by sschu » Thu Mar 16, 2006 9:06 pm
The approach to selecting SPs requires a bit of analysis as there are seemingly endless options, here are some thoughts.
1. Pick SPs that can pitch at home, in this case, no more than 1 BPHRs per side.
2. Count the hitters hand and strength you will be facing , division and league, LH/RH count. Make sure your SPs matchup, ie if the division includes Mantle, Brett and Gehrig clearly you want 2 LHs to minimize their effectiveness. If a team has 5 ort 6 RHs (which is not uncommon for smallball teams), the get some RHs, even hard RHS like Bell or Reed.
3. Make sure you can pitch on the road also. In your case, if you select all 0 BPHR guys, OBP will typically be higher and you will be susceptible on the road in pitcher parks. If so, one "value" type pitcher that can give you some good innings on the road is a good idea. Knepper, Drysdale, Boyd are ideas, but make sure they are good matchups for your opponents and league overall.
4. A good rule when you do not know what to do is one ace (>$8M), 2 mid-priced guys ($5M range) and 1 less than $2M guy. 2 RHs and 2 LH is a good place to start.
5. Special situations. IF you have a Dunn or Y56 team in your division with a lot of LHs, there are several "spot" type guys to consider, Bennet, Merritt, Podres for example.
The bottom line is you need to learn the pitchers, do you have the ATGII spreadsheet with the card numbers? To me pitchers are just numbers, I look to minimize OPS with a mixture of all the above. While this is not entirely true, it is a good place to start.
FWIIW, sschu