by Coffeeholic » Wed Jan 18, 2006 9:52 am
Hey jno, sorry to take so long in getting back to you... had a few very busy days.
1st of all, heed socalchiro's advice: try not to "drop" too many players, that 20% hit in salary really takes it's toll.
2nd: In the "Strategy" forum, there is a thread entitled "Newbie Advice Thread". In this thread there is loads of good advice for players new to TSN/SOM. I would recommend taking a good look at that.
You are almost 1/4 of the way through your season, so it may not be realistic to expect a playoff team at this point, but maybe we can get you headed in the right direction and get you ready for your next team.
Let's take a look at your home park. Angel's Stadium is a borderline pitcher's park (6/9 BP singles, 7/7 BP HR's). The first thing you need to do is tailor your team to your home ballpark, as you will be playing 1/2 your games there. Unfortunately, your team is loaded with players who are best suited for "Homer Happy" hitter's parks. (Konerko, Morneau, Jeter, Lowell, Soriano, Cordero, Hudson, etc.) Angels' stadium will reward hitters with high BA, high OBP, and a low number of BP HR's on their cards (#'s) and pitcher's with low WHIP (BP HR's not being as detrimental to them).
Second, winning in this game is all about allocation of resources... all managers have $80 mil in salary to spend. The winners will be those managers who allocate their $80 mil most wisely. To have players like Quinlan (at $4.5 mil) and Cerda ($2 mil) only providing very part-time service isn't effective salary management. You want to think "Concentration of Mass"! Get the most amount of your salary directly involved in the outcome of each game. As such, try to limit platoons to inexpensive players (if that's what you're doing with Quinlan)and keep your back-ups to the bare minimum salary necessary.
Third, try to give your line-up some balance. You've got a team loaded with RH batters who hit LH pitching well. An experienced opponent of yours will see this immediately and throw nothing but RH pitcher's against you. A general rule of thumb in this game is that you will face RH pitching about 70% of the time, so stock your line-up accordingly.
Last thing for now is that defense up the middle is pretty important in this game. As such, very few experienced managers will play anyone greater than a 2 defensively at 2B, SS and CF. There are a few exception to this where a "3" may be employed, but a "4" at 2B is not going to cut it for you.
I'd take a look at your player's cards, cards of available FA's and also of players on other teams. Try to target those which would might help the deficiencies of your team. If there are some other teams in your league which are struggling, they will be your most likely trade partners. At this point, I'd be open to offers on just about any of your players, with the probable exceptions of Ford, Figgins and Schilling (who's performance should improve).
Keep the faith though (I went 62-100 w/my first team)! This is a pretty tough game, but it's not rocket science. And it also can be very rewarding when you get it right. :wink:
Coffee