Why is this team so bad?

Cheap starting which means the bullpen is going to log some innings. Yet you equip Hal with 3 short inning closers and a lefty specialist. So I would expect Hal to be hampered when making decisions, especially in games where starter made an early exit. Those bad decisions can keep you from winning close games or hold opponents to give yo opportunity to come from behind. The cheap starters scuffle, leave the game early and behind and you do not have the depth to manage a comeback.

Not impressed by the offense but what really jumps at me are the number of high injury players you had. That means you need to spend money on a bench which usually is bad formula at 80 mil.

On the BA remember it is not just the ballpark that holds them down. They are also facing better quality pitching than real life. There are not going to be many to pad the stats against. And you want to be careful about relying on cards that had limited ABs or IPs. Strat on cards based on less than ample sample size usually factors in surrounding seasons. So that .340 for Turner for example might not be a .340 card as it may be adjusted down a bit off his previous much lesser seasons.

The team actually went on a bit of a run. It was 45-67 at one point and then went 25-12 before losing the past 4 games. I could see the argument about a thin bullpen but 500 innings at about 2.50 era seems pretty good (and Casilla is a r2 and pitched a lot). Guys like Cole and Shield started to come back toward the mean after horrible starts. I don't think the pitching numbers are terrible--I spent 26.5 on pitching , leaving me with 53.5 to spend on hitting. I just did not have a good offense. Interesting info about Strat discounting players with small samples sizes. I have not had success with Turner. Brandon Phillips had as much production. I seem to have more success offensively in pitcher's parks with teams built on speed. Like this one. http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/1404375

OK, Another team with anemic offense.

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/real/1414590

Funny, the OPS of my 9 starters is better than the majority of the competition. I know my ballpark effects the offense, Busch being a very unfavorable homerun park, but right now I think bad luck plays a huge role.

I have two 10mil + players that are there mostly for their bat (Pujols, McGwire) that were 1100+ OPS guys in their respective seasons - and they are averaging about a 735 OPS between them.

I'm hoping it's bad luck with a limited sample size.

I think the amount of high injury players(Which has already been mentioned) is a very valid point. Also, in a pitcher's park, you want to have as many high OBP hitters as you can afford, followed by high SLG. hitters following those high OB hitters. But the SLG should come from a combination of high doubles, triples and natural HRs(Non * ballpark HRS).

Then you have about 13M tied up in your bullpen and not as much for your SP's, who pitch more innings than your RP's do. Your RP's would be better suited for hitters Parks(Like Coors or any of the Power Parks.) Your Park takes away a lot of the BP HRs from your opposition, but it also hinder your own hitter as well. So decent SP's with low whip and ERA, a great closer and setup, with decent RP's in the 2.00M to around .90M ca fill in the middle and specials on each side.

This set is loaded with lots of very good, inexpensive RP's. Some speed on the basepaths (Both stealing and running) is helpful as well as decent fielding with low e ratings - Especially up the middle. Also, remember - The greatest bullpen around has less value if you seldom have a lead. I believe it is better to go with good hitting and OBP in a Pitchers Park while having SP's that can keep you in the game and hitters that can get you a lead in a Pitcher's Park. With a lead, decent middle RP's, a very good setup man(Like Davis) and a great closer(Kimbrel, Holland, Chapman, Papelbon etc.), and a couple of hard L and R specialists should be able to hold a lead more often than not.

What you don't need to spend high on are high * HR's, which will mostly be outs. Low whip and good ERA SP's with *HRs will do better in your park as well. I hope that's somewhat helpful.

Thanks for the advice. I'll preface this by stating it's a franchise league, so I'm limited by my teams talent pool (It's a Postt WW2 and expansion franchise league).

In regards to the starting pitching vs. relievers, I'll begin by saying Broglio/Schmidt are two starters fulfilling one rotation spot. They require 4 days rest, and I do not have another pitcher with a * rating unless I drop to a pitcher in the 4 mil range, which I did originally. I decided the best use of my limited choices for SP's was to use a combo non asterisked pair of starters, and use one in a relief role when they are not starting.

So really, I've got a 5 mil closer, 3 mil setup man, and a couple of 1-2 mil other RP's.

As far as injuries go - they have not really been a factor, all but 3 of my starters have a green "1" or better. The fact I have a pretty healthy starting 9 had me spend less on backups.

My defense is actually very good - All "1"'s but the 2 corner outfield spots and 2B, and these are "2"'s. Error ratings are pretty good, though I've been snake bit a little, with 2B and SS on pace to get over double the errors their cards say they should.

As far as the lineup goes, there were not a lot of better choices. Pujols, in addition to being a top defender, has a better OBP than any other 1B other than Mcgwire. I could platoon a few players vs. Herr at 2B, but there is not much gain one way or another. I could look at Clark at 1B instead of Pujols, but they are pretty similar hitters and Clark is a butcher on defense. Hernandez has less pop AND less OBP. About the only real choices to me were Renteria for Ozzie - save a little bit, get better offense but a "2" on defense, but 14 mil total seems way to pricey for a platoon. I could do Joe Torre for Rolen, but I'd get 10 points of OBP and lose 45 points of slugging, and defense would take a big hit.

If I could have figured a way to take Enos Slaughter in left instead of Brock I might have - But I'd have to come up with 2.5 Mil, would have gained 150 points of OPS, and picked up a bit better defense at the cost of a stealing threat. Not a bad move, but I'd have to come up with a way to make it happen.

I'd loved to have had 4 solid * pitchers as my starters - but Haddix was picked up by the Pirates, which voided my ability to get him. And Broglio and Schmidt might be better, though there is a little more money tied up in the two of them.

Biggest error is I probably should have gone with a bit more hitter friendly park. Seems like most of the competition uses launching pad parks, so that might be a better strategy. As far as stealing more goes - when you have lineups of the caliber there are in a 120 mil league, losing a runner on the basepaths is far more costly than when dealing with more of a "normal" lineup.

I took Busch Stadium '78 in the thought I was going with traditional cardinals defense speed and pitching strategy - then realized there were not enough top end pitchers as starters to make this happen. Give me a Chris Carpenter '05 and a Wainwright '14 and I'd be fine