There are lot's of different styles for small ball. So I hope you get plenty of comments and opinions.
A couple of disclaimers firs;
A. NEV currently has a forbes '57 team that makes NOOO sense to me, but is leading my division, which is baffling, because I look at his team and I say to myself, "This team sucks balls, what is it doing in first place?". So , obviously, I know but a little.
B. My early teams were in Forbes 09, I'm currently winding down on Forbes '57.
C. My info is based on ATG7 and a sample of 21 teams
D. I play only 80m no DH.
I went though a few evolutions line up wise, but I'll discuss my pitching first.
1. I have three starting styles- A five man 12.50 m rotation or a five man 19m dollar rotation and a "it's too complicated to talk about" rotation.The first version will net about 800 innings and pitch and about 95 decisions; with w/l going anywhere from 46-49 to 57-38 depending how well I manage the rest of my team. The second version involves a baddass starter, who, hopefully, picks up 250 innings and 20 wins to 9, or less, losses.
(2.50 EX- Conaly, Donald, Gabler, Hardin, Nuxall, Bordi, Moret, Hendrix tend to be my black and blue crew)
2. I try to get two bad ass relievers and pitch them until they explode into dust, about 230 innings each. One lefty, one righty. 3 cheap ass specialists, 2R, 1L; together this crew will pick up the rest of the wins to 90+ and 600 plus innings.
With version one, I'll lead the league in hitting; with version two , I'll lead it in pitching. If it's an off year, it's a Darwinian struggle for survival.
Onto the much more fun subject of hitting.
My line-ups have evolved from
mega-speed/obp/great fielding to
somewhat fast/very good obp/insane xtra base hits/ god awful fielding
I had good success with the former, phenomenal success with the latter.
My general strategy is to get 8 guys who hit, no let up in the lineup for opposing pitchers; alternate left and right.
This presents some problems, many problems, in creating that line-up- starting with catcher.
C- There are only 3 full-time catchers I like for my hitting line-up- Bresnahan, Mackey and O. Johnson. Mackey is definitely the best mix of pros and cons. There are a gagillian platoons, but they suck at production.
1B- Utley
2B- Cheap and ugly lead off guy- Backman/Wiggins or Randolph
SS- Dahlen or Bush to leadoff, or Wagner
3B- Delahanty/Wilson
RF- Thompson/ Chino
CF- Brown/Reiser
LF- A crap ton of options
All the positions besides LF give me nothing but headaches and misery, which is why I'm starting to try some different things small ball wise. But these banger teams have done really well. I take a perverse pride in putting up 20 runs with nothing but doubles and triples.
I'm kind of loathe about putting up links , but my 'hands of stone' team is just too much fun to be selfish with.
http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/1379748This team is somehow 5 games in first place after 114 games. I do NOT expect them to finish in first.
They have committed 149 errors, and spent 110 days on the DL.
My relief staff is playing sub par and some of my hitters are having less than stellar years(thank god for Zimmerman) despite this, they are leading in hitting and 6th in runs allowed.
They are easily my favorite team, 'cause they are so jacked up.
Thu Jul 31, 2014 2:21 pm