Gooden

Playing 80's, decide to draft a pitching team.

Have starting rotation of Clemens, Hersheiser, Gooden and Soto. Have Eck as my closer.

Obviously I've sacrificed a bit in the field--have Gwynn, Henderson, Garvey, Pendleton and Boone playing with a bunch of minimum salary guys.

Do you all think Gooden is worth the pricetag? He has 1 good year but for 8+ mil, should I toss him and get a Viola, Bryn Smith or even a Bill Gullickson and invest the 3 mil in a field?

Thoughts? Is Gooden worth the money?

Viola is probably better bang for the buck, but you are going to feel pretty stupid if someone else picks up Gooden and it is lights out year. I have played gooden on many occasions and drop him as soon as I feel it is not his best year. His next 2 best years are pretty good too but not worth the $. I have kept those years where I didnt have a better pitcher and/or could spare the money. I put a high priority on getting one ace to give you an edge in the playoffs where he has to pitch twice. However, with Clemens and Hersheiser on your team, I would definatley save $ with Viola. I am also not a big fan of Eck's price tag but I could be wrong about that. Also not a bad idea to mix it up with a lefty.

With Clemens, Hershiser and Soto already in tow, and little to no power in your lineup, I question whether either Gooden or Eckersley are worth it for you. You can still do very well at closer for less money in the 80s: many managers successfully use .75 guys as closers if they find the right season. If Gooden was one of your top couple of starters he would be worth it to me, but with that rotation, if it was me I would use the money, and maybe some savings from Eck, towards at least one power bat.

To me the RP over 2M (even more so over 3M) are not worth the dough. There are so many 75¢ guys that you can generally find 3 that hit on a year just as good as a more expensive RP. Three decent RP cards is all you really need. I have seen Eck, Henke, etc get bombed many times. Save the money on Eck and put it into hitting. I also like dropping Gooden down a peg to Viola, or something similar. Most of the time Gooden isn't worth the salary. Clemens and Hershiser are generally money well spent.

Thanks to you all for the advice. I took the majority of it. I dropped Gooden for Doyle Alexander and saved a bunch of dough. Alexander has been solid for me in some 80's leagues and is acceptable as a #4. I respect your opinions about Eckersly, but I have a man crush on him for some reason. I set him up as my closer and set the starters with slow hooks and Eckersly as the set up and closer. Often times I can go from the starter right to the closer.

I ended up with:
Boone
Garvey--not a ton of pop but can drive in runs
Remy--Love him for the money.
Guillen
Pendleton
Gwynn
McGee
Henderson

So, I have little or no power, but lots of average and speed. My defense is all 1 ranges except for Remy and Guillen and generally solid.

For a big ballpark, I'm hoping for a lot of 2-1 games. Should be fun. To me this is much more fun than Kingman and Deer in the Kingdome.

Thanks again guys, your valuable insight is appreciated and was utilized.

Go for it. I don't see a lot of extreme teams in Mystery Card as opposed to ATG, where it's commonplace. Good luck!

I like the team concept. I have tried to put together speed and defense teams before, but never with as good of a rotation as you have. BTW I am assuming that the Henderson is Rickey and not Dave. I would still suggest leaving open the idea of getting one good power bat to drive some of those guys in: 3 singles makes one run, but sometimes one homer makes 3 runs. If a Garvey or McGee gets off to a slow start, find someone who has some pop but still hits for average. Overall, I think you did really well. Good luck.