Champs: Who is your highest priced offensive player?

At the end of the year I signed up for a bunch of different teams. Thought I would see how they are doing with reference to J-Pav's thesis about avoiding expensive players, with a short discussion about the strategies I was using. With regard to expensive players, I thought maybe that looking at the amount of money spent on the top 3 playerss was perhaps more illuminating than just looking at the most expensive player.

Here are the 7 teams:

http://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1416165

This team is 70-56. Basically, designed to take advantage of Progressive with some lefty power bats and some good lefties. Two expensive relievers. A line-up with a top three costing $15-16 million. This team most complies with J-Pav's dictum.

http://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1416624

This team is 62-43. Designed to take advantage of Petco with lefty power bats and good left-handed pitching. Went with three expensive relievers. Top three position players cost $18 million.

http://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1416919

This team is 57-48. Thought I could go with cheap starters that did not give up homeruns combined with expensive relievers...has not really worked. Too many baserunners for my cheap guys to thrive. Record seems lucky with a -17 run differential. Top 3 position players cost 25 million. I have had to endlessly tinker with it.

http://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1417237


This team is 44-40. Went with cheap pitchers with good WHIP combined with two good R2s. Originally I had three very expensive RPs but Hal was not using Benoit. Offensively, I went with high BA/OBP. My top three players cost 31 million

http://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1417872

This team is 34-29. It's Great American and I went with a big 2 starter and three cheap guys with low HR, high WHIP. Offensively, I went with 1s at short and 2b and power bats. The team ERA is good, run differential is good but perhaps only having 1 good reliever is hurting the team. Top 3=22 million.

http://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1417960

This team is 17-25. Disaster. Went with cheap starters again. Main problem I think is not getting enough power for Great American. Top 3=23 million.

http://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1418266

This team is 26-16. Went with strong pitching in AT&T, high BA with speed line- up, 6 lefties to take advantage of BP singles to lefties. Made sure to get some power--McCutcheon and Ortiz. Getting lucky with Ortiz having a monster start. Top 3=27 million.

Obviously, there are a lot of factors involved in whether a team does well or not, but I think the results so far with the above teams indicates that going too expensive in the top few offensive players can be problematic.

Great post Freeman!!!

Agreed!

It appears that winning that battle for the middle is pretty important this card set. It's okay if you need to expand the edges out of necessity, but paying two or three times the salary without getting two or three times the performance doesn't strike me as "value added".

We play in several leagues together and I haven't won. I've also been in a couple of autoleagues. Actually, I think you may have been in all my leagues this year. I haven't had a hitter above 9.05(Martinez/Rizzo.), Posey 8.77, Cano 8.28 the most. But I did draft Stanton once and didn't get him. I like Kemp so much better for half the price and get almost better numbers with Kemp. I think R. Martinez is a poor man's V. Martinez. for 3M less. But again, I haven't won a title yet with set.

The player I have gotten incredibly good production from is Carlos Santana. Low avg, but great OPS and run production at 6.81. I a m surprised more players haven't taken him in hitters parks. I try to slot him between 2 RH power hitters. He is a M cheaper than V. Martinez and as a switch hitter, kills the leftside when the RP's come in.

Here are my cheap ( or relatively cheap ) stars and their seasons :

Leonys Martin (3.19) 77 runs, 6 hr, 28 rbi , .308. .349 .399, 24 steals 9 st, 9 errors (Rogers)
Jorge Soler(6.95) 106 runs, 44 hr, 117 rbi , .298 .350 .616 (Rogers)
Todd Frazier (5.63)66 runs 25 hr, 84 rbi .266 .332 .427 (Rogers)
Encarnacion (5.02) 79 run 33 hr 83 rbi .252 .332 .524 (Rogers)
Walters (2.32) 312 ab 45 run 35 hr 78 RBI .221 .270 .593 (Citizens Babk)
Wong (1.65) 60 run 14 hr 70 RBI .251 .289 .374 30 st 14cs 15 err (AT&T)
Rutledge (1.58) 298 ab 39 run 6 hr 53 rbi .288 .351 .465 8 err (Fenway)
Cuddyer (5.10) 79 run 36 hr 84 rbi .299 .346 .572 (AT&T)
Soler 90 run 38 hr 113 rbi .290 .358 .582 (Coors)
Wong 42 run 18 hr 61 rbi .221 .263 .365 15 st 5 cs (Coors)
S Rodriguez (2.38) 72 run 37 hr 88 rbi .179 .227 .443 (Miller)
Kemp (5.56) 83 run 37 hr 73 rbi .259 .311 .503 (Miller)
Walker (5.46) 76 run 31 hr 85 rbi .270 .330 .475 Miller)
Freiman (.75) 212 ab 31 run 16 hr 53 rbi .217 .243 .519 (Miller)
N. Cruz (5.59) 97 run 47 hr 104 rbi .264 333 .545(Miller)
Ozuna (6.34) 85 run 39 hr 99 rbi .265. .309 .505 (Miller)
Kemp 73 run 27 hr 91 rbi .287 .336 .491 (Target)
Laroche (5.29) (141 games) 71 run 33 hr 62 rbi .265 .351 .532 (Progressive )
Duda (5.19) (141 games) 75 run 33 hr 66 rbi .258 .375 .565 (Progressive)
Eaton (4.46) (120 games) 72 run 3 hr 43 rbi .308 .367 .443 (Petco)
Walker (120 games) 54 run 21 hr 63 rbi .251 .335 .446 (Petco)
Soler (120 games) 70 run 36 hr 73 rbi .262 .333 .578 (Miller)
Duda (120 games) 59 run 27 hr 55 rbi .258 .321 .524 (Miller)
Walker (120 games) 58 run 20 hr 59 rbi .245 .314 .435 (Miller)
Ortiz (6.34) (57 games ) 40 run 23 hr 60 rbi .323 .382 .714 (At&T)

Nice post Freeman...some cool stats to see

Just wish I had better ones to post!

I'm very new to this, but tried a team with Trout and Brantley. Both were great, Trout near MBP, but didn't make the playoffs. Left too many other holes, such as poor bullpen and too many low .200s hitters. Here is the team: http://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1415334

I'm very new to this, but tried a team with Trout and Brantley. Both were great, Trout near MBP, but didn't make the playoffs. Left too many other holes, such as poor bullpen and too many low .200s hitters. Here is the team: http://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1415334

Yes, your team is basically what they are talking about. The Studs and Duds strategy had very litthe success this past year. Someone mentioned that the $9M+ guys in general didnt play up to their lofty salaries. Too much wasted salary dollars tied up with those guys.

I'm very new to this, but tried a team with Trout and Brantley. Both were great, Trout near MBP, but didn't make the playoffs. Left too many other holes, such as poor bullpen and too many low .200s hitters. Here is the team: http://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1415334

Yes, your team is basically what they are talking about. The Studs and Duds strategy had very litthe success this past year. Someone mentioned that the $9M+ guys in general didnt play up to their lofty salaries. Too much wasted salary dollars tied up with those guys.

The studs were studs. But there were too many duds.