Semper - should you reply, or should I? Why isn't he answering me?
I've said a few times on the 200x discussion boards that I always try to assess how my team matches up against divisional opponents. I often make lots of moves after the draft.
I'd really love to have had Melky on my team. I love the high batting average. I just felt that I couldn't justify having such an L balanced hitter on my team when there are so few lefty starting pitchers that I might face. (Having said that, I see Clayton Richard is getting a start vs the Goldeyes tonight). If my team was that L balanced hitting-wise, I feared that I wouldn't get to use the full value of Melky often enough to justify his salary. So I downsized at LF $ wise. I thought that there might be some scope for a cheap speedy guy like Rajai Davis, to go with speedy Dyson in CF. Would like to see if they can take a lot of bases, with some arms to run on in the division. I initially liked David Murphy in LF, and considered Carpenter instead of Frandsen at 3b, but decided that I might be better off with RHB with high batting averages. So I kept Frandsen (who is still darn good against RHB, with a very high batting average), and upgraded from Laird to Ruiz at catcher. Overall, the RHP in our division might be slightly L balanced overall (net). And my ballpark has a slight singles bonus to RHB.
I went through a similar thought process for Gonzalez. Would love to have him on my team, with a low hits to innings ratio. I would like the SP* like I've said. Trouble is, only one team is roughly E balanced by my calcs, one is somewhat L balanced, and the other is very L balanced. Just no bang for the buck for the lefty, by my calcs. Again,I downgraded the $ at SP, in the end settling on Tillman, while also exchanging Feliz for Green (no teams in division with 5 or more RHB vs RHP).
With the extra dollars, I also decided to take a gamble on Votto (from an injury perspective).
My overall goal is to have a team that outhits the opposition, by singles, doubles and triples, but not in homeruns. We'll see if it works, both in execution and in theory. If the Goldeyes actually can outhit their opponents, will it achieve a positive run differential? Will they be able to do it?
I have injury issues with Ruiz and Votto. That will likely play a big factor in whether the strategy works or not. The injury luck factor, which I benefited from last season.
Anyway, I like the team, and it will be fun to play out!!
Semper
edit-gbrookes*