A team of all "1s" defensively.

[pkwmati]

First of all, a big thank you to rexmaniac, who if he hadn't traded me Martin, this experiment wouldn't be possible.

Here is a team of all 1 rated defensive players. I wanted to get some opinions as to whether you think this team will be competitive or not. I'm in Kaufmann with a division of 2 Petcos and a Camden.

[url]http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=308020[/url]

[joethejet]

Team actually rates pretty well at 2302, BUT you're not going to score runs at all and that's a very hit and miss proposition. I've also found that teams that are overly defensive without enough O just don't seem to perform to their ratings. With Hit ratings in the low 800's I just don't think you'll generate enough O to win. I'm not sure what you're doing with Pierre as he's not a one and that's way too much to spend on a pure back up.

Here's my suggested all 1's team. Don't know if you can get all these guys in a AD, but here goes:

Name
varitek,j
teixeira,m
hudson,o
tulowitzki,t
zimmerman,r
crawford,c
gomez,c
markakis,n
borbon,j



hill,k
gonzalez,ainf
maysonet,e
inglett,j
huff,a


hoffman,t
calero,k
daley,m
roenicke,j
okajima,h

verlander,j
nolasco,r
rzepczynski,m
billingsley,c
de la rosa,j


This team rates 2620 despite the D not being as good (still all 1's however) O against LHP isn't as good as I'd like so I might go with Span over Crawford or figure out how to squeeze Martin in there over Varitek. There's still a little cap room to improve the bench. O against RHP is 868 which isn't great, but is pretty good considering how bad Varitek and Gomez are.

One guy's thoughts anyway.

Jet
www.angelfire.com/games5/joethejet

[durantjerry]

I think you will barely score. They are all 1's, but they are almost all either poor producers(Martin/Rolen), weak hitters(Kotchman/Rollins) and guys that seem to underachieve(Markakis/Bourne). Your backups are too expensive-Huff for 1B and a cheap, decent 3B should due. You are spending quite a bit on your backup 3B platoon. Get rid of Maloney. I would also ditch Calero for a much cheaper guy. You could try Wilson instead of Rollins, whose main asset besides the "D" is the pop in his bat, which will be eliminated in your park. I would upgrade any "1" rated guy to another where possible, get a middle of the order DH and upgrade SP's. My experience with not scoring much is you want to be ahead early, thus the upgrade in SP's and downgrade of the pen. Besides the closer, the pen will lose their share regardless of how well they pitch because you won't score enough. I still don't think you will score enough to win even with the great "D", but it's worth a try.

[pkwmati]

Thanks for the input guys.

Pierre, is my DH right now (word is out on the Borbon/N Evans small ball DH platoon). I'm still considering some other possibilities, like downgrading Calero for example and picking up a heavy slanted vR hitter to platoon with Gonzalez but the other DHs available don't excite me.

I had Wilson but upgraded (?) to Rollins for two reasons. First is the high injury risk with Wilson v. the 700+ PAs of Rollins and second is with this offense, I think I am going to need to take advantage of my speed - this is also why I'm leaning toward Pierre at DH.

Why would you ditch Maloney? I think his card is set up to overperform his $.50 price tag spot starting in small ball parks and in Kaufmann with 2 Petcos in the division, I think he can put together a nice year. I guess this is a mini-experiment within the experiment for me - to get a nice year out of Maloney.

I agree with the principal of upgrading SPs, but as you can imagine the plum SPs are all long gone so it would be a matter of going from Rzepczynski or Billingsley for Lilly or Bedard or one the hard slanted L/R SPs and I'm not sure I want to downgrade Calero that far.

In fact that is part of the experiment - How good can Rzepczynski and Billingsley be with all 1s behind them. I think Nolasco is going to have a great year with this division. No question my O is very weak, but with another couple division teams in Petco, their O will be depressed too.

I'll update this thread as the season progresses. I'm under no delusions that this team is necessarily championship calibre, but with the park makeup of the division, I think I can keep my nose above .500 and at least stay close in the division race.

[durantjerry]

I think Lilly would be a good upgrade with his lack of > singles along with your great D in Kauffman. Bedard not so much. Rollins can run, but he just doesn't get on base much.

[J-Pav]

I missed on N. Morgan and Teixeira - but it's okay not to be so rigid sometimes (I also used a Wilson/Theriot SS platoon)...

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=293523

[Spider 67]

Here's an "almost" (Vizquel at SS) that's in the PC Semis - and currently leading at 36-21 (playing at Progressive). (Unfortunately I play them tonight.)

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=303401

[durantjerry]

The difference between the two posted examples and the original team is that you guys have a little pop in the lineup, while PM has virtually none. It's a romantic notion that almost never occurs in SOMO to win with speed and defense. They can be a great supplement, but I think you definately need at least 1 and probably two guys to hit 4/5. IMO Pierre must go some type of heavy hitter.

[KEVINEHLE]

Hey PM, good luck. It's always fun to try something extreme. I agree with the guys that run production will be sparse. You have the speed for Kaufmann, but the OBP and RBIs guys are pretty weak. That's a double whammy.

Have fun!!

Kev

[pkwmati]

Here is the week 1 update on the all 1s team:

[url]http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=308020[/url]

Treading water at 11-10, after a 1-5 start.

Run differential is -2. Surprisingly the team is not last in runs scored (10th) but I'm sure thats coming. The batting averages are fairly amenic.

Also, 4 first team gold glovers and 2 second teamers