by MoCrash » Sat May 06, 2006 9:44 am
Pretty much any pitcher that works anywhere else will work in Kauffman, especially since there's far more forgiveness for BPHRs. You want a RHP lean, though, especially those with negative BPSIs (few with >gbA in the 4-10 lines, for example) for RHB.
Getting a team which will hit in The K is more problematic. Obviously, you want to lean RH ... especially those RH batters who have an R balance. However, any good hitter will work -- I had Ichiro (L, 1L) on a '04 Kauffman team and he led the league in BA and OBP (and probably would have led in runs scored, too, if I had anybody decent hitting behind him). For LHB look for low BPSI, for power hitters you want a high percentage of natural homers. Speed, ability to move runners by bunt and H&R, and defense should be priorities -- you're going to have to manufacture runs and don't want to give up cheapies.
For my money, I'd rather invest in pitching in Kauffman since you're not going to score a lot of runs and certainly won't lead the league in HRs. The other philosophy, of course, is that you don't need to spend the money on pitchers since The K is so forgiving, but with half your games on the road I don't think you can go wrong with quality pitcher.
I say this, though, with a Kauffman team that is off to a mediocre (13-14) start with a staff of Clemens, Carpenter, Willis (a mistake; I tried to draft Peavy and settled for Willis in AD because there was no similar quality available in FA period) and Glavine.