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FS, you can't go wrong with building on pitching. Trade Ferguson ASAP. Get some value while you can. Go for some strong inside defense. Keep Mazella, for his potential. See, what's happening is that everyone is throwing their team-building philosophies at you. For me, it's pitching and defense. First, you prevent runs. Secondly, you find ways to score runs.

Number ONE in PS, to my mind, is a strong pitching staff. You build your team around it. Better to win 2-1 than to lose 11-10, if you catch my drift. [;)]

OK, Ferguson's numbers don't look all that different from Mazella's. Negligible difference in WHIP, HRs about the same, etc. etc. I think the big difference has to be in run support. If this is the case, I would chalk it up as an inexplicable anomaly--like the '69 Mets or Dock Ellis' acid-fueled no-hitter. Mazella is pitching on days when his team can't score runs, and Ferguson, while not a bad pitcher--is mostly just one lucky SOB.

I'm with KG. Good pitching is bedrock to a good team. Trade Ferguson while he still has some value--in a couple of years his arm is going to go soft on him. SpharV2 also makes a good point. I also will gladly sacrifice some offense from my SS or 2B if he has a magic glove; Dal Maxvill couldn't hit his weight for the Cardinals, but he sucked up ground balls like a Shop-Vac.

I'd say keep him. If he is the only solid pitcher you have & if you like his numbers, why get rid of him. As to how long he'll last, just look below at my ACE!!!

And here is his playoff stats.

Hmmm. You've only got Ferguson for this season and the next, and he is winning games, lucky SOB or not. I may have to change my opinion on this a bit. He's probably as good as he's gonna get (potential of 1), and he may have at least one good season left in him after this one. Maybe even two. Perhaps you ought to keep him around. Maybe offer him a 1-year extension, and see if the amounts he will sign for go up or down as the length of the contract increases--this is a good indicator for me if a player has peaked. If he's willing to go another year for $6 million, and 2 years for $5.8 million...you can see where that is going. If he wants $10 mil, maybe it's too early to pull the plug.

I hope this makes sense. It's Friday and my brain hurts.

Bustoff,

I do the same thing with "aging" pitchers when they start heading into their 30s; I look at the asking price for a contract renewal and do the 1-year thing. In the case of Ferguson though, I see the value of trading him off while he's "hot" and attractive to other teams as well as the gain in retaining him with year-to-year extensions, failing to renew it after I begin to witness obvious signs of deterioration. One little detail that may have gone overlooked by most is the in-game date; August 17th. It's too late to trade him for this season. I can consider that as an option after it's all over, but as we all know, players just don't seem to trade as well after the season ends, when their stats are all zeroes.

Thus, with the trade option off the table, I'm going to go ahead and ride him out to see what he does. It's like the case of Orioles outfielder Brady Anderson- he hit 50 home runs in 1996 but never hit more than 24 any of the other 14 years he played. I think that with Ferguson, I'm going to go with whatever principle Anderson's manager at the time probably adopted, "I don't know and I can't explain what's happening, but I'm not going to touch him".

On the matter of Mazella, whatever little drought or slump or funk he's going through cannot last forever with numbers like this. I'm keeping him and there's no doubt about it. Perhaps the two of them would be the foundation, the bastions of stability for an entirely revamped and reworking pitching staff?

About defense, I must agree with what you are all saying. I have been blinded by the offensive power from my other fictional association and the team I manage there. Focusing on players' defensive abilities over their offensive abilities is something that I have not only underestimated, but (embarassingly enough) publically admitted I underestimated, and then still failed to do nothing to improve on it.

Before sending him down, I had a starting SS by the name of DeWitt who was a really good fielder, but he couldn't hit the ground if he fell. As offense-challenged as he may be, perhaps its time for me to make book the flight and bring him up to the majors. I'm going to start really looking at defensive capabilities and pitching, as KG suggested. Then, I'll build around that.

I really loved the winning 2-1 vs. winning 11-10 comparisons and I completely see the logic and sensibility in this.

At the end of the season, I'm going to rework the infield and look close at our outfielders. Priority will go to Mazella and Ferguson and 1 or 2 others on the pitching staff, while everyone else is getting shipped or traded out. I'm going to look at our minors and see put added weight in fielding capability; a detail that I have allowed to slip too long in favor of a heavy bat.

I'll continue to post here as time goes on to share interesting changes and events, but it looks like a major renovation of the Key West Rum Runners is coming; even if the new end-plan differs from the original one.

Thanks again, everyone!

Mazella and Ferguson and...pray for rain?

Good luck in your rebuilding efforts.

Wow. People who have never met carrying on a serious discussion about people who don't even exist. Gotta love it!

ORIGINAL: Bustoff

Wow. People who have never met carrying on a serious discussion about people who don't even exist. Gotta love it!

That's what makes this such a great game.

ORIGINAL: Bustoff

Mazella and Ferguson and...pray for rain?

Good luck in your rebuilding efforts.

Wow. People who have never met carrying on a serious discussion about people who don't even exist. Gotta love it!

Ray Kinsella's brother-in-law:"I thought you were watching some sort of game?
Do you see the baseball people?"

Ray's daughter: "Of course I do". [:D]

ORIGINAL: KG Erwin

ORIGINAL: Bustoff

Mazella and Ferguson and...pray for rain?

Good luck in your rebuilding efforts.

Wow. People who have never met carrying on a serious discussion about people who don't even exist. Gotta love it!

Ray Kinsella's brother-in-law:"I thought you were watching some sort of game?
Do you see the baseball people?"

Ray's daughter: "Of course I do". [:D]

KG,

...later on in the movie...

Ray Kinsella's brother-in-law: "Hey, when did these baseball players get here?"

[:)]

Frozen,

I would never trade Mazella. Personally there's nobody in my fictional league with that much talent, that young and with such an increadibly high potential rating. I'd say in two years he'll be a twenty game winner with an ERA around 2.5, and he'll lead Key West to their first Championship. No doubt it will be a great party at Sloppy Joe's that night.

Go Marlins! (And when I say go I don't mean move to Vegas or San Antonio). [:-]