A tale of two pitchers

Kershaw (I nominated the 2016 card) and the recently added Scherzer and Ramon Martinez cards have found their way onto an increasing number of my teams in higher cap leagues. Here is one of them:

https://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1518091

I managed to get all three on this team, two performed spectacularly and the other two were mediocore. Martinez did not distinguish himself and neither did the 2013 Kershaw 7-7, so I upgraded to the 2016 Kershaw. The latter ended up 18-1 with the third best era among starters (4.49) edged out by only Dutch Leonard (4.27) and Scherzer (4.00) 15-3. They did this despite working in Coors '05.

I really liked this team (I had 8 starters in the top 30 league ERA's for starters). But what I liked most were the flexibility provided by the three aforementioned studs. Their supporting cast, Silver King, Randy Johnson,Jake Arrieta, and Matt Harvey was probably the most flexible and effective starting pitching staff I've had in a while.

My bullpen simply sucked but I did manage to finish second in the league in ERA despite my road ERA being a full run a game lower than the team with the overall best era.

Nev and I, and by extension Salty, have long held the philosophy of drafting hitters in the first 5-6 rounds of live drafts, then grabbing some good relievers and only then trying to cobble together a functional starting staff with the best of the remaining second and third tier starters. This team was an auto draft league which provided the opportunity for a pleasant departure from that tried and true drafting model and was just a joy to watch all season. I led the league in runs scored but that was mostly because I hit .316 at home and 60 points lower on the road. Just enough hitting to let Coors do its job!

Good stuff, Champ. Great food for thought.

I think the community has done an outstanding job of adding some super additions to the set over the last 3 years or so. This next iteration is going to be another quality ad. Talking HiCap, The SPs you spotlighted are all now regular staff mainstays of just about every league. Despite Pedro's big brother not doing it for you, Nevvy consistently uses him to great effect. Nev has been focused lately on power R parks, which is where I tend to hang and too, too often Ramon destroys my R heavy hitters.

Like with real MLB strategy, match-ups are the best thinking us SOMmers can do prepping for an opponent. Feinstein wrote a book about great coaches. His section on Brad Stevens is a must read. The Celtics coach does like a three hour prep for each game. His routine supposedly never varies. He said it is the only way he knows he has not left a stone unturned prior to game time. He is okay with losing as long as it wasn't a loss caused by oversight or neglect in his preparation. Does that not sound like so many veteran SOMmers? I think it sounds Just like us.