AJ Pollock, RBI King

Check out AJ in this league:

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/1397269

He's 4th in RBI with 90 through game 141 -- BUT in only 441 AB+W, much fewer than the other leaders (Cruz leads with 109 in 560 AB+W, a rate of roughly 86 at AJ's AB+W total).

This will slow down, though. I'm going to sit him the last 15 games of the season (along with a bunch of other guys), since I've pretty much secured first seed for the post-season. Unfortunately, I won't be able to contribute to the normalization argument, since the last 15 games will be solely devoted to reducing the chances of anybody getting injured. I'll also, e.g., set Kershaw at quick hook and 6 innings max, since he had fewer than 200 IP and could get a 15-game injury. Etc. etc. So the last 15 games won't be pretty. It WILL be fun watching E-rated stealers on "steal more" and "very aggressive" ... (more outs means fewer PA means fewer injuries for the team). Note that nobody in my division is in the wild card race, so this will not hurt anybody in the other divisions.

FTR, AJ starts every day when he's not injured, and is pulled for sub with lead. He's been injured 9 times for a total of 25 games (plus, of course, 9 rest-of-games).

-------

EDIT -- whoops! spelled Pollock wrong.

At 141 games completed I would play him the next three sets and hope he got hurt for 15 games--even if he got hurt in game 150 he would miss only 1 post season start with a 15 game injury---definitely sit him from game 151 on though.

Nice team by the way---.

Good point, milleram -- I'd actually been turning it over in my head whether I should make it a 12-game sitdown instead of 15, or maybe phase player sitdowns gradually into the last 15 depending on how valuable the player is. My final weird line-up will be:

Cano 2B
AJ Ellis C
L. Garcia (0.50m) 3B
M. Rojas (0.50m) SS
R. Johnson LF
Den Dekker CF
Don Kelly 1B
Ruggiano RF

I WANT Elllis to get hurt! Bullet-proof the amazing Cervelli, in a platoon vs RHP but hits LHP well too. (Ellis's OBP vs LHP, though, is .413 -- I've been leading him off!)

To avoid injuries at this point I would usually start Nava in RF since Ruggiano is inj-5 and Nava is inj-1, but my post-season competition is likely to have almost all RHP so Nava is far more valuable (they're a platoon).

Opps--I meant rest him last 4 sets--I can't add.

The reason I say this is I did the same thing with Ortiz with the 2012 team that had clinched--he pinch hit in game 160 and got hurt anyway (I don't know how to prevent a PH appearance)--luckily it was only a 4 game injury and it didn't cost him a game in the post season, but there is no way possible to get hurt if your already injured.

Yeah, it's impossible to avoid a PH appearance. I set everybody on the bench at avoid both sides and bunt more / H&R more / very aggressive bunt and H&R, set everybody in the line-up at don't pinch-hit for against both sides, don't pinch-run for, and pick the two least-valuable guys for the team strategy pinch-hitters. Also set the least valuable relievers at don't relieve till F0 (it's a no-DH league), conservative relief, but I don't know if HAL cares about that when pinch-hitting for the RP.