First timer looking for some opinions

[daxstryd]

As of now, he is still available.

[Marotta007]

As mentioned, the penalty for dropping players at this point is only 5% otherwise I absolutely would not have made these moves. They way I look at it, I lose next to nothing offensively going from Howard to Gonzalez (.882 OPS to .871) but I really improved my defense seeing as Gonzalez is a 1. I know it was only 10% of the season but that .130 average just didn't sit right with me.

If Gonzalez bombs on me, there are still PLENTY of quality options at 1B for me to try. Ditto for Lee at the DH spot. In the end, I thought the small loss of cap room was worth the risk to move laterally on the offensive side with much improved Defense at 1B and LF which should help my pitching staff which has performed poorly.

[Marotta007]

I love it when a plan comes together. In the first series after the moves Buehrle picks up a win, Gonzalez, Lee & Werth go a combined 12-33 with 8 RBI and I take 2 of 3 from the first place team. Unfortunately I lost Werth to an injury (3 games) in the final game but I'm happy with the moves so far.

[chasenally]

watching, nice move.

[chasenally]

Pitching cures everything with a very nice relief job in third game. Gonzalez with a 3 run homer nice. You are on the move! 8-)

[Marotta007]

At this point, those moves couldn't be working out any better. The team is 5-1 and all 4 guys are producing big time. Werth is hitting .364 with 2 RBI, Lee is hitting .320 with 6 RBI, Gonzalez is hitting .364 with 5 RBI and Buehrle is 2-0 with a 1.88 ERA.

I realize it's a very small sample size but even if these guys come back to earth a bit offensively I still feel like the changes were the right thing to do because they improved my defense overall by quite a bit which can only help the pitching staff.

[daxstryd]

I feel something on the back of my neck Mike, could that be you breathing right behind me? I need my table setter back ASAP and to move Pierre back to the bottom to turn it over.

[Marotta007]

Ok so I'm looking over my offense and I'm fairly happy with everything to date. I'd like A-Rod to pick his average up a bit but I'm not all that worried about him especially since the power #'s are there. What I don't think I can live with is Ramon Hernandez and his .130 BA and .159 OBP. I can live with little to no offense production from a catcher who's great defensively but Hernandez is 4(+2)e2 which is damn near as bad as it gets for catchers.

For the time being I've benchned him for his backup, Carlos Ruiz, who is 2(-1)e2. The problem with him is that his 2008 stats were .219 BA, 4 HR & 31 RBI. I have 2 questions. How much of a defensive upgrade can I expect from Hernandez to Ruiz? I assume it would be significant. Or instead of benching Hernandez, should I drop him and pick up Brian Schneider who is 3(-1)e2 but would be a big upgrade over Ruiz offensively (.257-9-38 in 2008).

How likely is it that a guy has a "bad year" from the sims? Does that happen often or do their end of the year #'s end up being pretty similar to their 2008 stats? Because at the moment, Hernandez's BA is half of what it was last season but his HR & RBI production are EXACTLY in line with 2008.

[Marotta007]

Neither Barajas or Cancel are available. If I cut Hernandez and picked up Schneider, I'd also drop Ruiz since I wouldn't use him as a defensive replacement over Schneider (2,-1 vs 3,-1) since the only difference is range and it's just 1 #. That would allow me to pick up a cheaper backup ,probably Johjima, since he's an upgrade over Ruiz offensively and he's not awful on defense (3,0). Those 2 moves would end up costing me 101k in cap room but create an extra 160k cash available.