can't wait until next season...

acclaim99 · 12-15-2018, 09:55 PM

Decided to get myself some packs to try to help my batting... well, it did the opposite, and strengthened my pitching even more.

Team for next season:

Rotation:
Verlander 96 (new)
Corbin 89 (new)
Snell 92
Paxton 89
Kopech 80

Pen:
AJ Puk 75
Craig Swan 71
Oberg 77
Carlos Martinez 80
Kaz Sasaki 81
Hoffman 84
Doolittle 89

I think my whole staff is pretty solid. Some high overall on my reserves are: Sipp 73, Duke 71, Wade Davis 70... Any recommendations ?

Lineup:
C Boone 78
1B Chris Taylor 73
2B Zobrist 81 (new)
3B Frank Baker 90
SS E Suarez 85
LF Ozuna 71
CF Puig 80
RF Al Kaline 84
DH Gyorko 71

Bench
C Barnes 70, B Crawford 71, Freese 68, W Wilson 69

Decent Reserves: Jose Abreu 66, JP Crawford 66, Hodges 66, Luis Aparacio 66, Lou Brock 64

How does everything look? Would you make any changes? Team didn't do too well (72-85) But, I feel like adding Verlander and Corbin will help, as it will push Snell (10-10, 4.27) to go against #3's, Paxton (8-13, 4.40) vs #4's, and Kopech (10-13, 4.27) to go versus 5's, if that makes sense.

It also gets Carlos Martinez (7-16, 5.72) out of the rotation, and AJ Puk to the pen.

Whatcha think?!

*edit* I did finish 2nd in the division, but 23 GB's, and 13.5 out of the WC

Zorro · 12-15-2018, 10:41 PM

Very nice....

Maddox · 12-16-2018, 10:30 AM

Spent last night and a little time this morning trying to actually add Cardinals players to my Cardinal team. I have it mostly set up. The entire starting lineup and rotation are Cardinals but the bullpen and subs still have a couple of non Cardinals.

The team is still in the Bronze league but here is hoping that they will be a bit more competitive this upcoming season.

Now back to my main team to see how quickly they get eliminated from the playoffs.

Asov · 12-16-2018, 10:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maddox

Spent last night and a little time this morning trying to actually add Cardinals players to my Cardinal team. I have it mostly set up. The entire starting lineup and rotation are Cardinals but the bullpen and subs still have a couple of non Cardinals.

The team is still in the Bronze league but here is hoping that they will be a bit more competitive this upcoming season.

Now back to my main team to see how quickly they get eliminated from the playoffs.

Do you have Enos Slaughter? He's great and cheap but hard to get.

DonkeyKongSr · 12-16-2018, 10:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maddox

Spent last night and a little time this morning trying to actually add Cardinals players to my Cardinal team. I have it mostly set up. The entire starting lineup and rotation are Cardinals but the bullpen and subs still have a couple of non Cardinals.

The team is still in the Bronze league but here is hoping that they will be a bit more competitive this upcoming season.

Now back to my main team to see how quickly they get eliminated from the playoffs.

I snagged 2003 Edgar Renteria for 1600 BIN last night. He's rated an 80 and his ratings look great for that price.

Weaseltail · 12-16-2018, 11:22 AM

Great draws. Those will really help next season.

All personal preference and depends a lot on how you want to structure your team and ballpark, but some things I'd consider:

Sell Snell and replace him with Severino or (if you have the points) one of the more affordable historical diamond SP like Cone (93) or Beckett (91). IMO Snell's one of the worst live diamond SP's and you have a string of three LHP right now. There are a lot more good RHB on most teams, so I tend to want more RHP on my roster.

I'd consider doing the same with Paxton (who I also don't like much) and replace him with Barker or an historical gold like Dierker, Perry (89) or Webb (89). Same reasons as above.

Boone is a great C, but I've had good luck platooning him with a LHB like Sciocia. He's about 2k pp, but running both him and Boone as a platoon has been great for me.

I'd consider upgrading at DH. JD Martinez is a good and fairly cheap option. If funds are tight, you could try a silver platoon like Webb or Mize (LH) and Skowron (RH). Enos Slaughter is another guy who is usually around/under 1k pp and has pretty even splits (so you don't need to platoon him).

Oberg is great as a RH specialist. His RH split is 85/79/71. I'd use him in this role, since he's not very effective against LHB.

I'd also try to upgrade at 1B. Again, there are some good/cheap silvers who you can platoon. You can also grab someone like Mattingly (77) or Dan T. Murphy (79) who don't need to be platooned. They will cost a little more, but they are as good as many mid/higher tier golds and much less expensive.

I'd also try to upgrade my SS/CF defense. It will help your pitching a lot and neither of your current starters are likely adding enough offense to make up for the def (don't have the numbers for either in front of me, but IIRC they are both playing somewhat out of position). Agee in CF is a good/cheap option, and you could try Simmons (89) or one of the silver historical guys at SS. If you do stick with your current guys, make sure to assign late-inning def replacements for both.

Good luck next season! You've got the foundation for a really nice team.

Orcin · 12-16-2018, 11:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maddox

Spent last night and a little time this morning trying to actually add Cardinals players to my Cardinal team. I have it mostly set up. The entire starting lineup and rotation are Cardinals but the bullpen and subs still have a couple of non Cardinals.

The team is still in the Bronze league but here is hoping that they will be a bit more competitive this upcoming season.

My all-Cardinals team got promoted to gold without making the playoffs. I am not sure it is ready for prime time, but here it is.

C Molina
1B Mize
2B Frisch
3B Boyer
SS Marion
LF Holliday
CF McGee
RF Slaughter
bench is weak

SP Mikolas
SP Martinez
SP Wainwright
SP Flaherty (Future Legend)
SP Wacha
CL Smith
SU Sutter
bullpen sucks after that

Matt Arnold · 12-16-2018, 11:29 AM

1B/DH seem like easy spots to upgrade. There's tons of bats that can play there, either paying the 1300 or so for any of the Rizzo/Votto/Muncy types in the auction house, or paying a little more and getting a historical guy. Or you could grab a new SS, and I don't imagine it would take long to train Suarez at 1B (or just play him DH).

I don't have the ratings on me, but there's even some guys in the 60s who are solid enough. Someone like Tony Perez I think would be better offensively.

acclaim99 · 12-16-2018, 04:06 PM

Thanks guys.

I spent time playing my regular challenge mode... thought i was going to be a rebuilding year, and ended up winning the WS in a tight game 7. My reward was a gold player pack, which ended up being 80 overall Josh Hader.

So, who should I replace Hader for....
AJ Puk - 75 overall - 90 stuff, 58 movement, 56 control, 50 stamina
Craig Swan - 71 overall - 76 stuff, 54 movement, 80 control, 100 stamina
Scott Oberg - 77 overall - 78 stuff, 71 movement, 68 control, 15 stamina

Josh Hader - 80 overall - 128 stuff, 49 movement, 46 control, 24 stamina

Man, my rotation and bullpen is about to be pretty dam good.. now if I could get my lineup better

Maddox · 12-16-2018, 04:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Orcin

My all-Cardinals team got promoted to gold without making the playoffs. I am not sure it is ready for prime time, but here it is.

C Molina
1B Mize
2B Frisch
3B Boyer
SS Marion
LF Holliday
CF McGee
RF Slaughter
bench is weak

SP Mikolas
SP Martinez
SP Wainwright
SP Flaherty (Future Legend)
SP Wacha
CL Smith
SU Sutter
bullpen sucks after that

Here is my lineup. I was kind of limited by what was available at the time

LF Lou Brock
SS Ozzie Smith
3B Albert Pujols (Rookie Sensation version)
1B Johnny Mize
RF Joe Medwick
CF Marcel Ozuna
DH Tommy Herr
2B Kolton Wong
C Molina

Main Sub Matt Carpenter

SP Mikolas
SP Ernie White
SP Martinez
SP Wainwright
SP Wacha

CL Lee Smith
RP Luke Gegerson
RP Jordan Hicks
RP Dominic Leone
RP Giovanny Gallegos

And a few non Cardinals because Decent Cardinal relievers see sparse. I would love to see Rosenthal, Hrabosky, Isringhausen, Jeff Lahti from 1985, etc

acclaim99 · 12-16-2018, 04:13 PM

Ok.

Back to my topic lol... Puk, Oberg, or Swan for Hader.... lol... sorry just trying to get this team ready for tomorrow.

**edit** Swan is good because of that stamina and emergency SP if needed, and Oberg is good... so sending down Puk....

Ya know, for just getting packs, this is coming along nicely:

Verlander, Corbin, Snell, Paxton, Kopech
Martinez, Swan, Oberg, Hader, Sasaki, Hoffman, Doolittle

If I can scrape up a lead , that bullpen should be able to hold them.

Orcin · 12-16-2018, 04:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maddox

And a few non Cardinals because Decent Cardinal relievers see sparse. I would love to see Rosenthal, Hrabosky, Isringhausen, Jeff Lahti from 1985, etc

Yes, I would love to have Rosie, and especially Hrabosky. My lefty is Tyler Lyons (yuk).

acclaim99 · 12-18-2018, 09:47 PM

I did some minor changes, logged on and had like 3k from games... instead of getting packs, I wanted to upgrade a couple batters.

I added Joey Votto to play 1st over Chris Taylor, and Manny Machado to SS, and moved Suarez to DH, so Gyorko is on the bench.

I really wanted to get that JD Martinez, but by the time I saw his card, I already had bids on Manny and Joey.. so it was too late.... but that will probably be the next card I go for.

This season hasn't started like I wanted it to, I'm sitting at 23-24, but it's early... my pitching staff that I thought would be doing really well, hasn't gotten into a groove yet.... last year, my bullpen was lights out.. almost all with a sub 2 era.. not the case so far.

But, I have a feeling the team will start to click with 2 new starting batters in play.

12-15-2018, 09:55 PM	#1
acclaim99 Major Leagues Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: NJ Posts: 486	can't wait until next season... Decided to get myself some packs to try to help my batting... well, it did the opposite, and strengthened my pitching even more. Team for next season: Rotation: Verlander 96 (new) Corbin 89 (new) Snell 92 Paxton 89 Kopech 80 Pen: AJ Puk 75 Craig Swan 71 Oberg 77 Carlos Martinez 80 Kaz Sasaki 81 Hoffman 84 Doolittle 89 I think my whole staff is pretty solid. Some high overall on my reserves are: Sipp 73, Duke 71, Wade Davis 70... Any recommendations ? Lineup: C Boone 78 1B Chris Taylor 73 2B Zobrist 81 (new) 3B Frank Baker 90 SS E Suarez 85 LF Ozuna 71 CF Puig 80 RF Al Kaline 84 DH Gyorko 71 Bench C Barnes 70, B Crawford 71, Freese 68, W Wilson 69 Decent Reserves: Jose Abreu 66, JP Crawford 66, Hodges 66, Luis Aparacio 66, Lou Brock 64 How does everything look? Would you make any changes? Team didn't do too well (72-85) But, I feel like adding Verlander and Corbin will help, as it will push Snell (10-10, 4.27) to go against #3's, Paxton (8-13, 4.40) vs #4's, and Kopech (10-13, 4.27) to go versus 5's, if that makes sense. It also gets Carlos Martinez (7-16, 5.72) out of the rotation, and AJ Puk to the pen. Whatcha think?! edit I did finish 2nd in the division, but 23 GB's, and 13.5 out of the WC Last edited by acclaim99; 12-15-2018 at 09:59 PM.

12-16-2018, 11:22 AM	#6
Weaseltail Minors (Double A) Join Date: Nov 2018 Posts: 127	Great draws. Those will really help next season. All personal preference and depends a lot on how you want to structure your team and ballpark, but some things I'd consider: Sell Snell and replace him with Severino or (if you have the points) one of the more affordable historical diamond SP like Cone (93) or Beckett (91). IMO Snell's one of the worst live diamond SP's and you have a string of three LHP right now. There are a lot more good RHB on most teams, so I tend to want more RHP on my roster. I'd consider doing the same with Paxton (who I also don't like much) and replace him with Barker or an historical gold like Dierker, Perry (89) or Webb (89). Same reasons as above. Boone is a great C, but I've had good luck platooning him with a LHB like Sciocia. He's about 2k pp, but running both him and Boone as a platoon has been great for me. I'd consider upgrading at DH. JD Martinez is a good and fairly cheap option. If funds are tight, you could try a silver platoon like Webb or Mize (LH) and Skowron (RH). Enos Slaughter is another guy who is usually around/under 1k pp and has pretty even splits (so you don't need to platoon him). Oberg is great as a RH specialist. His RH split is 85/79/71. I'd use him in this role, since he's not very effective against LHB. I'd also try to upgrade at 1B. Again, there are some good/cheap silvers who you can platoon. You can also grab someone like Mattingly (77) or Dan T. Murphy (79) who don't need to be platooned. They will cost a little more, but they are as good as many mid/higher tier golds and much less expensive. I'd also try to upgrade my SS/CF defense. It will help your pitching a lot and neither of your current starters are likely adding enough offense to make up for the def (don't have the numbers for either in front of me, but IIRC they are both playing somewhat out of position). Agee in CF is a good/cheap option, and you could try Simmons (89) or one of the silver historical guys at SS. If you do stick with your current guys, make sure to assign late-inning def replacements for both. Good luck next season! You've got the foundation for a really nice team. Last edited by Weaseltail; 12-16-2018 at 11:30 AM.

12-16-2018, 04:13 PM	#11
acclaim99 Major Leagues Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: NJ Posts: 486	Ok. Back to my topic lol... Puk, Oberg, or Swan for Hader.... lol... sorry just trying to get this team ready for tomorrow. edit Swan is good because of that stamina and emergency SP if needed, and Oberg is good... so sending down Puk.... Ya know, for just getting packs, this is coming along nicely: Verlander, Corbin, Snell, Paxton, Kopech Martinez, Swan, Oberg, Hader, Sasaki, Hoffman, Doolittle If I can scrape up a lead , that bullpen should be able to hold them. Last edited by acclaim99; 12-16-2018 at 04:23 PM.

12-15-2018, 10:41 PM	#2
Zorro Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 2,944 Blog Entries: 3	Very nice....

12-16-2018, 10:30 AM	#3
Maddox All Star Reserve Join Date: Jan 2013 Posts: 903	Spent last night and a little time this morning trying to actually add Cardinals players to my Cardinal team. I have it mostly set up. The entire starting lineup and rotation are Cardinals but the bullpen and subs still have a couple of non Cardinals. The team is still in the Bronze league but here is hoping that they will be a bit more competitive this upcoming season. Now back to my main team to see how quickly they get eliminated from the playoffs.

12-16-2018, 11:29 AM	#8
Matt Arnold OOTP Developer Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Here and there Posts: 14,127	1B/DH seem like easy spots to upgrade. There's tons of bats that can play there, either paying the 1300 or so for any of the Rizzo/Votto/Muncy types in the auction house, or paying a little more and getting a historical guy. Or you could grab a new SS, and I don't imagine it would take long to train Suarez at 1B (or just play him DH). I don't have the ratings on me, but there's even some guys in the 60s who are solid enough. Someone like Tony Perez I think would be better offensively.

12-16-2018, 04:06 PM	#9
acclaim99 Major Leagues Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: NJ Posts: 486	Thanks guys. I spent time playing my regular challenge mode... thought i was going to be a rebuilding year, and ended up winning the WS in a tight game 7. My reward was a gold player pack, which ended up being 80 overall Josh Hader. So, who should I replace Hader for.... AJ Puk - 75 overall - 90 stuff, 58 movement, 56 control, 50 stamina Craig Swan - 71 overall - 76 stuff, 54 movement, 80 control, 100 stamina Scott Oberg - 77 overall - 78 stuff, 71 movement, 68 control, 15 stamina Josh Hader - 80 overall - 128 stuff, 49 movement, 46 control, 24 stamina Man, my rotation and bullpen is about to be pretty dam good.. now if I could get my lineup better

12-18-2018, 09:47 PM	#13
acclaim99 Major Leagues Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: NJ Posts: 486	I did some minor changes, logged on and had like 3k from games... instead of getting packs, I wanted to upgrade a couple batters. I added Joey Votto to play 1st over Chris Taylor, and Manny Machado to SS, and moved Suarez to DH, so Gyorko is on the bench. I really wanted to get that JD Martinez, but by the time I saw his card, I already had bids on Manny and Joey.. so it was too late.... but that will probably be the next card I go for. This season hasn't started like I wanted it to, I'm sitting at 23-24, but it's early... my pitching staff that I thought would be doing really well, hasn't gotten into a groove yet.... last year, my bullpen was lights out.. almost all with a sub 2 era.. not the case so far. But, I have a feeling the team will start to click with 2 new starting batters in play.