Thoughts on my first team please

[ShakeyBoomer]

As this is my first time having to deal with the salary cap ($100 million for this all rookie league), I would appreciate some thoughts on my first team. I am playing in Petco and 2 of the 3 parks in my division are Rangers Ballpark - the other is Minute Maid. There are about 15 lefty starters in the league and 10 of them are reverse lefties. Once again, all thoughts appreicated. Thanks.

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=315693

[chasenally]

Even though it is a 100M league you never need 3 catchers. If the first one goes down the backup can not be injuried.

For Petco or anywhere else you have a great defense up the middle. I would see if there is anyone better at 1B than Sanchez. Having a (4) there isn't really bad but not much of a card to make up for his cement shoes at first. Atleast look at a platoon there.

You don't need backups for Cano and Ichiro as they can't go down to injury. Sanchez can go down for 3 and has no backup.

See if there is a better closer but you have a good one.

Your team looks very good at home but doesn't appear to be alot of pop for the road games.

All in all looks to be a very nice team to me. I love defense, speed and strong relief pitching. You won't RP as much at home but will on the road.

Good luck.

[Sknsfan]

My guess is your batting Martinez as your DH against Lefties - no problem then keeping the third catcher.

However i can't see whom you'll be platooning with him against righties. Blanco? I would platoon him with Cunningham to maximize his fielding potential in LF. Meaning you still may need a decent righty platoon for Martinez.

Pitching looks solid to me but if there is any one out there adding a decent R2 for about 1.5 - 2.5 wouldn't hurt in a 100m league, and i agree with chasenally - definitely need to upgrade Sanchez. - between him, jay, and miledge you've got almost 9 mil you could use to upgrade there and the above platoon and fill in the OF with a cheaper BU.

[ShakeyBoomer]

Here are my projected lineups so you can see my thinking. There are 15 lefty starters in my league and 10 of them are reverse lefties. That is the reason I have 3 "real" lefties in my lineup vs LH pitching and also the reason for me hedging my bets with Cunningham and Milledge. There are no great relievers left in the FA pool.:

vs RH

Blano LF
Suzuki RF
Cano 2b
Zimmerman 3b
Gonzalez CF
Jay DH
Ruiz C
Sanchez 1b
Cabrera SS (or Ryan can't decide yet)

vs LH
Zimmerman 3b
Suzuki RF (Milledge vs hard L's if my offense is truggling vs them)
Martinez DH
Gonzalez CF
Sanchez 1b (His pop is much needed vs LH pitching)
Jay LF (vs reverse LH's)/ Cunningham (vs hard L's)
Cano 2b
Ruiz C
Cabrera SS (or Ryan can't decide yet)

Sanchez is playing 1b full-time because I did not want 3 platoons (I already have platoons at DH and LF). In addition, the pickings are very slim on the free agent list. If someone tells me how to link that, I would be glad to do so.)

[MtheB]

good team for that park. getting both Cano and CGon is rare. I think you have plenty of pop for the road, and this team will do very well at home.
ideally you want to win 60-65% of your home field games, and split 50/50 on the road.
two reasons I like Sanchez--he protects you weighted LH lineup, and he has 600+ PAs, which many of the boppers don't have, and those injuries can kill you, particularly in that you have ZIMM, who is also a lefty killer, but has that injury thing.
I would find a way to move CGon up in the order against righties and move Jay down a notch so you have a righty/lefty/righty sequence. I personally would do this against RH:

Suzuki
Cano
Zim
CGon
Ruiz
Jay
Sanchez
Blanco
Cab

[Sknsfan]

Not knowing what's left on the waivers here is my recommendation for your lineups with what you got. (please remember these are just recs)

Vs. Lefty
LF - Cunningham (this guys is a monster against lefties reverse or othwerwise, and will hit a solid number of doubles from the leadoff - I'd bat him 3rd against lefties if you didn't already gave such other monsters on your team)
RF - Ichiro (great bunting, very few gbA, and tops in H&R means a very good chance of moving your leadoff along to 2nd or 3rd)
3b - Zimmerman (decent OBP vs. lefties will help set the plate for your 4 and 5)
DH - Martinez (this guy should chew up Lefties from this power spot)
CF - Gonzalez (Good natural and BP hmeruns here + positive clutch rating)
2b - Cano (he has better natural and BP homerun potential than Sanchez here)
C - Ruiz (Has the potential to knock in the doubles monsters in front of him and has good OBP for setting up Sanchez, plus his injury potential would want me to keep him lower - fewer ABs means fewer chances to get hurt)
1b - Sanchez (could be a lot worse in this position)
ss - tough call, but I might go with the Defense

vs Righties
LF - Blanco (could be better, but could be worse - should do a decent job of getting on against righties.)
RF - Ichiro (see above)
2b - Cano - 'nuff said
CF - Gonzalez - how in the world did you get both these guys?
3b - Zimmerman (should have a field day behind these two, especially on the road - at home in Petco, he'll be a little stunted)
C - Ruiz (more pop here than Jay)
DH - Jay (will be nice at Petco, but may feel a little light on the road)
1b - Sanchez (could be worse i guess)
ss - again tough call, but i would probably still go with defense


Baker will be great off the bench against Lefties, but you still need a bigger extra bat against Righties.

Since your 1b is falling to 8th in both my projected lineups - i'd maybe look for slightly better D at the spot, even if you have to sacrifice some pop. Still keeping Sanchez for all the lefties your projecting to see is not bad if there really isn't a better player out there.

I'd also drop Milledge (you don't need another OF) and find the best batter vs Righties i could.

I'd still also look at adding a decent R2 reliever with the savings also - if the others in your division have lineups like yours, you may need the better arm than Nerveson

[ShakeyBoomer]

sknsfan - I have Zumaya as my primary R2 reliever - did you not see him?

[Sknsfan]

I did. But against big lineups like yours - expect pitchers to get knocked out of games a little more quickly.

You should be solid at home in Petco - but on the road at hitters parks....

[geekor]

You have extra $$ in players that won't get a lot of AB's.

There is F Gutierrez and Fowler in the FA list if you want Def and Keep Gonz in LF or play Gonz in Cf and either play Jay, or your platoon in LF... but you don't need both. Either way you have that money on the bench taht could be used to make your starting lineup stronger.

Perhaps then you could upgrade your 1B to Butler or Cairo.

[ShakeyBoomer]

I got rid of Milledge. The only OF on my bench now is Cunningham and he is sorely needed vs LH pitching. Cairo or Butler don't do me any good either (they are both better vs RH pitching) as my lineup vs RH pitching is already very strong and vs LH pitching it is weaker (hence why I need Sanchez). Can you suggest something given those paraemeters please?