Team defense

[JEFFFESPERMAN]

I have managed to draft a team that has a "1" at every starting defensive position so I am interested in hearing about the successes and failures of other managers who have gone this route. I am also interested in hearing opinions as to which type of ballpark this strategy is best applied. I am trying it out in Petco.

[Mean Dean]

Although this would have worked in the past when you had better 1's on offense (Tejada, Bret Boone hitting 40 HR, Ichiro setting the hits record, etc.) and defense was also priced cheaper, I think now it's more a gimmick than anything else. Everett and Wilson at SS are both tremendously weak hitters, Ichiro in RF is so lefty-tilted that he's not of much use either, and Crawford in LF is good in a platoon but not the kind of hitter you want to have in LF when you're trying to make up for offensive deficiences elsewhere. And if you tried to make up for it by getting all the huge hitters (D. Lee 1B, B. Roberts 2B, A. Jones/Edmonds CF, A-Rod 3B), then you wouldn't be able to afford a pitching staff (plus you probably couldn't successfully draft them all anyway). So I don't think it works.

[cummings2]

I had an all 1 (with the exception of 3B) win 97...and loose game 7 in the finals.

Even though it won 97, Dean is very much right in his observations. I had a very successful season from my closer -off memory, around 95% converted saves, and got the lucky bounces in many close games.

The offense was sluggish, and the pitching staff was a fairly delicate balance where I had to observe much more than usual the nature of outs, hlds, e, wp, blk, etc.

If I were to give it another go I'd probably go with PNC -While making sure my 1 in CF is not Rowand-

[cummings2]

... double post

[durantjerry]

I had some great "1" teams in earlier years and tried it twice this year but got hammered in the draft on my last attempt. In the right park and league I think it can work. It could also easily fail if things don't fall your way park-wise or you didn't get good bargains to make up for all the 1's. In Tour League #1, I had Matheny, D Lee, Hudson, Wilson, Chavez, A Jones, Burnitz, Davanon/E Young & M Young(DH) and won 89 games in Fenway.

[honestiago1]

This from a computer league, using the historical disks:

an 80s team of Pena, Hernandez, Sandberg, Ozzie, Reitz/Rose/Gruber (depending on who's hitting), Manning, Puckett, Rose (when not at third). I get 23 wins from Morris, and great D (5-6 1's on average in the field). Tried the same thing (strategy wise) in an online league and got slaughtered.

I don't think you can lose with D, but you've got to have a couple of very good hitters to drive folks in. Your priority in any league should be to snag a run producer before a pitcher. If he has a glove, great, but the main thing is to get your staff some runs.