Please help a couple of rookies who are new to online Strato

[uvm87]

My kids (14 and 11 years old) created a new league and signed up for their 1st and 2nd teams ever and a few advanced players also signed up. They'd love any help they can get beating (or at least competing with) the pros.

11 year-olds team:
http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=390069

14 year-olds team:
http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=390355

Thanks from Cam and Jack! :D

[Treyomo]

Crocodile Rocks:

Not enough HR pop for a pure offensive stadium. I would consider downgrading either SS, 2b, or 3b (I'm not huge fans of any of those 3) to a pure defensive player with a little pop, like Eddie Miller at SS, and use that money to upgrade 1b to a power hitter. Kaline's okay but not a great value - snatch up Manny Ramirez if he's available, or use Klein in RF (1 4 rated defender is okay in my opinion) and find a much cheaper DH to replace Kaline (Ripken at 3.65M, Frank Robinson at 4.46M, or a platoon of Wes Covington at 2.61M / Pinella at 0.93M have worked for me). I would also see what else is available for 4th SP - Scott's not a great option.

Banana Stand:
In a pure pitchers' park, Bench is not a good fit. Cochrane and Chief Meyers are good options. In that park, you want speed, OBP, and doubles/triples power, but you have a few guys who are mostly singles hitters, like Birmingham, Huggins, Blue, Lunday. Look for guys heavy on the doubles/triples with high OBP. With your extra cash, I would upgrade the starting pitching - get one more stud SP as an upgrade over Nolan. I'd also

[jlt53]

I like your starters OK. Since you have Murray, I think you could downgrade the rest of the bullpen a bit. Cadaret, McBean are lower priced options who have worked for me. And depending on who else is in your league, you might look at either a righty or lefty specialist under $1 mill. I'm not a big fan of having two .50 starters, but I see a lot of people do it, so it must work for somebody. I'd just as soon spend that money for one of them on a potentially useful bench player -- pinch runner or defensive replacement.

Duffy's a great hitter, but he wouldn't be my first choice for a bomber park. Joe D, Willie Mays, Snider, the lower priced 4R Griffey have been good for me in those spots and all are great CFs.

I had Decinces on a team once and he was not good. If you want to downgrade there, the 3m Whitey Kurowski just had a pretty good season for one of my teams. I've had luck with the 4M Buford as a leadoff man in bomber parks, have never tried JoJo White.

I agree Miller might be a good SS option, but you will need a good backup. I actually like Kaline, who has had some good seasons for me, is a great fielder all across the outfield and is bulletproof. Upgrading 1b to one of the bombers like McCovey, Greenberg, etc. would help.

I agree that platoons at DH can be good, especially since some managers in DH leagues like to invest big in starting pitchers who are supposed to go deep into games, which gives your platoon guy plenty of ABs against the right pitchers.

[toronto50]

crocodile rocks

too many rh hitters
infield defence could use an upgrade...get the money out of the bulllpen especially with those starters

who is playing cf..get a 1 cf with an arm

[nels52]

crocodile rocks:

As great as Duffy is, you usually want a homerun monster in a bomber park for that kinda money. Having said that, Duffy is such a unique and overwhelming offensive force; he may very well be worth it..... others would have to speak on experience.

You do need more left-handed bats though. I would consider upgrade/exchange the current lefties you have. Never used Trosky although his cards have always intrigued me. I do not like Klein at all. Kaline is kinda underwhelming.

Pitching looks good, especially Murray; he's SOOOO overly good! Love the cheap W. Johnson too.


Mr. Manager: we would just call it manager.


Spendig a lot of money on a stud as good as Alexander is usually a good idea. Pete's always been a staple in strat. I personally subscribe to more of stars and scrubs approach in SP. There certainly are plenty of good 6-8 mil dollar pitchers but I just don't like the three you have. another stud would be nice. Still, don't go too cbeap on any 1 starter. Super cheapo's usually end up with 20 losses. As tempting as Papelbon's ERA is, he's only a R1. In other words, he's not worth that huge price. If you want a stud reliever use a R3+

I've never used Clemente but everyone seems to swear by him...still he's kinda meh. Any of the Terry cards are good. Alomar could be good too. Dump Geronimo ASAP, he sucks!! If your gonna use Kluzuski consider his 7R card as a platoon. It's really the only of the three that could hit in your park. I'm using that card in a league currently and he's kinda crazy. Try to pick up a small ball god or two, you'll know who they are...


Both teams look good and have many winning pieces. Still many upgrades to go though. That's completely in the preseason;reams take forever to shape up.

Tips for both of you: Online strat is very much different than baseball. Having an immense talent (Ruth, Mays, Rodriguez, Mantle, Speaker, Gibson, Williams, Hornsby) isn't exceptional as everyone has equal access to the talent pool and all have ALOT of money to spend on it. You gotta make sure every dollar is spent towards the right things for you team. When I say "your team", I might as well be saying "your park" though although your division and league matter ALOT. Most people try to have cheap benchs and only spend money on 1-3 relievers (I like two).


I think it's awesome you guys are playing strat. I started playing online strat when I was around your age shortly after I got the 2003 board game for my birthday.

We need more young people in strat!!

Best of luck,


nels

[honestiago1]

Just as a general rule, if you look at the player's historical era and park, you can get an very general indication of how much you'll get from them in certain situations. For example, Strawberry and Canseco played in pitcher's parks in their big HR years, so if you put them in a bomber park, they'll prosper a great deal. Somebody like Goose Goslin will not only keep his average, but his HR totals will explode in a HR park. Kiner played in a horrid pitcher's park, as did Frank Howard in many seasons, so these guys will bomb it in something like Fulton. Remember your eras:

Deadball=pitchers dominate. Guys with high averages REALLY hit when removed from this context (but no power)

20's-30's: High averages across the board; pitchers from this era benefit from being moved into better parks (Grove, For example).

and so on....

In all honesty, though, I'd just draft who you like and play them. It's more fun that way. You'll have your pet picks who keep turning up for you, just 'cuz. If your bag is deep analysis, do that. If you just want to put some guys together, do that. If you have a sudden impulse to draft a team of all 80s players (guilty here), do that. Just have fun with it.

[rburgh]

Crocodile Rocks: I would use the expensive Alan Ashby and either Buck Martinez or Steve Nicosia as a platoon. That will free up money for your OF. I would use Griffey '94 and the expensive Goslin card in CF and LF respectively rather than JoJo and Duffy.

Dump George Bell and Al Kaline for upgrades in RF and at 3B. The good Jesse Barfield Card is very close to Kaline in quality, and almost a million cheaper (and he's a better base stealer). There are other useful options - the good Furillo card is a moose, and Raul Mondesi is a serious run-producer. Bob Horner is an injury-prone monster at 3B, as is the cheap Killebrew. You might also look at Don Buford there as a leadoff guy - one of his cards is a 3e6 at 3B, which is a fairly good defensive 3B, and he has a little pop.
Now you have Hal Trosky and Chuck Klein to cover two positions - they're both OK but you might be able to upgrade one or both positions.

Banana Stand: Staples of small-ball parks are the $8.78 million LaJoie, any Cobb card (particularly the RF-only card), the cheap Honus card (yes, I know he's a big injury risk - most people accept that, or you can try the $7+ million Yount or Boudreau), and the 1894 Hamilton and Joe Kelley. Rickey Henderson (particularly the two cheap cards) is a force if people don't have catchers who can throw. Good small-ball CF's (if you can't get Hamilton) are Lloyd Waner (both cards), Edd Roush, and Harry Hooper. I ran a team out in a small-ball park with a lineup of Earl Battey, Dan Brouthers, the good Eddie Stanky, the cheap Honus Wagner, John McGraw, Joe Kelley, Hamilton, and Zach Wheat that did very well, although I would keep Terry from your team. You'd have to find a DH.

I agree with the pitching comment above - I would get Johan Santana and then go with two cheaper guys - Ray Brown and Jim Kaat are good choices although Kaat is used a lot.

[dukie98]

Crocodile Rocks-- Jojo Moore isn't a good fit for your park, and there are plenty of outfielders in that price range who have more power. Duffy is very good, but unless there are a lot of pitchers' parks in your league, you might want to trade him for an elite power hitter, or drop him for a power-hitting centerfielder (such as Griffey or Duke Snider). In general, you're spending more than you need to on your reserves- for instance, Kaline won't miss any games, but you're spending $850K on Snyder. It would be better to spend closer to $500-600K on a backup RF who will rarely play, and that frees up money to upgrade elsewhere.

As far as your pitching staff goes, I think it's in pretty good shape. Murray can pitch a lot out of the bullpen, and therefore, you could probably spend less on Hank Robinson. Pete Richert isn't a good fit for your park, and you could probably spend less for the back end of the bullpen.


Banana Stand-- Kluszewski doesn't fit well in your park because homers are very hard to come by -- you're paying for 8 ballpark homers from each side, which will mostly become outs in your park. Instead, go with a DH who has more doubles/ triples power, and relies less on homers.

The opposite holds true for your pitching staff-- you can afford to have some pitchers who give up some ballpark homers. I agree with the suggestion of Santana, and suggest subbing him in for Hahn or Tannehill. Also, for a $100M cap, Papelbon (or any R1 reliever) is not a particularly good value-- better to go with a relief ace who is rated at least R3, if you're spending that much, so you can get more innings out of him.

Good luck!

[LoopsandRolls]

Go to Adrian's incredible site - Diamond Dope - www.diamonddope.com and explore the various ways of looking at players. The "Actuals" are no longer maintained but the card reader and lineups will help compare players in your ballpark.

Have fun!

[PotKettleBlack]

11 Year old:
Too much relief. Dale Murray + Conzelman + 1 heavy righty + 1 heavy lefty + 1 guy like Prendergast = a solid bullpen, since Murray can do 200+ IP, and will get most Mathewson starts off.

Don't like that Biggio. 3eAnything at second base is theoretically average in the real world, but is massively definicient in Strat. Especially with Mr. Cub's 2e17 at Short. That's a lot of balls up the middle. I'd keep Mr. Cub, and then swap out Biggio for someone who is defensively excellent.

Phil Garner is excess money, assuming George Bell is playing 3rd. Phil Garner is a bad idea if he is starting.

Snyder is wasted money. Remove him for a <1M who can hit, and use Kaline to backup Center/Left in case of injury, with Chuck Klein as the fourth OF. a <1M with HR power who can play some very lousy OF would see more use than Snyder. Whitey Herzog is also wasted money. You get no real bonus from having the White Rat on your team. Replace with a nickle.

Hugh Duffy is an interesting pick for this park. I won't say bad, but he's an ainteresting pick to lead off the rest of the bats, and doesn't really fit further down the lineup. I'd trade him for something more park appropriate or just drop him outright for that. A better defensive CF with HR power (Griffey JR, Snyder, Mays, etc).

What you do with the money trimmed... upgrade JoJo Moore to a LF with HR power, Trade out Trosky for someone with more even power. Or improve anything I suggested above.

Sorry if this dupes anything else said. I wanted to look at it with clean eyes.