Petco team design, and range ratings (1-4) vs. error totals.

[Chuckgnh1]

Got Lincecum, Haren, Jimenez, Jurrjens for starters, Franklin as closer. Do I think in terms of one decent set-up (Howry) and then <1M other relievers?

Have Rollins at SS - Furcal's available. Markakis, Bourn, Melky Cabrera starting OF. Teixeira, Polanco, Feliz other IF, Martin C. Obviously not a lot of pop...........I'm in waiver period until Monday. Do I consider Furcal to upgrade elsewhere? What would YOU do? This is in Petco, I should say, with Oakland, Miller and Busch other stadiums in same division. I'm not used to doing pitching parks, which I thought would be different. Lots of low-scoring games, of course. Some high-end relievers available, and this is also a non-DH league, which I'm also new at. Any advice would be appreciated - good advice even more so, of course.

Thanks.

Chuck

[durantjerry]

IMO, you definately need more offense. I would consider maybe a downgrade of the third and/or fourth starter. If you are playing maybe 2/3 of your games in pitchers parks(you play 93 just counting your division), you may want to take advantage by using maybe a cheap pitcher with some #HR's whose effectiveness will increase in pitchers parks. IMO Catcher and 3B must go, they are just poor offensive players. Rollins will be HORRIBLE offensively in Petco. Not a big Melky fan either, as he's kind of a nothing player and there are a lot of good, cheap corner platoon OF's. I think you will easily be sub-.500 with the current squad. As far as relief pitching, I would have Howry at most or not at all and maybe just cheap guys, as the starters are great. If you are spending that much on SP's, you have to cheat somewhere to build an offense with relief being the obvious place. In No-DH, you might also look at the poor defensive players that will be available. Your SP's can carry one or two poor defensive players that will generate offense for low cost such as Borbon, Coughlin, Lind, etc. Theriot might be someone you want to look at. Judging by your offense, some other teams must be pretty loaded and a few of them will have cobbled together some decent pitching, which is all they will need to outscore you.

[Chuckgnh1]

Thanks for input. I know I need some offense. Furcal as replacement, bringing $? Other teams in division aren't much stronger, really. Damon a good pick to replace Melky? I really liked the idea of outstanding defense, but can only win 3-2 so many times (1-0)? Feliz actually has done pretty well for me before, and I actually like Martin's OBP. HR's are going to be a struggle throughout my div., better lefty by far in two parks. Will dump Thatcher, and pick up $ there too. A work in progress............again, thanks.

[Jerlins]

I've found most of the successful Petco teams to be ones with a great offense that can play defense spending little on SP's, especially those in the #'s 3 and 4 slots. High OBP guys that can play defense like Ichiro, Span, etc, spiced with a guy in the middle of the lineup that has a few natural HR's are ideal. The defense and park will cover up a lot of faults of your starting pitching if they are weak, yet, you can still compete with the offense.

In your case, you're already giving up an out in the pitchers spot, why give up more? DJ already mentioned the guys that have to go, I'll add Teixiera to that, as he won't to anything in your park.

[durantjerry]

Thing is, with Furcal(or Rollins), Feliz and Martin, those are three guys that really should or could be batting last vs rhp's. You could stretch Feliz mayby to 7th. That leaves you with Bourne, Polanco, Markakis, Tex and Melky as 1-5. You can't really bat Melky 5th, so Feliz moves up a notch for his clutch? Can't see you scoring much with that lineup. Playing in Petco, you could set the negative shutout record. For what it's worth, I think one of my Petco teams has the #1 spot in the posted 2009 records for ERA and they were sub-.500. I tried a great set of SP's with all good clutch hitters for the heck of it and they just did not score enough to have a winning record even while posting one of the best if not the best ERA's.

[chasenally]

I have had pretty good success at Petco. I dont spend it on SP. I go for defense and OBP. No need for great pitching as Petco will make pretty good starters very good. Find a good closer and work heavy left and heavy right middle relief into the mix. Shields for .500 is a great SP for Petco. He can go every 3 days and works real well in Petco. No more than 30 mil for all pitching. Batters with heavy BPHR's don't do you much good. Pick up A. Gonzalez at 1B with the extra cash. That guy rocks and no one seems to pick him up. Not good against LHP for cleanup but he is a very good player even for the money. If that guy can hit 40 hr's at Petco he can do it anywhere. Get him. Put a good batter behind him so he doesn't get alot of IBB's.

[Chuckgnh1]

Thanks again to all. I do get it, I think - and here I thought my one sure thing was holding on to Tex! Well, if I can't dump him, I've got the D. I'll keep you posted(nice early morning pun, huh?) on my moves. I'm seeing some possibilities already.


Chuck

[Chuckgnh1]

Trade #1

You give up:
Fontenot, Mike ($500,000)
Rollins, Jimmy ($5,330,000)
Jurrjens, Jair ($5,030,000)
Boyer, Blaine ($840,000)


Other team gives up:
Escobar, Yunel ($5,740,000)
Baker, Scott ($3,380,000)
Kuo, Hong-Chih ($2,900,000)

Dropped Howry, added Herges and Shields.

This is becoming a group project - I'm up for it, with right of refusal. Kept Baker, by the way, but wondering if he's going to be a keeper. Still have Lincecum and Haren, who'll be trade bait. Can I give up Linc? Of course, for the right price. Available right now is Helton, but looks no better than Tex. IMHO. Too many DP's, for one.

Away...............we go!

[durantjerry]

[quote:436dd15666]Still have Lincecum and Haren, who'll be trade bait.[/quote:436dd15666]
I wouldn't get too carried away with trading those guys. You are already committed to what you are doing and it's too late to get the guys who are good offensive players and good defensive players. Those two SP's could carry you a long way, you just need to get a decent offense put together. Again, in a NO-DH league I would look at a bad defensive player or two that can generate some offense. Many of them play LF, which is great for you because you have superior defense in CF and RF and LF is a good place to hide someone. You can just use your back up OF to sub defensively at the end of games.

[Chuckgnh1]

Agreed on LF - so far, I've got Damon there (forgot to mention). Two other parks in div. are 1-12 for lefty HR - and Damon gets on base. Can see the platoon possibility, so am open-minded for sure. Agreed on #1-2 sp - then again, hate to give up Ubaldo - maybe more offense for Haren's $? Got two trades unread at moment - will post if they happen. I'll look at 2b, 3b, see what I can do. Also bid in to upgrade C. I'm liking the activity on the post - feel like I'm just getting out of newbie status, even though I started playing in 1970. Remember Yaz and Rico with 40 HR each??? Those were the days - talk about excitement when the advanced cards came out. Righty-lefty!!!