Adventures in Team Building

Not me, but...In the 2011 PC Championships MichaelRobb11 put together this championship team at Petco:

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/805361

Incredibly, he did this while shedding over $6 million in salary with drops. IMO, what he did was he put together a team that was VERY well suited to his divisional opponents - including my team, which had been first! He came back from 4th in the division and ended up capturing the division title, and then defeating my team again in the the overall championship series!!!

Well done, MichaelRobb11 !!!!

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/sim/814974

I had typed a much longer discussion here, but it got lost when my computer took an unauthorized coffee break!

Shorter version -

This was my best 2011 team (other than one keeper league team).

This was a fun team - a filler in the tournament. I did some things that I wouldn't normally do. Based in Camden. Was 5th overall in team offense and 2nd in ERA. Third fewest errors, and a very good (I think) 77% rate of getting outs on X chart readings. I always like teams with good team defense. The team was just 6th in GB double plays, which I attribute to the strikeout/flyball orientation of the pitching staff. The staff was 3rd in strikeouts.

The key to this team offensively, I think, was Fielder/Kemp/Alonso vs RHP. There was a great concentration of firepower in those 3 players, who were 4th thru 6th in the league in OPS. A-Rod was a disappointment, but the other 3 more than made up for him.

I liked the structure of the pitching staff, which emphasized a strong bullpen, featuring 4 guys - Santos, Clippard, Casilla and Affeldt. Affeldt was utilized as middle inning reliever along with Clippard. Affeldt was used largely as the "pitching hand change" to cross up lineups that relied on platoons. Other lineups primarily faced Clippard. Casilla and Santos were the finishers.

The starters had a nice structure -3 SP's with *, with 2 non-* starters. This allowed me flexibility to insert the 5th starter periodically to get better matchups for the * starters. Bumgarner faced 28% lefties, Marcum faced 50% RHP, both nice results. Gallardo was the residual, facing 59% lefties. The other 2 starters alternated in the 4th spot mostly, and faced about 50% of each of lefties and righties.

The team was great in one run games (32-18), which I attribute to the strong bullpen. They were not so good in extra innings (8-14), which I attribute to the degree to which I used the bullpen through the middle innings. Overall, the 99 wins exceeded the expected (95 wins, obviously still very strong). The team was a close second in overall run differential, at plus 126.

I have always liked small ball teams, playing in singles ballparks like Kauffman and Target. I am wondering if this might be a good formula for me for a more aggressive hitting team in a more homerun-friendly park.

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/809725

Here's a superb team - Plus 214 run differential! 325 homeruns!

This team was put together by edgecitytexas. Way to go!

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/sim/818378

This was a dominant Petco team

In response to Jpav's "all injury team"

I have never been successful, but I have seen several teams that were in the last two sets---(2014 season and 2015 season)

The formula that I have seen work is:------- Only go with 13 high injury hitters---I don't know if the rules changed in the last couple of years, but it seems Hal will not allow an injury that drops you below 9 hitters (in DH leagues) or 8 hitters (in noDH leagues)---DH leagues are obviously better for Injury teams if this is true.

By concentrating on only 13 high OB/Power hitters that are high injury you maximize your run scoring per $ spent.

If you can manage to get a few high injury guys that play a lot of positions decently--it seems an advantage to me.

My first ring of this season was an injury team.

http://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1423963

I can't remember if I set out to build an injury team or a three stud starter team (requiring low budget value offensive players). Either way, I had nearly 300 injury days, anywhere from two to six times the injury days of the other teams in the league. That's a lot of injuries.

Yes. The game rules did change and I have not seen anyone go below nine fielders remaining, causing pitchers to bat and play the field (usually the outfield). However, injury "values" have changed some too, and while a mix of high injury guys can help, they are definitely not underpriced the way they were in the good 'ol days.

What on earth caused you to dig up this fossilized 2013 thread???

Some fossils never see the light of day. Some get unearthed.

What on earth caused you to dig up this fossilized 2013 thread???

Palmtana digs up these things from time to time in the Strategy section--I thought it would post in that section.

I'm going to give a high injury team another shot one day--though definitely not with the new injury rules.

all injured team, sounds interesting. i think i'll do one next set for sure.

Early in the season, but here is an "all-injury" team: http://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1441196

The first iteration, with lesser pitching, made the playoffs as the wild card, but lost in the first round: http://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1436634

Built based on Marc Pelletier's ratings in the Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter.