Time to get the NL east stabfest going!
So once again, kentol and I are in the same division. And now we’re a season wiser…I think. Last season we were screwing. This season, we’re stabbing. Let’s see how well we can place this dagger.
Kentol, you start off with a fantastic pick, one I was hoping would slide to me, the 1988 Los Angeles Dodgers! These guys are great! You get Hershiser, Belcher, and Leary for your rotation, all at affordable salaries. You also get Howell, Holton, and Pena for your bullpen. All have ERC’s under 3 and perform well at this cap level. But wait…there’s more!
Offensively, this Dodger team is led by none other than World Series hero, OF Kirk Gibson! He brings with him 2B Steve Sax, OF’s Mike Marshall and John Shelby, C Mike Scoiscia, and a couple of platoonable pieces in 1B Pedro Guerrero and OF Mickey Hatcher. That’s 13 usable players to start, including a very nice rotation. What a great pick! Hershiser seems to be the obvious dagger but…
And then the dating game starts. Your 1st date went very well and definitely ended the night with some screwing. What’s great about this theme is, we’re not always the ones doing the screwing. Occasionally, WIS jumps in for a 3-way. And that certainly happened here.
Usually, when I think of the 92 Orioles, stud pitcher Bob Milacki is 1st to come to mind. Not a lot of innings but certainly nice to use as a closer or starter in critical games. Oh, not here! Milacki is dropped off the roster. Bummer! Not only was he dropped off the eligible roster, so were 5 – sub-$1M bench players, including 4 less than $500k. The Orioles were already bad but you can’t even use any of their cheap bench players!
So what does that leave you? Their best pitcher has an ERC# of 3.63. Yikes! It just get’s worse from there. On offense you start with Oriole fan favorites Eddie Murray at 1B and Cal Ripken Jr. at short. Both are affordably priced although you are paying for more PA’s than you need. Then there is Fred Lynn as a platoon OF option with some power. And maybe you can use the catcher platoon of Mickey Tettleton and Terry Kennedy? Orsulak in the OF for your 6th?
For your 2nd date you were gifted the 1958 Philadelphia Phillies. At 1st, the Philly pick seems like a loving pick. They come with a stud Richie Ashburn in the OF along with a very usable OFer in Harry Anderson. Solly Hemus can hit although he doesn’t field 2nd well. Willie Jones plays 3rd and Granny Hamner and Dave Philley are decent platoon players. There’s even a $2.4M Wally Post in the OF. On the pitching side, Robin Roberts offers 284 of so-so innings for just under $7M. Sounds a little loving, right? Well let’s hold our horses for a second. Hamner is their only eligible player with a sub $1M salary at $922K. Other than that, they, much like Baltimore, only have expensive bench players. Hmmm… this sounds like one of those screws where you don’t really know what you got until a few days later…not good.
To help you recover from all that screwing, you did yourself a favor and went to 1938 Pittsburgh for some nice Pirate options: SS Arky Vaughn, OF brothers Paul and Lloyd Waner, OF Johnny Rizzo, and 1B Gus Suhr. Arky is a little on the high side at $7.8M and drafting him would definitely take Ashburn out of the mix… or make it very tough to land him.
The Pirates aren’t without pitching options either although none of them are studs. But Bauers and Klinger are both starters who bear consideration as is Brandt in the bullpen. Pittsburgh also offer 3 players and 1 pitcher under $1M. I suspect you’ll need to use one or two of them.
Putting it all together it seems like you have the right pieces available to you to make a strong team. But getting the right salaries to fit could be a challenge. As I sit here sharpening my knife and analyzing your team, I see your pitching will mostly come from the Dodgers. I would say 6 of them would be on your initial roster, including the aforementioned Hershiser. With 3 SP’s coming from the Dodgers, you have your choice of Roberts, Bauers, or Klinger for your 4th. I’m assuming Roberts since he’s cheaper and has the most innings. You’ll need to pick up some cheap relievers and your only non-Dodger options are Don Aase or Rip Sewell. The rest are over $1M.
Hitting Roberts would force you to replace those innings with a more expensive starter, or less talented starter, or 2 starting pitchers for under $7M. Hitting Hershiser takes out your best pitcher… or is he your best pitcher? Hitting Tim Belcher would be interesting. He’s just as good as Hershiser but he doesn’t have as many innings. The talent drop in comparable replacements for under $5.5M is pretty significant. There might be something here.
On offense we see Jim Traber at 1B. With 6 Dodgers already selected, I’m not sure you want to waste your bonus pick on Franklin Stubbs so Traber would be the next option as a back-up to Eddie Murray. Hitting Traber brings you to Ed Bouchee for $2.1M, costing you $900K.
At 2B you only have 5 options and your cheapest is Ted Kazanski at $1.3M. For starters you have Sax, Pep Young, and Solly Hemus. Sax is a Dodger and Hemus can’t field. Hitting Kazanski here makes Billy Ripken your next cheapest option at $2.4M or Hemus at $2.6M. Maybe Sax becomes an option now???
2B isn’t the only position where you only have 5 options. At SS you have 3 starters and a Dodger platoon of Alfredo Griffin and Dave Anderson. Griffin is the cheaper of the two at $1.6M. Anderson is only $2.0M. I’m assuming you want Arky at SS but you could probably live with Ripken. Hitting Griffin may force you to pass on Arky to get the more affordable Ripken.
And then there is hitting OF Woody Jensen, your cheapest OF at $374K. Non-Dodger OF’s get past $1M after Jensen and could cost you an extra $1M in salary. I don’t think you’ll draft Ashburn and if you do pick up Arky Vaughn and Lloyd Waner, Gibson may be tough to add, too. Not to mention, you probably need that bonus roster spot for Griffin. What to do…
Now that the knife is sharp, I think the best place for it would be in Tim Belcher. Hopefully, replacing him will cost you enough to force you to give up on either Hershiser or Vaughn. But maybe you can land Gibson now???
As far as stadiums, you have good options. But Dodgers pitchers tend to pitch best in pitchers parks and Dodgers Stadium is the best one you have. Not anymore. Looking forward to seeing your puzzle solving skills on this one. Good luck!