategy. However, teams drop adding still seem to be doing well.

LEAGUE DROP/ADDS so far with team record

31 SMA 18-21
23 CHE 25-14
14 MAY 22-17
9 BEA 13-26
8 CRI 19-20
8 ARC 14-25
6 SHE 23-16
5 KEE 18-21 My [color=blue:e25cff9b5e]Krazy Keeshond [/color:e25cff9b5e]team! :(
5 MIR 22-17
0 SQU 19-20
0 STO 24-15

8 teams have dropped as many or more than me and 6 of those 8 have a record better than or equal to mine. Am I being to patient with players? 2 of the 3 teams with the most drop/adds have the 1st and 4th best records! Is it typical for teams drop/adding this much 39 games into the season to be doing so well?

[PaddyLanePounders]

Thanks OutaLF, I read your post after I'd posted my last one. As of now the tentative plans are to:

1) Give Oz the SS job fulltime and use U.L. as a pinchrunner and pinch hitter vs LHP.

2) Trade has been offered for Mario Soto. (Bud Black with $2.12 cash)

3) Looking at RP free agents for a [u:63c22f6a02]possible[/u:63c22f6a02] pickup under $1.5. The contenders and pretenders are:

Ken Dayley (3 gm, 2 ip, 1 BB, 0 K, 19.31 ERA, and 2.58 WHIP)
Willie Frasor (Untried)
Tom Burgemier (8 gm, 13 ip, 3 BB, 7 K, 5.40 ERA, and 1.28 WHIP)
Paul Assenmacher (8 gm, 18 ip, 10 BB, 19 K, 4.42 ERA, and 1.58 WHIP)

4) Considering dropping Sheridan for Harold Baines as a platoon vs LHP with Singleton in LF. Might not be worth it though, as so far only 381 ab vs LHP and 984 vs RHP. Sheridan has also smacked the ball well in 16 ab vs RHP .438 avg.

5) Platoons:
vs L/vs R
C - Benedict/Gedman
1B - Jackson/Durham
DH - Zisk/Tartabull

6) Lineups
vs LHP
1 - Smith
2 - Puckett
3 - Brett
4 - Zisk
5 - Benedict
6 - Jackson
7 - Cowens
8 - Singleton
9 - Randolph

vs RHP
1 - Smith
2 - Puckett
3 - Durham
4 - Tartabull
5 - Singleton
6 - Gedman
7 - Cowens
8 - Randolph
9 - Brett (only hitting .243 in 103 ab)

[seanreflex]

Sheridan has alot of value with his defense, and if he's .438 vs RHP, you may have his good year. He could platoon with Al Cowens if he proves to have his first year.

Don't give up on him to quick, he's valuable.

Good luck with it all, and continue to have fun (no matter what your wife says :wink:

Sean

[YountFan]

Take the Soto deal. Soto's problem is taters and should do very well in Royals. Then work on BP. Drop Farr and Dawlwy for some other 75 cent guys. Willie Fraser RL Jackson come to mind. Take a flyer on a few. They can't do much worse.

Wait for Randolph to come around and play the OZ. Tweak the order a bit. Hit Willie 9th and rest his mental game. He's pissed from being teamed with UL.

Ron Jackson can hit lefties, let him platoon with Singleton in LF. 3 games under .500 is an OK start. You only need to get a little better to start winning series in stead of losing them