2016 A's (1st round A's/Yanks 8th year in a row??)

[Providence A's]

We're looking for our 8th straight playoff appearance and yearly first round series against the Yankees (3 wins, 4 losses). We're also looking for our 8th straight season with 90+ wins (94, 98, 91, 98, 92, 92, and 92 wins the last 7 seasons). We made one huge free agent signing that should add some much needed power to our lineup (2nd in average, 2nd in SBs, 15th in walks, 6th in runs, but 26th in homers in 2015). I'm not 100% sure how I'm going to organize the pitching at this point. I'll have a better idea after ST.

Rotation (5-man, highest rested)
1. Hirsh (10,7,9,8; 17 - 8 with a 3.82 ERA in 2015)
2. Madson (8,9,8,7; 15 - 13 with a 4.16 ERA in 2015)
3. Olsen (8,10,8,7; 10 - 9 with a 4.71 ERA in 2015)
4. Roe (8,9,9,7; 13 - 7 with a 4.26 ERA in 2015)
5. Asahina (6,8,10,8; 15 - 14 with a 4.60 ERA in 2015)

Bullpen
MR: Sisco (8,6,9,6; 1 - 1 - 2 with a 4.25 ERA in 2015)
MR: Pinto (8,8,9,5; 7 - 6 - 2 with a 4.78 ERA in 2015)
MR: Silva (6,9,10,2; 1 - 2 - 1 with a 3.43 ERA in 2015)
MR: Hoey (9,7,9,4; 3 - 3 - 1 with a 4.14 ERA in 2015)
MR: Delaney (8,8,9,3; 2 - 0 - 0 with a 2.35 ERA in 2015)
MR: Casilla (9,9,8,3; 4 - 3 - 6 with a 3.95 ERA in 2015)
CL: Mazzaro (10,6,10,7; 5 - 3 - 34 with a 2.34 ERA in 2015)

Lineup vs. DH
1. 2B Jemile Weeks (8,10,4,4,5; 8,8,9 speed with 37 SBs in 2015; 9, .989 fielding; .862 OPS in 2015; 2nd in triples)
2. C Barton (8,8,8,10,6; slightly down year in 1015, but finished really strong)
3. LF Pujols (10,10,10,10,10; back-to-back AL MVP in 2014 and 2015)
4. DH Fielder (8,7,10,8,4; 30 or more homers every year in the league hitting 40 or more 6 times)
5. CF Mitchell (10,8,9,7,6; 7th in SBs with 52 and 20/20 in 2015)
6. 3B Zimmerman (8,8,9,6,8; GG in 2015; hopefully gets back close to form)
7. 1B Parmelee (9,9,6,6,7; GG 7 years in a row)
8. SS Pennington (8,8,3,8,6; 9, .984 fielding; 15 SBs in 2015)
9. RF Gomez 8,8,7,4,6; 10,8,8 speed with 49 SBs in 2015)

Bench
C Jeroloman (7,6,6,7,6; solid D)
1B/OF Brown (7,7,6,10,4; solid D at 1B and all 3 OF positions)
IF Casilla (8,7,3,4,6; solid D; 23 SBs in 2015)
CF/LF Abrego (8,7,3,7,8; 10,9,9 speed with 61 SBs for 3rd in 2015).

Summary
The team was solid overall last season with a few guys playing below expectations and their track records. We made it to the ALCS beating the Yankees in the first round for the 3rd time in the last 4 seasons. Mazzaro excelled in his first season as the closer last year. He made the ASG for the 3rd time (2 as a starter and 1 as a closer). I expect to battle for a playoff spot again this season regardless. SP McCarthy will be injury insurance in AAA; hopefully he can be adequate if called upon.

Thoughts?

[nick]

Prince and Pujols are gonna completely mash, and you should by all means advance to your first World Series if the pitching holds up and produces like it usually does. I think you're the favorite, with NYY a close 2nd at this point and BAL not far behind either as the top of the class in the AL. Tampa should be good too... lots of solid teams this year.

[Providence A's]

bump. I'm returning the same team essentially. Everyone is just a year older. We're looking for our 9th straight playoff appearance (7 division wins and 1 wild card).

Gomez is out until July or whatever. Mauro will probably be called up to be a backup with Abrego starting. Manhardt (9,7,7,9 out of 10,9,8,9 currently) would get the call if someone fails or falls apart in the rotation. I wish Mazzaro had Madson's control. Then I could put Mazzaro back in the rotation and Madson as my closer with that 6 endurance. I still got McCarthy down there, too...he may actually get the call before Manhardt just to say I gave him his obligatory stint for the year.

[Kingdom]

Have you ever tried McCarthy as a closer, even though he always sucks despite the ratings?

[Providence A's]

no, I've tried him in the pen though. I'm reluctant to move Mazzaro back into the rotation because of that control. So much of it would depend on a guy or two dying. Right now I've got:

Asahina
Hirsh
Madson
Roe
Olson

along with:

Mazzaro (closer)
McCarthy (AAA)
Manhardt (AAA)

I mean I could put Mazzaro back in and use Madson as the closer, but Madson's ratings are better than they were last season. Mazzaro will give up less hits, but many more walks. Madson will give up more hits, but less walks. I don't know. I feel like I don't have room for McCarthy and Manhardt right now. All of my starters won 11 or more games and Mazzaro saved 40. I can't imagine the other 2 doing better than that. McCarthy hasn't had much success and Manhardt isn't filled out yet.

[Kingdom]

I think Mazzaro as a closer or even setup is the most damage control since he is walk prone. I think he can be pretty good, more 2015 than 2016, he's like the typical OOTP KRod.

[Providence A's]

his 2016 was on pace to be record breaking after 2 months, then he had some sort of random game glitch injury where it never said he got hurt (on his profile, injury reports, nowhere). He was out for a few weeks and didn't return to form until the end of August. He was a beast. Hopefully, he returns to form.

[Kingdom]

He has that potential. He's Eric Brooks with a little more control and Brooks was good in your league.

[Providence A's]

yup, he actually pitched a few more innings in 2016 compared to 2015 and had he lowered his walks from 30 to 24. He had an extremely high BABIP last season of .340. He gave up 74 hits vs. 39 the year before with a BABIP of .214. Obviously, .214 is really low and shouldn't be expected. The truth lies somewhere in between as it was .274 and .282 in his 2 full seasons as a starter. I expect it to be somewhere around that...maybe slightly less. He doesn't give up many homers at least (only 49 in 720 innings).

at any rate, it was worth a shot after seeing you move Lopez to the pen for example (among other examples). The SP you signed away from MIN in TSSL IIRC. He was 10,6,10 as I remember, too. Like Bobby Jenks was at the start. Those types of guys seem to have success in the closer role. Perhaps, on average, the walks pile up as they get tired as a starter. It would be real interesting to see data on that type of thing. Of course, those types of guys would have games where they had a lot of walks early, but it would seem to me that it may be when they're getting tired. It would explain how they have success closing and their walks / inning average goes down significantly (over 20% in Mazzaro's example).

Mazzaro as a starter: about .53 walks / inning (592 innings)
Mazzaro as a closer: about .42 walks / inning (128 innings)

The sample sizes are of course different as a closer will pitch less innings, but I still think it illustrates my theory that overall the walks may be piling up as they get more tired.

[Kingdom]

I've always felt they just have fewer opportunities to have those games where they walk 4-5, or more even (which usually leads to the pitching getting killed in a fame). In 100 innings tops, they're just not going to run into that as much. Also, a guy like Mazzaro and that Lopez guy you mentioned, the high stuff which leads me to believe they are better suited usually. Obviously it won't work for everyone, but I think it can pan out more often than not. Those pitchers usually throw a ton of pitches because they're either walking people or striking them out, by 5 innings, they've reached 100 pitches.

Just a theory but yeah I'd never have any problem using a 10-6-10 type of guy as a reliever or closer. In fact, I wanted a guy like that in nygf's league to be my closer since I think Papelbon sucks (even has better rounded ratings)

[Providence A's]

updated to include 2017 ratings, 2016 stats, and to reflect the acquisition of RF Delmon Young due to the injury to my RF.

Rotation (5-man, highest rested)
1. Hirsh (9,7,10,8; 15 - 8 with a 4.19 ERA in 2016)
2. Madson (8,10,9,6; 11 - 11 with a 4.31 ERA in 2016)
3. Asahina (7,8,10,8; 14 - 5 with a 3.19 ERA in 2016)
4. Roe (8,10,8,7; 12 - 10 with a 4.69 ERA in 2016)
5. Olsen (8,10,8,7; 11 - 8 with a 4.40 ERA in 2016)

Bullpen
MR: Sisco (8,6,9,6; 2 - 1 - 1 with a 3.91 ERA in 2016)
MR: Pinto (8,8,9,5; 2 - 4 - 2 with a 4.41 ERA in 2016)
MR: Silva (6,9,10,1; 5 - 3 - 3 with a 3.76 ERA in 2016)
MR: Hoey (9,7,9,4; 4 - 1 - 1 with a 4.70 ERA in 2016)
MR: Delaney (8,8,9,3; 4 - 2 - 0 with a 3.23 ERA in 2016)
MR: Casilla (9,9,8,3; 11 - 9 - 3 with a 4.78 ERA in 2016)
CL: Mazzaro (10,6,10,7; 5 - 4 - 40 with a 4.88 ERA in 2016)

Lineup vs. DH
1. C Barton (8,8,8,10,6; 7th in runs with 105, 5th with a .395 OBP, and 6th with 96 walks in 2016)
2. CF Mitchell (10,8,9,7,6; 8,8,9 speed with 56 steals / 5th overall, 25 homers, 90 RBIs, and 99 runs in 2016)
3. LF Pujols (10,10,10,10,10; back-to-back-to-back AL MVP for 2014, 2015, and 2016)
4. DH Fielder (8,7,10,8,4; 1st in homers with 41, 10th in runs with 100, and 2nd in RBIs with 118 in 2016)
5. RF Young (8,9,10,7,8; .853 OPS for the hated Angels in 2016)
6. 3B Zimmerman (9,8,9,7,8; 7th GG overall, 6th in slugging, 4th with an OPS of .907, 4th in runs with 112 in 2016)
7. 1B Parmelee (9,9,6,6,7; GG 8 years in a row)
8. 2B Jemile Weeks (8,10,4,4,5; 8,8,9 speed with 51 steals / 8th overall, 10th with 175 hits, 9th with 42 doubles, 8th with 102 runs, and 3rd GG overall)
9. SS Pennington (8,8,3,8,6; 9, 10th in BA and GG in 2016)

Bench
C Jeroloman (6,6,6,7,6; solid D)
1B/OF Brown (8,7,6,10,4; solid D at 1B and all 3 OF positions, career .798 OPS off bench)
IF Casilla (8,7,3,4,6; solid D; 30 SBs of the bench in 2016, career .303 hitter)
CF/LF Abrego (8,7,3,7,7; 10,9,9 speed with 41 SBs off the bench in 2016).