Help

Forum >> Help >> Looking for some Veteran advice for a guy in his Sophomore Season   Bookmark This Forum Thread

Post ID Date & Time Game Date Function
Lacisum Utama
Joined: 02/22/2018
Posts: 14

Inactive

Broken Bat Baseball
Greatings BB Owners! I have been here for about a season and a half. 133-112 Record so far. (1:87-73 2:46-39) Finished 2nd last season after cooling off down the stretch which is when I decided to start making moves/rebuilding.
In the off season I took a chance on a new manager, Released some older players, signed some free agents and have been drafting up a storm.
I am looking for any and all advice any of you more experience owners might have. Can be as small as moving the team to a new location or as big as nuke the team and start over. Go into the nitty gritty like I am a veteran, any candidates for stealing? Pitch count limits? Anything that jumps off the top of your head I am interested in, even if its just a hello. Looking for multiple opinions if possible as everyone has their own style/experience.
Ideally I would like to build around pitching and I think this recent all star game speaks to that as 4/6 pitchers on the team were from my organization. But only 2 position players who were both backups. My philosophy for pitching has been a 6 man rotation the first third to half of the season to see whose got it. Switch to the 5 man when I have a solid rotation after moving guys around from the minors. And then a 4 or 4.5 man down the stretch If I have a weak link still. All with pitch counts at 180 or whatever the highest is. Batting has been RHP loaded with lefties, LHP loaded with righties, switch players around who have low averages against that type. Havent touched the management settings the last owner had.
Anyways! Greetings all! Look forward to hearing how you like the team! Hope to play against you and win the Ship one day!
Seca
Joined: 05/05/2014
Posts: 5194

Waterloo Dinosaurs
Legends

Broken Bat Baseball
So I don't type IMO a bunch of times, everything in this post is IMO. :)

You won't get far with a 10 range SS. Its not easy to find guys that can both hit and defend at premium positions (SS, 2B, CF). Until you do, its better to focus on defense (especially if you focus on pitching). Range is your #1 skill at SS, 2B and CF.

Every position player (roster or minors) you should be able to describe as:
"an excellent defender at his position who has offensive upside"
or
"an excellent offensive player who is tolerable at his position"
I feel my 2 3B exemplify this. Rangel is the former, Boyd the latter. I'd encourage you to go through all your position players and ask yourself if they fit one of those 2 criteria. If they don't, look to replace them.

Offensive upside means a positive hitting comment and either power or speed.

You've got a bunch of low pot guys in your minors. There are 12 pot guys of basically every description available in free agency. The only reason to keep a < 12 pot is if they are a great hitter / prolific slugger that mashes minor league stats.

I would like to see more pitching prospects in your minors. Again, 12 pot guys are readily available. Bring a few in and let them accumulate some minor league stats. If they give up a lot of HRs (more than 1 every 9 IPs), cut them loose and try again. (I you need a little help finding these guys let me know. I keep 4-5 of them on my watch list most of the time.)

Updated Saturday, June 23 2018 @ 7:26:11 am PDT
Tiger504
Joined: 06/17/2014
Posts: 1314

Kalamazoo Bloody Tigers
IV.7

Broken Bat Baseball
Couple of claimers/disclaimers to start: Seca's advice is solid. I may expand or differ on small points but as with his post IMO applies to all of my post.

Focusing on pitching is good but my son in law and I discussed it over father's day and real quality pitching is darned hard to come by. Still, you want the best pitching you can find.
It's just that the market for pitching is so tough these days that luck may be more of a factor for it than offense and especially defense. Offense/defense is where you have more control right now due to having a wider range of options. Seca is right on in that all of your position players should be defensive guys with an offensive upside or offensive guys that are not defensive liabilities. That is more important the higher the league you are in.
Another consideration that a very good defense will make any pitching staff a notch better.

Specific suggestions:
Cut Kozlov. He doesn't have the talent to develop.
Cut Palacio, the 23 year old pitcher in rookie ball. He's a lost cause because of his age and low development.
Keep Stephens but train him at 1B. Some guys might say pot 11 don't waste your time. But I like his build for 1B. I would keep an eye on him but he deserves several seasons of developing to know what you really have.
You aren't really competing to promote this season but you are competing not to demote. A demotion sets your climb back 2 seasons so try to avoid it all costs while building for the future.

Updated Saturday, June 23 2018 @ 10:40:48 am PDT
Lacisum Utama
Joined: 02/22/2018
Posts: 14

Inactive

Broken Bat Baseball
Thank you for all of these thoughts! I will take them under advisement and start looking for some pitchers for the minors and fixing up some of the positions.
Cactusguy21
Joined: 07/25/2017
Posts: 815

Presque Isle Vikings
III.4

Broken Bat Baseball
One thing to add with regards to your situation:

I have also been hovering between promotion and demotion for many seasons now, and one thing I have learned is this: Do NOT be afraid of aging vets. Oftentimes you can pick up highly productive veterans on the market, who were usually cut by VI teams trying to save money or teams where they were blocking a prospect. These guys are probably too expensive for VI teams, and probably not good enough for Legends-III, so they slip through the cracks easily.
Despite what people say, it's not the end-all to find long-term prospects to fill your holes on your team. Sometimes just going year-to-year with a new vet every year or two can be much better. Please note that this advice only applies to position players. Finding good pitching on the waiver wire is a crapshoot and not a viable strategy.

Example veteran pickups that I made:
http://brokenbat.org/player/111967
http://brokenbat.org/player/104775
http://brokenbat.org/player/131364
http://brokenbat.org/player/95112


Previous Page | Show All |