Just wanted to get some thoughts on how people view balance in h2h? Right now I'm leading the league in all hitting categories, but got offered a steal of Berkman for Halladay. I throw 6 guys every week: Halladay, Beckett, Maine, Sheets, Hudson, Vazquez. Would you improve your offense even if its the best by compromising your team's balance?
In h2h, its all about offense. I usually use my first 4 picks on offense, since offense is more consistent on a week to week basis. If you draft Santana first round, he could have a crappy week and ruin your pitching stats for the week. A player like Holliday wont kill you if he has a bad week. Also, pitchers are much greater injury risks.
Pretty much, yes. I'd take that Berkman deal all day.
Balance is important in H2H, but being less susceptible to week-to-week fluctuations is more important. Loading up on top-shelf batters increases your likelihood that your numbers won't drag week to week. Likewise, strong pitching from top to bottom can decrease fluctuations, but it's harder to do away with 1 or 2 bad starts for the week than it is for strong hitting to make up ground.
Howie wrote:In h2h, its all about offense. I usually use my first 4 picks on offense, since offense is more consistent on a week to week basis. If you draft Santana first round, he could have a crappy week and ruin your pitching stats for the week. A player like Holliday wont kill you if he has a bad week. Also, pitchers are much greater injury risks.
Well, you're also paying for Johan's reliability that he runs into less suspect outings week to week than other SP's too.
However, this just highlights the fact you can create a stellar staff from top to bottom without breaking the bank. For example, this is from one of my teams this year:
Brandon Webb Scott Kazmir Chad Billingsley Dustin McGowan Ervin Santana Johnny Cueto (Francisco Liriano)
This staff has consistently won 4 to 5 of 6 available categories every week (we count holds). It doesn't look like much when considering Cueto is a new acquisition, but I had Lincecum too before I sold him for Sizemore. If I can get Hanley, Braun, Sizemore, Markakis, and CB Young to get going most weeks, I'll have some very, very good balance.
It is true that ERA is important, but I could also argue that what you should do is draft offense-heavy and then, in the middle rounds, get some high-ceiling starters and pick up an elite reliever or 2 before filling out your staff in the late rounds with elite MRs. A RP-heavy staff will generally be better at 3 of the 5 categories (ERA, WHIP, SV) and depending on how you do with midseason pickups/FA acquisitions you could actually compete some weeks in W and K as well.
I agree on taking the trade. Halladay's good but you can stream that starting spot and get results that won't hurt you too badly. Guys like Randy Wolf, Todd Wellemeyer, Jose Contreras, etc. might still be on your waiver-wire, and they are all stream-worthy pitchers.
What if your team is balanced but weak? Sure you can consistently score in categories across the board, but your team could just be consistently bad. In that case should you try to make trades to overload certain categories? If so, which ones would you suggest?
This isn't for my team btw, just a general thing I think people may find helpful.
freeling_prideful wrote:It is true that ERA is important, but I could also argue that what you should do is draft offense-heavy and then, in the middle rounds, get some high-ceiling starters and pick up an elite reliever or 2 before filling out your staff in the late rounds with elite MRs. A RP-heavy staff will generally be better at 3 of the 5 categories (ERA, WHIP, SV) and depending on how you do with midseason pickups/FA acquisitions you could actually compete some weeks in W and K as well.
I absolutely agree. There are high-ceiling starters to be had in the middle rounds (Lincecum & Billingsley) and this year, a few were to be had in the late rounds, waiver wire, and FA (Volquez, Marcum, E. Santana, Cueto). By the same token, it's important to not have gaps in your pitching staff. Ideally, you want a guy like Marcum or Ervin Santana to be your "worst" starter. The best-case scenario you can have is to be top-heavy in hitting so as to avoid the week-to-week fluctuations most times while have a staff you didn't spend too much on that keeps you competitive week to week.
JasonSeahorn wrote:What if your team is balanced but weak? Sure you can consistently score in categories across the board, but your team could just be consistently bad. In that case should you try to make trades to overload certain categories? If so, which ones would you suggest?
This isn't for my team btw, just a general thing I think people may find helpful.
Obviously, you don't want to be too good in any one category while struggling to make up in others. So, you have to find a balance between consistency and well, balance. That's kind of the magic you have to come up with in H2H.
I try to overload on batters that will provide strong HR, RBI numbers week to week and aren't a liability in average, while providing a little in SB. The concentration is on power, but also to not shoot yourself in the foot on potentially negative categories. The same applies to pitching, think of wins and K's, but not to affect yourself negatively in ERA and WHIP.
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by moose32 » Sat Jun 07, 2008 6:27 pm 
