AL SP Advice Solicited

[Chiefsnark]

My league (the Michigan Baseball Confederacy, about to begin its twenty-sixth season) is 5x5, with App replacing K, which is the source of my question.

Given the reserve list I have seen so far from my league, saves are going to be speculative. Because we uses appearances, loading up with starting pitchers will help me gain W, which I led last season. However, it also causes low finishes in app, so this year I am going to go with four starters only.

Based on a $260.00 salary cap, I have Morrow at $13.00, D. Holland at $10.00, Cobb at $10.00, and Shields at $13.00. I'd appreciate advice as to: 1. Whether I'm taking too many risks, especially with Cobb and Holland; and 2. iif you were going to drop one of them, who would it be?

Our reserve list has to be in Monday evening.

[Michael@HQ]

I ran the Custom Draft Guide (guessed that you had 12 teams, 69% for batting, forced positions checked) and saw that 12 out of the top 16 pitchers were relievers piling up saves and games (appearances). One category change definitely affects the rankings.

It shows (ignoring inflation):
Shields - $16
Morrow - $9
D. Holland - $4
Cobb - $0
Only Shields is projected to be undervalued at the salaries you have. (I'm personally pretty pessimistic about Shields, so I wouldn't freeze him either.)

[Chiefsnark]

Thanks for the input. I still think Morrow is going to be more like his first half than his second so I held onto him but much as I hated to, I cut Cobb and Holland both. Unfortunately, one of our teams dropped out last week so it's going to be 11 teams for an AL-only league; given that and the Astros, I decided there's going to be a lot of reasonably priced pitching available.