What are you most excited for?

I don't know if anyone will be able to beat Champ in USKL

C - Posey/d'Arnaud
1B - Colabello/Teixeira/Freeman
2B - Lemahieu
SS - Iglesias
3B - Machado/Carpenter
OF - Harper/Trout/Cargo/Upton/Zobrist

SP - Keuchel/Sale - not much
RP - Chapman/Davis

Could use SP help and top 2 starters are lefties but man, what a lineup.

And BTW, the 2nd overall pick in a league that doesn't carry prospects

Not to put a damper on things Bill, but most of those SPs are pretty hard RHs - 3R or higher. 24 or 12 team league? In 24 team it would be fine, but 12 team league I would look to make a deal for a more even SP or two or park them somewhere that masks the lopsidedness.

And I am curious to see how my HCKL team stacks up to this team in terms of salaries. I don't have the D you have there but my offense & SPs are better. See if SOM still overrating the 1s on D.

It's a 12 team league, and that's only the highlights I also have:

Mesaraco
Carlos Santanna
Elvis Andrus
Brock Holt
Michael Conforto
Span
Lagares
Fowler
Aoki
Tillman
Lyons
Cashner
Collmenter
McCullers
Wade Davis
Bastardo
Soria
Kontos
Otero

And the number 1 overall pick

I don't know if anyone will be able to beat Champ in USKL

C - Posey/d'Arnaud
1B - Colabello/Teixeira/Freeman
2B - Lemahieu
SS - Iglesias
3B - Machado/Carpenter
OF - Harper/Trout/Cargo/Upton/Zobrist

SP - Keuchel/Sale - not much
RP - Chapman/Davis

Could use SP help and top 2 starters are lefties but man, what a lineup.

And BTW, the 2nd overall pick in a league that doesn't carry prospects

Yeah that's a murder's row lineup, everyone better draft SP to keep it out of his hands, otherwise we'll all be playing for 2nd place.

Let me take a stab at this. Here's my team in the GMKL keeper league:

C - Vogt, Cervelli, Wieters
1B - C. Davis, Encarnacion
2B - Altuve
SS - Correa
3B - Turner, Franco, Wright, Blanco
LF - Gardner, Blackmon
CF - McCutchen
RF - Harper, Calhoun
DH options - Encarnacion, Choo, Braun

Rotation - Arrieta, Gray, Cole, Scherzer (yes - that's 4 of the top 10-12 starters)
Pen - W. Davis, Giles, Clippard, Warren

Park is Rodgers Center

The Daily365 game could change the way salaries are done.

I don't know if anyone will be able to beat Champ in USKL

C - Posey/d'Arnaud
1B - Colabello/Teixeira/Freeman
2B - Lemahieu
SS - Iglesias
3B - Machado/Carpenter
OF - Harper/Trout/Cargo/Upton/Zobrist

SP - Keuchel/Sale - not much
RP - Chapman/Davis

Could use SP help and top 2 starters are lefties but man, what a lineup.

And BTW, the 2nd overall pick in a league that doesn't carry prospects

The only real elite hitter cards he has though are Harper and Trout. That is a nice core but the other 1-range guys are not that special on offense. They'll have pricy cards due to the D but I would take Seager and his 4 range over Machado all day long, for example. Curious to see which has a higher salary. But he does have a top 3-4 overall card at each position plus a top 10 SP in Keuchel. Sale is not elite in this set nor is Chapman so we have some hope in that league.

HCKL I will have:
C: Vogt top 5
1B: Davis or Wallace - Wallace's hit card is top 5 for 1B, Davis overall top 8 or so
DH: Papi top 3 vs RH
2B: Kipnis best hitter 2B card vs RH
SS: Tulo, so-so here
3B: Seager - I believe will be top performing 3B card in the set, 4 range notwithstanding
OF: Brantley, Dyson/Pham, Harper. Brantley top LF, Harper top overall card in set, Dyson/Pham a little weak but overall ok.

SPs: Arrieta, MadBum, DeGrom front 3. All top 10-12 SP cards.
RPs: Givens, Uehara, J Lopez, A Wilson - Givens top 5 RP card, maybe top 3

I'm thinking a $150M roster with bench guys like Blanks, Wallace, Valencia.

To see how this keeper team which only won 52 games last year does

C Swihart 3e1
1b- Rizzo -1e9
2b Kinsler -1e14
3b Arrenado -1e18
SS Bogarets - 2e14
lf Cespedes -2e8 -5 arm
Cf Inciarte - 2e8 -1 arm
RF Calhoun - 2e4 -2 arm
DH Cruz or Morales

SP deGrom
SP Syndergaard
SP Carlos Martinez
SP Carlos Carrasco
SP Hahn
SP Tanaka



I'm betting I'll win more than 52 this year.

Bill, those guys will be demanding a ton of salary $$$. I hope you have deep pockets!! Out of curiosity, I checked the 4 Keeper Leagues we are both in, and I didn't see this killer roster. Glad I dodged these bullets. Good luck.

BTW, there is an opening in this league if you want to try and NOT dodge the bullets

Here's the roster:

Jaso,John
Navarro,Dioner
Gattis,Evan
Rivera,Rene
Teixeira,Mark
Belt,Brandon
Rosales,Adam
Cano,Robinson
Lemahieu,DJ
Escobar,Yunel
Pennington,C.
Gonzalez,Mar.
Drew,Stephen
Ramirez,Aramis
Uribe,Juan
Plouffe,Trevor
Donaldson,Josh
Gordon,Alex
Joyce,Matt
Trout,Mike
Nieuwenhuis,K.
Santana,Danny
Morgan,Nyjer
Dyson,Jarrod
Beltran,Carlos
Rios,Alex
Raburn,Ryan

Bumgarner,Mad.
Sanchez,Anibal
Iwakuma,His.
Roark,Tanner
Hendricks,Kyle
Lobstein,Kyle
Fernandez,Jose
Papelbon,Jon.
Benoit,Joaquin
Melancon,Mark
Neshek,Pat
Carlyle,Buddy

Rogers
Centre

Not sure if tchocran has started actively looking for a replacement.

See if SOM still overrating the 1s on D.

I had this discussion with a guy in one of my ATG leagues. It was kind of a chatty league, and a couple of guys made preseason predictions. I chimed in with mine (where I nailed 6 of the 8 playoff teams in the 24 team league), where I said that my team was definitely a playoff team and his was in my group of 8 "possible contenders".

His team was Piazza, Frank Thomas, Tubby Scales, Willie Wells, Pedro Guerrero, Frank Robinson, Jimmy Wynn, Jack Clark, and Albert Belle ($200 million cap) - so his defense ratings were 4(+1)e6 (T-10), 4e12, 3e27, 2e22, 4e33, 2(+1)e5, 3(-1)e6, and 3(o)e3. His SP were George Bradley, Jack Taylor, Dean Chance, and Jack Chesbro, and he had a deep bullpen.

My team was Josh Gibson, Jason Giambi, Ryne Sandberg. Barry Larkin, Scott Rolen, Stargell, DiMaggio, Reggie Jackson, an Tip O'Neill at DH. My defense ratings were 3(-3)e2 (T6), 3e10, 1e12, 1e10, 1e12, 3(-4)e6, 1(-4)e9, and 2(-4)e13. My rotation was Guy Hecker, Slim Jones, Ed Reulbach, and a bunch of matchup guys, and my bullpen was pretty poor (I ended up using Gene Garber's $3.45 million card as my closer).

He sent me the following reply to my prediction.

No question, you have put together a formidable team, and you will probably make the playoffs. But inasmuch as I have better starters (albeit by just a slight margin, but calculated in your park), much better relievers, better hitters (also calculated in your park), do you think that your better defense is enough to put you ahead of me?

We chatted back and forth, but the season is over now. His team scored 1172 runs (first in the league) while mine scored 1029 (6th). His team allowed 1020 runs (21st in the league) and mine 838 (2nd). He did make the playoffs, and was swept in the first round. I won a ring. So, yes, I think it's fairly clear that defense can make up for a lot of ills. His bullpen, with an average salary over $5 million, had 42 saves and 35 blown saves. My $3.45 million closer had 43 saves and 9 blown saves, although the rest of my pen combined for 4 saves and 17 blown saves.

See if SOM still overrating the 1s on D.

I had this discussion with a guy in one of my ATG leagues. It was kind of a chatty league, and a couple of guys made preseason predictions. I chimed in with mine (where I nailed 6 of the 8 playoff teams in the 24 team league), where I said that my team was definitely a playoff team and his was in my group of 8 "possible contenders".

His team was Piazza, Frank Thomas, Tubby Scales, Willie Wells, Pedro Guerrero, Frank Robinson, Jimmy Wynn, Jack Clark, and Albert Belle ($200 million cap) - so his defense ratings were 4(+1)e6 (T-10), 4e12, 3e27, 2e22, 4e33, 2(+1)e5, 3(-1)e6, and 3(o)e3. His SP were George Bradley, Jack Taylor, Dean Chance, and Jack Chesbro, and he had a deep bullpen.

My team was Josh Gibson, Jason Giambi, Ryne Sandberg. Barry Larkin, Scott Rolen, Stargell, DiMaggio, Reggie Jackson, an Tip O'Neill at DH. My defense ratings were 3(-3)e2 (T6), 3e10, 1e12, 1e10, 1e12, 3(-4)e6, 1(-4)e9, and 2(-4)e13. My rotation was Guy Hecker, Slim Jones, Ed Reulbach, and a bunch of matchup guys, and my bullpen was pretty poor (I ended up using Gene Garber's $3.45 million card as my closer).

He sent me the following reply to my prediction.

No question, you have put together a formidable team, and you will probably make the playoffs. But inasmuch as I have better starters (albeit by just a slight margin, but calculated in your park), much better relievers, better hitters (also calculated in your park), do you think that your better defense is enough to put you ahead of me?

We chatted back and forth, but the season is over now. His team scored 1172 runs (first in the league) while mine scored 1029 (6th). His team allowed 1020 runs (21st in the league) and mine 838 (2nd). He did make the playoffs, and was swept in the first round. I won a ring. So, yes, I think it's fairly clear that defense can make up for a lot of ills. His bullpen, with an average salary over $5 million, had 42 saves and 35 blown saves. My $3.45 million closer had 43 saves and 9 blown saves, although the rest of my pen combined for 4 saves and 17 blown saves.

The more I play this game, the more I am amazed at the impact of good defence, especially at 2b and shortstop. I have my own calculations for the effect, but the actual impact of good defence at those positions seems to exceed my own calculations.

Rburgh, I'm curious to know, in that season that you were describing, how many GB double plays your team created on defence, versus your friend's team.

I've tended to try to have good defence at 2b and SS, based on my observations. But one time - 2008 card set, for kicks, I tried to do a team that were all "1"'s in the field, except catcher where he was a "2". My goal was to maximize GB double plays as well, so I geared up the starting pitchers to have high GBA's on their cards. I also had low e-ratings for errors. I used a high singles park - Fenway. I built the team for speed, also.

Here is the team:

http://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/239002

Here is the league team fielding page:

http://365.strat-o-matic.com/league/sta ... ason/89021

The team lost the finals in 6 games. Their regular season record wasn't that awesome - won 85 games - but still a good team.

The defence experiment worked, in terms of achieving my objective. The average GB double plays were about 140 for the rest of the teams in the league, but my team induced 210 GB double plays!

I don't know why I haven't tried this again, although I think I have in a sense, on a regular basis - just not so extreme as this.

To see how this keeper team which only won 52 games last year does

C Swihart 3e1
1b- Rizzo -1e9
2b Kinsler -1e14
3b Arrenado -1e18
SS Bogarets - 2e14
lf Cespedes -2e8 -5 arm
Cf Inciarte - 2e8 -1 arm
RF Calhoun - 2e4 -2 arm
DH Cruz or Morales

SP deGrom
SP Syndergaard
SP Carlos Martinez
SP Carlos Carrasco
SP Hahn
SP Tanaka



I'm betting I'll win more than 52 this year.

Bill, those guys will be demanding a ton of salary $$$. I hope you have deep pockets!! Out of curiosity, I checked the 4 Keeper Leagues we are both in, and I didn't see this killer roster. Glad I dodged these bullets. Good luck.

BTW, there is an opening in this league if you want to try and NOT dodge the bullets

Here's the roster:

Jaso,John
Navarro,Dioner
Gattis,Evan
Rivera,Rene
Teixeira,Mark
Belt,Brandon
Rosales,Adam
Cano,Robinson
Lemahieu,DJ
Escobar,Yunel
Pennington,C.
Gonzalez,Mar.
Drew,Stephen
Ramirez,Aramis
Uribe,Juan
Plouffe,Trevor
Donaldson,Josh
Gordon,Alex
Joyce,Matt
Trout,Mike
Nieuwenhuis,K.
Santana,Danny
Morgan,Nyjer
Dyson,Jarrod
Beltran,Carlos
Rios,Alex
Raburn,Ryan

Bumgarner,Mad.
Sanchez,Anibal
Iwakuma,His.
Roark,Tanner
Hendricks,Kyle
Lobstein,Kyle
Fernandez,Jose
Papelbon,Jon.
Benoit,Joaquin
Melancon,Mark
Neshek,Pat
Carlyle,Buddy

Rogers
Centre

Not sure if tchocran has started actively looking for a replacement.

Bill, check your PM. I would love to go challenge your All-Star team!! If Cochran is looking for a replacement, I would be happy to jump in and embarrass your team in the regular season!

Bill, check your PM. I would love to go challenge your All-Star team!! If Cochran is looking for a replacement, I would be happy to jump in and embarrass your team in the regular season!

You just missed it, Bigmahon just agreed to take over the team, it was in the C'est La Vie league.