Using MR effectively

[kemper5]

I have them on my roster and figure combined they will put out #'s a pretty good starter would put out..

10-12 wins, 185+ K's, 3.00 to 3.25 ish era, 1.200 ish Whip and maybe 5-10 Saves??? Combined they should be not bad at all, what do you think?

[decoy562]

Yes. We've covered this recently I believe, try the search button. I believe we had a good thread on this.

[CBMGreatOne]

Yes, the only problem is that a starter only takes up one roster spot, whereas those will occupy two. Beyond that, a good starter would pitch 200 innings, those guys will combine for about 130 innings. That being said, there ratios will probably be unbelievable when compared to starters, so their impact on your ERA could be like that of one great starter.

[Chrisy Moltisanti]

League size/setting are going to have a large impact in your situation.

[thehotcorner]

i like to go with shields...

rubber arm and usually pitches more innings than your average reliver. also usually ends the season with a decent amount of wins (due to the way he is used) and a handful of saves.

i love grabbing closers with elite setup men, since it makes it that much more valuable to me to hold those relievers since they are also insurance policies...

K-Rod / Shields
Street / The Duke
Rodney / Zumaya
Wickman / Soriano
Hoffman / Linebrink
Saito / Broxton

Any one of those setup men have value alone and paired with their closer make great tandems.

[Chrisy Moltisanti]

You might want to consider how Todd Jones and Mike Gonzalez figure in to that equation hotcorner.

[thehotcorner]

You might want to consider how Todd Jones and Mike Gonzalez figure in to that equation hotcorner.

You get my drift.

Regardless, I'd take Soriano and Zumaya. Those are two of the best MRs out there. Put in Shields and those would be my top 3 MRs in the game.

[samjerky]

Yes, the only problem is that a starter only takes up one roster spot, whereas those will occupy two. Beyond that, a good starter would pitch 200 innings, those guys will combine for about 130 innings. That being said, there ratios will probably be unbelievable when compared to starters, so their impact on your ERA could be like that of one great starter.

OK I'm new to this, but isn't this the idea, especially H2H - you use your great starter on the day he starts. Then, you put in these MR guys. You're going to have WHIP and ERA locked down if you've got, like, Shields, Zumaya, Broxton, let's say. If you've got a decent closer, you're likely going to win that as well with vulture saves. So now you've got three out of 5 cats owned, and since you're already using your starter on the day he starts, you're probably going to win Ks as well. Since you have all these MRs because you emphasized hitters in the early rounds, you're going to win the majority of hitting cats as well. Tah dah?

[CBMGreatOne]

All of the above is certainly true, but if the race is close in hitting and you could be using one of those roster spots to get you a few more Rs, HRs, RBIs, and SBs on off days from an extra bench player in leagues with no limit on games played. If it's weekly roster changes it's less of an issue.

All I'm saying is, yes, they are as good or better than one great starter, but they still do take two roster spots, that's a disadvantage when compared to just one.

[Chrisy Moltisanti]

You might want to consider how Todd Jones and Mike Gonzalez figure in to that equation hotcorner.

You get my drift.

Regardless, I'd take Soriano and Zumaya. Those are two of the best MRs out there. Put in Shields and those would be my top 3 MRs in the game.

What rounds to you usually have to take them in?