Pitching strategy?

[skjelstrom]

I drafted in league already but failed to look closely at the pitching categories At a glance it looked like the normal categories, but after the draft I realized the categories where quite different, being: W, SV, K, R, ER, ERA, AND WHIP. The league has 5 SP and 2 RP slots.

I drafted a strong core of SP, but with this I was thinking of maybe selling some of my strong SP such as Dan Haren or Weaver for a stronger offense and guys like Brett Myers. Maybe pick up Aceves also.

What do you guys think would make for a good pitching strategy with this type of league. Or should I just stick with the norm?

[BigZ38]

Head to head or roto? If its roto you probably have a minimum innings limit you must meet, and if its head to head you likely have a weekly minimum innings limit. Regardless, your best strategy is to have the strongest pitching staff as possible. If it is head to head monitor your opponents, if its roto you can probably try it out for a month or two before you try to drastically game the system.

[ayebatter]

Favors closers over starters, and good set up guys with high innings counts as much as starters.

[interchange]

That league setting is silly. You can put W's and K's and lock down every other cat pretty easily. Just put your aces in against good matchups until you're certain you'll get min innings then trade them for top closers and nail down SVs the rest of the way. With 7 cats, punting 2 won't mean much.

[Skin Blues]

That league setting is silly. You can put W's and K's and lock down every other cat pretty easily. Just put your aces in against good matchups until you're certain you'll get min innings then trade them for top closers and nail down SVs the rest of the way. With 7 cats, punting 2 won't mean much.

The problem is that you're assuming the other owners are oblivious to the scoring categories.

[skjelstrom]

This is a roto league. The problem with favoring closers and high inning setup guys is that there are only 2 RP slots, making it much harder to find good relief guys that fit in the SP slot also.

Trading high profile starters towards the end would work, but I don't think my league mates will be quite that oblivious.

With 7 cats, punting 2 won't mean much.

Sure you COULD punt K and W but how many GREAT SP eligible RP are you going to find to fill the 5 SP slots?

[interchange]

Sorry I should have read your slots set up. Screwy league settings. That's my only comment.

[Skin Blues]

Triple counting earned runs... yikes. That's a pretty terrible idea. How you value pitchers greatly depends on the IP minimum. If it's low, then you don't need as many. If it's a high limit then it puts a premium on SP with low ERA especially since you can only use 2 RP per day. Of course the real answer is probably between those two extremes. Main goal should be to target SPs with low ERA. Put almost no emphasis on their likelihood of winning games. So basically that means go grab those Padres starters if they can be had really cheap.

The easiest way for people to help is if you include all the league settings so we know bench spots, amount of teams, daily or weekly lineups, IP limits, etc. They all factor in.