Overachiever/Underachiever

[DEREKJOHNSON]

My first season just got underway and my other four teams will be starting their seasons on Monday. Since these are my first teams ever, I'm not really sure how they will do. Started thinking about these topics.

Who was a big money player(s) that underperformed for you? That player(s) you thought was going to be a star on your team, but just never put it together for you.

Who was the player(s) that performed better than expected? That player(s) you needed at a certain position and the money was reasonable and surprised you.

This would be on teams with $100M or less payrolls. $200M teams should have great players at every position, so they don't qualify.

So just curious to hear from the players that have played the 1986 season often.

[Free Radicals]

The '86 game is only a month or so old , so many leagues are just coming to an end about now . After the end of the 1st leagues you will probably get better answers than can be presented at this time . I have 2 teams ending in 2 weeks . 1 doing well and the other not quite so well . The park you put the players in for 81 home games makes a big difference in what kind of a season to expect . Luckily I have played ATG , 70's and 80's so I had an idea of who was who and kind of what to expect . An enigma on some of my teams has been Hrbek . He drives in runs but his average is generally well below his card . Parker has been great on some teams and poor on others . You'll find this with most players . Sometimes good , sometimes bad .

[DEREKJOHNSON]

[quote:416ab14df1="Free Radicals"]The '86 game is only a month or so old , so many leagues are just coming to an end about now . After the end of the 1st leagues you will probably get better answers than can be presented at this time . I have 2 teams ending in 2 weeks . 1 doing well and the other not quite so well . The park you put the players in for 81 home games makes a big difference in what kind of a season to expect . Luckily I have played ATG , 70's and 80's so I had an idea of who was who and kind of what to expect . An enigma on some of my teams has been Hrbek . He drives in runs but his average is generally well below his card . Parker has been great on some teams and poor on others . You'll find this with most players . Sometimes good , sometimes bad .[/quote:416ab14df1]

I didn't know the '86 season was only a month old. I thought it had been going much longer, as I've only come into it the last week and a half. So we can open it up to all "era" related games. Thought this could be an interesting topic.

I know now...my learning curve has been pretty quick...thanks to the knowledge on the boards...to build your team, almost specific to the ballpark you pick and hope you matchup well in the other parks. Your team could be a monster, all is fine and dandy on paper...I know it's whether the rolls go right for you in specific situations.

[216 Stitches]

I am also going through a learning curve, although I started in January (so before the 1986 came out). My working theory for strat is a well designed lineup is more important that the pieces you put in it.

Expierenced Managers give great free advice, but you can learn even more by watching them and playing against them. Most people will keep their best secrets to themselves (which is fair). The beauty of strat is there is a lot you can change -- but not all changes will be for the better.

In my limited experience, I have seen high priced player performance players modified as much by the line-up around them as good or bad dice rolls. I had Tris Speaker batting 3rd and his numbers looked disappointing (for him), but he was also leading the league in Intentional walks. So I looked at the players batting after them, and sure enough, they were driving in a lot more runs than expected. So which explanation do I believe? (1) Speaker isn't that great, (2) Speaker had bad luck, (3) Other players got the numbers Speaker should have because Hal avoided him whenever he got great match-up possibilities? And if the team as a whole was scoring runs (which it was), why should I care *too* much about if one players stats? Is he contributing to my lineup? Is my lineup sucessful?

If you come from Rot. Baseball, you can think of players in isolation, but in strat, its how they combine (more like in real baseball). I have beaten other teams 4-3 where the other side has gotten 3 solo HR's. You have to think, that performance (3 solo HR) looks a lot better in Rot than in Strat. Which is my understanding of the 1st rule of strat is "OBP before SLG". To get multi-run innings, you almost always have to start with mulitple baserunners.

There is a topic here on overpriced player in '86 which starts with Tim Raines being an underachiever. The experienced managers basically said, Raines is a great player, but he it is trickey to put his value to good use. He has both power and speed. Or to paraphrase one poster,... if you don't like Tim Raines, I'll take him off your hands.

[Free Radicals]

Nice analogy . I have Ricky Henderson on a couple teams . His batting average is down but his obp, slg , and runs scored leads the team or near the top . I have him batting leadoff and 3rd . Leadoff because he sets the table for that particular line up . 3rd because I look for his power to knock in the speed freaks in front of him in that line up . The learning curve for strat is immense . So many things to get to know and then use the info correctly . The boards are a wealth of information but so is just sitting down and reading all the rules and "How to read a strat o matic card " . In the board game ,as example, a runners speed goes up 2 notches with 2 outs because they are running . That's something you wouldn't get from the online rules. I started my SOM career here but hencefore have bought the board game which gave me better understanding of what is actually happening . You throw out a pitcher ,example, Ruffin . His looks pretty good but you can't figure out why he's getting lit up . But knowing the SOM board game tells you the rolls are going to the hitters card instead. Little things like that can go along way ! Keep asking questions . There is no dumb question . :wink:

[DEREKJOHNSON]

Tim Raines...I'm thinking of batting him second in my lineup. I'd have Marty Barrett lead off and with Boggs hitting third...it might make sense to have someone on base for Raines. [b:ba0ddbacce]Would HAL IBB Boggs everytime if first base was open?[/b:ba0ddbacce] Say Raines steals second...Boggs comes up, granted I have Will Clark and Mike Easler batting 4th in different lineups...[b:ba0ddbacce]is that enough protection?[/b:ba0ddbacce] I have specifically built this team as a high OBP (for the $$) good defense team. I'm playing in Oakland Coliseum and my starting five are:

Scott
Valenzuela
Leibrandt
Ryan
Darwin

It didn't make sense to me to have a bunch of sluggers that can't field in this stadium.

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=86151

I've really worked free agency tro build this type of team. I just hope I have enough pop to score runs.

[Free Radicals]

Barrett is usually a dud . Your OBP is low overall . Sure you have a few guys who can hit but you'll need more than what you have imo . I have a system which I would not like to divulge and you team Offensively rates an overall as a 15 . 20 at least would be bare minimum and playing at Oakland you need to rethink your hitting . Clark , Easler, White, Hatcher, Lee, and McGee are all 15 game IR risks . If they go down at the same time your screwed in the OF . Depending on your divisional and league make up you could try to trim with Ryan and Darwin and up grade in the OF and get someone bonified in the pen. I think you will struggle to score runs . Look for many 2-1 3-2 1-0 loses . I have been wrong though many times also so who knows.

[Free Radicals]

Here's a County Stadium team I helped my son put together . It's sort of similar to Oakland . Click on the real stats and you'll see : Low injury risks , not great speed but some , and guys who CAN hit up and down the line up . The pen is stellar to back up the ok SP . It's just something to compare with is all but hopefully you'll see what I am talking about .

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=80889

[DEREKJOHNSON]

I'm still pretty clueless with injuries. I've read the FAQ and see the "injury" on the cards, but just kinda blind.

[Free Radicals]

680+ plate appearances ( at bats + walks = pa's ) no injury or rest of game

600-679 pa's = 3-4 games max

599 pa's and under 15 game possible .

So on the above linked team the OF will not miss a game at all ! :wink: