Coors Field

Could some of you guys post successful Coors teams so I can see what works regarding hitting vs. pitching split, types of hitters and pitchers. Thought I put together a decent team, but it has started out 10-17. Maybe it needs to be adjusted or maybe I'm just in a streak of bad Karma... several of my teams lately have been drifting off course, to say the least.

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/1026216

I'm no expert but here's my 2 pennies...

1. Your pitching is getting lit up

and

2. You need more guys maxed out (BPHR's) to take advantage of your park. ie. Johnson (vs. RH's), Wills, O'Doul, Rolfe.


You win by out slugging your opponents in Coors.

One problem BP# for guys like Snider and Walker fall on Homeruns and HR splits greater than 1-15, so Coors is stealing dingers from them.

Your slow start appears to be partly a matter of luck, but also partly a matter of team strategy.

On the luck side: your ballpark homers split is very low for a Coors team and should even out. Your hitters have just 13 of 29 ballpark homer rolls go for homers, whereas your opponents have connected on 15 of 23. Over time, you should also have a greater spread in BP-HR rolls as compared to your opponents. It looks like some of your sluggers have had slow starts (Snider). Lefties are hitting .561 against Jack Coombs which (hopefully) is not sustainable.

On the strategy side: You have too much money tied up in your bench. Wills costs 2.42M, and only has 27 at bats, and you have several other subs around $1M. I'd suggest cutting back on the bench and upgrading the back end of your rotation, and/or adding one more power bat. Also, your pitching is getting hammered-- you've given up more than 70 more hits and 20 more walks than your offense has gotten. Meanwhile, your specialists (Sherry and Dave Roberts) have faced more hitters than Don McMahon, and both of them are facing about a 50-50 lefty-righty split. Predictably, they're getting hammered. You may want to fix the relief settings to make sure McMahon gets more usage, and/or swap out one of them for a more balanced reliever. Also, using exclusively S8-S9 starters in Coors (and in a non-DH league) isn't the best use of resources, as you're basically paying for innings that are not going to be pitched.

Thanks guys, appreciate the input.

I echo the comments on Maury Wills.

If you're going to spend more than $1.50 on a player either they are a full timer or a platoon kinda guy. Maury is a waste of money for you.

Secondly, I love Coombs as a 4th starter in Coors, he doesn't give up BP #HR's. I believe in sub $2m SP's in $100million leagues to maximize money for the lineup.

The problem is with the rest of your staff. In a $100 M league you need to go one of two ways...either go with a bunch of sub $3million starters with a killer pen of guys like Murray and Sutter (yes you need 2 stud RP's) and go to the pen early and often ....or go smaller with a bullpen of 4 guys, 2 in the 2.5 range (love McMahon and McClure) + 2 50 cent guys a la Campbell and Crawford as 9L and 9R setup. Conservative bullpen you should get less than 200 innings and then spend money on starters...i.e. 2 studs above $9million + 1 middle of the road guy like the top 3 you currently have with Coombs as your #4. You need to commit one way or the other in a $100 million league in a hitters park, your staff is too much in between and is gonna get hammered either on the front end or back end. Never played in Coors, but play dozens and dozens in Minute Maid and Polo Grounds '41 and both strategies have worked well. However, when I have tried the middle of the road pitching strategy like you have here I have gotten hammered every time.

Sorry to say, but to fix the problems with your staff would be really expensive and probably be counter productive at this point. However, try to avoid ever repeating your pitching strategy in future $100m Coors teams. When you do, let us know how it works. I'm confident that you'll have much better results.

Thanks NomadBrad, I thought that would be the case when I put the team together, plus I have 2 small ball teams in my division. I tried to make the team compatible with those two teams ballparks...big mistake!!! I altered the team a little after 3 more losses last nite, added some pitching, most notably Lee Smith out of the pen instead of McBean. Also changed 1st, 3rd and changed out Larry Walker to the more injury prone version, probably not gonna help too much. First time in coors and maybe I have learned a bit for the next effort.

I think I won 1 championship in coors one time. My thoughts were to make sure you had a loaded bullpen. Starters important but less so because the ballpark was going to chase them early even if they are expensive. So you don't get value. But by giving HAL lots of good bullpen options he does better job of mixing and matching and avoiding having fatigued arms in game getting shock and awe shelled.