Posted by contrarian23 on 8/1/2012 9:27:00 AM (view original):
Good stuff beaneball - thanks for sharing.

My conclusions from all the posts in this thread are as follows:
-- You can win with defense.  It's difficult, but possible, and is a viable alternative to (and perhaps even a winning strategy against...) the Joss/single/SB teams.
-- Executing this strategy requires a good understanding of marginal cost and marginal benefit...this is part of what I missed in putting the initial team together.  As someone pointed out, putting 95 Maddux on this team as (a) overkill and (b) expensive.  The marginal benefit he provided in terms of run prevention was not worth his marginal cost over another pitcher of lesser quality but comparable IP/162.
-- You need a couple of good bats in the lineup, which is problematic since few if any of the A++++ range guys are really good hitters.  I like beaneball's suggestion of sacrificing range at the corners to get better offense.  And as others have suggested, it's probably a better strategy to put this club in a plus-offense park, which will do more to improve your offense than your opponents (because your great range will limit some of your opponent's extra hits).

I may try this again sometime with a different combo.  Hopefully others will too.  If you do, please consider posting your results here.

I took the challenge and threw my Rangefinders into an open league.  We're now 50 games into the season and my team is sitting at 26-24; 7 games back so on pace for a total of 85 wins.    We're playing at Hilltop.  

Here are the team's "+" and "-" to date

1952 Goodman, 2B  11/0  .957 FP
1914 Burns  1B         9/0
1919 Fletcher SS      9/0     (I have used him a few times quite awhile ago, and recall him once having 41 + plays.  No recollection of the park used back then)
1973 North CF          8/0          
1977 Lemon LF         6/0  (actually 5-0 in LF and 1-0 in center)
1926 Douthit RF        5/0
1981 Oberkfell 3b      5/0   (I had just come off a theme season using Oberkfell and he had 27 + plays for me in that league.  Not on the same pace)

My Pitchers have combined for 8 plus plays.
Team total for + plays is 61 so am on pace for 198 total

There have been a total of 4 "-" plays.  Three have been by my "not too rangy" AAA spot starters and the ohter by my closer, '64 Barney Schultz. 

I went with a three man rotation of the 1890 Sadie McMahon (477 RL IP), the '76 Bird Fidrych, and the 1985 Hershiser.  They're doing their jobs well in a 1, 2A,2B style format with WHIPs/ERAs of 1.38/4.08,  1.25/3.16, and 0.92/209 respectively. Each of them has A+ range, as do the preponderance of my RL staff.

 In the olden days of SIM, McMahon had great value as a "+" making machine, but evidently the changes Admin made in the game has dampened that as he only has 3 for me.  I didn't take the time to do the research to refresh my memory on the defensive change specifics.     

There are reasons for me to think this crew might still be able to win 90+ games.   Our offensive line (driven by the park to some degree) is

.281 BA  .321 OBP   .364 SLG vs. a league average of .273/333/.370 while the pitchers (helped by the range no doubt) are:

.234 OAV, .309 OBP , .307 SLG, 1.27 WHIP and 3.28 ERA vs. the league average of
.273/.333/.370/1.42 and 4.23.

I'll post again after 100 or so games have been played.