Tue Nov 22, 2016 9:44 pm
I am writing knowing that some owners don't like me (or any other) giving advice in the middle of a season. I know your divisional pal freeman is an avid reader of these forums, so let me just say to freeman, I can look at your team as well if you'd like--I know you ask for help earlier with your teams, but I didn't have much time to look at them.
So, Coldhandlewke,
Wait after tonight. Starting game 113, if you put Sanchez in the rotation, he'll face mostly right-handed teams all the way until the end of the season. So you'll be able to cut someone in the pitching staff. I would probably cut Anderson. Seems to have the weaker card among the 5 starters, and you don't really need two of his strengths (being a 7-inning starter and having a -3 arm) since you have a good relief and that your opponents don't seem to use the running weapon (38 stolen bases only despite having a catcher with zero arm).
Just to add on, with your divisional leader loaded of right-handed team, you need, in my opinion, to put Sanchez right-up there and exploit that weakness. I would probably add to your team a S5/R3 who is left-handed, a cheap journeyman under 1M, just in case you win the playoffs and have to face J-Pav or another owner with a lefty-loaded team. Besides, your journeyman could carry some mop-up situations. So if you cut Anderson and cut Aaderson and buy a 0.8M journeyman, you'll have more than 2M, you'll have almost 5M to spend on the offense.
I would probably buy a big bat vs lhp since you are struggling vs lhp. I would probably try to trade Grandal to the Dwarf team for McCann---this team uses James McCann as an everyday starter, but he really has a platoon card, so his stats are terrible, and Grandal would be a better fit for that team which has a PNC park. You'll have plenty of money to accept a decent counter-proposition, and would take the money to fulfill whatever player will be traded. If it doesn't work, I think I would simply cut Grandal for a platoon of catchers each costing 2.5M approximately.
But of course McCann would be a great platoon. I can see that Conger is free---a lot of owners dislike his +4, but as I wrote, your opponents don't use the running weapon and all your starters except Sanchez have negative arms, so I wouldn't worry too much of Conger's arm. Plus, his other defensive numbers aren't too bad (range=3, low e, etc), so I think his defense is actually underrated.
With any money left, I would try to improve the offense--a better option than Alvarez as dh vs rhp? or than Suzuki vs lhp, especially since you are using Suzuki as a left-fielder (3e0)?
