by JdEarly » Sat Oct 01, 2005 5:11 pm
Alex Cora is solid defensively and gets on base (.364 OBP), so if you're gonna get rid of Roberts, I would go with him.
Right now, though, I'm not sure that's your biggest problem. Juan Uribe might be worth $4.44 million as a second baseman because of his pop and his bat, but as a third baseman, I don't think so. You might be able to grab Eric Chavez for that kind of money. Jose Hernandez might even be a safer investment - 3B-3e20, 5L, has some pop, $3.74 million. Is he available?
Also, being a non-DH league, I would see what kinds of relievers were still available. You could drop Nate Robertson and Danny Haren and pick up another quality arm for the 'pen, because your pitchers will be taken out for pinch hitters more often than in the standard leagues. Make sense? I'm just thinking that you could end up using an extra pitcher in every game that you might not have in the DH leagues, and that will cause you to have some mismatches to your disadvantage in late innings. I don't know for sure, I haven't played a non-DH league (would like to), but that's just the way I see it.
Are you starting Phil Nevin at catcher? Yikes. He's rated a C-5, and his +4 throwing arm means that most anybody you face will get two free bases for a walk. Gary Carter could steal a base on Phil Nevin. Today. In a DH league, coupling Nevin (1B) with Thome (DH) looks like a sound decision. Catching him every day of the week in a non-DH league - you might as well point a gun at your little toe. It'll hurt that bad. Passed balls, stolen bases, errors in general... this is starting to sound like a horror movie!
All right, that's all I've got for you right now, but I will continue to check in. Thanks for being so open minded about suggestions, and not getting offended when I try to be a little humorous about my observations. Making people angry here isn't my objective, helping is.