How not to win at Progessive

Here is my latest failure in Progressive. This team did not travel well for one thing. I did have some turnover which cost me, but I had to try something as the guys I replaced were not cutting it. I thought my LH pitching would do a lot better than it did. And my LH bats weren't that great either. Lots of problems I guess. For the sake of myself and any other "Progressive" losers, any constructive criticism would be appreciated. Thanks!

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/league/426777

I wouldn't categorize this as a Progressive thing, but Wade Davis at R1/C2 shouldn't have been set as middleman. He was used a lot in that role which wasted his effectiveness and exposed your cheaper RPs to late inning and save situations (where Wade should of pitched). The result was 34 blown saves.

I believe your team had trouble due to the lack of Lefty power bats in your lineup - Especially in a division with so many RH SP's. I also find that It's better to go with RH Reverses as starters, with 1 RH killer with low or no BP HRs vs LHH and maybe a cheap Tough LH SP for lefty parks only. Quintana is perfect for Prog and the league because he doesn't give up hRs. Also be sure to have at least 1 or 2 LH Reverse hitters for facing tough lefties. McCann, Hamilton ar good ones for your Park.

Good SP's for Prog - Hughes, Greinke, Quintana and Bumgarner. And make your 5th starter a A RHP tough on righties and low or no BP HRS vs the leftside.

I wouldn't categorize this as a Progressive thing, but Wade Davis at R1/C2 shouldn't have been set as middleman. He was used a lot in that role which wasted his effectiveness and exposed your cheaper RPs to late inning and save situations (where Wade should of pitched). The result was 34 blown saves.

You're absolutely right on this. I can see it now.

I believe your team had trouble due to the lack of Lefty power bats in your lineup - Especially in a division with so many RH SP's. I also find that It's better to go with RH Reverses as starters, with 1 RH killer with low or no BP HRs vs LHH and maybe a cheap Tough LH SP for lefty parks only. Quintana is perfect for Prog and the league because he doesn't give up hRs. Also be sure to have at least 1 or 2 LH Reverse hitters for facing tough lefties. McCann, Hamilton ar good ones for your Park.

Good SP's for Prog - Hughes, Greinke, Quintana and Bumgarner. And make your 5th starter a A RHP tough on righties and low or no BP HRS vs the leftside.

Lack of LH power was definitely a problem. I thought Quintana would do better actually. Maybe some of the lineups he faced were set up well for reverse lefties. I'll have to go back and check.

Krazykat,

your roster is now at 74M, but you were playing over .500 a few games before mid-season. Who knows, with your orignial roster, where you would have ended up.

Biggest problem to me is that you started the season with 3 *SP (2 lefties and 1 righty) and you alternated between Gio Gonzalez and Liriano for the 4th spot---a spending of nearly 6M for a half the value----this waste cost you. And Lester was perhaps not the best choice because he allows more homeruns BP vs lh than vs rh. Gonzalez has the card I'm looking for in Progressive (more bp hr vs rh than vs lh), but you were not lucky with him (8 HR out of 15 trys....when you should be expecting around 35%-40%).

Scumby is right in pointing out Davis, but I don't think it's because he was used as a middle relief---the problem for me is that you should have followed Davis with a lefty closer---to get your opponents caught off guard with the lefty/right change.

Offensively, if I had to single out one player that was a very bad fit to your team, I would single out J.D Martinez. A righty with power---not the best fit for Progressive (he hit only 1 BP out of 5). You played him in the field because you had Duda as dh (Martinez only turned 11 outs out of 26 opportunities) and you had him at the very worst lineup spot he could be: 5th hitter. Players hitting in the 5th spot are likely to have more clutch situations than any other hitter. Problem is: Martinez has one of the worst clutch rating: -14. As a result: he failed in 5 clutch situations----in only a third of season---for a projected 14 missed opportunities in clutch situations---which would have been a personal record had I witnessed this. How many wins Martinez cost you? Probably enough so that you had enough of him and fired him after only 57 games, and then the slippery rope of reduced roster value began...

Thanks Marc. I hope others who read this can learn from my mistakes and the analysis above also.

Here's a slightly more successful Progressive team:

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/sim/1396927

I scored a lot more than I gave up, but lost a LOT of 1 run games, and finished at .500. Duda was a gigantic disappointment for both our teams. I got very solid performances out of pretty much all of my lefty pitchers. My biggest problem was Wieters on the DL pretty much 1/2 the season and pretty unlucky rolling on both the hitters and the pitchers side. Why did you drop Kiermaeier? I thought he was a pretty solid Progressive guy.

I scored a lot more than I gave up, but lost a LOT of 1 run games, and finished at .500. Duda was a gigantic disappointment for both our teams. I got very solid performances out of pretty much all of my lefty pitchers. My biggest problem was Wieters on the DL pretty much 1/2 the season and pretty unlucky rolling on both the hitters and the pitchers side. Why did you drop Kiermaeier? I thought he was a pretty solid Progressive guy.

I'm a fan of Kiermaier as well: excellent d in Rf an Cf, solid left-handed power against righties, and a little bit of speed. I think Duda is better for Camden or one of the other hitter's parks, as he relies heavily on ball-park hrs...and 1-12 isn't often high enough.

I'm also a bit puzzled by your 1-run games comment. Do you think when teams win 1-run games, it isn't a mark of how good they are? Or, inversely, when they lose 1-run games, do you think it isn't a mark of their holes or weaknesses? I've always found that many good teams I've observed--and many I've owned--were good at the one-run games, too. And many losing teams couldn't win those one-run games.

This team was at Petco (close but not quite Progressive) and won a title, if it helps:

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/1399446