NLD 33

I know it's early, but I find it surprising that Big A has scored so many runs. I don't think that was his strategy! Less surprising that he's second in runs allowed.

Interesting fact

Big A's enjoying +50 pitchers and +25 hitter roll advantage

You can't bet on stolen bases in the Eastern Division

On the other hand, another division better work on those snap throws to first

Heck, you could say both other divisions aren't doing a very good job!

Thoughts on the Central:

Keyz - Didn't spend much on pitching, but will hit. Sort of hot and cold v RHP with the bottom of the order meh, but the top Good fielding. Spent almost as much on RPs as SPs. I assume he's figuring his park will protect his pitching.

Corky - Also didn't spend too much on pitching. Six LHB in Citizens. Also an up and down lineup v RHP. Rotation is balanced, no studs, but no real weak links either. Also spent a lot of $ on the pen. Outstanding D

Jeep - Conversely is very RH'ed in Rogers (duh) spet a little bit more on his SPs than the other two and less on the pen. Will Crush LHP especially in his park. Deeper lineup than the other two , but only 4 on the bench

AT - only 3 LHB v RHP, but still hits them pretty well. D is weak overall. Big drop in the pen after Kimbrel. Also a fairly balanced rotation.

Not sure which team will end up rating the best. D is the flakiest part of the ratings and AT and Corky both have extreme D's so that makes the division harder to predict.

If forced to pick, I'd probably take Jeep just due to his track record, but the division looks pretty balanced upon first glance.

Heck, you could say both other divisions aren't doing a very good job!

Okay, I'll say it - both leagues best work on their snap throws to first base. It might be the only season, I put my C rated thefts on green light.

Of course, feel free to test my cannon behind home plate - .500 chance of making it.

Joe

You only get lucky one time per game so nice win getting the BpHR 1 chance roll. However, I have to deny you getting lucky on the second guy trying it.

2 12 D.Wright 1-11 Home Run (LF) 2-H 1-H b-H bpHR 1
2 T.Hunter 2-11 Fly Out (LF) b-0 bpHR 1

Thoughts on the Central:

Keyz - Didn't spend much on pitching, but will hit. Sort of hot and cold v RHP with the bottom of the order meh, but the top Good fielding. Spent almost as much on RPs as SPs. I assume he's figuring his park will protect his pitching.

Corky - Also didn't spend too much on pitching. Six LHB in Citizens. Also an up and down lineup v RHP. Rotation is balanced, no studs, but no real weak links either. Also spent a lot of $ on the pen. Outstanding D

Jeep - Conversely is very RH'ed in Rogers (duh) spet a little bit more on his SPs than the other two and less on the pen. Will Crush LHP especially in his park. Deeper lineup than the other two , but only 4 on the bench

AT - only 3 LHB v RHP, but still hits them pretty well. D is weak overall. Big drop in the pen after Kimbrel. Also a fairly balanced rotation.

Not sure which team will end up rating the best. D is the flakiest part of the ratings and AT and Corky both have extreme D's so that makes the division harder to predict.

If forced to pick, I'd probably take Jeep just due to his track record, but the division looks pretty balanced upon first glance.

Thanks for the thoughts on the central Joe. So far my team isn't hitting a lick but I've managed to rank 2nd in runs scored to this point ......I think your take is fairly accurate although I actually do consider Cueto an ace as his sim numbers actually rank among the best SP'ers plus he was great in a hitters park in our first league.

I do think the race will be wide open until the end. Should be fun.

hey Semp

yeah, we got very lucky there, but you weren't w/o your own breaks in teh series.

Cork,

I'm talking about salry-wise. Cueto isn't a top notch SP. That's all. I would say he's not in the very top of the SPs. He's good, but he's not Verlander or as good as Lohse or Dickey or Melen or Beachy.

In terms of ratings, Cuetro is around 50 over all. He's good, but not top notch.

Thoughts on the Central:

Keyz - Didn't spend much on pitching, but will hit. Sort of hot and cold v RHP with the bottom of the order meh, but the top Good fielding. Spent almost as much on RPs as SPs. I assume he's figuring his park will protect his pitching.

Yeah, hit the nail on the head regarding my pitching. Decent, but hoping for help from my park...also hoping my pen can make up for some of the SP shortcomings.

Now that A-Rod and the rest of the dopers are going to serve a long vacation away from baseball, I'm going to follow the Brewers' promotional ploy by allowing all my games to be viewed for free.

We've got to keep people in the seats or my guys might wonder too much about their jobs come 42 games into the season.

Cano promised to drop his salary from $11M to around $8M if I keep him on the roster.

hey Semp

yeah, we got very lucky there, but you weren't w/o your own breaks in teh series.

Cork,

I'm talking about salry-wise. Cueto isn't a top notch SP. That's all. I would say he's not in the very top of the SPs. He's good, but he's not Verlander or as good as Lohse or Dickey or Melen or Beachy.

In terms of ratings, Cuetro is around 50 over all. He's good, but not top notch.

Joe i'm talking overall as well. Those are based on your ratings. I'm basing it on a 10 year sim with settings set equivalent to those this online version uses. In those seasons I put all teams in the same park to get a better sample. Not only was Cueto the best value based on price but he WAS one of the tops in the game, better than 2 of those guys you mentioned above (Lohse&Dickey). He had the 6th best ERA overall, behind only Medlen, Kershaw, Beachy, Gonzalez, and Verlander. Cueto's ERA was 3.84 in those 10 seasons compared to 4.24 for Lohse and 4.43 for Dickey. Granted it's not a perfect system as its hard to account for level of opponent and team defense, but with the identical parks I feel its a pretty good indication.

For what it's worth in NLD 32 he pitched 302 innings and was tied for 3rd in wins and top 10 in SP ERA (3.87) in a ballpark whose BPHR rating was 16,19.

In my opinion, sims are a good way of predicting success in a league like this. Joe's ratings haven't been terribly accurate historically (if I had the time and the data, I'd do an analysis and post it here). They sure are fun to read though!