Is Nolan Ryan that bad?

[voovits]

Through 6 starts Ryan is 0-4 with a 6.44 ERA and 1.71 WHIP.
He and Bob Sebra have combined to be 0-7 for my starting staff while the rest of my starters (Witt, Candelaria, Deshaies) are combined 12-4.

Should I expect Ryan to turn things around or should I see if someone else is available on waivers? His card is not bad statictically, but those are some awful stats, especially for Olympic stadium.

[Jake Squid]

Ryan has been awesome for me in at least 3 '86 leagues. He should work at pretty much any park - I've had him in both hitters & pitchers parks and was never disappointed.

It's the randomness factor, don't give him up.

[voovits]

Well since my last post, Sebra has pitched a good game, and Ryan pitched a slightly below average game, but they both won. Hopefully they'll start turning things around now.

I'm doing pretty well for my first ever 86 team.
You think this team could keep winning? I know they lean a bit to the left overall, but they're holding their own for now.

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=229963&stats=sim

[Jake Squid]

Your team is comprised almost entirely of batters that I've never used, so that makes it a little bit harder for me to evaluate.

I like your pitching staff, even if it's working the opposite of how mine have worked. I've never had any luck w/ Candelaria while Ryan & Sebra have been consistently good for me. The only change you might want to consider is getting a LH specialist in your bullpen. Cards like Young have worked well for me - even Sambito can be effective used correctly.

You're right that your offense is heavy on the RH batters. Your 1B combo intrigues me. I tend to go for a platoon of Traber/Balboni, but Chambliss/Cabell is interesting. I don't like Schu at 3B, his hitting doesn't make up for that atrocious defense. Franco and Fletcher are fine. McReynolds has been hit or miss for me and Bass is okay, but I like others better in RF.

So far you've given up more runs than you've scored and a lot of those are unearned runs. The only two changes that I'd be looking at in your position are a LH relief specialist and improving the defense at 3B.

Let us know how it goes.

Good luck,
Jake

[apolivka]

Ryan will come around, I've rarely seen him put up bad numbers. Stewart and Perry are good Olympic values as well. Whitt at 8.26M is a ton of money for Olympic where you pitchers really don't have to be _that_ good, but it might work out. I've used Candy at Olympic and he really hasn't hurt me, but there might be better ones out there.

Chambliss and Bradley are great Olympic guys, but Chambliss is rather injury prone, so Cabell might get a lot more ABs than you wanted. I agree with JS on Schu. Your Defense is rather weak in general, and he is horrible and not a very good Olympic value on offense, so you could probably improve there.

Good luck.

[voovits]

You know, I feel stupid. I've been DHing Cabell and Chambliss and playing Beniquez at 1B. Though I suppose it could work OK with the platoon DHing because if one goes down, it'll be easier to find a substitution.

Thanks for the tips. I'm a little busy now, but I'll try to make a few changes later tonight and see if I could not come up with something better.

[apolivka]

I like your changes. "The Can" is a better Olympic value than Whitt, even though he hasn't shown it yet. I also really like RL Jackson at Olympic as well. Oberkfell is a huge upgrade at 3b and a good Olympic guy.

Looks like Ryan won his last 3, so he's certainly doing better. Your team looks like it's doing pretty well at 30-24. I hope I don't jinx him, but how about that Dave Stewart!!! Where is he in the Cy Yound voting? :)

[voovits]

Actually, Stewart was originally a bullpen guy. Sebra was my starter, but he got hurt for 6 or 7 games, so I used Stewart to spot start in his place.
He was doing well in relief (3-0 record, low ERA/WHIP), and when I started him in place of Sebra, he continued his dominant ways, going 3-0 in 3 starts compiling stats of 23IP 11Hits 7 Walks 3ER 21K.
I'm basically just riding the hot hand right now as Sebra is statistically better as far as his card goes. Stewart will go back to the bullpen once he stops pitching well.

He's currently not in the cy young voting.

Ryan has won his last 2 and is 3-1 in his last 5 starts. He has had 2 good performances back to back, but walks are a major problem. His most recent was good, 8 shutout innings, 2 hits, 4 walks and 8 strikeouts, but before that game he pitched 7.2 innings, giving up 3 hits, and an amazing 10 walks. Better walks than singles (or worse) though.

Thanks for the tips. I had forgotten to update my most recent post when I made the changes.