TSN 70s League Reality Show: fail and learn

[Semper Gumby]

With a 1/3 of the season in the books, time to evaluate my team's structure and strategy playing in Three Rivers.

[url]http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/70s/team/team_other.html?user_id=47345[/url]

After drafting ill suited pitching (weak vs. LHBs)

[b:b9557bb920]Dennis Leonard[/b:b9557bb920] (Dennis since imploded for another owner)
[b:b9557bb920]Luis Tiant [/b:b9557bb920] (I'm waiting for Luis make a second act)
[b:b9557bb920]Gaylord Perry[/b:b9557bb920] (Gaylord's second act worse than his first showing)

I gave up on starters and moved my cash to the back end of the bullpen

[b:b9557bb920]Removed[/b:b9557bb920]
[b:b9557bb920]John Hiller[/b:b9557bb920] (John's second act worse than his first too)
[b:b9557bb920]John Ray[/b:b9557bb920] (John's second act isn't much better than his first)
[b:b9557bb920]Kent Tekeluve[/b:b9557bb920] (Kent's turn on my team fared no better than his first)

[b:b9557bb920]Changed pitch settings[/b:b9557bb920]
[b:b9557bb920]Gene Garber[/b:b9557bb920] (1978) - now among league leaders in relief categories

[b:b9557bb920]Added[/b:b9557bb920]
[b:b9557bb920]Ramon Hernandez[/b:b9557bb920]
[b:b9557bb920]Joe Sambito[/b:b9557bb920]
[b:b9557bb920]Bill Butler[/b:b9557bb920]
[b:b9557bb920]Wayne Granger[/b:b9557bb920]

Over the last five series, the bullpen has done well to hold its own and keep games closer than when I had Leonard / Tiant spotting opposing teams 4 and 5 runs by the 3rd inning.


[b:b9557bb920]Hitting [/b:b9557bb920]- a different story as HAL didn't curse me as much as he did with pitching cards :wink:

With the main roster in tact from opening day except for the revolving door at 1B (Alou, Cooper, Watson, Biittner), [b:b9557bb920]Mike Hargrove[/b:b9557bb920] answered the needs at 1B and has been a pleasant surprise (1.056 OPS over 31 games).

When [b:b9557bb920]Rusty Staub [/b:b9557bb920]came available last night :shock: , I took the risk of higher upside and traded [b:b9557bb920]Ralph Garr [/b:b9557bb920] in for Rusty. I narrowed Garr's card to 1972 but liked Rusty's 3 game injury maximum as I'm thin in the scrub substitutes.

Despite the very slow start this season, the team has turned the corner and made the central division a three team foot race.

Going into the last 2/3s, I'll keep an eye on the pitching corps since I have [b:b9557bb920]Bill Butler [/b:b9557bb920]and [b:b9557bb920]Frank Lacorte [/b:b9557bb920]in the rotation now.

[Barbie Girl]

If this were 1975 and I had a pistol (a 1975 vintage Saturday Night Special), I'd shoot John Hiller through the heart.

:evil:

[Semper Gumby]

"Sunday, sunday, sunday at raceway park"

This Sunday had activity in the free agent world as I emptied the garbage with [b:2a3a0a063b]Bob Forsch[/b:2a3a0a063b] in it among other things.

I had decent hopes that Bob's card could keep the games close until the bullpen came online but as he enjoyed more starts - Bob got worse in the stats department with teams hitting him from both sides of the plate.

[b:2a3a0a063b]Bill Stoneman[/b:2a3a0a063b] doesn't offer too much besides the SP* (second team in less than a week) but Bill saves me $2M to fund [b:2a3a0a063b]Mark Littell[/b:2a3a0a063b] and [b:2a3a0a063b]Bob Owchinko[/b:2a3a0a063b].

Reviewing a few older leagues, Littlell's card doesn't enjoy a high adoption rate which seems odd as he has three keeper and one maybe season. Otherwise, Mark can't do any worse than [b:2a3a0a063b]Wayne Granger [/b:2a3a0a063b]or [b:2a3a0a063b]Kent Tekeluve [/b:2a3a0a063b].

As for Bob Owchinko, I'll team him with Bill Butler on the [b:2a3a0a063b]Dick Bosman [/b:2a3a0a063b] off rotation pitching days.

[Semper Gumby]

[quote:fea021e461]Bill Stoneman doesn't offer too much besides the SP* (second team in less than a week) but [b:fea021e461]Bill [Butler][/b:fea021e461] saves me $2M to fund Mark Littell and [b:fea021e461]Bob Owchinko[/b:fea021e461].

[...]

As for [b:fea021e461]Bob Owchinko[/b:fea021e461], I'll team him with Bill Butler on the [b:fea021e461]Dick Bosman[/b:fea021e461] off rotation pitching days.
[/quote:fea021e461]

Pitching with Butler last night, Owchinko starts his tour off with a strong outing and grabs the win after facing a tough RHB line-up. While Butler took the loss in his start, he didn't get hit hard until the late innings. Ironically, [b:fea021e461]Ramon Hernandez [/b:fea021e461]took it on the chin relieving Butler which leads me to conclude Butler will be fine going forward.

To prevent pitching fatigue, I will limit Butler to 6 innings per start and review after a few outings.

[Semper Gumby]

Matched up against the best team in the league last night, the [b:e0ca0bc94c]Burning Rivers[/b:e0ca0bc94c] team showed up and played its [b:e0ca0bc94c]A[/b:e0ca0bc94c] game to beat the best starting rotation this side of the game.

Besides taking two from Texas, confirmed [b:e0ca0bc94c]Steve Swisher's [/b:e0ca0bc94c]1978 season card which makes my decision to drop [b:e0ca0bc94c]Manny Sanguillen [/b:e0ca0bc94c]less painful.

Otherwise, I went bold and dropped [b:e0ca0bc94c]David Chalk [/b:e0ca0bc94c] to fund [b:e0ca0bc94c]Kent Tekeluve's[/b:e0ca0bc94c]return for the third time. :shock:

With [b:e0ca0bc94c]Bill Butler[/b:e0ca0bc94c] and [b:e0ca0bc94c]Bob Owchinko [/b:e0ca0bc94c]in the pitching rotation, I can count on Kent to hold his own against RHBs.

69 games into the season, what do we have:

[b:e0ca0bc94c]C: Swisher[/b:e0ca0bc94c] (1978)
[b:e0ca0bc94c]1B: Hargrove [/b:e0ca0bc94c](1977)
[b:e0ca0bc94c]2B: Felix[/b:e0ca0bc94c] (1970)
[b:e0ca0bc94c]SS: Bowa[/b:e0ca0bc94c] (1975)
[b:e0ca0bc94c]3B: Hebner[/b:e0ca0bc94c] (1973)
[b:e0ca0bc94c]LF: Singleton[/b:e0ca0bc94c] (1973)
[b:e0ca0bc94c]CF: Murcer[/b:e0ca0bc94c] (1971)
[b:e0ca0bc94c]RF: Parker [/b:e0ca0bc94c](likely 1978)

[b:e0ca0bc94c]DH: Staub[/b:e0ca0bc94c] (1971)

Bench:

[b:e0ca0bc94c]Moore [/b:e0ca0bc94c](1978?)
[b:e0ca0bc94c]Biittner [/b:e0ca0bc94c](1978?)
Lanier
Stein
[b:e0ca0bc94c]Grieve [/b:e0ca0bc94c](1974 or 76)

[Semper Gumby]

The free agent discount window is closing soon which makes the these next few games important to see which late season pick-ups make the team.

After placing my bets with the starting pitchers, I've downshifted to the bullpen with some success.

Hernandez, Sambito, and Tekeluve have done a decent job snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.

With several starts by The Count and even more losses, I tossed the towel in on SP* and went with the league's only no no pitcher [b:efed7dc5af]Nelson Briles[/b:efed7dc5af] who is damn near lights out against RHBs. With Hernandez and Sambito in the bullpen, I'm hope to increase Nelson's value a tad more.

In last night's series, HAL had his finger on the results :evil:

Unless my scans are wrong, I have one of the better fielding teams and very few sub 600 PA injury players.

In my second loss to the same team (two series), HAL found away to generate 3 or 4 errors (~half of the runs unearned) and 2 injuries per game. While we can disagree on whether the events are mutually exclusive of the loss, it is odd to see 10-12 games worth of errors and injuries in 2 series (2 games) against the same team.

What are the odds of that happening a third time?

[Semper Gumby]

After a nasty run of losses where the Burning River team (despite being a league leading .300+ team BA - Three Rivers based) struggled to score more than three runs per game, we switched tactics and went with three LHSPs to counter the heavy LHB line-ups.

So far, the batting output has warmed a tad from late March but my starting pitching has come alive over the last 12 games.

Despite having several top hitting season cards ([b:d147bc20cd]Parker,[/b:d147bc20cd] [b:d147bc20cd]Murcer[/b:d147bc20cd], [b:d147bc20cd]Hargrove[/b:d147bc20cd], [b:d147bc20cd]Hebner[/b:d147bc20cd], [b:d147bc20cd]Staub[/b:d147bc20cd], and [b:d147bc20cd]Singleton[/b:d147bc20cd]), the team stumbles with men on base.

Since grabbing a slightly dented[b:d147bc20cd] John Candelaria [/b:d147bc20cd]/ [b:d147bc20cd]Mike Caldwell [/b:d147bc20cd]off the waiver wire, my starters have gone deep into games saving my leaky bullpen from blowing the game.

If HAL gives [b:d147bc20cd]Gene Garber [/b:d147bc20cd]a break (2-9 with 8 blown saves), I might just have a decent team going into the last 40 games.

[Semper Gumby]

Going for the southpaws has been an improvement in the pitching department

Earlier usage of Sambito and Hernandez in the relief department did wonders to kick aside the conventional wisdom of lefties as starters. If anything, their value has soared in this league.

Now if I can get [b:70daaf5732]Gene Garber[/b:70daaf5732] to stop yielding homeruns to RHBs this team has a damn chance to make a nice run at the playoffs

On the hitting side, a spat of injuries slowed the offensive output but we're back to full strength

Nice to see that [b:70daaf5732]Steve Swisher [/b:70daaf5732]has 5 triples and I don't believe his season card here has him hitting any against RHSPs.

[JONCHUCKERY]

Its funny but I'm a huge believer that you can't have too many good LHP in the 70's game. Especially since most of the popular hitters are LH as well. I always go for 2 of my 5 starters to be lefties and 1 of them a front line guy. I always also go for 2 LH RP that are weighted to BAL L. Even if its guys who pitch just an inning I want someone who can get the tough LHB out.

[Semper Gumby]

My guess - this league's owners went unbalanced left with the hitters (we have three Yankee stadium teams) around the 81 game mark which makes LHSP valuable

When I review the league leaders' pitching categories, a strong showing by the lefthand pitching with a few exceptions.

We'll see how it runs out over the last 42 games.