1st attempt at hitting team, Polo Grounds '36

[Minoso Express]

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/atg2/team/team_other.html?user_id=114177

Post waivers. Other teams in my division are 2 Forbes and a Baker Bowl. The rest of the league: 2 Huntington '03, 2 more Forbes, Fenway '86, Dunn, Polo Grounds '11.

Many questions, as the other 2 teams I've put together are Forbes teams. Most important, will my pitching hold up? Or is it necessary to shore it up? On the hitting side... is Doerr my best option at 2B? All the usual suspects are gone. The autodraft threw me Doyle, but his D up the middle didn't sit well with me.

Is there a glaring weakness here I could address fairly easily?

Thanks very much for your comments.

[MICHAELTARBELL]

IMHO, you have spent too much on your starting pitching, and not enough on your hitting. You chose the Polo Grounds because you wanted a slugging team, but this team more closely resembles a neutral park team.

I would downgrade my pitching, go with a cheap 6 man or even 7 man rotation (Leever is good, and look for D.Vance, Cvengros, Hallahan, Speer, Frock etc..guys with no bphrs), upgrade your rp's a bit (drop Quis, look for Lefferts, Garber, Tincup...same criteria as your starters, no bphrs), and put more into you slugging. Cochrane is more of a neutral/pitchers park catcher, doerr and chapman better suited for pitchers/neutral also. Schmidt is a chronic underperformer. I like Thomas here, along with powell, and jones is OK for a leadoff hitter. But the others i would try and upgrade to sluggers.

Good luck! :)

[Minoso Express]

I see Hallahan and Yerkes available on the WW, but none of the other usual types. If I'm understanding the logic correctly, my expensive versions of guys like Yerkes and Leever (Moore and Coveleski) are not worth having at the Polo Grounds? Better to go with as many cheap non-BPHR starters as possible alongside as many hitters with the highest slugging pct. possible?

The only reasonable slugging replacements available for Cochrane are Berra and Parrish. Yays or nays to those two? I suppose I had erroneously chosen Cochrane because I thought his OBP would help set the table for guys like Schmidt, Powell and Thomas and his defense certainly would help.

Available options at SS include Cox, McDougald, Petrocelli and Reese. None of these a "1," but perhaps some of what you're telling me is that this does not matter in my park? I had Cox, dropped him, thought Chapman would be useful at the bottom of the lineup, and of course, his D.

Candidates for 2B and 3B sluggers include Dykes and Doyle, both of whose D makes me jumpy; Rosen (have not yet seen him on anyone's team), Bando, Boyer (whom I dropped after the autodraft) and Gilliam-- who seems a reasonable alternative to Doerr but isn't a real slugger, either. Granted, I have no Strat experience with Schmidt and I have seen little enthusiasm for him on the boards, but I have a hard time truly understanding why he would be considered less of a slugger than, say, Bando.

LF... well, Stargell is available-- great arm a bonus. As is Ennis-- not so hot D. I would have thought Selkirk might have been terrific at the Polo Grounds, but I will defer to seasoned vets on this.

That's about it on the WW. If there's a perfect position player I ought to have here, I'd try to put together a trade. Maybe one of the pitcher's parks teams would prefer Cochrane to what they have now.

Thanks again.

[Mr Regulator]

Here is a team I just finished with at the Polo Grounds. I was real cheap on Starting pitching and defense, but overall had a pretty good season. In the play-offs I had to go up against the legendary Sschu and lost in a close 5 game series where the home team won all the games.

[url]http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/atg2/team/team_other.html?user_id=109858[/url]

I know with this type of team it's hard to win in pitcher parks on the road, so you have to have enough pop to take big advantage of your home park. I would try to load up on sluggers. the fact that you have another slugger park in your division will help you also if you have some pop.

Paul

[Frank Bailey]

Minoso,

I'm one of the Huntington teams in your league. I have Dean, Grove and Longborg in my rotation. They represent more money than some owners spend on their entire staff with a slugging team. I've had success (and failure, but those teams came to be called experiments) going this route. Others won't spend $20 or even $15 on their staff and win. Either one can net a ring if you get the other things right and catch a break or two.

Go with what is comfortable to you and will make you eager to look at the box scores in the morning. Then when that flops, try the opposite and win. :lol:

Good luck.

[Minoso Express]

Regulator-

Thanks for your link. It was very helpful to look over. I now have Williams, Powell, Schmidt and Thomas as my alleged sluggers; swapped out Chapman for McDougald at SS. Will see what comes up vis a vis Doerr through a trade or drop, but I am loathe to give up his D, especially as my pitching staff is now comprised of six SPs I've only ever seen on baseball cards, plus Quis, Staley, Eck, and a couple of other guys I'll figure out what to do with later. Season doesn't begin until Monday.

Frank-

I admit I'm a pitching guy through and through. The little Strat I've played has been with teams built around solid starting pitching in pitcher's parks. Which is why I thought, what the hell, go the other route and see what happens. As an experiment, it has value for me and losing isn't an issue for this newbie; I'm interested in learning the game at the moment and that will entail lots of losing. So I'll play this one the way the slugging-team managers build their teams to win.

Clearly, however, I'm so attached to the idea of good pitching that I couldn't resist nabbing Eck off the WW, but I wonder what he will have to save with my staff. Never mind. If we get to the ninth with a lead, at least it'll be lights out. Mostly, though, I'm keeping him onboard at the moment to see what else floats by before the season begins.

Thanks for your good wishes, and best of luck to you, as well.

(You're in another league I'm in-- actually, you're in my division-- and between you in that league and Petrosian in my division in yet another league, I'll be drinking heavily as we move through the season.
:lol: )

[MICHAELTARBELL]

What Frank said..... :)

[boss_of_um]

I have done pretty well in parks similar to Polo. I consider Huntingdon and Briggs similar enough to be relevant. Here are a few teams that have won rings and I think they could help you out:

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/atg2/team/team_other.html?user_id=107729

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/atg2/team/team_other.html?user_id=43910

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/atg2/team/team_other.html?user_id=30943

Each team had a similar pitching staff composition: more money in the bullpen than the SP. The one team I won with more money in SP was a $100 mil league.

[egvrich]

I don't like the Chapman for McDougald swap. Chapman gives you better D, similar OBP, less power but also frees up about $1.00 of cash to put elsewhere.

Cochrane is fine, but I think Freehan or Lollar make more sense in a hitters park. But, I wouldn't just drop Cochrane, he has very good trade value. See if you can trade him for something else you need.

IMHO, 4 sluggers simply won't get it done. On my bomber teams, I like to have a couple of high OBP guys and the rest sluggers. No weak links if at all avoidable.

I do like your pitching staff, though I think Henke might get hurt in your park because whether you like it or not, he will see lefty batters and get pounded.

O.K., now for the stupid question ... Where do you plan on playing Cleon Jones??? Ted Williams is LF only, Gorman Thomas is CF only, Boog Powell is 1B only, so where does Cleon play???

Bando would be a nice fit at 3B and might outperform Schmidt for less money. Dykes and Rosen are also quality 3B as long as they don't go down for a lot of games.

Your hitters are VERY right handed, you might look for some more left handed power to offset all the righty bats you currently have ... Selkirk, Covington, etc. Looking at the FA wire, I don't see too many options. Perhaps Haller or Bailey behind the plate???

[Minoso Express]

Egvrich-

Jones plays nowhere. Thanks for the catch! Was way too tired when I picked up Williams last night. Swapped Jones out for Selkirk. Will try to trade Cochrane. There's one team that can use him, that's for sure, and that team has a slugging catcher I can use. We'll see.

Otherwise, I have to ask the obvious newbie question: what's wrong with Berra?? He's out there, available. Another lefty slugging catcher available is Delancey, whom I've not yet seen on any team. What's wrong with him? Are either of these guys viable on my team?

I am thinking about swapping out Schmidt for Bando. Got Chapman back.

I wondered about Henke myself, so for the moment, I grabbed back Quis in his place. And I'm wondering if I shouldn't try to grade Eck down for at least another perhaps more durable set of SPs? Thinking along the lines of Munger/Norwood Gibson or even Pleis? Not sure about this.

To assume for a moment my team stays as is, how the heck do I bat these guys? Selkirk's looking very leadoff in this group, Chapman's very fast.... but where to bat Ted in this scenario? Not to mention Schmidt.


boss-

Your team links make me wish I had Mays! And it's interesting to see that Cleon did not perform in Polo as he almost invariably does in pitching parks. You seem fond of Crandall behind the plate, too. I was thinking of him, too. Thank you, I can see how I'm going to have to look at my morning box scores with one eye closed so I don't notice the ERAs and WHIPs of my pitching staff.


:shock:

Your advice means a lot, guys. Thanks, as ever.