Truly frustrated

I have never had this bad of a start. Can the experts out there give me any clues to what I'm doing wrong? Am I. doing anything right? I am also relatively new to 365, only have about 40 teams under my belt, but am learning constantly. Thanks in advance for the help .https://365.strat-o-matic.com/member/sw ... am/1706816

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Is this better...https://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1706816

Things I don't think are great:
--Your biggest expenditure in your pen has pitched 2 innings and is an R1. Nelson is almost half your bullpen cost, yet he has pitched 2 innings over your bullpen's 62 IP so far. Would rather see your best RP absorb Setup & Middle duties, especially with your SP staff in a pitcher's park.
--Playing Bartell at SS and English at 3b is not ideal. Would rather have English at SS and a cheap 3b, or Leave English at 3b and get a cheap SS
--Kiner I can take, I don't think Sauer works in the long haul: OBP over SLG here. Plus, your corner OF defense is terrible.

Better bullpen budgeting, a good defensive SS, and a better defensive RF with some OBP would help.

Thanks for the help Andy

Agree with Andy about Nelson. He should be pitching 60-80% of your bullpen innings. Also, your defense is killing your pitchers.

Acknowledging that I am the last person who should be dispensing advice to anyone as I say this, but as has been mentioned, I would really lean into the amount you have invested in your starters and have strong defenders wherever possible. Having a 4 at both corner outfield spots ups the likelihood of a 4 being found on an x-rating to the third most likely to happen, behind SS and 2b. And, for those positions, that will lead to lots more extra base hits given up

On a side note, Ashburn will improve on the x-fielding plays (14 for 28 is truly underperforming).

Ok, have to go back to tending my own mediocre teams.

At this point, the best thing to do is stop dropping players. You are essentially a player down now with the 5M deficit.

Set you starting pitchers to quick hook, don't relieve before F0 or F1. Set Sherry and Hassler to avoid their bad side, quick hook. That will help get Nelson more innings. I don't like to use any pitcher roles, HAL screws it up anyways. I find that if I use 4 slanted relievers set to avoid their bad side and have ONE decent reliever in the 2-3 mill range with R2 or better, HAL will almost always use him first.

In general the team that you started with did not fit the park you're in. KIner and Sauer as your corner outfielders is a recipe for disaster. In that park you should be playing small ball and not have a guy like Kiner on your roster, but Sauer's even worse. Sorry.

And at this point, you've burned through so much roster cash that you probably can't fix anything due to minimum roster value limits. Once you get too low, you simply cannot make anymore meaningful changes.

If you feel the urge to make more changes, I would suggest trying to go the platoon route, but bear in mind the minimum cap if your league has one, because you could get stuck in no man's land roster wise. I've had it happen to me.

Ultimately, I think Kiner, Sauer and Bartell at SS (can't play a 3 at SS unless it's critical) along with your bullpen construction were your biggest issues. Then after a bad start, you started dumping players including some of the wrong ones ... English, Ashburn & Brouthers would have all been fine over the course of an entire season.

It seems like you are doing a lot of things right, but sometimes small things can hold you back. One thing that helped me a lot is studying the winning teams and figuring out what they're doing that's working. Another thing I found watching the play-by-plays helped me figure out where my team needs to improve. One final note is that the more you play a park, the better you will become at it. Try picking some parks you like and practice them. Keep at it and your results will improve.