3rd time lucky?

[mbalsdon44]

Well the first two times I played I was horrible. Now, to mix things up, I went for a pitching team instead of a hitting team (like the last two times). I have chosen Petco Park as my field and my starting rotation will be

Santana
Zambrano
Pavano
Marquis

I have Benitez and Guardado as my strong relievers/closers and Linebrink is in there as well. No pitcher has an ERA over 4.

I also though it would be wise to put 2's for 2B, 3B, and SS. I have 3 outfielders with good fielding abilities (Sheffield, Rivera, Cabrera).

Am I doing something right? I can post my team but I have to wait until Waivers are done. I am not going to having a losing season this time.. (hopefully :lol: )

[worrierking]

Post a link to the team. Lots of folks will offer help, but it's hard to do without being able to see the squad.

[mbalsdon44]

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/2005/team/team_other.html?user_id=55264

Here is the link. I am working on getting Benitez (or an other great R Reliever/closer), as well as Marquis. If not Marquis, then who would you suggest I go for for the fourth pitcher in my rotation?

I am also working on getting Belliard for second base and he has good fielding there. My only real immediate weakness is probably the catcher area.

Any help her is greatly appreciated

[visick]

You are lacking in the on-base department.

[milezd]

fyi, the thing about playing in petco is you don't necessarily need to have a stud lineup of pitchers, petco makes pitchers better, you can usually go with lesser pitchers and pickup more offense.

having said that, you don't have much choice now that there isn't much left out there. What I would do is to drop dave bush for someone like Nate Robertson, Javier Vazquez or Eric Milton. This will allow you to have a 4 man rotation. Nate Robertson is a decent #4 starter in petco. This will free up some extra cash you can use else where.

I would keep kolb as your closer and drop guardado and mesa for some better middle relief, looking at your waiver wire two people that jump out at me are rheal cormier, and justin duchscherer, that would give you middle relief versus both lefties and righties, both which can pitch 2 or more innings. In my opinion cormier and duchscherer are two of the better value relief pitchers in the game.

as for the hitters, first, who is your starting second basemen? if it's furcal your in trouble (he is 2b-3e41) so not only is he going to have a ton of errors, being a range 3 will allow a lot more of the pitcher results become hits. A petco team should have good defense at SS, 2B, and CF, these three positions get the most possible error chances on a pitchers card.

belliard would be a better choice than furcal, you may have some cash left over from what you do with pitching.

what were you thinking of for a lineup?

[hechojazz]

I'm in the same division as mbalsdon44, and one thing that is concerning me is also something any of you who give him advice should keep in mind...we'll be playing in one of the more bizarre divisions I've seen - two Petcos(7-1/1-1) and two BOBs(13-13/13-13). The balance of the league features two PNCs(13-13/7-7), and one each of Network Associates(8-2/11-11), Coors(19-19/19-17), Shea(12-6/12-3), Minute Maid(11-11/4-13), Ameriquest(15-15/16-16) and Miller(6-3/12-9). So we've got a largely hitting-friendly league, with the exception of the two Petcos in our division (and the anti-righty Shea and Miller). Of course one must stack a team to optimize one's own home ballpark tendencies, but almost half of his games will be played in hitters parks (and from my perspective my hitters park team will be playing an awful lot of Petco games). How should one take this into account?

[mbalsdon44]

I am working on getting belliard from waivers and I hope that I do. If I do, I am droping Furcal since he will be a waste of cash to hold around. I agree with the pitching and I am trying to get rid of Bush for Robertson, Marquis, or Milton. Derchereereerererere (or whatever his name) is the guy I am going after because of him relief status and value.

As for my lineup, I have only really thought about positioning them correctly and not the batting order.

1B - Bagwell
2B - Belliard (hopefully)
SS - Vizquel
3B - Blalock
CF - Rivera
LF - Cabrera
RF - Sheffield
DH - Chavez
C - T. Hall

Thoughts? I think defensively, they are a pretty decent bunch (assuming I can get belliard). Am I still lacking somewhere that you could help me with?

[milezd]

as for hitting it looks like you need a few things

a few more left handed hitters
better defense at CF
a decent DH

drop endy chavez for a .50 player
drop tony batista for a .50 player
(you almost never want to spend more than .50 for your bench players, putting your maximum money into your starting 9)

you would then have the following (this is not a lineup, just a list of players for each position)

R pratt C-4e1
R bagwell 1b-3e7
L blalock 3b-2e18
S vizquel ss-2e12
R belliard 2b-2e16
R sheffield RF-4e6
R cabrera LF-3e10
R rivera rf-2e5/ cf-3e5/ lf-2e5

if it were me, I would play sheff in RF, cabrera in LF, and drop rivera for johnny damon (if money allows) or mark kotsay, this would give you another lefty and a guy to bat #1-2 in your lineup

then drop sosa for another lefty to play DH, someone like brian giles, lyle overbay, or aubrey huff (if money allows), you could also try to get a better defender for RF and play sheff as DH

[hechojazz]

I suppose I'm violating a basic tenet of strat play by giving a divisional opponent any tips, but Rivera's a 3 in CF, so if you're going to have Chavez in the lineup too, you should put him in CF and DH Cabrera, starting Rivera LF...

So, now will the strat gods punish me?

[milezd]

I would also like to address what hechojazz said, yes, your have an odd balance of ballparks in your league, BUT, the one mistake I see a lot of other people make is building teams or making key decisions based on what everyone else's ballparks are. This is a mistake.

Always build your team around YOUR ballpark. You play 50% of your games there. Then, look at the parks of the people in your division, you will be playing them more than anyone else. You have another petco in your division (that's good!) plus two BOBs(13-13/13-13). Knowing that I wouldn't change anything that I told you previously.