Champs: Who is your highest priced offensive player?

I have played in two 2014 (80 million dollar leagues). With the first one I won 100 games and a championship with Michael Brantley who is over 10.00 million bucks. My second 2014 team was also 80 million and it won 99 games and lost the championship. That team had Andrew McCutcheon and Michael Brantley.

I will say I rarely have players over 8 million bucks on 80 million dollar teams. And I would never spend 10 million bucks on any pitcher in ANY leagues that were 80 million or even a 100 million bucks.

99 wins and a championship loss with McCutcheon and Brantley:
http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/1402270

100 wins and a championship victory with Brantley:
http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/1399520

There are more than several ways to win at this game.... Steve F. never said, Spend equally on all 9 spots in the lineup. His analogy about your lineup as a chain is a good one.

Marc:

Your ratings in the other thread you started directly led to my insights. I was surprised the ratings weren't discussed more over there.

However, what works for Manager A doesn't necessarily translate into success for Manager B. The outlier in my 25 Champs teams was Jeep using McCutchen and Brantley on one team. Outside of that...

Trout was 0-25.
Tulo was 0-25.
Stanton was 0-25.
Bautista was 0-25.

The list goes on and on.

When you survey unique managers, and the result is so alarmingly consistent, there has to be insight there. I think it relates directly to salaries and/or ratings. I can spit it out, I just want to coax the conversation along a little bit first...

The question remains about the sub $10M second tier players. I'm assuming these were autodrafts. I don't know the drafting habits of managers, but do they tend to put these guys first? Personally, I don't want Adam Jones or CarGo instead of a Trout or McCutcheon.

In order to avoid swamping the thread with "Here's my Trout Champs team!" posts, if you would survey all your leagues and see if there is a pattern beyond "look at this team".

No one agrees more than me that there are many, Many, MANY ways to win at this game.

For any of you pining for some Secret Formula fundamentals, the middle defenses of the Champs teams average 2-2-2 (who would have guessed it?! ) 75% of the middle defense positions were 1s and 2s. But if you would like to post your Taylor at SS team, feel free to do so...!

Scumby:

I don't want Trout or McCutchen! (But that's just me, and it's been a very hard lesson).

...But if you would like to post your Taylor at SS team, feel free to do so...!

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/1401830

And Gordon a 3 at 2B too!

Scumby:

I don't want Trout or McCutchen! (But that's just me, and it's been a very hard lesson).

I played around with that style in PC Event 5. The high price lineup was no match for your platoon.

Jeff, I've had 6 2014 Champs, one in a 60m, and of the other five, ALL had a top priced offensive player: Rizzo, McCutcheon, Brantley twice, and Trout.

Moving back on topic:

Here's a hint:

Peter Brand: There is an epidemic failure within the game to understand what is really happening. And this leads people who run Major League Baseball teams to misjudge their players and mismanage their teams. I apologize.

Billy Beane: Go on.

Peter Brand: Okay. People who run ball clubs, they think in terms of buying players. Your goal shouldn't be to buy players, your goal should be to buy wins. And in order to buy wins, you need to buy runs. You're trying to replace Johnny Damon. The Boston Red Sox see Johnny Damon and they see a star who's worth seven and half million dollars a year. When I see Johnny Damon, what I see is... is... an imperfect understanding of where runs come from. The guy's got a great glove. He's a decent leadoff hitter. He can steal bases. But is he worth the seven and half million dollars a year that the Boston Red Sox are paying him? No. No. Baseball thinking is medieval. They are asking all the wrong questions. And if I say it to anybody, I'm-I'm ostracized. I'm-I'm-I'm a leper. So that's why I'm-I'm cagey about this with you. That's why I... I respect you, Mr. Beane, and if you want full disclosure, I think it's a good thing that you got Damon off your payroll. I think it opens up all kinds of interesting possibilities.

Scumby: It's not platoons either (but it definitely can be).

Edge: How about the other managers?

I will say as a disclaimer, I agree you can win in any wide variety of ways, including with Trout as your straw to stir the drink. My observation is that in 25 leagues with unique winning managers, a pattern emerged. Trout was not used. Why?

The responding managers so far are all very capable managers in their own right and I get that you can win with Trout. But what if you miss Trout in the autodraft? Is your strategy of "I need Trout to win" now mean you can't win?

I will go out on a limb and argue you can win in spite of Trout, but not because of him. There's a distinct difference.

We'll get there, I just want to stoke the fires a little more...