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As a tip of the cap to chaberlal for the "stupid question" thread, and one to kev for "trade secrets from the old boys club", I will ask a "stupid question" and see what yall think. OK enough with the quotes, joey.
With all the talk about the best way to structure pitching and particularly bullpens, my stupid question is about countermeasures for a couple of the primary pitching staff strategies that work pretty well--(1) Stud Starters with minimized bullpen and (2) Cheap one-sided bullpens. Neither is particularly new, but both have been made more prevalent since BP v3, because they are generally very effective.
Assumptions:
- The teams in question are either division mates, represent a likely playoff opponent, or represent a general strategy across multiple teams in the league, ie the opposing strategy represents a significant or key chunk of opposition.
Questions:
1. Stud Starters. If opponent(s) are using stud starters and a trash bullpen of minimized innings, do you consider this when constructing your team?
2. Cheap one-sided bullpens. If opponents are using cheap, heavily one-sided pens, do you consider this when constructing your team?
My thoughts are below. What are yours?
1. I do.
STRATEGY: Generally, the strength of the stud starters approach is for stud guys who are S8 or S9 it is very difficult to get their pitch count fatigue below F9...and even if you do, the impact on strong pitcher cards is not much worse than rolling the dice with a relief corps of lesser cards, fatigued or not. And a manager can greatly limit bullpen exposure now.
VULNERABILITY(?): Getting to F0 earlier
COUNTERMEASURE(?): So, my proposed countermeasure is to go with a team of top-to-bottom moderate hitters, rather than studs and scrubs. I want every guy to have a chance to tag an on-base event, increase the pitch count past the unknown max pitch count the game engine determined for that start, and get the starter to F0 as soon as possible. So if I have 60M to spend on 9 position players in a 100M DH league, I may have a lieneup of guys between $6M-8M, versus a few at 10+. Greg Maddux will be tough no matter what, but if I can bring on fatigue earlier, and then have guys who have a card worth taking advantage of that fatigue, maybe I have a better chance.
2. I do.
STRATEGY: This is another effective bullpen strategy because the one side guys are such great bargains, especially if you can beat the card's spread of strong to weak side events (ie a 9L card that was carded based on 50% lefties in real life...and you get that guy's actual splits to 75% lefties--some of it falls out in the pricing, but not on all cards. For instance, that same card, if you only get the actual splits to 30% lefties, you are not getting your money's worth).
VULNERABILITY(?): catching one-sided guys on their weak side
COUNTERMEASURE(?): My proposed countermeasure takes different forms depending on the cap and DH/No DH. But generally, I will pursue balanced L/R lineups with guys who are pretty solid both ways, and have a 5/4 spread for alternating the lineup as much as possible. Hoping to give HAL fits as he runs through others' bullpen roles/settings and just cause him to blow through relievers leaving me hitting against Calvin Schiraldi for three innings.
Maybe worthless, and I don't play enough teams to have a solid sample yet, but I am seeing how it goes. Your thoughts? Is this just pointless background noise? Do you disagree with the vulnerability significance?
With all the talk about the best way to structure pitching and particularly bullpens, my stupid question is about countermeasures for a couple of the primary pitching staff strategies that work pretty well--(1) Stud Starters with minimized bullpen and (2) Cheap one-sided bullpens. Neither is particularly new, but both have been made more prevalent since BP v3, because they are generally very effective.
Assumptions:
- The teams in question are either division mates, represent a likely playoff opponent, or represent a general strategy across multiple teams in the league, ie the opposing strategy represents a significant or key chunk of opposition.
Questions:
1. Stud Starters. If opponent(s) are using stud starters and a trash bullpen of minimized innings, do you consider this when constructing your team?
2. Cheap one-sided bullpens. If opponents are using cheap, heavily one-sided pens, do you consider this when constructing your team?
My thoughts are below. What are yours?
1. I do.
STRATEGY: Generally, the strength of the stud starters approach is for stud guys who are S8 or S9 it is very difficult to get their pitch count fatigue below F9...and even if you do, the impact on strong pitcher cards is not much worse than rolling the dice with a relief corps of lesser cards, fatigued or not. And a manager can greatly limit bullpen exposure now.
VULNERABILITY(?): Getting to F0 earlier
COUNTERMEASURE(?): So, my proposed countermeasure is to go with a team of top-to-bottom moderate hitters, rather than studs and scrubs. I want every guy to have a chance to tag an on-base event, increase the pitch count past the unknown max pitch count the game engine determined for that start, and get the starter to F0 as soon as possible. So if I have 60M to spend on 9 position players in a 100M DH league, I may have a lieneup of guys between $6M-8M, versus a few at 10+. Greg Maddux will be tough no matter what, but if I can bring on fatigue earlier, and then have guys who have a card worth taking advantage of that fatigue, maybe I have a better chance.
2. I do.
STRATEGY: This is another effective bullpen strategy because the one side guys are such great bargains, especially if you can beat the card's spread of strong to weak side events (ie a 9L card that was carded based on 50% lefties in real life...and you get that guy's actual splits to 75% lefties--some of it falls out in the pricing, but not on all cards. For instance, that same card, if you only get the actual splits to 30% lefties, you are not getting your money's worth).
VULNERABILITY(?): catching one-sided guys on their weak side
COUNTERMEASURE(?): My proposed countermeasure takes different forms depending on the cap and DH/No DH. But generally, I will pursue balanced L/R lineups with guys who are pretty solid both ways, and have a 5/4 spread for alternating the lineup as much as possible. Hoping to give HAL fits as he runs through others' bullpen roles/settings and just cause him to blow through relievers leaving me hitting against Calvin Schiraldi for three innings.
Maybe worthless, and I don't play enough teams to have a solid sample yet, but I am seeing how it goes. Your thoughts? Is this just pointless background noise? Do you disagree with the vulnerability significance?