Looking for upgrade advice

Orcin · 06-12-2020, 01:03 PM

My FTP team is currently in gold for at least another week. I have completed the live missions and I am playing mostly SE rewards. The team is about .500 in gold and the pitching/defense is slightly better than the offense. I have been using a neutral park because I don't really have the players to move to a more focused strategy. I do favor defense, especially up the middle, but I don't really have a preference for power or contact team.

I am using tournaments to generate packs and saving all points for significant upgrades. I am trying to decide what position(s) I should upgrade next, and how far to go. I am not really a patient person, so I am not willing to sit on this roster for two months and save for one end-game card. I would rather save for two weeks and improve a position. I am not a big fan of moving players to other positions where the defense would be adequate but not superior, such as training Cano at 3B/SS. I would prefer to find players that really fit the positions. I don't mind if I end up as a gold-diamond bouncer team for a while. However, I would like to move forward at each position and not just move away from the SE cards to an equal but less cookie-cutter team.

Here is the current roster. I would really appreciate your thoughts on where to upgrade, which cards to target, and how much to spend. I think this would probably be useful for a lot of players that are in a similar position as mine - having a team full of SE rewards and wanting to move forward to a more unique team.

Lineup:
C - SE Berra / SE Kendall (don't like Piazza's poor defense)
1B - SE Bagwell
2B - SE Cano
3B - SE Mathews / SE Longoria
SS - SE Tulowitzki
LF - SE Yastrzemski
CF - SE Suzuki
RF - SE Snider / SE Winfield
DH - SE Piazza, SE Kiner, or SE B.Williams (haven't really decided)

Rotation:
SE Maddux
SE Lyons
SE Blyleven
SE Carlton
SE Johnson

Bullpen:
CL - Greg Holland (Peak legend)
SU - SE Nathan
LR/MR - SE Mussina, SE Wainwright, SE Plank
other RP - various golds

I think I will pull enough from packs to continue upgrading the bullpen so I don't want to spend any points there. I would consider a starter but I don't think I can improve over the current five without spending a lot of points. I would rather upgrade two positions in the field over one starting pitcher that would be only marginally better than my current group. But maybe I am wrong about that.

My current plan was to initially target an upgrade at shortstop and third base. I was considering 10-15K for each position, someone like the low diamond Reese at short and either Traynor or Ken Boyer at third. Then I wondered if those upgrades would really be enough to matter, and decided to come here and ask for help first. Thanks for any suggestions that you have.

professor ape · 06-12-2020, 01:46 PM

We are in very similar situations. I got my Maddux and Yogi cards in the last hour and am now thinking “What’s next?”. I got lucky early on and pulled a Hughie Jennings 100 Legends card to take care of SS. It looks like I could sell him for 150K+ but he rocks with a 113 DEF rating and solid offense so I will be keeping him.
The bullpen is my big issue. The Live 97 Chapman has been consistently blowing saves at the silver level and I have a bunch of starters filling my middle relief right now. Any advice on the pen would be appreciated.

chazzycat · 06-12-2020, 02:15 PM

I would focus on PP generation as much as possible at that stage. The SE cards are super cost-effective...the upgrades from those cards are going to be expensive, there's just not much way around that. If you're not spamming tournies or working the markets, the path forward is pretty slow from that point.

I would definitely agree that SS and 3B are the weaknesses from the SE card set though.

bailey · 06-12-2020, 02:18 PM

The Hamtramck Tigers have just 4 players not LMRC. Had no trouble winning gold division last week with 97 wins.

Starting Rotation:
Same -- except just last night I bought Tim Hudson to replace Johnson. For 30K it's a real bargain. Holds up well in diamond, too.

Bullpen -- same (except for Holland). Have Fidrych (this is a Tigers team) and Osteen.

Lineup
C - Edit: agreed
2B - I use Garry Templeton
3B - Cano
IF backup is Longoria (including 1B), Templeton backs up SS
RF Snider, backs up CF
LF-RF backup Winfield
DH Williams vR PIazza vL

As made up, it's probably 60-40 to NOT get relegated from diamond.

Orcin · 06-12-2020, 02:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bailey

C - not using Piazza vR is a mistake. Kendall vL

Piazza catching vR over Berra?

I will look at Hudson, thanks.

Bluenoser · 06-12-2020, 03:07 PM

My first season in Gold after 2 seasons in Silver, and much like you I have a lot of SE Cards

My lineup looks like this

C SE Berra/SE Kendall
1B SE Bagwell
2B SE Cano
3B SE Longoria/ 97 Alex Bregman
SS 100 Francisco Lindor who has provided solid defense (pulled from standard pack)
LF 100 Yelich (pulled from opening 6 packs)
CF SE Suzuki
RF SE Winfield
DH SE Yaz

SE Maddux
SE Seaver
SE Carlton
SE Mussina
SE Johnson

CL SE Nathan

Setup SE Chapman (he mostly sux for me)
Setup SE Wainwright

MR Joe Thatcher, Giovanny Gallegos, Brendan Donnelly

My Bullpen ERA is 8th, Starters, 2nd, Runs against 2nd, FIP 2nd, WAR 2nd.

Donnelly, who I've had from the start of the year, has almost always been terrible for me, but this year in Gold he's put up a 1.80 ERA, 2.53 FIP, 0.3 HR/9, 2.8 BB/9, and 10.4 K/9

Hitting is in top 10 across the board

The thing I'm finding in Gold, and in Silver, you can have a 10 game winning streak, and just as easily have a 10 game losing streak.

Most other teams have a lot of good cards too (or they wouldn't be in Gold) so it can be streaky for sure.

I also managed to snag a 96 Johnny Bench in a regular pack who I was playing but have since put on the market.

I would say the biggest inconsistency is always bullpen. A guy can have a gr8 season for you 1 year and stink the joint up the next year. I try to keep 4 or 5 MR of 85 or above handy that I can swap in and out during the
season as required. Last year in Silver I wound up sitting Chapman for most of the season he stunk so bad.

Hit and miss with relievers. Try one, try another if the 1st fails.

I would like to upgrade my RF though, Winfield hits good enough, but I prefer better D out there, and a strong arm.

bailey · 06-12-2020, 03:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Orcin

Piazza catching vR over Berra?

I will look at Hudson, thanks.

hmm, oops.

mayday10 · 06-12-2020, 03:50 PM

IMO, you should identify a 2B and a SS

Train Cano at 3B. Bump Tulo to the Moon

Starting pitching is in need of upgrades (which would flow the current SP into replacing some of the relievers). Look for good Non-Live diamonds and emphasize movement and control.

JeffersonJim · 06-12-2020, 04:03 PM

Since your goals are very practical, it might be good to see real examples. Here are a couple of .500ish squads heavy in SE Live cards in my diamond league this week. Each team has been in Diamond for 5+ weeks.

Orcin · 06-12-2020, 04:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

SS 100 Francisco Lindor who has provided solid defense (pulled from standard pack)
LF 100 Yelich (pulled from opening 6 packs)

Hitting is in top 10 across the board

My hitting is not top 10, so I am betting that Lindor and Yelich are making a difference for you. Lindor might be a decent upgrade for me at short.

I agree that you need extra arms to swap out in the bullpen. I hope to get some of those via tourney packs.

Orcin · 06-12-2020, 04:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mayday10

Train Cano at 3B.

Why not just leave Cano at second and get a third baseman instead? Who would I be looking for at second?

Orcin · 06-12-2020, 04:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeffersonJim

Since your goals are very practical, it might be good to see real examples. Here are a couple of .500ish squads heavy in SE Live cards in my diamond league this week. Each team has been in Diamond for 5+ weeks.

Thanks, that does help. There's a few interesting pitchers in that list.

I notice both teams are still running Tulo at short.

JeffersonJim · 06-12-2020, 04:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Orcin

I notice both teams are still running Tulo at short.

I couldn't make him work past iron personally. These teams are still running him out there at least part-time:

Orcin · 06-12-2020, 05:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chazzycat

The SE cards are super cost-effective...the upgrades from those cards are going to be expensive, there's just not much way around that.

I was afraid of that. I have calculated the average cost of the SE cards that I am using at 10K. I was thinking that 10-15K would not bring much of an upgrade, and possibly not even as good since the SE cards are so common that their prices are likely depressed compared to historical alternatives. So I guess I should be looking at 25-30K each as a minimum for an effective upgrade.

2tango2 · 06-12-2020, 08:45 PM

I've been playing Piazza at C with Parrish backing him up.....honestly don't see Piazza hurting teams...the number is scary but again haven't seen why that number even matters honestly.

Tulo does more than enough at D to warrant a place for him. He usually hits .240-260 with close to 20 jacks every year. Why drop insane PP on someone who will probably turn iin the same numbers.

I trained Cano at 3B and he is at 85. That works

Orcin · 06-12-2020, 09:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2tango2

I've been playing Piazza at C with Parrish backing him up.....honestly don't see Piazza hurting teams...the number is scary but again haven't seen why that number even matters honestly.

My pitchers walk an average of 1 extra batter per 9 IP with Piazza catching instead of Berra.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2tango2

Tulo does more than enough at D to warrant a place for him. He usually hits .240-260 with close to 20 jacks every year. Why drop insane PP on someone who will probably turn iin the same numbers.

There are 14 Tulos in my league with more than 500 career plate appearances at gold level. Two have a career BA above .240 and 4 are below .220 (including mine at .211 with a .617 OPS in over 2000 PA). So the majority (8) of these Tulos are hitting between .220 and .240 at gold level. Diamond is a big jump over gold, and I am planning for that level.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2tango2

I trained Cano at 3B and he is at 85. That works

Who do you have at 2B?

2tango2 · 06-12-2020, 10:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Orcin

Who do you have at 2B?

You know something....I have noticed more walks from pitchers I don't expect to walk that many batters. hmmmmmmm I take that back. I'll try Parrish back there with his 93 rating at C

But back to 2B

I'm actually playing the 68 Ozzie Smith there...he is only hitting .212 but that D....

Bluenoser · 06-13-2020, 05:13 AM

Tulo is a great bench player. I use him as a defensive sub and pinch hitter. You can train him to play all 4 IF positions too, so really flexible.

lightgrenade07 · 06-13-2020, 05:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2tango2

You know something....I have noticed more walks from pitchers I don't expect to walk that many batters. hmmmmmmm I take that back. I'll try Parrish back there with his 93 rating at C

But back to 2B

I'm actually playing the 68 Ozzie Smith there...he is only hitting .212 but that D....

We all like Ozzie's D

Orcin · 06-13-2020, 10:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lightgrenade07

We all like Ozzie's D

But does anyone play 68 Ozzie at diamond level?

06-12-2020, 01:03 PM	#1
Orcin Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Indiana Posts: 9,844	Looking for upgrade advice My FTP team is currently in gold for at least another week. I have completed the live missions and I am playing mostly SE rewards. The team is about .500 in gold and the pitching/defense is slightly better than the offense. I have been using a neutral park because I don't really have the players to move to a more focused strategy. I do favor defense, especially up the middle, but I don't really have a preference for power or contact team. I am using tournaments to generate packs and saving all points for significant upgrades. I am trying to decide what position(s) I should upgrade next, and how far to go. I am not really a patient person, so I am not willing to sit on this roster for two months and save for one end-game card. I would rather save for two weeks and improve a position. I am not a big fan of moving players to other positions where the defense would be adequate but not superior, such as training Cano at 3B/SS. I would prefer to find players that really fit the positions. I don't mind if I end up as a gold-diamond bouncer team for a while. However, I would like to move forward at each position and not just move away from the SE cards to an equal but less cookie-cutter team. Here is the current roster. I would really appreciate your thoughts on where to upgrade, which cards to target, and how much to spend. I think this would probably be useful for a lot of players that are in a similar position as mine - having a team full of SE rewards and wanting to move forward to a more unique team. Lineup: C - SE Berra / SE Kendall (don't like Piazza's poor defense) 1B - SE Bagwell 2B - SE Cano 3B - SE Mathews / SE Longoria SS - SE Tulowitzki LF - SE Yastrzemski CF - SE Suzuki RF - SE Snider / SE Winfield DH - SE Piazza, SE Kiner, or SE B.Williams (haven't really decided) Rotation: SE Maddux SE Lyons SE Blyleven SE Carlton SE Johnson Bullpen: CL - Greg Holland (Peak legend) SU - SE Nathan LR/MR - SE Mussina, SE Wainwright, SE Plank other RP - various golds I think I will pull enough from packs to continue upgrading the bullpen so I don't want to spend any points there. I would consider a starter but I don't think I can improve over the current five without spending a lot of points. I would rather upgrade two positions in the field over one starting pitcher that would be only marginally better than my current group. But maybe I am wrong about that. My current plan was to initially target an upgrade at shortstop and third base. I was considering 10-15K for each position, someone like the low diamond Reese at short and either Traynor or Ken Boyer at third. Then I wondered if those upgrades would really be enough to matter, and decided to come here and ask for help first. Thanks for any suggestions that you have.

06-12-2020, 01:46 PM	#2
professor ape All Star Starter Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: The belly of the beast Posts: 1,498	We are in very similar situations. I got my Maddux and Yogi cards in the last hour and am now thinking “What’s next?”. I got lucky early on and pulled a Hughie Jennings 100 Legends card to take care of SS. It looks like I could sell him for 150K+ but he rocks with a 113 DEF rating and solid offense so I will be keeping him. The bullpen is my big issue. The Live 97 Chapman has been consistently blowing saves at the silver level and I have a bunch of starters filling my middle relief right now. Any advice on the pen would be appreciated. __________________

06-12-2020, 02:18 PM	#4
bailey Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 3,315	The Hamtramck Tigers have just 4 players not LMRC. Had no trouble winning gold division last week with 97 wins. Starting Rotation: Same -- except just last night I bought Tim Hudson to replace Johnson. For 30K it's a real bargain. Holds up well in diamond, too. Bullpen -- same (except for Holland). Have Fidrych (this is a Tigers team) and Osteen. Lineup C - Edit: agreed 2B - I use Garry Templeton 3B - Cano IF backup is Longoria (including 1B), Templeton backs up SS RF Snider, backs up CF LF-RF backup Winfield DH Williams vR PIazza vL As made up, it's probably 60-40 to NOT get relegated from diamond. Last edited by bailey; 06-12-2020 at 03:12 PM.

06-12-2020, 03:07 PM	#6
Bluenoser Hall Of Famer Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: In The Moment Posts: 14,075	My first season in Gold after 2 seasons in Silver, and much like you I have a lot of SE Cards My lineup looks like this C SE Berra/SE Kendall 1B SE Bagwell 2B SE Cano 3B SE Longoria/ 97 Alex Bregman SS 100 Francisco Lindor who has provided solid defense (pulled from standard pack) LF 100 Yelich (pulled from opening 6 packs) CF SE Suzuki RF SE Winfield DH SE Yaz SE Maddux SE Seaver SE Carlton SE Mussina SE Johnson CL SE Nathan Setup SE Chapman (he mostly sux for me) Setup SE Wainwright MR Joe Thatcher, Giovanny Gallegos, Brendan Donnelly My Bullpen ERA is 8th, Starters, 2nd, Runs against 2nd, FIP 2nd, WAR 2nd. Donnelly, who I've had from the start of the year, has almost always been terrible for me, but this year in Gold he's put up a 1.80 ERA, 2.53 FIP, 0.3 HR/9, 2.8 BB/9, and 10.4 K/9 Hitting is in top 10 across the board The thing I'm finding in Gold, and in Silver, you can have a 10 game winning streak, and just as easily have a 10 game losing streak. Most other teams have a lot of good cards too (or they wouldn't be in Gold) so it can be streaky for sure. I also managed to snag a 96 Johnny Bench in a regular pack who I was playing but have since put on the market. I would say the biggest inconsistency is always bullpen. A guy can have a gr8 season for you 1 year and stink the joint up the next year. I try to keep 4 or 5 MR of 85 or above handy that I can swap in and out during the season as required. Last year in Silver I wound up sitting Chapman for most of the season he stunk so bad. Hit and miss with relievers. Try one, try another if the 1st fails. I would like to upgrade my RF though, Winfield hits good enough, but I prefer better D out there, and a strong arm. Last edited by Bluenoser; 06-13-2020 at 07:59 AM.

06-12-2020, 03:50 PM	#8
mayday10 Minors (Double A) Join Date: Jan 2020 Posts: 175	IMO, you should identify a 2B and a SS Train Cano at 3B. Bump Tulo to the Moon Starting pitching is in need of upgrades (which would flow the current SP into replacing some of the relievers). Look for good Non-Live diamonds and emphasize movement and control. __________________

06-12-2020, 02:15 PM	#3
chazzycat All Star Starter Join Date: Dec 2014 Posts: 1,685	I would focus on PP generation as much as possible at that stage. The SE cards are super cost-effective...the upgrades from those cards are going to be expensive, there's just not much way around that. If you're not spamming tournies or working the markets, the path forward is pretty slow from that point. I would definitely agree that SS and 3B are the weaknesses from the SE card set though.

06-12-2020, 04:03 PM	#9
JeffersonJim Minors (Single A) Join Date: Mar 2020 Posts: 57	Since your goals are very practical, it might be good to see real examples. Here are a couple of .500ish squads heavy in SE Live cards in my diamond league this week. Each team has been in Diamond for 5+ weeks. Attached Images __________________

06-12-2020, 08:45 PM	#15
2tango2 Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Apr 2020 Location: AZ Posts: 265	I've been playing Piazza at C with Parrish backing him up.....honestly don't see Piazza hurting teams...the number is scary but again haven't seen why that number even matters honestly. Tulo does more than enough at D to warrant a place for him. He usually hits .240-260 with close to 20 jacks every year. Why drop insane PP on someone who will probably turn iin the same numbers. I trained Cano at 3B and he is at 85. That works __________________ PT21 PT22

06-13-2020, 05:13 AM	#18
Bluenoser Hall Of Famer Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: In The Moment Posts: 14,075	Tulo is a great bench player. I use him as a defensive sub and pinch hitter. You can train him to play all 4 IF positions too, so really flexible.