Lefty Cheese Team

[MrCubby]

For the past 2 years in PT, I have made one of my teams Lefty themed. All hitters are left handed, with park factors adjusted to favor lefties and punish righties. I saw a post on here a few years back about it. I thought it would be a fun experiment. In PT20 it worked beautifully (especially with budget cards like 69 bronze Tony Gwynn). I was able to win several DL and PL championships. This season it has not worked out nearly as well. I've had a really hard time finding affordable middle infielders to compete at the high levels. platoon splits are also a mess with all lefty hitters. This team has been FTP until the recent sale.

After banking around 80k over the past month. I decided to sell my SE Ashburn card (for 75k). After 2 seasons he performed very poorly and wasn't that much of an upgrade over my 92 diamond Ichiro card.
I then sold Fred Lynn, who had performed far better then expected for 2 seasons but I didn't see his bat playing above GL.
I also took advantage of the winter sale and spent $60 for 175k PP. Now with over 360k, I was able to make several needed upgrades. Below are the results.

Upgrades;

Hitting-
1. I really wanted the new 100 Sliding Billy Hamilton Card. I used the 97 variant for quite some time and he was a really fun card but can't play above GL especially with all the newer cards. After seeing how much the mission for him was going to cost. I decided to just purchase him for 52k. So far he has been an absolute machine (in GL). In 350 PA's he's slashing .330/420/450. He has also stolen 33 SB's in 37 attempts. He's trained up to 121 in LF as well.

2. An upgrade at 3B was also at the top of my list. I have tried several players here but their bats were underwhelming. I opted for FOF George Brett (88k).

3. Secondly I needed a replacement RF after selling Ashburn and I wanted a big bat that could hit vR and vL. FOF Stan Musial was my pick and he came trained at severl positions(88k). I'm will primarily run him in LF or RF.

4. At Catcher I purchased Joe Mauer for 65k. Yogi had been solid in Gold but fell off completely each time I moved up to Diamond.

Current Lineup;

LF- Billy Hamilton (100)
1B- Dan Brouthers (95)
3B- George Brett (FOF)
DH- Ted Williams (100 SE)
RF- Stan Musial (FOF)
CF- Ken Griffey (FOF)
C- Joe Mauer (FOF)
2B- Eddie Collins (100)
SS- Johnny Pesky (93)


Pitching-

5. I needed a front end starter. I purchase FOF Plank a while back and He's been good but not great. I considered David Price, as he would suppress Lefties extremely well at home but he was a little outside my budget. A Madison Bumgarner card caught my eye and I was able to purchase it below L7 at 83k.

6. My last addition is to the Bullpen. Which needs a couple upgrades dearly. With the 29k I have left, I plan to purchase 100 Bruce Sutter once my Tom Gordon card sells. Charles Bender has been my interim closer this season and Surprisingly has a 0.00 ERA with 20 SV's in 30 IP.

Current rotation;
Madison Bumgarner
Greg Maddux
Eddie Plank
Waite Hoyt
Left Grove

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. Suggestions are welcomed.

[daves]

Lineup is impressive. It's hard to find decent lefty middle infielders.

If you are going full lefty cheese mode, I suggest at least 4 of the 5 starting pitchers as lefties. All 5 would be make sense as well.

[johnnyshaka]

Arky Vaughan at SS, at least as half of a platoon, has worked well for me. Cano at 3B vL is as cheap as it gets.

As for pitching, any lefty starters with great control should get you good starts, at least at home anyway. Guys like Kaat, Walberg, and Pettitte are decent enough for the backend while guys like Spahn, Koufax, and Blue can bolster any rotation.

[dboeyr12007]

Pop Lloyd is one of the best shortstops in the game regardless of hand and he is a lefty hitter.

[Catchthedamnball]

Originally Posted by MrCubby

After banking around 80k over the past month. I decided to sell my SE Ashburn card (for 75k). After 2 seasons he performed very poorly and wasn't that much of an upgrade over my 92 diamond Ichiro card.

That's a shame. I'm a huge fan of Ashburn. Over the 5 DL seasons I've now had him, he's slashing .314/.380/.423 in the max-lefties park with good defense on the long side of a RF platoon. And he terrorizes diamond cap formats. While Ichiro is more split-proof, that kind of batting average in DL would be a high roll for him and that high an OBP is unthinkable.

Judging by the looks of your team, you're close to the point where even with a lefty team you get diminishing returns for upgrading your lefty bats. Aside from the last couple lefties to round out your lineup like Pop (as dboeyr mentioned) or Roger Connor for 1B, I would recommend investing in some right-handed backups. FotF Kaline is a fine RH platoon guy at any outfield position but his defensive abilities are best used in CF or RF, FotF Campy behind the plate, and FotF Ripken can platoon at any IF position (but on your team I'd say you need him most at 2B).

As for pitching, you can definitely stack up LH in the rotation as daves said. Price, HL Spahn, Sale, Pettitte... there are tons of options. Just look for ratings similar to Plank's and Bumgarner's.
If you do end up going 5 LHSP, don't be afraid to also stack RHP in the bullpen. Maddux and Hoyt should be serviceable there, and the CWS trio-- Foulke, Jenks, Howry-- are budget champions (just try to prevent the AI from throwing them into high-leverage situations). Bullpen luxuries would include FotF Feller, Bobby Mathews, and Ruffing.

[MrCubby]

Originally Posted by Catchthedamnball

That's a shame. I'm a huge fan of Ashburn. Over the 5 DL seasons I've now had him, he's slashing .314/.380/.423 in the max-lefties park with good defense on the long side of a RF platoon. And he terrorizes diamond cap formats. While Ichiro is more split-proof, that kind of batting average in DL would be a high roll for him and that high an OBP is unthinkable.

Judging by the looks of your team, you're close to the point where even with a lefty team you get diminishing returns for upgrading your lefty bats. Aside from the last couple lefties to round out your lineup like Pop (as dboeyr mentioned) or Roger Connor for 1B, I would recommend investing in some right-handed backups. FotF Kaline is a fine RH platoon guy at any outfield position but his defensive abilities are best used in CF or RF, FotF Campy behind the plate, and FotF Ripken can platoon at any IF position (but on your team I'd say you need him most at 2B).

As for pitching, you can definitely stack up LH in the rotation as daves said. Price, HL Spahn, Sale, Pettitte... there are tons of options. Just look for ratings similar to Plank's and Bumgarner's.
If you do end up going 5 LHSP, don't be afraid to also stack RHP in the bullpen. Maddux and Hoyt should be serviceable there, and the CWS trio-- Foulke, Jenks, Howry-- are budget champions (just try to prevent the AI from throwing them into high-leverage situations). Bullpen luxuries would include FotF Feller, Bobby Mathews, and Ruffing.

Awesome feedback. I have Ichiro as a 4th outfielder, who's serviceable at all 3 spots. I'd like to get Ashburn again eventually but couldn't justify the expense as a 4th outfielder. I'm gonna give Musial some run and if his glove is decent, I really like his bat. Time will tell. I'd love to have Price in the rotation and will eventually move Maddux to the pen. I have been planning to pick up at least one of the White Sox trio you mentioned. I also looked at Pop for SS but he was going for at least 135k and is really bad vL. I am considering just getting FotF Robin Yount for vL and giving him some starts over Pesky vR to see how he does. I also like the suggestion of Kaline as he has been really good on my other two teams. I'll look into Ripken as well.

[MrCubby]

Originally Posted by johnnyshaka

Arky Vaughan at SS, at least as half of a platoon, has worked well for me. Cano at 3B vL is as cheap as it gets.

As for pitching, any lefty starters with great control should get you good starts, at least at home anyway. Guys like Kaat, Walberg, and Pettitte are decent enough for the backend while guys like Spahn, Koufax, and Blue can bolster any rotation.

I had Cano for a while but he just didn't perform the past few seasons for some reason. I regret selling him now as he was trained at all 4 inf spots. Might pick him up as an end of the bench guy. I was Curious about Arky Vaughn as well. He'd be a great backup vR. I packed Spahn one of my other teams and he has been a great SP. I think he'd be even better on this team given the home park. Thanks for the feedback!

[MrCubby]

Originally Posted by dboeyr12007

Pop Lloyd is one of the best shortstops in the game regardless of hand and he is a lefty hitter.

I've almost pulled the trigger on him a couple times, but rarely have the PP at a given time. I tried Willie Wells, but as a righty and in Diamond his bat was really bad. I do have him on my PT20 Lefty team at 2B and he's been really good.

[daves]

Pop Lloyd is nice but holds a high price. Pesky is a decent fielder and good against righties in a lefty chees park. Collins might be able to move to SS and you can add another lefty 2b. There are a few to choose from at 2b.

[fredbeene]

Originally Posted by MrCubby

For the past 2 years in PT, I have made one of my teams Lefty themed. All hitters are left handed, with park factors adjusted to favor lefties and punish righties. I saw a post on here a few years back about it. I thought it would be a fun experiment. In PT20 it worked beautifully (especially with budget cards like 69 bronze Tony Gwynn). I was able to win several DL and PL championships. This season it has not worked out nearly as well. I've had a really hard time finding affordable middle infielders to compete at the high levels. platoon splits are also a mess with all lefty hitters. This team has been FTP until the recent sale.

After banking around 80k over the past month. I decided to sell my SE Ashburn card (for 75k). After 2 seasons he performed very poorly and wasn't that much of an upgrade over my 92 diamond Ichiro card.
I then sold Fred Lynn, who had performed far better then expected for 2 seasons but I didn't see his bat playing above GL.
I also took advantage of the winter sale and spent $60 for 175k PP. Now with over 360k, I was able to make several needed upgrades. Below are the results.

Upgrades;

Hitting-
1. I really wanted the new 100 Sliding Billy Hamilton Card. I used the 97 variant for quite some time and he was a really fun card but can't play above GL especially with all the newer cards. After seeing how much the mission for him was going to cost. I decided to just purchase him for 52k. So far he has been an absolute machine (in GL). In 350 PA's he's slashing .330/420/450. He has also stolen 33 SB's in 37 attempts. He's trained up to 121 in LF as well.

2. An upgrade at 3B was also at the top of my list. I have tried several players here but their bats were underwhelming. I opted for FOF George Brett (88k).

3. Secondly I needed a replacement RF after selling Ashburn and I wanted a big bat that could hit vR and vL. FOF Stan Musial was my pick and he came trained at severl positions(88k). I'm will primarily run him in LF or RF.

4. At Catcher I purchased Joe Mauer for 65k. Yogi had been solid in Gold but fell off completely each time I moved up to Diamond.

Current Lineup;

LF- Billy Hamilton (100)
1B- Dan Brouthers (95)
3B- George Brett (FOF)
DH- Ted Williams (100 SE)
RF- Stan Musial (FOF)
CF- Ken Griffey (FOF)
C- Joe Mauer (FOF)
2B- Eddie Collins (100)
SS- Johnny Pesky (93)


Pitching-

5. I needed a front end starter. I purchase FOF Plank a while back and He's been good but not great. I considered David Price, as he would suppress Lefties extremely well at home but he was a little outside my budget. A Madison Bumgarner card caught my eye and I was able to purchase it below L7 at 83k.

6. My last addition is to the Bullpen. Which needs a couple upgrades dearly. With the 29k I have left, I plan to purchase 100 Bruce Sutter once my Tom Gordon card sells. Charles Bender has been my interim closer this season and Surprisingly has a 0.00 ERA with 20 SV's in 30 IP.

Current rotation;
Madison Bumgarner
Greg Maddux
Eddie Plank
Waite Hoyt
Left Grove

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. Suggestions are welcomed.

This worked wonderfully for me in 20, even using gold and silvers in PT.
Barely works in 21.....

[chazzycat]

lefty is still a very strong build in PT21. Gold & silver cards just don't really have a place in the higher levels because of the pyramid league structure, the talent level is just too high.

[MrCubby]

Originally Posted by chazzycat

lefty is still a very strong build in PT21. Gold & silver cards just don't really have a place in the higher levels because of the pyramid league structure, the talent level is just too high.

I agree. It is still a very viable strategy. I was able to win multiple PT20 PL championships with a team way worse then my PT21 team. There are way more high end cards in PT21 so it's harder to compete without top tier cards. There were also a lot of strangely rated cards in PT20 compared to 21. Your experiment post of running a Lefty Cheese, Balanced and a Power Team is why I started running a Left Cheese team in PT20 and 21. Thanks for the posts!

[brotherblues]

I would think it hard to find non-fictional left handed 2B, SS, and 3B. You're almost forced to be right handed at those positions so you can throw to first more smoothly on the vast majority of fielded balls. So you gotta find those few guys who throw right and bat left.

[chazzycat]

Originally Posted by brotherblues

I would think it hard to find non-fictional left handed 2B, SS, and 3B. You're almost forced to be right handed at those positions so you can throw to first more smoothly on the vast majority of fielded balls. So you gotta find those few guys who throw right and bat left.

thankfully they aren't quite THAT rare. Pop Lloyd, Johnny Pesky, and Johnny Evers have all been solid for me.

[chazzycat]

Originally Posted by MrCubby

I agree. It is still a very viable strategy. I was able to win multiple PT20 PL championships with a team way worse then my PT21 team. There are way more high end cards in PT21 so it's harder to compete without top tier cards. There were also a lot of strangely rated cards in PT20 compared to 21. Your experiment post of running a Lefty Cheese, Balanced and a Power Team is why I started running a Left Cheese team in PT20 and 21. Thanks for the posts!

cheers! I'm happy to hear someone got something from my ramblings

[wblake10]

Originally Posted by chazzycat

cheers! I'm happy to hear someone got something from my ramblings

I was running a GB-based team (without too much success) and decided to retool my team into a lefty cheese roster this week. It's been a lot of fun! Thanks for the idea