So What do you guys think of my first team?

[griffelh]

[url]http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/80s/team/team_other.html?user_id=53839&stats=actual[/url]

Playing in Shea....Do I stand a chance?

[cplake]

Not a bad team you have there on paper.......I would look for a little more OF defense. Your success will depend on the mystery card. Track injuries religiously (especially on your own players) to try and determine which seasons you have.

Good luck!

[nycalderon]

here's my 2 cents....

caveat: as always it depends on the cards you get...


Starting Pitching: You have the makings of great 4 man rotation (Guidry, Higuera, Alexander). Even though Fernandez can be real good I would drop him and Darling (who I have rarely seen do well) and pick up a fourth ace (depends who is out there) Reuss, Black, Burns, Bosio... You will save money there.

Relief: I think you could spend a little less here. I like Gossage and Moore. Lavelle can be good but he's an expensive option for such risky return. I would rather see you get 2 cheapies in place of Lavelle (Gleaton, Murphy, Nelson, Power, Crim et al.) Stanley can be ok and I might keep him if there wasn't a cheaper alternative who carried same risk/reward. Leach isn't a bad play (I have never used him).

Kennedy and Cerone make a nice opening day catching tandem. not sure why you need Quirk.. maybe save cash there.

Murray and Randolph can both be great.


I'm definitely not feeling Smalley for this team, however. You play in a pitchers park and you have big frontline pitching. I would never... ever... start a season with a 3 at SS. Probably too late to get a 1 at short (get Burleson if he's out there) otherwise I like Concepcion, Schofield, DeJesus, Bowa et al. Get two 2's and stick with the best one or platoon.


I think Nettles carries a bit of risk for this team. I guess you're angling on a platoon with Royster. Could be effective depending on the cards but be prepared to make a change when one disappoints.


I think you need more offense out of your OF. Wilson is good D in CF (and this team needs good D in CF) but there is a good chance he won't hit. Rice is a solid play in LF. I wouldn't go with Griffey in RF. With money you have saved you ought to be able to get a solid RF (Hendrick comes to mind)

McRae looks good for DH.

good luck

[seanreflex]

Griff,

A few observations looking at your team:

1. Why do you need El Sid? You have 4 other starters that are *SP. Drop Sid, drop Alexander & upgrade him to another *SP (or keep him & see how his season turns out, knowing you may need to upgrade him at some point).

2. Guidry and Darling consistently underperform, not playing to their cards, so beware of that as you move into the season.

3. Batting - you're solid at C, 1B, 2B and LF. Wilson in CF is okay, but there are alot of better options that hit RHP far better than he does -- Dykstra, Butler, Raines, Rickey, Gwynn, Davis, Van Slyke, Murphy, Lynn, Thomas, Dawson --- I'd look at any of those (although on my only championship team in the 80's, Willie Wilson was my starting CF the entire season!)

4. Problem areas as I see it: SS, 3B and RF -- the cash you get from dropping Fernandez, Nettles, Smalley, McRae and Griffey should go to find a 1 defense SS, 2 at the worst. Concepcion is a good choice if available, Burleson isn't bad either. Even Uribe and UL Washington are good and can hit occasionally, and you can put your cash elsewhere.

5. There are alot of 3B that can work in Shea (although I've never been brave enough to have a Shea team ) -- HOJO, Bonilla, Horner, Buddy Bell -- I've never seen Nettles do well in a role other than as a backup, though some other veterans may have better history with him.

6. Bullpen -- I really like Lavelle, Gossage and Moore. I also love Lefferts, Burke, Tekulve, Mohorcic, Guante, Agosto, and Mark Clear all usually do very well too.

Hope you don't feel like I'm pickin' you apart -- just a few observations. Hopefully a bunch of other vets will give you some feedback too. Good luck!

Sean

[nycalderon]

sean...

our comments are almost identical... lol

Nettles can be real good but he carries a lot of risk, especially in a pitchers park... I definitely like Alexander more than Darling... He's not a goddawful choice for a #4 SP.

[PillPop]

I agree with these other guys about your starting pitching. You could lose Sid (cool as he was in real-life back then) and Guidry (ditto) and go shopping in that $4-5 million range. I've done well with Tom Browning, Kevin Gross, Bob Ojeda, Doug Drabek.

Also, go through your hitters and make sure you have a couple whose power is not dependent on the ballpark home run. Shea is a tough HR park. And try to find a cheap catcher with a -1, -2, or -3 throwing arm.

Go get 'em!

[griffelh]

Thanks a lot guys, I really appreciate the imput never having played this game before and I've done as you suggested. Please take another look and let me know what you think now. Also, what is it that is so scarey about Shea?

1. Dropped Sid and Darling and added Bosio - he was the best guy left out there.

2. I like Guidry, so I am going to try keeping him.

3. Replaced Griffey with Hendrick

4. Replaced Smalley with Bowa and I also have Oester who is a 2 at SS. There are no 1's left.

5. I dumped Nettles for Hojo as suggested, but would like to know why you both suggested that. Is it that Nettles doesn't hit well? Because his D should be good.

6. Bullpen -- Clear is the only guy recommended who is available, but his cards appear no better than Stanley and they cost the same, so I am happy to stick with Stanley. I love him for blowing the 86 Series to my Mets! I also took Schmidt as a swing sp/rp and I'll go with the 4 man rotation.

Anything else worrisome that you see?

[Outta Leftfield]

This is a team with definite potential. I agree with almost all the comments above and you've already made some moves in the right direction. But a bit more tweaking might make a real difference.

1. Your four man *SP rotation is shaping up but you don't really need Shatzeder at 3.83M. A .75M SP like Kison, Comer, Burris, Caldwell, Waits can fill that 5th spot adequately. This will free up about 3M in cash.

2. What the guys above are saying about your bullpen is true. You really don't need ALL of those expensive relievers. On different teams, Lavelle, Stanley, Leach and Moore have all been my ace reliever. Any one of them in his best year can do it for you--but right now you don't know which one is in the good year. I'd cash in a couple of your more expensive relievers for .75M guys who have good years on their cards. Any one of those might emerge as you ace--as Moore did for me when I got one of his best three years. Search RP of less than 1M and sort by WHIP. Pick up the best available guys with low WHIP and decent ERAs.

3. With the money you save, you can upgrade at 3B and catcher. For some reason, Nettles never seems to perform very well (I've never had him but he seems to get dumped almost every year) and it would be good to have a better arm at catcher if possible, in Shea. If Buechele is available, he's a great platoon player with a lefty at 3B. Heep is a good cheap lefty bat. Keep him. Other are Bush and Polonia. Ultimately, you want most of your hitting $$ concentrated on 9 starters and pick backups who can hit and perform possible platoon roles if a starter shows a platoon weakness. You don't need 15 hitters. Most go with 13 or 14. I started out picking bench players for their defensive skills and now look much more heavily at what the backups can do offensively. On one successful current team, I've got all 13 players playing regularly--including platoons at 4 positions: DH, C, 2B and RF.

Ultimately, as the other guys have said, it all depends on the year. I've had monster performances from Rice, McRae, Murray, Lavelle, Leach, and Moore on your team and solid jobs from Bosio, Stanley, and Randolph. I've seen almost all these guys perform well--and bomb out in other years. So the key to wining is to study your team and make the right adjustments as you go.

[griffelh]

OK, I tinkered some more.

Dropped Alexander and made Black my 4th starter...only concern is 3 of 4 starters are lefties. Is this an issue?

I downgraded the #5 starter to Cerutti.

Finally gave in and replaced Lavelle with Gleaton.

Used the money to upgrade OF defense. I added Gorman Thomas, dumped McRae and moved Rice to DH and Wilson to LF.

No catchers who are more than -1 that do not suck. Porter, Wynegar, Yeager, heath, Lavellier. But they all need to be platooned and I no longer have the money after paying for hendrcik and Thomas.

[color=red:a93f38324d][b:a93f38324d]Is it worth playing Oester as starting SS, cut Bowa and platoon Lavellier and heath at C?[/b:a93f38324d][/color:a93f38324d]

Anything else that pops out at any of you?

[nycalderon]

Cerutti is a decent play as 5th starter as he can be a useful asset out of the bullpen against lefties. Overall it's not the bullpen I would make but all of them can be very effective.

I see you grabbed Thomas. He is somewhat of a risky play at Shea. one year he will be excellent (79). 2 years adequate - maybe (81 & 82). 2 years bad to awful (80 & 85). Of course if you have some big Hr parks in the division he may make up for it on the road.

Rotation looks real solid going into the season. I don't like Hojo for 3rd - especially at Shea. I think you need better defense there. He might be adequate as a DH but not as every day thirdbaseman in my opinion. I am not as down on nettles as the other guys but like I said before he is a better play in a HR park. I had him once in Dodger (1-4 HR factor) and I had his best card. He hit .258 BA .454 SLG .326 OBP. He had 17 HRs in 302 ABs. If you have Nettles there is a strong chance he will only be a one way player.