Thoughts on my First Roster?

I am a day away from the waiver deadline in my first ATG league and I'm considering roster moves, if I can. The deadline is tomorrow while I'm working (I'm on the West Coast), so I have to make any moves tonight. This is what my roster looks like now.

SP: Glavine, Phil Niekro, Stottlemyre, McCormick, Darwin, Forsch
RP: Papelbon, Dibble, Tippy Martinez, Drabowsky

C: Bob Boone, Sullivan
1B: Killebrew
2B: Gregg Jeffries, Davey Johnson
3B: Bobby Bonilla, Oberkfell, Luis Salazar, Dave Owen
SS: Thon, Rafael Ramirez
LF: Brock
CF: Ken Griffey Jr
RF: Burroughs, Northrup

The salary cap is $80M and I only have $400K left. There are waivers and there is no DH.

Do I have any good options for building up my team a little bit before the season starts. This is my first ATG league (postwar) and I'm all confuzzled.

What ballpark?

What is your waiver number?

What is available on the wire?

Just a couple of thoughts: the 4.01 million Dibble is a very solid reliever (don't use the more expensive version). You don't need both Dibble and Papelbon. Keep Dibble. Griffey is fine, the -4 arm Boone is a nice defensive catcher, Killebrew might be good if you're in a power park and face a lot of lefties. The other hitters could be improved.

You only need four * starting pitchers; get a .50 SP-only as your fifth starter (Leal, Conroy, Medich, Lerch, etc.) Maximize your dollars by getting cheap backups (don't spend more than .60 on any of them). Put your money into your starting lineup, the four SPs, and two primary relievers. The rest of your pen can be an inexpensive lefty/righty specialists. Look for people like Linzy, Clear, Sambito, Hassler. If you can get one LHP, one RHP, that's ideal.

Brock and Burroughs both suck. You can do a lot better in the OF -- I would try to build that up first. Who's available?

What ballpark?

Ebbetts Field '55.

What is your waiver number?

2 (out of 12)

What is available on the wire?

Since it's an STG league an awful lot.

Just a couple of thoughts: the 4.01 million Dibble is a very solid reliever (don't use the more expensive version). You don't need both Dibble and Papelbon. Keep Dibble. Griffey is fine, the -4 arm Boone is a nice defensive catcher, Killebrew might be good if you're in a power park and face a lot of lefties. The other hitters could be improved.

You only need four * starting pitchers; get a .50 SP-only as your fifth starter (Leal, Conroy, Medich, Lerch, etc.) Maximize your dollars by getting cheap backups (don't spend more than .60 on any of them). Put your money into your starting lineup, the four SPs, and two primary relievers. The rest of your pen can be an inexpensive lefty/righty specialists. Look for people like Linzy, Clear, Sambito, Hassler. If you can get one LHP, one RHP, that's ideal.

Brock and Burroughs both suck. You can do a lot better in the OF -- I would try to build that up first. Who's available?

As I mentioned, I'm not entirely sure. It's the ATG Postwar set so there are a lot of players out there. It can be pretty overwhelming if you think about it too hard. But I'm at 25 and I only have $300K left. I'm not sure how many players I would have to drop to get something good (like a corner outfielder) and how many I dare pick up. I also wonder whether I dare just drop a player (I can drop only one) and hope something good is still there tomorrow night.

I actually am trying. I've asked to pick up Rick Reuschel ($500K) and drop Niekro, and to drop Papelbon in favor of LF Jose Cruz. I hopefully will have about $4M free if all these moves go through. Just whether they will, of course, is an open question because I'm not entirely sure how the waiver wire really works.

i will try to break it down for you as best as i can. knowing which cards they are would help a lot.

C: Bob Boone, Sullivan - clearly boone is your starter so he should be fine. however if it's the more expensive one a platoon mate wouldn't hurt.

1B: Killebrew - if this is the '69 version he should do fine. if it's not try to upgrade to it.

2B: Gregg Jeffries, Davey Johnson - you can't be serious about using a 4e at second base. never drop below a 2e at either of your middle infield spots. get stanky's cheap card if available. he gets on base use him in the leadoff spot.

3B: Bobby Bonilla, Oberkfell, Luis Salazar, Dave Owen - you can do better.

SS: Thon, Rafael Ramirez - not bad

LF: Brock - he could work, depending on the card. i have had limited success w/ him.

CF: Ken Griffey Jr - good

RF: Burroughs, Northrup - you can do better.

from the looks of it this teams defense is terrible. myself and other vet managers will tell you up the middle def is crucial to success. 1B/3B not so much.

please provide team link for further analysis, and best of luck

-steven

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/807503

Clearly I will need a lot of luck, and I only have a day to fix my problems.

You should dump Papelbon right now -- you only need 24. That gives you money for waivers.

Dump two of the starting pitchers (replace with .50 guys) and Papelbon, and you've got 10+ million to work with for some serious upgrading.

Ebbets 55 is best suited for righty power hitters (18 home run roll). So look for guys like Cepeda, Aaron, Frank Robinson (9.33), Foster, McGwire, Pujols. Matt Williams would be a good 3b, very reasonably priced. Griffey will be great to give the lineup some balance, but he might be too expensive for what you need. In a righty power park, the biggest chunk of money should go into righty power hitters. Try to go cheap at a couple of positions (catcher and a sub-2 million 2b or SS with "1" range). Get four RH power guys and a 4-5 mil LH with good obp to leadoff. One you might try is Don Buford for 4.7 at either LF or 3b -- he'd be a solid leadoff hitter. Any of the Carews would be great -- he's weak against lefties, so you can use him in a platoon with someone like Tony Phillips (good obp against lefties).

Cruz isn't going to do much.

Waivers are tomorrow, but remember that you've got until next Monday before the season starts. Lots of time to tinker. You don't need to worry about "dare to drop a player" -- you can drop and replace as many as you want.

I did some of what you suggested. Papelbon is gone, and I have waiver claims for a couple 500K starting pitchers.

I rolled the dice on a waiver claim for Dale Murphy to play left and bat cleanup. I also made a waiver play for Harold Reynolds. I hope I end up with enough cap room to pay for both.

If I end up going through waivers understocked and undermanned, what will be left I wonder in outright free agency?

Just another idea: Lance Parrish (2.8) would be a great cheap C for your park -- good defensively, and much better power than Boone. His obp will be terrible, but he's capable of 30 homers and 80 rbis batting 7th or 8th.

Check your divisional opponents -- what kind of starting pitchers are they using? If they have a bunch of lefty starters, Murphy could be a nice pickup. But if it's mostly righties, he's not going to do that well. (You'll notice on his card that he has great power against lefties, but against righties he has mostly walks; so at cleanup he's not going to drive in runs against RHPs.) I guess none of the big power hitters I mentioned are available? Any of them could give you 50 homers in Ebbets.