Franchise Hero #3

[TwanLX2000]

Ive found Gwynn to be best utilized in the two-hole, where speed ahead of him can score easily on his contact. I haven't needed him to run as much from there (assuming my power guys hit well). Basically, I just let my leadoff guy play Alan Wiggins and 80s ball my way to early runs.

Just not with actual PT Alan Wiggins... I don't recommend that

[Warfsu]

What guys from FH#3 do you see as staples to your teams over the next few weeks? I’ve sold several of the ones who I know I will never use. Right now, I’ve been using: Bench, Pudge, Jackie, Lajoi, Hornsby, Mays, both Williams’, Gwynn, Johnson, and Seaver. I also just got Brett, so I intend to use him once Wander or Jackie go cold.

I’ve debated whether it’s worth keeping Mantle, Aaron, Walsh, Neuhouser. Mantle has been a huge disappointment, and has likely already been passed. Hank Aaron has been too. While the pitchers could hold some value in the bullpen, 175k from Walsh could be used to complete other missions.

[professor ape]

There’s a lot of possible combos with the FH3 players and we’re still learning which ones are able to perform. There are some like Cruz, Stargell, and Finley which pretty clearly don’t have what it takes at the higher levels. Mantle is on my reserve roster now but I’m not selling him. Walsh is active in my pen.

[frankbama]

Pudge, Williams, Collins, Brett, Gwynn, Trout, Speaker, Hamilton, Mays (unfortunately my pick for GOAT is relegated to mostly platoon), Bench as backup (Carter couldn't hack it), Unit, Halladay, Koufax and Grienke. Greinke's not great but serviceable in the pen.

I didn't use Hamilton at first but so many others are so he's in now. Walsh keeps getting rocked. Spahn did at first but has been better lately.

Collins, Pudge and Williams have been the best hitters for me. Koufax best pitcher with Randy 2nd. Still love Maddux though.

[ncap99]

Originally Posted by frankbama

Pudge, Williams, Collins, Brett, Gwynn, Trout, Speaker, Hamilton, Mays (unfortunately my pick for GOAT is relegated to mostly platoon), Bench as backup (Carter couldn't hack it), Unit, Halladay, Koufax and Grienke. Greinke's not great but serviceable in the pen.

I didn't use Hamilton at first but so many others are so he's in now. Walsh keeps getting rocked. Spahn did at first but has been better lately.

Collins, Pudge and Williams have been the best hitters for me. Koufax best pitcher with Randy 2nd. Still love Maddux though.

Pretty close to what I'm doing. I sent Williams down and opted for a Hamilton/Simmons platoon in left and it has worked out extremely well the past 1.5 seasons. Mays/Trout platoon in CF so I can DH Speaker for more ABs, although to be honest he has been a little underwhelming for me - but I know that is just bad RNG as 5 of the 6 players on the WAR leaderboard are Speaker in my league.

Bench/Pudge at catcher, I have Bench playing every 3rd game against lefties. Tried Carter just like you did and moved to Bench after a very underwhelming 2/3 a season or so between last week and this one. Nap Lajoie has been incredible at 1B after I've really struggled to get good production out of that spot for some reason. I think the defense scares people away but he will actually produce very positive defensive metrics because the underlying attributes are so high compared to other 1B. Ripken at SS vL (tried Tulo and he stunk for me, Ripken has been very good). Collins full time 2B, Brett full time 3B are kinda no brainers at this point. FH3 Jackie to backup 2B, 3B and 1B.

Throwing more lefty starters than I normally would for a balanced approach (Rixey/Koufax/Spahn/Johnson) because there are so many lefty bats, along with Maddux who isn't going anywhere any time soon. Pen I'm using Dontrelle Willis, Clemens, Halladay, Seaver from FH3.

Team was on cruise control with a .750 winning % and hit the skids the last 10 games. No apparent reason just every single pitcher got rocked for like 10 games. I swear this game has a catchup mechanic or something! Still 1st overall in nearly every offensive category though, just need the pitchers to do their jobs. 45-26 overall now.

I made it a point of emphasis to get more right handed bats in my lineup because almost every team is running at least 3 lefty starters and it has paid off.

[frankbama]

Originally Posted by ncap99

Pretty close to what I'm doing. I sent Williams down and opted for a Hamilton/Simmons platoon in left and it has worked out extremely well the past 1.5 seasons. Mays/Trout platoon in CF so I can DH Speaker for more ABs, although to be honest he has been a little underwhelming for me - but I know that is just bad RNG as 5 of the 6 players on the WAR leaderboard are Speaker in my league.

Bench/Pudge at catcher, I have Bench playing every 3rd game against lefties. Tried Carter just like you did and moved to Bench after a very underwhelming 2/3 a season or so between last week and this one. Nap Lajoie has been incredible at 1B after I've really struggled to get good production out of that spot for some reason. I think the defense scares people away but he will actually produce very positive defensive metrics because the underlying attributes are so high compared to other 1B. Ripken at SS vL (tried Tulo and he stunk for me, Ripken has been very good). Collins full time 2B, Brett full time 3B are kinda no brainers at this point. FH3 Jackie to backup 2B, 3B and 1B.

Throwing more lefty starters than I normally would for a balanced approach (Rixey/Koufax/Spahn/Johnson) because there are so many lefty bats, along with Maddux who isn't going anywhere any time soon. Pen I'm using Dontrelle Willis, Clemens, Halladay, Seaver from FH3.

Team was on cruise control with a .750 winning % and hit the skids the last 10 games. No apparent reason just every single pitcher got rocked for like 10 games. I swear this game has a catchup mechanic or something! Still 1st overall in nearly every offensive category though, just need the pitchers to do their jobs. 45-26 overall now.

I made it a point of emphasis to get more right handed bats in my lineup because almost every team is running at least 3 lefty starters and it has paid off.

Magically made it to perfect and predictably I'm getting trounced. Certain things though I don't know why.

Collins is terrible, Vaughan and Gwynn are negative WAR, Brett .220/.318, Speaker .236/.306, Billy Hamilton .221/.330 even with trying to play him only against RHP. Al Simmons was terrible too so sent him down. Brought Carew and Schmidt up to play 1b as I was getting no production and I finally demoted Jim O'Rourke after years of success. I guess I can try Nap but you're right the defense and height were turnoffs and the hitting didn't seem to make up for it. I'll give him a try.

My best hitter is the NL Jackie. Weird.

[ncap99]

Originally Posted by frankbama

Magically made it to perfect and predictably I'm getting trounced. Certain things though I don't know why.

Collins is terrible, Vaughan and Gwynn are negative WAR, Brett .220/.318, Speaker .236/.306, Billy Hamilton .221/.330 even with trying to play him only against RHP. Al Simmons was terrible too so sent him down. Brought Carew and Schmidt up to play 1b as I was getting no production and I finally demoted Jim O'Rourke after years of success. I guess I can try Nap but you're right the defense and height were turnoffs and the hitting didn't seem to make up for it. I'll give him a try.

My best hitter is the NL Jackie. Weird.

I've played Nap at 1B all season and his defensive metrics pretty decent even though he isn't maxed out yet. Carew seems to be the best defensive option there based on what I've seen, but the falloff isn't very dramatic. And he has mashed for me all year - .315/19/100 with a .900ish OPS through 141 games.

I've said it in a few other threads but the abundance of lefty starting pitching really left me trying to push righty hitters as much as possible. There are only so many roster spots so you need some righties that hit righties to play as full time players - for me that has been Lajoie, Clemente and Trout. So far the offensive results have been very good for me after a bit of a bumpy first few weeks - I lead the majors in runs scored by a good margin. I have park factors to increase XBHs and suppress HRs since I'm not running any boppers like Ted Williams.

This is at diamond though and I know from my brief time up at PeL that it is a different beast entirely! People really put effort into team building, lineup adjustments for matchups, etc. I learned a lot from my few seasons there getting beat to a pulp.

I'm curious though - if you look at the relegation screen how many lefty starters have you faced compared to righty starters?

[frankbama]

Originally Posted by ncap99

I've played Nap at 1B all season and his defensive metrics pretty decent even though he isn't maxed out yet. Carew seems to be the best defensive option there based on what I've seen, but the falloff isn't very dramatic. And he has mashed for me all year - .315/19/100 with a .900ish OPS through 141 games.

I've said it in a few other threads but the abundance of lefty starting pitching really left me trying to push righty hitters as much as possible. There are only so many roster spots so you need some righties that hit righties to play as full time players - for me that has been Lajoie, Clemente and Trout. So far the offensive results have been very good for me after a bit of a bumpy first few weeks - I lead the majors in runs scored by a good margin. I have park factors to increase XBHs and suppress HRs since I'm not running any boppers like Ted Williams.

This is at diamond though and I know from my brief time up at PeL that it is a different beast entirely! People really put effort into team building, lineup adjustments for matchups, etc. I learned a lot from my few seasons there getting beat to a pulp.

I'm curious though - if you look at the relegation screen how many lefty starters have you faced compared to righty starters?

97 LHP games to 60. Still too many. I need more RHH and a better ballpark.

[chazzycat]

Originally Posted by frankbama

97 LHP games to 60. Still too many. I need more RHH and a better ballpark.

I went the other direction and it worked out pretty well for me. Stuck with the lefty contact cheese, even running lefties both ways for the most part, since the new guys actually don't have bad splits vL. My record was slightly better against righties but it was still very strong vL. Was the top seed in BFF diamond league with 107 wins, against many other topper teams. Also finally managed to break through the diamond playoffs and earn my first perfect berth. Woohoo!

[ncap99]

Originally Posted by chazzycat

I went the other direction and it worked out pretty well for me. Stuck with the lefty contact cheese, even running lefties both ways for the most part, since the new guys actually don't have bad splits vL. My record was slightly better against righties but it was still very strong vL. Was the top seed in BFF diamond league with 107 wins, against many other topper teams. Also finally managed to break through the diamond playoffs and earn my first perfect berth. Woohoo!

Grats chazzy! I think that strat can be effective too. What was your home vs away splits assuming you amplified lefty park factors? What about LHP starters vs RHP starters?

[chazzycat]

Thanks! My park factors were maxed for lefty average, and both doubles & triples. Everything else was minimized. Basically just trotted Collins-Gwynn-Tris-Brett-Carew-BHam-Arky out there regardless of SP. My home record ended up VERY good, I don't recall exactly but over .700. For the rotation I am using the top 4 lefties + Maddux. No openers or any tricks anymore, just playing it straight for the most part and letting the great lefty cards do their thing.

[Orcin]

Originally Posted by chazzycat

Thanks! My park factors were maxed for lefty average, and both doubles & triples. Everything else was minimized. Basically just trotted Collins-Gwynn-Tris-Brett-Carew-BHam-Arky out there regardless of SP. My home record ended up VERY good, I don't recall exactly but over .700. For the rotation I am using the top 4 lefties + Maddux. No openers or any tricks anymore, just playing it straight for the most part and letting the great lefty cards do their thing.

Congrats on finally breaking through. Give 'em hell up there!

[Kushiel]

Originally Posted by chazzycat

I went the other direction and it worked out pretty well for me. Stuck with the lefty contact cheese, even running lefties both ways for the most part, since the new guys actually don't have bad splits vL. My record was slightly better against righties but it was still very strong vL. Was the top seed in BFF diamond league with 107 wins, against many other topper teams. Also finally managed to break through the diamond playoffs and earn my first perfect berth. Woohoo!

Congrats! I am jealously still trying.

[chazzycat]

Thanks guys!!

Originally Posted by Kushiel

Congrats! I am jealously still trying.

Wow...22 attempts. That is brutal. I thought I had it bad with needing 16 tries. Don't lose hope!

[frankbama]

Originally Posted by chazzycat

Thanks! My park factors were maxed for lefty average, and both doubles & triples. Everything else was minimized. Basically just trotted Collins-Gwynn-Tris-Brett-Carew-BHam-Arky out there regardless of SP. My home record ended up VERY good, I don't recall exactly but over .700. For the rotation I am using the top 4 lefties + Maddux. No openers or any tricks anymore, just playing it straight for the most part and letting the great lefty cards do their thing.

You were probably one of the ones that smoked me if you were in P.400! I was dead last or maybe 2nd to last by the time it all shook out.

I did adjust my park to a more balanced dimensions to see how my guys do, who excels in which situations. It's not the players I have but which ones I play and how/where/strat etc. All the missions done and made a few purchases on top of those.

I don't think openers work at all - maybe I'm wrong but the players at this point in the cycle are too good for it to matter that much. I think any games I lost to openers were because of later in the game.