outfield choice

Manager Joined: Feb 24, 2005 Posts: 66

i just drafted a gamedayritual team (12 teams, h2h) and am having to make a choice on which outfielders to play, and which to put in the minors. the 6 i drafted were Pierre, Sheffield, stewart, l. walker, ford and holliday. i am definitly thinking of playing Pierre and Sheffield, but as for the other outfielder , as well as the back-up (i only have room for one back-up) i am undecided. who should i start with? will walker have a healthy season for once, will stewart bounce back after a injured year, or should i focus on the young talent? i appreciate any feedback.

oh, and the other starters are
c - Kendall (Piazza back-up)
1b - Thome (Piazza back-up)
2b - Durham (barmes)
ss - Garciaparra (Vizquel)
3b - Rolen (blake)
of - Sheffield (?)
of - Pierre (?)
of - ? (?)
dh - Sexson

sp - Schmidt
sp - hudson
sp - buerhle
sp - vasquez
sp - another choice here. i can carry a spot starter, so i have three to choose from for my 5th and spot starters, they are glavine, marquis, and h. ramirez
spot - ?
mr - Gordon (holds count for 10 points in this league)
st - Reitsma (frasor)
cl - Graves (m. Adams)

Manager Joined: Oct 08, 2004 Posts: 51

I would choose Ford asmy third OF. He's young, fast, with an OK power, good avg and good eye.

Stewart, healthy, woud give you the same kind of production, but he's on the decline, and much more injury prone. Therefore, as a back-up, I would go with Walker. That would give you a pretty diversified OF, with Pierre and Ford having speed, Sheff and Walker (if healthy) having power.

Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2005 11:31 am

remember the rule that any player 29 or older has to pass waivers before you can send him down. so far as i know that applies even at the beginning of the season, although "so far as i know" just means that i don't remember any special exceptions after reading the user manual. so all the other owners in your league would have to pass on claiming walker and stewart before you could send them down. of course, with everybody stuffed full of turkey after the FAB, that could probably happen, depending on what you're paying them.

purely on playing ability i think i'd start ford and keep stewart as primary backup, sending down holliday and outrighting walker until you see how they do. if walker gets healthy, bring him up and start him.

General Manager Joined: Apr 23, 2004 Posts: 288

I also agree that Lew Ford is th best pick for a 3rd OF but...

He's the only OF of the 3 that would not have to go through waivers to be sent down to the minors. That being said, It depends how much you value your OF's and whether or not you want to risk losing them, I would personally send him down and try to work out a trade for Walker or Stewart unless you are confident they won't be picked up.

Manager Joined: Feb 24, 2005 Posts: 66

yeah, i'm aware of the rule, it just worked out that the rest of the league put themselves in a position where most of them can't afford to pick-up either stewart (1.5 m) or walker (2 m) if i moved them. it was amazing to see what people would pay for players...we even had a guy cap out after only drafting 13.

thanks for the info too, i wasn't leaning towards ford, but after hearing the arguements, and going over his number, he is definitly making a lot of sense as the #3 guy.