Calling all Perfect Team gurus for advice

[OMGPuppies]

HI guys!
I have just finished my first season of Perfect team, and I love it. I have gotten a lot of great advice from reading these forums. Please take a look at my team and let me know what I can do to improve my team and get ready for my second season. Thank you in advance.

[DonkeyKongSr]

Start Ichiro. He's great in Bronze and Silver.

Then focus on pitching. Halladay is great. He's about to start a playoff game in Diamond for me. The rest should be upgraded ASAP. Focus on getting 60+ MOV (preferably 70+) as you will need it once you get to the higher leagues. Focus on STU second.

Your batters don't look all that bad for Bronze, so definitely focus on pitching first.

[justpatrick]

Damn, that´s a lot better than my first team! What was your record with this team, say in the last month or so?

I would get rid of Beck for sure. I know from experience that 30 movement will only bring you sorrow.
I don´t know how Bonilla and Dark did for you offensively, but that side of your infield doesn´t do much at all with the glove. You can get Andrelton Simmons (103 at short) for under 800 now. He´s been with me since Diamond and even hit .277 for me in Perfect. However that´s gravy when you consider the defense.
For third there´s a lot of inexpensive options who can hit just as well and field better.
I would also upgrade on Stripling. I had great luck with Vic Raschi in Bronze and Silver. He´s a 72 and strikes out a lot of guys, so you get the corner painter points quite a bit from him.

[W0rmzbr0]

I'll second the Vic Raschi suggestion. He's been great in Bronze and Silver for me as well.

[uschi_baerchen]

Originally Posted by DonkeyKongSr

Start Ichiro. He's great in Bronze and Silver.

Then focus on pitching. Halladay is great. He's about to start a playoff game in Diamond for me. The rest should be upgraded ASAP. Focus on getting 60+ MOV (preferably 70+) as you will need it once you get to the higher leagues. Focus on STU second.

Your batters don't look all that bad for Bronze, so definitely focus on pitching first.

The cheapest way to go upwards to Diamond is indeed pitching:


SP´s Paxton, Dierker, Whitley, Kopech are quite cheap as well as
RP´s Smith, Diaz, Doolittle, Stammen, Minter.


Most of them must be replaced when you reach Perfect (but they all are good enough for Diamond), but for the time beeing, that is the cheapest way.


As far as batters are concerned, get J.D. Martinez, he is very cheap and a very good hitter (you will keep him even in Perfect) and up to Diamond get Suzuki in Board, although his hits are all Singles, it is good to have someone on base when Martinez a at bat.


get 100.000 PP for: Trout, Betts, deGroom and Sale, with them you are almost unrelegatable from Perfect.

[OMGPuppies]

Hey guys. I just ended my second year. Still F2P. Everyone on this forum has been such a huge help.

Lost in the World Series. Picked up Page and Corbin right after the season. What else should I do with my roster to improve it? Thank you again.

[joehart]

1B: Keith Hernandez (77). His defense is excellent and he even produces in the higher leagues.

2B: Try to upgrade to 85 Eddie Collins and set him to max stealing.
Get him early and he can become your team career leader in many stats.

3B: If you can't find a good 3B, get Andrelton Simmons and re-train
him at 3B (start him at 3B). His defense can go as high as 117.
Once you decide to move on, he can become your utility guy since he can
be 100+ defense at all infield positions.
Another option is Johnny Pesky. He can also be a reliable SS or 3B option.

LF/RF: Ralph Garr, Paul Waner, Enos Slaughter, Ichiro.
Most of them should be available for reasonable cost and take you
to the higher leagues.

SP: As mentioned in an earlier post, get Dierker. He will be your best SP.
Another silver option is Sad Sam Jones. You can start him for many more
seasons or utilize him as a long reliever.

Don't get rushed into buying expensive Diamond options. You can often do better with silver/gold players.

[daveh2018]

Would get Sean Doolittle for your pen - seems to be a decent card that holds up at least through Gold. Surprisingly, I think he would replace Hader - from both my own experience + what I have read on the boards, that card gets lit up more often than the real life counterpart.

[Mudster]

Pitching - Paxton drove me nuts as a starter..always under performed. Once I moved him to the pen, he became a stud. Dierker can be had in the 2k range, but some cheaper options are Denny Martinez, Sad Sam Jones, and even Fred Newman. Len Barker for 5k is money well spent.
Catching- You have two decent lower end options. The general thought on these boards is defense first because the catchers usually under perform at the plate anyways. Charles Johnson, Bob Boone, Tony Pena, Manny Sanguillen, and Jim Sundberg all come to mind, but run about 2k-5k each. Yours are fine for now, but you will see a difference in your pitching with these guys.
Infield - Not familiar with Thomas, but there are several 1st basemen with amazing splits if you don't mind giving up a little defense. Steve Garvey, Cecil Fielder, Moose Skowron, Johnny Mize have all platooned at first for me at some point. Don Mattingly has great offensive numbers for about 2k. Manny Machado can train into a very good defensive 1st with a good bat. Speaking of Machado, along with Javy Baez, can train into every position 3 thru 9 with decent respectablility. They eventually become very nice utility players, but for now, would slide into your starting lineup somewhere. Someone mentioned Andrelton Simmons earlier. Team him up with your Aparicio on the left side and nothing will get thru.
Outfield- Devon White is cheap and has crazy good defense if trained in the left and right fields and his pinch running is great too. His bat is weak, but he fills in great as a fourth outfielder.
And lastly....get J.D. Martinez, as mentioned earlier, for your DH. He can be had for 2k or less and you won't replace him until you can spend 10k+ on someone, and even then that would be money better well spent elsewhere.

[Mudster]

Stole this from the mini whale Perfect League thread....the top owned players at each position in their league...

Mini Whale most common players on teams by position:

C Bob Boone
1b Rod Carew
2b Jose Ramirez
3b Wade Boggs
SS Andrelton Simmons
LF Joe Medwick
CF Garry Maddox
RF Ichiro Suzuki
DH J.D. Martinez

for under 5k, you can acquire Simmons, Maddox, Ichiro (rookie), and Martinez to round out almost half of your batting order.

[braxtol]

That is some great advice that I heeded. Thanks!

[OMGPuppies]

Originally Posted by Mudster

Pitching - Paxton drove me nuts as a starter..always under performed. Once I moved him to the pen, he became a stud. Dierker can be had in the 2k range, but some cheaper options are Denny Martinez, Sad Sam Jones, and even Fred Newman. Len Barker for 5k is money well spent.
Catching- You have two decent lower end options. The general thought on these boards is defense first because the catchers usually under perform at the plate anyways. Charles Johnson, Bob Boone, Tony Pena, Manny Sanguillen, and Jim Sundberg all come to mind, but run about 2k-5k each. Yours are fine for now, but you will see a difference in your pitching with these guys.
Infield - Not familiar with Thomas, but there are several 1st basemen with amazing splits if you don't mind giving up a little defense. Steve Garvey, Cecil Fielder, Moose Skowron, Johnny Mize have all platooned at first for me at some point. Don Mattingly has great offensive numbers for about 2k. Manny Machado can train into a very good defensive 1st with a good bat. Speaking of Machado, along with Javy Baez, can train into every position 3 thru 9 with decent respectablility. They eventually become very nice utility players, but for now, would slide into your starting lineup somewhere. Someone mentioned Andrelton Simmons earlier. Team him up with your Aparicio on the left side and nothing will get thru.
Outfield- Devon White is cheap and has crazy good defense if trained in the left and right fields and his pinch running is great too. His bat is weak, but he fills in great as a fourth outfielder.
And lastly....get J.D. Martinez, as mentioned earlier, for your DH. He can be had for 2k or less and you won't replace him until you can spend 10k+ on someone, and even then that would be money better well spent elsewhere.

would that be the 77 or 81 Mize?

[OMGPuppies]

Originally Posted by Mudster

Stole this from the mini whale Perfect League thread....the top owned players at each position in their league...

Mini Whale most common players on teams by position:

C Bob Boone
1b Rod Carew
2b Jose Ramirez
3b Wade Boggs
SS Andrelton Simmons
LF Joe Medwick
CF Garry Maddox
RF Ichiro Suzuki
DH J.D. Martinez

for under 5k, you can acquire Simmons, Maddox, Ichiro (rookie), and Martinez to round out almost half of your batting order.

would that be the rookie sensation Ichiro?

[justpatrick]

Originally Posted by OMGPuppies

would that be the rookie sensation Ichiro?

That´s the one. A lot of guys bat him leadoff but I think he´s much better suited to hit second. Contact of 80 but doesn´t walk at all. Several teams have him in my Diamond league and it looks like he hits no matter what the competition is.

With Mize I don´t know which one, but there´s a team in my league with the 81 version. He´s pretty solid, tops out at about 25 homers a year, and hits between .260 and .280. Of course, that´s based on a one card sample.

[Dunzie]

All 3 Suzuki cards are under-rated. They play solid D in all three spots, can run a little, and generally hit for a high average. I've had great offensive luck with the 70 Ichiro and I think if you train him up in LF and RF he does fantastic on D. None are going to hit any moonshots.

Personally if I was starting over, I'd aim for the decent batting average / good D guys. For silver cards, ones that spring to mind besides Suzuki are Simmons 79 (is a stud at all infield positions), Tulowitzki 75, McReynolds 79...

Guys that won't necessarily hurt you like Clyde Milan offensively can add a huge dimension of speed - set his steal slider up a bit and bat him leadoff. He can grab you single game PP from steals and runs scored for sure. If you want to spend more, the defensive studs like Maddox or Robles and so on are great, but really you're paying a lot more for a little power boost.

Don't underestimate the importance of defense from your catcher. Guys like Pena or Carter or Santiago have excellent ratings there and I believe seriously improve your pitching.

As others have said though, most importantly put your money (PP) into pitching that will survive long term and not just be good at bronze and silver. Guys like Paxton get lit up in Diamond and Perfect. I'd rather invest in a Len Barker or Larry Dierker that can live in those leagues just fine. Aim for starters with high movement and control and don't get swayed by stuff. If their stuff isn't high, they get groundouts and flyball outs instead of K's, but if their movement and control is low, they get burned higher up.

Last piece of advice... don't get too hung up on HR power. Even high rated HR guys aren't hitting a ton of homers in diamond and perfect if they have lower contact ratings. These days I'd lean way more towards a guy who's 85C, 80G, 70HR vs a guy who's 70C, 75G, 85HR. To me the difference between a .290-.300 hitter and a .230-.240 hitter is way bigger than the gap between a 16HR and 25HR guy at the end of the season. The 85HR guy might hit 30-40 in bronze and silver, but they sure don't in diamond and perfect.

[mess]

I'd also suggest the Rookie Tulo

Dude can be trained up to high 90s at all IF positions very quickly and can put up decent numbers if played every day. He's best off as a platoon bat vs LHP and a defensive replacement vs RHP.

[Kushiel]

I am not a guru by any stretch of the imagination but pitching and defense win championships in baseball. My team is not stocked with OVR 100 players. However, my Yaks have won 3 perfect titles and the biggest hitting awards I have seen are batter of the month, rarely. I receive pitching awards/achievements regularly and usually some defense great gloves at season's end. I have played this way since the beta. It is one way that works for me.

[OMGPuppies]

Originally Posted by Kushiel

I am not a guru by any stretch of the imagination but pitching and defense win championships in baseball. My team is not stocked with OVR 100 players. However, my Yaks have won 3 perfect titles and the biggest hitting awards I have seen are batter of the month, rarely. I receive pitching awards/achievements regularly and usually some defense great gloves at season's end. I have played this way since the beta. It is one way that works for me.

defense definitely seems more reliable than hitting. I wish that steals were more of a factor. Any hitters and pitchers that you recommend>?

[CrazyWR]

added you as a friend kushiel to get you in this ridiculous perfect 407 league im in next season if you're interested. It's a bloodbath

[daves]

12 pitchers are one too many. send one down and add ichiro.