SkyKing162's Baseblog



A fan of the Yankees, Red Sox, and large sample sizes.


9.17.2003
 
My Peoria League Strat Team

So far I've resisted writing much about my Strat-o-Matic baseball teams. I'm not resisting any more.

Through 74 games, the Schuykill Kings in the 12 team Peoria SOM League are currently sitting in second place in their division, 2 games behind first place. The good news is that the Kings also have the second best record in the entire league, so if winning the division doesn't quite work out, I should have a good shot at the Wild Card.

Since the 2003 MLB season is starting to wind down, I've started to think about my keeper list for next year. We all get to keep 16 players, more if we want to sacrifice draft picks - which generally isn't worth it. Here are the definite keepers:

Brian Giles
Vlad Guerrero
Hank Blalock
Mike Lowell
Edgar Martinez
David Ortiz

Kevin Millwood
Josh Beckett
Guillermo Mota

Other options to round out the 16 include:
Erubiel Durazo
Derrek Lee
Richard Hidalgo
Austin Kearns
Junior Spivey
Jason Larue

Eddie Guardado
Joe Borowski

Borowski and Guardado are great, but closers with 65 IP are overrated in my opinion. Ideally, I'd like to trade one or both for a starting pitcher of draft pick. Stud hitters are way more consistent than stud pitchers, which is why my strategy is to stock up on stud hitters, keep them year to year, and scramble for pitching in the draft - both studs in the early rounds, and load up on sleepers for the following year in the later rounds.

Last year, my pitching prospects included a bunch of scrubs that didn't pan out, except for Beckett, and I guess Suppan until he crashed. I just missed out on Kevin Brown, though.

Going into next year, I'll have my outfield set with Giles, Vlad, and a Kearns/Hidalgo combo in center. 3B will be absolutely stocked with Lowell and Blalock - I may try to move Lowell, however. I'd only play him against lefties since I have Blalock, and I'd much rather have a stud starter than 150 PAs from Lowell. I'd have nothing in the middle infield except Spivey to play second against lefties. 1B would be a platoon of Derrek Lee and David Ortiz. Edgar Martinez would play all games except when normal righties were on the mound - hopefully I can draft another all-hit, no-field type. Catcher's wide open - maybe Larue against righties, but that's a really weak keeper.

Pitching-wise, I'll have 200 IP from Millwood, but he's having an off year. He's probably even below average in an all-star Strat league. 125 IP from Beckett's nice, but that leaves me needing another 675 IP - 3.5 starters minimum. Mota and his 100+ IP at a 1.75 ERA is awesome. The key to relief pitching is finding the guys with quality and quantity so you don't have to use up tons of roster spots for relief pitchers with 50 IP. I like to keep those spots for prospects. Borowski and Guardado are nice, but again, hopefully I'll find someone else who values them more than me. If I can get a 200 IP, 3.00 ERA starter for both of them, I'd jump at it. Assuming I can get that, here's what I'll be lacking going into the draft:

- a SS platoon
- a 2B against righties
- a lefty DH/1B that kill righties
- a catcher platoon
- 2.5 starters
- 400 relief IP, with one guy that has a 3 or 4 closer rating. this should be about 5-6 guys.

Out of 9 offensive positions, I have two positions without platoons - LF and RF. That leaves 9 pitching spots on the 25 man roster. 5 for starters and 4 for relievers. That's plenty. I just have to make sure I rotate my 6/7 relievers each month so they all get used up. A coupld months I'll have to send down Vlad or Giles since they won't have enough PAs to play the whole season, and that'll leave me with another platoon in LF or RF, most likely cutting my starters down to 4 or my relievers down to 3. If I can fill SS, 2B, CF, or C with a full-timer, that'd be wonderful.

I'll keep you posted on how things go this year, and I'm happy knowing I'll be in the running again next year.


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