Some 70s team advice

About to start my first ever 70s team. It was drafted as part of the Mega Mystery Card Draft with 78 rounds to pick a 70s, 80s, and 90s team...any era on any pick. I am highly confident in my 80s team abilities, and my only 2 90s teams have both just lost in the finals (awful but 2 free teams). But I knew nothing of the 70s, so I picked few 70s players early, concentrating on my 80s/90s teams. I went heavy on pitching to try and reduce others managers greater knowledge of the era. Here is what I got:

SP- Seaver, Jim Palmer, Guidry (as 3/4 rotation) and Blass/McGlothlin to alternate the 4th spot (do this mix often in other eras)
RP- Roger Nelson (to be the closer and pitch 60%+ of relief IP), Donnie Moore, Balor Moore, Heaverlo
C- Munson, back-up J. Edwards
1B- Cecil Cooper vs RHP, Piniella vs LHP
2B- Mazeroski (just for the D)
SS- Brinkman (cheap glove)
3B- Reitz (cheap glove with some okay BA)
LF- Carbo/Mota
CF-Lynn (my only true difference maker)
RF- Jeff Burroughs
DH- Shamsky/Lacy
Bench- Frank Taveras, Dave Nelson for late inning PR/SB help.

Went very skimpy on RP since I expect my Big 3 startes to complete 60%+ of their starts hopefully. What value spots am I hurting on? I hate not having more lefty bats, but they went early on when I was concentrating on the other 2 teams. Hoping to win a lot of 2-1, 3-2 games and try and squeeze 87-90 wins with some luck, and get into play-offs. This teams pitching would be a play-off horror story for other managers. BTW am in Arlington Stadium.

I am in your league so take my comments with that in mind.....

You have thrown away offense for defense at 3 positions (2B, SS, & 3B) Reitz will not have an OK BA. That is an offensive hole for 1/3 of your lineup. Your other 6 hitters need to rake to make that work.

The stud 70s SP never pitch up to the way you think they should. Often much cheaper SP will pitch as well (or as poorly).

Your bullpen is shaky. Nelson can't pitch every game.

I like Cooper, Munson, Lynn & Burroughs. Your team could do fine and I may be wrong about your SP. Time will tell.

I rarely ever go heavy pitching in the 70s. I agree with what Bombers said in that the expensive 70s pitchers do not often pitch up to their price. Though they certainly have the potential, more often than not, to me, they seem to fall short of what you would expect based on their salary.
I like to spend a lot of my pitching budget on relief pitchers. The 70s game has a fair amount of good relievers, but they dont come cheap. Unlike the 80s and 90s games, you can't put together a winning bullpen full of .75 guys. There are some good ones, but not many.

Also like Bombers, take what I say for what it is, not just because I'm also in the league, but because I don't consider myself that great of a 70s player. Mostly because I don't know the players too well considering I was born in 1979.

I agree with both of you in some respects. Maz, Brinkman, and Reitz are offensely challenged but I just had no money left for offense at their positions. I went the big SP route because I hoped it was a way to leesen my 70s disadvantage. I usually want 7 or usually 8 strong hitting positions (as in my 90s team) by going cheap at 1 position. My 80s team has 9 strong positions (including 6-7 platoons) and both 80s/90s have solid to strong SP for less money and solid BP with an anchor (Henke and Wagner). But since I didn't really have time to research the 70s guys, and at about round 8-9 it became apparent most people were trying to stack 1 or 2 eras instead of going balance I figured high cost SP was my only chance to trim my experience deficit, and my prioritizing the 70s team as the 3rd tier priority.

Every time I looked, the 70s mgrs were plucking the few big value guys I identified (Blomberg, Garr, Gamble, Dietz, Cuellar, Vail, Kusick, and WOCKENFUSS!!!) My thoughts on the BP was that I would complete most games with the BIG 3. I know in the 80s you can pitch your relievers every day. I usually get 140-180 IP with Henke. In the 90s it only lets you pitch them 2 days in a row, lowering my IPs for the big gun to 90-120. [b]Are there usage limits in the 70s akin to the ones in the 90s?[b] I took the fact there was no "closer" rating to mean there isn't.

It sucks to know that Seaver, Palmer, and Guidry will fail to pitch as I hoped. I usually strive to keep my entire pitching staff to 25-30 million allowing me around 50-55 for my hitters ( I like balance, as I usually beat the all-hit or all-pitch teams). But after noticing the extremely expensive nature of any good D in the 70s (Cedeno, Otis, W. Davis, Winfield...holy cow, even Belanger at 3.7 yikes) and the fact offense was lower there than the 80s and of course the steroid era, left me looking at cards I'd usually only pick in desperation after game 100.

Despite my bluster in the 70s mailbox, I don't feel strongly this team can win. If Cooper/Piniella, Lynn, Carbo/Mota, Burroughs, Munson can scratch me out 600+ runs I was hoping for a 2.80 ERA from the big 3. It sounds like I am looking at a 3.50 ERA from the discussion, which makes me a 70 win team at best.

So, Mega Mystery mgrs, get your licks in on me in the 70s, because the 90s I will rock, and the 80s I will dominate to make up for the deriding laughs my 70s team elicits.

Make no mistake, your high priced 70s pitchers will perform well, but I just feel that they tend to fall just a little short of pitching to their actual salary. I would think you can do better than a 3.50 ERA from the big 3.

Keep in mind that because of the time period, a pitcher with a 2.50ERA and 1.15 WHIP will have a worse card than one with the same stats in the 80s or 90s so even the best pitcher cards are not nearly as powerful as the best cards of the 80s or 90s.

Hey im no expert but how many lefty starters are in your division with your 3 platoons u have alot of money tied up on the bench. If its only 3 or 4 i would drop at least one of the platoons and try to get a better hitting 3b. I agree Reitz wont hit but u may be able to get someone a bit better if u drop either Pinella or Mote for the cash. Dont worry about your startersthey will do good enough but u need to score more runs and the three outs ur giving up every trip around the order will hurt u to much and it wont flip the lineup often enough. So look up ur opposition starters and see what u can do to get more from ur infielders.

rudy

one team in division has 2/4 LHP, another 0/4 LHP and the last 2/5 LHP. So 4/13 starters are lefty. Out of division 10/36 starters are lefty. So I think I have a good platoon set up. I actually wish I had more...I will probably be very quick on the trigger dumping one of my pricey starters if the look bad. Unfortunately there aren't many good bats left. Obviously the 70s was a black hole for good 2B and SS. I think I am just up a creek without a paddle here.

Wow, 36 games into my first 70s season and weird things are happening. My big 3 are only 15-11 with around a 3.50 ERA ( I am 2nd in overall team ERA) but my BP has been solid, esp Nelson who is rocking at 10 saves and a WHIP under 1. Carbo is obviously in his awesome year (by prolonged performance) and injuries tell me I have Coopers .899 OPS, Shamsky's 1966 (huge HR) card, Reitz's 5L card (and he is hitting over .300 overall) and Munson is hitting well. I dropped Mota, Lacy, and Mazeroski...as well as a very poor performing Burroughs. I used the room to get McRae, Lance Parrish (to platoon in LF for Carbo), and Ralph Garr. Somehow Garr, McRae, and Parrish are sucking. Feel like I can win 85-87 games, but doubt that is enough for the play-offs.