Tue May 10, 2016 12:13 am
A few observations,
Overall, the team appeared balance, and maybe you would fight for the wildcard or even more if you didn't have these two severe losing streaks. I must also praise your ability to make trades, would love to see you in my league.
Yet, I think there are several tweaks that you could have done to make better. Not necessarily in order of importance:
1) From what I can see from your opening series, you started with a Blanco/Pillar combination in centerfield. There are many things to say about that combo: it's too balanced---you better have a 4R/4L platoon, that swings more to the extreme. It's two outstanding defensemen: you better optimize with a weaker defensive player and a stellar defensive player, so that one backups defensively the other, And Pillar's on-base was way too weak to be a lead-off. The lack of a true on-base machine in your lineup probably resulted in a few solo homeruns.
2) You started the season too weak vs lhp,and it shows in your stats. You seem to have made a few changes along the way to balance things out, like trading Gregorious for Iglesais. But considering the point above, I would have dropped Pillar for an outfielder threat vs lhp to go along with Blanco, someone like Santana or Blanks, to give a few names that sometimes go under the radar.
3) You paid a few millions to have Perez's -3 and Molina's -4, but your pitchers already have negative arms. Not sure if you know this, but the maximal combination you can have is -5---acts like a ceiling. So you didn't maximize your investment there.
4) You started the season with a lot of lefty pitchers--for no particular reasons it seems. You play in Miller park, which is balanced lefty-right ratio, and from a quick look to your divisional opponents, they appear a bit stronger vs lhp. Since this is a 100M leagues, owners are more willing to spend some extra dough to have lefty killers, so usually teams are better vs lhp. If there's no real obvious advantage to have lefties, when playing in 100M or more, I prefer to limit the use of lefty pitchers---one in fourth, and have them only in the bullpen. Buehrle was especially hit---29 homeruns, and his card does have some BP homeruns vs lhp.
5) You didn't win the homerun battle (allowed more homeruns than you hit them). In Miller, it's crucial you win that war. This suggests to me that your pitching staff was not the best fit for that stadium.
6) I wonder if you don't have your starters pitch too long. With the quality of your bullpen, you should have a quick exit, especially for the weaker starters, and rely on your relievers more.
7) Looking at your trades, overall, you seem to have done a good job---except for getting Heyward. His card, in my opinion, is one of the most overpriced card, especially in your stadium. But I guess you have to make compromise to get some good trades!!
