Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

http://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1437782

We did an AL only player and Unique Stadium draft. I have Fenway Park. There are no good players left in the talent pool so I am going into battle with this group. Looking to see if it has a fighting chance or are we dead in the water before the season starts? Thanks.

Hard to judge, but it seems to me that your talent pool on the field (starting pitchers+ 2 main relievers+ starting 9, adjusting for lefty-righty combos) looks weaker than your divisional opponents. You seem to be around 63M, whereas your opponents are in a bracket within 68M-70M

This said, your bullpen is very strong, so perhaps you can use that as a force. Even though you have a good starting rotation, considering the talent pool in the bullpen, I would not hesitate to have every pitcher on quick hook, except perhaps Chris Sale and Cueto against teams loaded of lefty hitters. I would put Miller as your first middle man, set up, and closer, and use Manship as your second middle man and second set-up man, and Street as your second closer, probably set to not come before the 8th inning, so his closer rating can be used fully in the 9th. Tapera and Shaw could eat the rest of the innings, when any of the three guys are tired. To cover your team in overtime games, I would use Medlen or Tropeano as "don't use before the 7th", this way, when all relievers will be used, you will still have a fresh R3 who could throw 4-5 innings without being fatigued.

Still, even you use set your bullpen as aggressive, I believe you have one long reliever too many (the other guy between Medlen or Tropeano). You said the talent pool was depleted, but still I would cut one of them to get the best hitter vs lhp you can get--I seem to notice that no team has picked up Olt in your league, he has a better card vs lhp than many of your starters, so he could be a good pinch-hitter). With any money left, I think I would grab a 6th outfielder, so you can have flexibility in case you have two outfielders on the injury risk--which could happen a few times.

Did the settings. I have double hitters and a few who can steal. Wondering if I should set base running as normal or aggressive.

SGTD wrote:Wondering if I should set base running as normal or aggressive.

As one of your league opponents, I suggest "Very aggressive," Sarge!

SGTD wrote:Did the settings. I have double hitters and a few who can steal. Wondering if I should set base running as normal or aggressive.

You have some of the worst gbA in Mauer and Perez in the 30s, many in double digits, so might be good idea to have the full super aggressive mode with base running (even though AlHogg was ironic). Mauer does have a nice H-R B though, so I would try to have a speedster like Altuve in front of him and have Mauer set to have more hit and run. Because of this, I would not use super-agressive for stealing.

Actually, I was struggling to set your lineup vs rhp. My guess (I don't have my ratings with me) is that your two best hitters vs rhp are ARod and Springer, so they should take the 4th and 2nd spot respectively. I think you really need Shuck since he has the best onbase, so I would start him as leadoff, in lf. Altuve could hit 3rd, has some good pop, but if you put Perez 5th (2nd best raw power and good clutch), that would make 4 consecutive right-handed hitter, so I would probably put Seager 3rd even though his card is weaker than others. So Shuck, Springer (no gbA, good onbase), Seager, ARod, Perez, Altuve, Mauer, Escobar (switch, offers a buffer vs lefty relief) and Ellsbury. Seager being 3rd helps him avoiding the clutch situation a bit more. Against lh, you definitively must hide him 3rd (Seager is -15 or so). So against lhp, I would probably have Altuve, Springer, Seager, ARod, Perez, Escobar, Deshields, Mauer (again behind a good runner to enact his H-R) and a platoon of Cabrera and Ellsbury.

Thanks

http://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1437782

The team has started out hot, hoping they can keep it up.