What is wrong with this team?

I present you, in a span of four years, the following:

Face to Face
Something Else
Village Green
Arthur

... as good a streak as any modern songwriter has EVER had (except Elvis Costello 1977-82, and Joni Mitchell for the whole of the 70s, and Dylan at various times ... and yes, I KNOW -- Lennon/McCartney and Jaggar/Richards ... but they were both teams of TWO guys (ignore the usually mediocre Dave Davies) -- alright, that's a lot -- I guess I'm just trying to say how under-rated and forgotten Ray has become, given those four albums' brilliance)

Ray needs to work on his locker room speeches. He can't get those Hillbillies to hit their way out of a paper bag.

I present you, in a span of four years, the following:

Face to Face
Something Else
Village Green
Arthur

... as good a streak as any modern songwriter has EVER had (except Elvis Costello 1977-82, and Joni Mitchell for the whole of the 70s, and Dylan at various times ... and yes, I KNOW -- Lennon/McCartney and Jaggar/Richards ... but they were both teams of TWO guys (ignore the usually mediocre Dave Davies) -- alright, that's a lot -- I guess I'm just trying to say how under-rated and forgotten Ray has become, given those four albums' brilliance)

You're right, he does seem under-rated, but at the same time I think most real music lovers KNOW! He's certainly not under-rated in my circle.

I should add Strummer/Jones 77-82, though yes they padded things on Sandinista -- but it had THIRTY-SIX SONGS a year after the amazing NINETEEN-SONG London Calling (unlike the work of Elvis C. and the others, though, those albums included covers (OK yes, the incomparable Get Happy!! had two))

note that those I mention actually bothered to write melodies and chord structures, as opposed to so many of our modern celebrated songwriters

and get off my yard!

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edit: and David Byrne 77-80, the Picasso of songwriters (as opposed to Renoir etc.) -- our cubist

I'll also add that, while not on the level of those great classics, "Other People's Lives" and "Working Man's Cafe" are two of the best albums of the last 10 years.

I would make a few observations:

(1) You have a lefty starting rotation oriented towards getting lefties out, but you have a park which gives up right- handed power;
(2) You have a cheap starting rotation (21.5 million is also at the extreme low-end of overall spending on pitching--somewhere around 28 being around what a lot of successful teams spend, though there are many ways to build a successful team) but did not balance that with a strong bullpen or a good defensive team;
(3) You have a low batting average team which is not helped by the fact that your home field has almost no ballpark singles (which occurs 5 out of 108 times). In fact, your power team has been better on the road. Your on-base is not terrible (you have low BA, high on-base guys like Encarnacion and Norris, though you don't have elite on-base guys and you also have bad on-base guys like Rodriguez and Mercer)but the team batting average is too low, I think. Your team has a lot of power but given your poor pitching staff you need to score 5 runs a game and even with a lot of power you will have trouble doing that with a low BA/low to average OB team. And how do you score runs in a pitcher's park ( though actually your team seems to be more helped by BP singles than it loses by the loss of BP hrs--of course some parks take away both, but most teams will opt to for one or the other)

In my opinion, and I have not played too many seasons so my opinion is not close to being expert, your team is struggling because of the above-referenced weaknesses not because of a small sample size.

Freeman, I would agree with the $28 being a good bench mark for pitching, if this were an $80 league.

Oops! Yep, missed that...I am thinking the team I am putting together in the tour 60 million event is looking a lot like your team! I guess my main observation/guess would be simply be that in a 60 million league it would be really tough to put together a top offensive team because you can't afford the really high-end offensive guys. And if you went with top pitchers you would have a terrible offense. Therefore, a super-reliever strategy and/or good defense at SS/2B/CF become necessary to keep runs allowed down if you're going with a power team in a power ball-park strategy. But, yeah, putting together a 60 million team is tough...

I usually don't do to well at $60, but I guess I'm a glutton for punishment.

I present you, in a span of four years, the following:

Face to Face
Something Else
Village Green
Arthur

... as good a streak as any modern songwriter has EVER had (except Elvis Costello 1977-82, and Joni Mitchell for the whole of the 70s, and Dylan at various times ... and yes, I KNOW -- Lennon/McCartney and Jaggar/Richards ... but they were both teams of TWO guys (ignore the usually mediocre Dave Davies) -- alright, that's a lot -- I guess I'm just trying to say how under-rated and forgotten Ray has become, given those four albums' brilliance)

Interesting analysis. Other great four year spans were:

1. Van Morrison (68-72)--Astral Weeks, Moondance, His Band and the Street Choir, Tupelo Honey, St. Dominic's Preview
2. David Bowie (73-77): Diamond Dogs, Young Americans, Station to Station, Low, "Heroes"
3. R.E.M. (83-87): Murmur, Reckoning, Fables of the Reconstruction, Life's Rich Pageant, Document
4. U2 (83-87) War, The Unforgettable Fire, Under the Blood Red Sky, The Joshua Tree
5. Radiohead (97-01): OK Computer, Kid A, Amnesiac
6. Guns & Roses (87-91): Appetite for Destruction, G'N'R Lies, Use Your Illusions I, Use Your Illusions II
7. Metallica (83-86): Kill Em All, Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets
8. The Cure (85-89: The Head on the Door; Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me; Disintegration
9. The Killers (04-08): Hot Fuss, Sam's Town, Day & Age
10: Public Enemy (88-91): It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, Fear of a Black Planet, Apocalypse 91... The Enemy Strikes Black


P.s. There have been some excellent songwriters in the last 25 years. Chief among them have been Aimee Mann, Neil Finn, Win Butler of Arcade Fire, Jack White, Lorde, Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys, Lana Del Rey, and Tim Rice-Oxley of Keane. So, music is doing OK.