Rebuilding: Is There A Sign?

[Frozen Stiffer]

In another fictional association I am playing, I just can't seem to get off the ground. In 5 seasons, we have yet to finish with a winning record. It's a 2-league, 8-teams per league setup; we finished a best of 6th place in our league and then it's been downhill from there.

Nothing I do can get us out of the gutter. Trades, call ups, send downs, FA signings-- nothing.

So, while reading an article on MLB.com, I read about a certain team once that had a fire sale after multiple losing seasons with high-priced veterans on the roster (not to mention my recollection of the Marlins' fire sale after the '97 year). What should I look for and/or what should I consider when deciding if I should sell off my veteran and big-money players and rebuild my team from the ground up? Is something of that magnitude even possible in PureSim?

All thoughts welcomed.

EDIT: I misremembered. I thought it had been 8 losing seasons. The association has only been around for 6, including the one we're in now, so I changed that to 5 losing seasons. Not good, just... slightly less bad.

[KG Erwin]

Maybe you can give us a look at the team roster and promising minor leaguers? After 8 years, it's sounding like the modern-day Pirates. [8|]

[Frozen Stiffer]

Not a bad idea. It's a team I play at home; I'll print the current lineup, rotation and promising (if any) minor leaguers.

[Frozen Stiffer]

Before I post those screenshots, I was really looking at the team in-depth.
 
Right now they're 44-46 and 8 games behind. We're doing better this year than any other, but I'm still VERY committed to this rebuilding idea. Only because after 5 losing seasons, being at 44-46 at roughly the halfway point of your 6th season, to me is not enough of an improvement to warrant dismissing the rebuilding plan.
 

[throttle8]

Frozen,

I have yet to play with fictional!!!:)

A couple of ideas:

Are you managing every game? If so, try running a week or a month at a time to see if your club can turn it around with the computer controlling things.

First, work on getting some very solid pitching. Once your rotation starts cutting down on runs scored & runners on base you may still be losing, but you will be making progress!!

After, the pitching is very stable, start working on some strong offensive power. Hopefully, it won't be long and you'll start seeing a turn-around!!!


I'm running one of my real player associations with a team that just won its 6th championship in the first 11 years of the association. If my memory is correct, I didn't make the playoffs in the first 1-2 years. After I was able to win a few championships, I started to get in a bad rut. My team would continue to have the best record in baseball for the season, go to the playoffs, and choke!!!!

After choking several times, I finally got back on track by 1st gaining a very solid pitching staff and then gaining a super powerful batting lineup (my last season I had 4 or 5 Gold Glove winners, for that year, in my line up).

The final "piece to the puzzle" is luck. Having Lady Luck on your side never hurts!!! (I've been very lucky not to have a lot injuries at the same time to my "club players"!!!

[Frozen Stiffer]

Looking through Throttle's suggestions, I reviewed my team in greater detail. It appears that our weakness is not so much in our offense as it is in our pitching staff. We have only 1 player with a winning record, and though it's a great record, he can't pitch every game. Our closer is efficient as is perhaps 2 of 6 relievers in the bullpen, but that's it. What angers me is a particular "ace" (a term which I now use loosely), our #1 pitcher who has remarkable stats, but doesn't bring it to the field. Of his three pitching stats (Stuff/Velo/Cont) all are over 80 and one is over 90. His record, if I recall correctly, is only 5-8 and his ERA in the mid-4s. My #2 guy isn't as good, though his numbers are still respectable (all three pitching stats over 70), and yet he too is unable to showcase this talent on the field.

Just this week we broke the .500 mark for the first time in the team's 5-year history; we sit at 60-56 as of end of day Monday. We're in 2nd place, but still 8.5 games behind. It's a close race too, as only 2 games seperates 2nd place from last.

Offensively we're doing fair. We have a huge power hitter in the #4 slot and good hitters with power in the #3 and #5 slots. Other than that, everyone else is simply unremarkable. I'll post the lineup tonight so you all can take a look.

The idea to rebuild is still strong, but it may not have to be a frame-off restoration...

[Taz0713]

Hi FS,
 
Based on what you said above, I would ask you what your defense is like behind those pitchers.  Are you strong defensively up the middle?  Is the reason you Ace has a 4+ earn run average, because balls are getting through the infield (would a better defensive shortstop get to that ball?  Centerfielder?)  Do my pitchers induce groudballs or are they flyball pitchers?  How does this translate to my home park?
 
I just find for me if I get to worried about my pitching staff I seem to forget about these things and I just focus on pitching ratings.  It doesn't always do me any good to have a ground ball pitcher and have a poor defensive infield.  Or if I have flyball pitcher but have a ballpark with short porches?
 
Just another perspective.

[Frozen Stiffer]

Taz,

Thank you-- that is another perspective and will serve as a motivation to look into the matter a little deeper. Let me look in on my 2B and SS and see how they're performing. I know that I'm platooning the position at SS, but I believe my 2B is a steady one. I'll get that info and post it.

On the matter of the types of pitches my ace is throwing, I'm not quite sure how to gauge that. I suppose I could look at each of his pitches in the game, but it still only shows the last pitch which generated a result for the AB.

You inquiry on defense is something that I have persued to some degree. I tried to see how my team ranked defensively within the league, specifically by looking for Team Stats along the lines of Errors, but I was unable to find this. I can find errors for EACH PLAYER, but not the team as a whole. Maybe if I looked at all 2B and SS? Anyway, the absence of Errors in the Team Stats chart prompted a post in the "Little Things" thread Shaun started- let's see if that may materialize for 2008 (or is it 2009 now?).

Anyway, let me compile some info and share it with you guys. Your ideas, suggestions and observations are helping immensely. Thank you all!

[Frozen Stiffer]

Some info:
 
My starting 2B has 9 errors in 94 games played.
 
My starting SS, Battiste, has 1 error in 21 games while his platooning-buddy, Kirkland, has 1 error in 43 games. I recall having traded off my starting SS because of his horrid, not bad but horrid hitting (13-for-78, 1 HR, 7 RBI). Kirkland is the slightly better hitter with a .234 average / 0HRs / 10RBI while Battiste lags behind hitting only .186 / 2 HRs / 7 RBIs.
 
That's my middle infield.

[Frozen Stiffer]

Key West Rum Runners - Lineup

Here you will see what I was mentioning earlier. Our good, big power hitter is in the #3 slot (I had thought #4 earlier); Rafael Vargas. Our two other strong hitters are in the #4, Sosa, and #5 Lange. Our leadoff, Manson, hits hard, but not often. Fortunately his speed makes up for this; he's currently 4th in the association with steals. Otherwise, everyone else is just... unremarkable.

[Frozen Stiffer]

Key West Rum Runners - Rotation

As I also mentioned earlier, you will immediately notice who sticks out like a Sore Thumb (that's his current nickname, too), Ferguson. I don't know why he's pitched so well when others with better numbers have not, but you shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, so I'm not going to peek. Mazella is the high-stat/low-performance standout and I'll post a screenshot of him next. Tyler just came off the DL, so I hadn't included him in the "few pitchers with winning records" group. Lambert, acquired 2 months ago, is our best reliever and while his ERA doesn't reflect it, Krake is also quite amazing-- he just had a bad outing the other day. Hendrix, the closer, was better a few games ago and has been struggling as of late.

[Frozen Stiffer]

Mazella: The Non-Conformist

Here is a screenshot of Mike Mazella our "ace". His numbers are in fact MUCH better than I thought; this is him in all his statistical godliness. However, it seems that these rankings have somehow not translated into on-the-field performance. Why? Because. Just because. I truly have no answer for this. With numbers this high and production that (relatively) low, I have strongly considered him great trade bait to bring in amazing future prospects; in the spirit of the Marlins and the Willis/Cabrera trade.

[Frozen Stiffer]

Prompted by Taz's words, I see that behind him, in 155+ innings pitched, my defense has only turned 3 Double Plays. This cannot be good.

[:(]

[Max 86]

Looking at Mazella's page, the first thing that jumps out is his "fair" condition.  Maybe resting him a start in the rotation will bring that up and improve his performance.
 
Generally speaking, if offensive production isn't great, look at the left vs. right battintg avg for each position player. You may have some guys that have a high overall average but low avg vs lefties, for instance.
 
How much trading do you do? I am only in the seond season of my association as having only purchased the game recently, but I found that a lot of wheeling and dealing had to be done to put together a decent team that first year. Don't be afraid to dump those high contracts-underperformers for other players.

[Max 86]

3.87 era isn't terrible.  Lots of Ks with few BBs, I would wonder about his run support. What are the scores of the games this guy loses? He can't be giving up too runs many per game. Hitters hit 255 left and 237 right against him.  He looks good to me!
 
Look at his run support.

[Bustoff]

On paper, Mazella is golden. He's allowed fewer than one hit per inning, and his WHIP is a respectable 1.12. But 25 HRs in 21 games sounds a bit high to me. That's one hit of every 6 going downtown. Still, an ERA of 3.87 ain't bad. I'm with Max...look at his run support and compare it with Ferguson's. Their ERAs are not all that far apart.

[Frozen Stiffer]

Seriously guys, thank you. Your input means a lot and I will act on it immediately. I'm at work now, but when I get home, I'll post Ferguson's player card for comparison purposes then list the info you're inquiring regarding Mazella's run support; I'll post the results of his games.

[Frozen Stiffer]

Malcom Ferguson: A Diamond In The Rough

Here he is, as understandable as the Bermuda Triangle and as simple as NASA-level mathematics, Malcom Ferguson; "The man who did, but no one knew how". Just as the saying goes of how you should never look a gift horse in the mouth, I don't question WHY he accomplishes what he does, but I confess my curiosity as to HOW. Nevertheless, please feel free to dissect him at your leisure.

[Frozen Stiffer]

Standings

It looks almost hilarious how we are in second place, and there's quite a struggle for the next few slots, yet we're still SO far behind the division leader. Odd.

[SpharV2]

You mention the errors and fielding % for your middle infielders, but what about range on the defense?  Increasing the range (Especially up the middle of the defense) can sometimes have a huge impact on runs scored.  I will sacrifice a LOT of offense in CF if I can find a good fielding guy with stellar range because he can prevent a good number of runs.