Calling all Small Ball team Experts!!!!

And normally I would sweat things. But given the parks in my division I stand a decent chance this time around. Yay for random karma.

Road trips do give me grief. And sometimes pitching just ain't enough. OBP and speed help a lot.

It's a great $100M cap staff and a mediocre $60M cap offense

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/1383653

Excepting one starter, I got everyone on my draft list. Awesome. Got a week to tweak. Probably won't.

Wow, five of first six series in small ball parks. Awesome. I have two small ball parks in division but none of them are geared for it. Might be a good season.

Two comments on your team - I don't understand why you are spending $10M on your top two bullpen guys. In your park and with your staff, I wouldn't spend more than ~$5-6M on all four guys for the pen. Second, you're emphasizing pitching, but your defense is not that good at 2B and SS. You're going to give up a lot of baserunners off of the X chart.

I guess I have a 3rd comment, you say you consider speed and OBP important. You do have a lot of speed on your team, but other than Carew, you don't have anyone who will be spending much time on base.

I agree and think you could downgrade pen and staff. I think the question is who are the best $7m and up value guys available. There are plenty of guys in that range that win a lot of games in a small park where your pitchers are more protected. I would add offense to this team.

Here is an older $80m team and I realize it is not in the $60 range but might add to the conversation.

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/44107

Thanks!

I agree and think you could downgrade pen and staff. I think the question is who are the best $7m and up value guys available. There are plenty of guys in that range that win a lot of games in a small park where your pitchers are more protected. I would add offense to this team.

Here is an older $80m team and I realize it is not in the $60 range but might add to the conversation.

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/44107

Thanks!

Nice team Ruffians, and nice Championship with it! What I think is funny is the guy who had 4 teams in the West division, and his best team winds up 80-82!!!!

Here is one of my 60m teams, which has a pitching staff salary of $19.6M.......it does work!

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/1381488

And this team, also 60m and just 18 games into season, has a little better staff at $24.56M.....

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/1382876

With these type of staffs, I rely a lot on my bullpen!!

My favorite small ball power guys if they are available and affordable are:

Bagwell
Ted Williams
Al Simmons
Musial

I fully realize that they might not be affordable in a $60 league but these guys can hit anywhere and are huge in small parks. Bagwell is the most impressive in small parks from my experience.

I just used him and he puts up a typical Bagwell year. 69 homers, 165 RBI's and bats 350 in a small park.

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/1383653

Excepting one starter, I got everyone on my draft list. Awesome. Got a week to tweak. Probably won't.

Wow, five of first six series in small ball parks. Awesome. I have two small ball parks in division but none of them are geared for it. Might be a good season.

Two comments on your team - I don't understand why you are spending $10M on your top two bullpen guys. In your park and with your staff, I wouldn't spend more than ~$5-6M on all four guys for the pen. Second, you're emphasizing pitching, but your defense is not that good at 2B and SS. You're going to give up a lot of baserunners off of the X chart.

I guess I have a 3rd comment, you say you consider speed and OBP important. You do have a lot of speed on your team, but other than Carew, you don't have anyone who will be spending much time on base.

DJ and Ruffians, definitely something to consider. I really appreciate the food for thought.

I have a smallball team starting the playoffs tomorrow, I'll not tempt HAL by posting the team now.

Summary...5 man staff under $3M each. Murray and Gossage, and hard L and R. Schulz to soak some innings when Murray can't go.

HR leader, Bunny Serrell at 13, he's in a platoon.

Ichiro and Geronimo are the big RBI guys.

SBs 247 and 81 caught. Good to great basepath speed and Hershberger.

Gilliam and McMullin only 2's on D.

Anytime!