by BDWard » Sat Jan 14, 2012 2:49 pm
No matter how unfair the injuries may seem, someone always has a sadder tale of injury woe.
I've currently got a couple of guys who have the injury bug.
George Foster has been injured 4 times in just 57 games, missing 11 games, for the Reds in a post WWII franchise theme league. Oddly, he has the same injury number, 2-2, as Lindstrom. The funny thing is that my other starting OFers, Vada Pinson and Wally Post, can't get injured, so I went with a $.50 mil backup OFer, Bob Thurman, to maximize cap space, who's been seeing a little too much duty as HAL's first backup choice for Foster. Although I don't like to pull injury replacements from my starting lineup, I finally got fed up and am using my DH against lefties, Tommy Harper, in LF when Foster is injured, and DHing Ray Jablonski against lefties. The team link is below:
http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=363999
Foster has now missed 11 games, despite missing only 4 games in real life in 1977. He had 676 "Strato" plate appearances, just 4 short of qualifying for a remainder of game max injury. Note that in 1977, Foster had 689 "official" MLB plate appearances.
My other current player with the injury bug is Wilie McCovey. He's been injured 5 times in 141 games, missing 14 games. Despite the injuries, McCovey is having a great season, with 62 HRs, just two behind the league leader, and 146 RBI, just 1 behind teammate George Brett for the league lead. The link for that team is below:
http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=359279
Although injuries are frustrating, I regularly play guys who can get injured for 15 games and haven't been burned too often, knock on wood.
I agree that the injury system could be better, but I really can't complain a whole lot, since we all make our choices knowing the risks, with injuries literally being the "roll of the dice". It's a level playing field, with all of us playing by the same rules, and in theory the injuries even out in the long run, though they can be maddening in the short run.
I wouldn't mind having injuries turned off for the playoffs, as we all like to put our best team on the field for the post season, with most of us also preferring to play our opponent's best team as well.
Injuries might be a little easier to tolerate if the backups on the team weren't so cheap. I think it would be a much better system to be able to put a player with a lengthy injury on the "DL" with no penalty while retaining rights to that player and "call up" at no additional cost a free agent back up worth 33%-50% of the injured player.
Another possible solution for backups is to have all players designated as backups cost a set "low" price, which would be adjusted upward if the backup exceeded certain usage limits. Of course, such a system would have to be carefully thought out to prevent abuses.
I'm hoping that With the new game platform there may be the possibility for an injury system overhaul.
The bottom line is that if we have an all time great lineup, why shouldn't we have at least a decent bench at the lower caps?