Never trust a music opinion from somebody with disco in their name.

I haven't written roster selection strategies for the past 2 years, but not because I'm keeping any insights or strategies to myself.

Last year I was just too busy with work.

This year I didn't have anything to add to the conversation, other than I still believe that deadball pitchers are the better option in the 90M theme. The modern pitching teams will make less errors but they'll give up more HR's. A bit of a wash, really. It really boils down to my opinion that, due to cost efficiencies, I'd rather have Cicotte, Bernhard and Ford starting against, say, Halladay, Keuchel, Carpenter and Kluber. I mean, if I could afford a premium Kershaw and Pedro at this cap, that would be a different story. However that's not really feasible, unless you want a crap offence.

The other thing I've noticed this year is quite a bit of parity. A lot the team stats for Batting Ave, OBP, WHIP, etc are pretty damn similar. So, LUCK will be a major factor. Things like number of extra inning games & resulting fatigue, strength of division/schedule, teams underperforming vs their pythag. win expectancy and just plain flip of the coin luck between evenly matched teams. I'm not a big believer that poor records in one run games are necessarily an indicator of bad luck; I'm not sure of the cause/effect relationship, but I've noticed that mediocre and bad teams generally have crappier records in one run games. Last year, I constantly cursed my bad luck in one run games, but at the end of the year I had to admit that my teams just weren't very good.

BTW, discodemo is short for disco demolition night, the famous baseball riot. I don't have any strong opinions for or against disco music.

Posted by discodemo on 6/10/2020 10:03:00 PM (view original):
BTW, discodemo is short for disco demolition night, the famous baseball riot. I don't have any strong opinions for or against disco music.

And we're all playing a lot of "Stayin' Alive" and "I Will Survive" here.

Posted by discodemo on 6/10/2020 10:00:00 PM (view original):
I haven't written roster selection strategies for the past 2 years, but not because I'm keeping any insights or strategies to myself.

Last year I was just too busy with work.

This year I didn't have anything to add to the conversation, other than I still believe that deadball pitchers are the better option in the 90M theme. The modern pitching teams will make less errors but they'll give up more HR's. A bit of a wash, really. It really boils down to my opinion that, due to cost efficiencies, I'd rather have Cicotte, Bernhard and Ford starting against, say, Halladay, Keuchel, Carpenter and Kluber. I mean, if I could afford a premium Kershaw and Pedro at this cap, that would be a different story. However that's not really feasible, unless you want a crap offence.

The other thing I've noticed this year is quite a bit of parity. A lot the team stats for Batting Ave, OBP, WHIP, etc are pretty damn similar. So, LUCK will be a major factor. Things like number of extra inning games & resulting fatigue, strength of division/schedule, teams underperforming vs their pythag. win expectancy and just plain flip of the coin luck between evenly matched teams. I'm not a big believer that poor records in one run games are necessarily an indicator of bad luck; I'm not sure of the cause/effect relationship, but I've noticed that mediocre and bad teams generally have crappier records in one run games. Last year, I constantly cursed my bad luck in one run games, but at the end of the year I had to admit that my teams just weren't very good.

Speaking of 1 run games, I would like hear people's opinions of using "closers" I have not used one in years, and I'm not sure completely why.

But I have not noticed any adverse effects of that policy.

Posted by skinndogg on 6/11/2020 11:02:00 AM (view original):

Posted by discodemo on 6/10/2020 10:00:00 PM (view original):
I haven't written roster selection strategies for the past 2 years, but not because I'm keeping any insights or strategies to myself.

Last year I was just too busy with work.

This year I didn't have anything to add to the conversation, other than I still believe that deadball pitchers are the better option in the 90M theme. The modern pitching teams will make less errors but they'll give up more HR's. A bit of a wash, really. It really boils down to my opinion that, due to cost efficiencies, I'd rather have Cicotte, Bernhard and Ford starting against, say, Halladay, Keuchel, Carpenter and Kluber. I mean, if I could afford a premium Kershaw and Pedro at this cap, that would be a different story. However that's not really feasible, unless you want a crap offence.

The other thing I've noticed this year is quite a bit of parity. A lot the team stats for Batting Ave, OBP, WHIP, etc are pretty damn similar. So, LUCK will be a major factor. Things like number of extra inning games & resulting fatigue, strength of division/schedule, teams underperforming vs their pythag. win expectancy and just plain flip of the coin luck between evenly matched teams. I'm not a big believer that poor records in one run games are necessarily an indicator of bad luck; I'm not sure of the cause/effect relationship, but I've noticed that mediocre and bad teams generally have crappier records in one run games. Last year, I constantly cursed my bad luck in one run games, but at the end of the year I had to admit that my teams just weren't very good.

Speaking of 1 run games, I would like here people's opinions of using "closers" I have not used one in years, and I'm not sure completely why.

But I have not noticed any adverse effects of that policy.

I think using closers is difficult, at least when compared to how they work in the real world of MLB.

Because you designate what inning they can come in, and designate a pitch count based on IP/9, and whether to come in only for save situations, it's very hard to get sparky to use them exactly right. Many times they will hit their pitch count with 1 or 2 outs to go and sparky will plug in another reliever.

At least that's been my experience. Usually most of my pitching staff ends up with several saves.

I recently started using closers again after years of never using them.

In situations where the quality of your best RP is considerably higher than your average Setup A RP, it's useful. In situations where quality is relatively flat, it doesn't make a ton of sense.

The pitchcount issue that NebHusker mentions is a real thing though.

Posted by ozomatli on 6/11/2020 11:41:00 AM (view original):
I recently started using closers again after years of never using them.

In situations where the quality of your best RP is considerably higher than your average Setup A RP, it's useful. In situations where quality is relatively flat, it doesn't make a ton of sense.

The pitchcount issue that NebHusker mentions is a real thing though.

I am particularly likely to use one if the above is true about quality gap and he's got a lower IP total. If I can only get, say, 40 innings out of him, at least I know how they'll all be used.

there's also the fact that the most 'important' out situation might be in an inning other than 9th, so i typically avoid the closer setting

side note - wish there was a way to designate 'use my worst pitchers in extra innings'

I have never really used the closer setting since my initial forays into WiS. Granted I also usually do not have one RP that is heads and tails better than the other guys either

I'll agree with what seems to be the majority here; if I have a guy on the staff who is clearly better than my other RPs, and has the correct # of IP (usually < 50 or so) and has IP/G > 1 (preferably > 1.2) then I'll designate him as a closer. Otherwise I don't bother using the closer slot.

Another reason not to use a Closer. I don't want a Setup guy throwing 3 pitches then getting pulled for the Closer. Uses up more pitchers so there's fewer available for the following game.

Posted by sford on 6/11/2020 12:37:00 PM (view original):
there's also the fact that the most 'important' out situation might be in an inning other than 9th, so i typically avoid the closer setting

side note - wish there was a way to designate 'use my worst pitchers in extra innings'

That setting wouldn't be terribly helpful. I'm 0-3 in extra inning games in the $120M league already, and '98 Timlin lost all 3 of them.

Posted by Jtpsops on 6/11/2020 1:40:00 PM (view original):

Posted by sford on 6/11/2020 12:37:00 PM (view original):
there's also the fact that the most 'important' out situation might be in an inning other than 9th, so i typically avoid the closer setting

side note - wish there was a way to designate 'use my worst pitchers in extra innings'

That setting wouldn't be terribly helpful. I'm 0-3 in extra inning games in the $120M league already, and '98 Timlin lost all 3 of them.

those hurt - but i'd rather lose in 10 than win in 14 and destroy my bullpen for the next 3 games

all about losing the battle but winning the war!

Posted by sford on 6/11/2020 1:44:00 PM (view original):

Posted by Jtpsops on 6/11/2020 1:40:00 PM (view original):

Posted by sford on 6/11/2020 12:37:00 PM (view original):
there's also the fact that the most 'important' out situation might be in an inning other than 9th, so i typically avoid the closer setting

side note - wish there was a way to designate 'use my worst pitchers in extra innings'

That setting wouldn't be terribly helpful. I'm 0-3 in extra inning games in the $120M league already, and '98 Timlin lost all 3 of them.

those hurt - but i'd rather lose in 10 than win in 14 and destroy my bullpen for the next 3 games

all about losing the battle but winning the war!

tell me about it, I had a 17 inning win in the $140m league... I'd much rather have lost that in the 10th than deal with the rotation and bullpen shuffling I've had to juggle since... 100% it's cost me at least two wins since.