Ahh-ooga; Help this god awful team

Please remind me how long the 5% penalty holds in a 5/10/20 league. I do believe my team may be a complete piece of garbage and it may be time to make some balancing changes.

I think this is how to post the link;

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/1121467

feel free to mock and suggest. Granted, it's waaay early and my team is hitting poorly, but this pitching staff is truly awful.


(Ps, if that link doesn't work here's my team; forbes '09- crap ton of small parks; including 3/4 in my division)
Breshnaham
Crawford 4.88- 1b
Collins-7m- 2b
Wagner- 7.9 SS
Frisch- 6.8 3b
Stenzel- LF
Lofton-Cf
Cobb-9.3 Rf

Then my luscious pitching staff;
Nuxall
Zuber
Vande Meer
Bordi
Cerruttii
Bagby 1.43

Pen
Radatz
Crandall 1.31
Yerkes .66

At the beginning of Dec. I started two teams. After 9 games, one was 1-8 and one was 2-7. Today both are well over .500, one tied for first and one 4 games up. That doesn't always happen. Some teams start bad and stay bad. But I haven't seen many teams improved much by wholesale changes so early in the season.
I assume you had good reasons for putting together the team you did, and 6 games shouldn't be enough to convince you that you were wrong.

There's a lot to like there. Some suggestions that are easier done than said.

Radatz will produce very well But in a non dh league with a weak staff you're better served with two balanced rps at around 2m each that should give you much more quantity and almost same quality as Radatz ...I'm in your league and those type of rps are available

Bresnahan will produce plenty but is a big injury risk and you've got two guys Collins and Wagner that you'll already live and die with their health because they get injured on 3...and two others that can go down for 15 as well...all good choices though...But here C is a good spot to save $$$ to help that staff....I'd swap down to Gibson at 2.56 Good D, good speed for a C and that helps more than most think, and has a little extra base hit pop. Same injury risk but 4m less.

First thing to do with the saved $$$ is swap Frisch for his most expensive bulletproof and better balanced card.

Next and last thing to do is turn that 5 man into a *4 man rotation...Work backwards, meaning find a cheap .50 sp that will never pitch (Medich) and then calculate the $$$ left to fill the next 4 spots starting at who you think is the best cheapest value...in other leagues that might be *Cox or *Caldwell but here they're gone....remember its a non dh league and you'll have a deeper pen now so you can select these starters knowing you can get them out quickly if need be...here imo Billingham at 1.77 should be decent...his bp hrs are scary but tons of low hr parks here including yours help him a lot....Harris at 2.36 is a fav of mine and should work well here too...now you got a nice amount of $$$ left for your top two sps at about 4m each? something like that...

OK...I'm going to give an opposite opinion to Nev on one point. My advice is to definitely KEEP the Frisch you have.
A cursory look at your opposition shows me a disproportionate number of LHSP both in your division and league overall. (it looks like you will see about 40-45% LHP!). at that proportion, the 4L Frisch should hold up fine, and although 3b defense is not a huge concern to most, at 2e6 Frankie can't be beat. Plus he is a great 2b backup to injury prone Collins.

Your team speed is phenomenal, but I will agree the pitching staff needs work. As it stands, Radatz will get saves if your team ever gets a late lead, but he will get pulled for a pinch hitter too often when he gets in, and he will not get the innings you might wish for in a non DH league. He needs some help.

I would agree with Nev that 6 cruddy non*SP is a bad option.
you have $19.94 tied up in pitching outside of Radatz. if you trade them all in you only lose $0.7 now.

one option would be to dump one of the 6 for RP help and go with a 5 man rotation.
another might be to keep the 3-4 you like best, choose 1-2 *SP and use a mixed rotation.

If you choose to use *SP - I don't know if these *SP guys are available, but I have seen them all used effectively in the right setting, so an example of possible choices of *SP might be - Orval Grove 1.38, Mike Scott 2.7, Dan Petry 2.26, Scott Sanderson 2.69, Geoff Zahn 2.36, Dizzy Trout 2.39, Jack Coombs 1.97, Mickey Harris 2.36, Brickyard Kennedy 2.45.

Make a complete plan that makes sense to you before starting to make any moves. Drops and then double drops will kill your chances.

Personally I like to spend a higher % on pitching than you have, but you do have some options to consider.

good luck

Fluffyman!!!!!!!!!!!

You are back! Great to see you again.

Obviously your problem is not using Riggs in LF.

I don't have an issue with cheap 5 man staffs, but some of the best guys to have in the under 2.5m range are Hendrix, Donald, Moret. Nuxhall and Zuber are fine too. This type of team works best with Dale Murray as the bullpen, but Radatz isn't the worst idea. Many of the other suggestions are fine too.

From the artist formerly known as Petrosian.

The 5% drop penalty doesn't kick in until game 42, so you still have some time to make changes relatively cheaply.

I agree that it's way too soon to draw any conclusions about the quality of your team. However, there's no need to carry six SP's, and I think you can reallocate a portion of your funds from the lineup to upgrade starting pitching.

I'm fine with keeping Frisch, given that half the pitchers in your division are lefties. Crawford, however, isn't the best allocation of resources at 1B. In effect, you're paying for good CF defense from Crawford, but getting lousy defense at 1B, and spending nearly $5M for a #8 hitter. Also, the expensive Lofton at $80M could probably be swapped out for a good 1B in the $6M range (Frank Chance, Bill Terry), move Crawford back to CF, and put the balance back into pitching. Alternatively, you could keep Lofton, and drop Crawford for a cheap 1B in the 3-4M range.

Downgrading Bresnahan to free up funds is also a solid option, given that you already have 2 other expensive and injury-prone stars.

A few thoughts

Parts of the team looks pretty good to me - I like the offense with Cobb, Wagner, Collins, Frisch, and Lofton, in particular.

A lot of your relief innings (outside of Radatz) have been at F0 and they are getting clobbered - both Crandall and Yerkes have worked in each of the last 5 games. Yerkes was F0 all the way through in games 4, 5, and 6 and Crandall was F0 in games 5 and 6. Nuxhall was F0 in his one relief appearance. Bagby has pitched twice in relief, but HAL has used F0 Yerkes and F0 Crandall rather than Bagby in games 5 and 6 - I suspect you have Bagby slated to start?? That will keep HAL from using him in relief as much. I would pick 5 guys to start and use the other in relief (or swap him out for a pure RP)

Being a non-DH league I think HAL makes decisions to pinch hit without considering who in the bullpen is rested to pitch. So your relatively pitiful pinch hitters are being used a lot (15 PH ABs in 6 games) and an F0 pitcher is pulled into the game. Appears HAL will not let even Crandall at 8NR hit for himself.

If you have the starters on quick hook or if they are only S5 or S6 starters (which yours are) I think you will need a deeper bullpen. Radatz just won't get the innings here that he would get in a DH league. Nev's point on adding more relievers at middle value would help. Maybe take your starters off quick hook (if they are). No matter how weak the pitchers may be - that F0 will kill you if it keeps appearing.

Also you are at 137 hitters rolls and 108 pitchers rolls when on defense - not good - part of that may be due to the F0 status at times or just chance?

What great responses. I mean really great, thanks tons.

1st off- Jlt53- your advice is way sound and you saved me from pulling a Charley O. and making wholesale changes.... and I should probably listen to your advice and enjoy the stats and the info of how these guys play, but I can't, this staff must go.

2nd- Nev- great points about the impact of no Dh on relief pitching usage- I soo did not consider that when forming this team think the fact that I didn't consider. The catcher drop s also a good idea, I have loved Gibson, I may need to love him now.

3rd off- Hakra, I agree with your assessment of Frisch in this situation

4th off; Petrosian!!! great to see you again. And I wholeheartedly agree; if Rigs was on this team there would be no issue to discuss. That card was like a magic magnet for me for years.

5th off- dukie98 the 1b/CF l/r conundrum that bedeviled my team building shows up exactly where you focus. I couldn't decide, so I went with both.... Eh

6th off- Boyer14- Great analysis of not only the impact of my relief situation, but also my poor pinch hitters. Sharp eye. PS- what does F0 mean?

As to what I'm going to do..... it's a matter of how much. Outside of Frisch/Collins I could wrecking ball this whole team. great news is I have a crap ton of options. And ideas,

thanks y'all

I have another thought for you. Wholly agree that your pitching needs help. Upgrade starting pitching and expand bullpen. While your hitting is excellent, it's too expensive for an $80M league and too injury prone.

I would suggest some players that hit way above their salary such as Steve Sax at 2B to replace Collins, Riggs Stephenson's $4.xM card to replace Stenzel, and possibly Red Parnell or Earl Combs in center. Also get a 1B such as Joe Kelley's $4.xM card. Money saved can upgrade your pitching. I would look for non * starters in the $2.5M range - Freddie Fitzsimmons, Bump Hadley etc etc

I'd keep Crandall. Love him in that salary cap as a lower priced reliever. I see Dick Selma is available

PS- what does F0 mean?

F0 means the pitcher is fully fatigued and is likely to get hit hard.

Somewhere buried in the rules it states: "The pitcher's fatigue level can be from F0 to F9. F9 means that he is operating on all cylinders, whereas F0 indicates that he has nothing left in the tank. Normally pitchers start their appearance as F9 and maintain that level until they approach or exceed their Suggested Pitch Count. The pitcher's performance will drop as his fatigue level drops from F9 to F0."

HAL does not like to use relief pitchers more than 2 straight games. He will bring them in a third straight game if no other RP is available. Beyond 3 straight they will almost always be at F0 - the most fatigued they can be - and they often times do not do well at F0.