Highlights From Diamond Mind April 2024

The biggest decreases: Rogers Hornsby ($2,062,000) and Dave Berg (19.79%).  Hornsby was the only player whose salary dropped by over $2 million.

In general, there are always larger salary increases than decreases, because certain players are always identified as bargains and used heavily. Their usage in numerical terms is far more than the average usage in their salary range/for their position, which is relatively low.  (So, in numerical terms, the difference in usage below average is much, much less, even for players who are hardly used at all, than usage above average for the most heavily used players.)

Because of this concentration of usage in a relatively small number of players, there are always more salary cuts than raises. The total value of the player pool doesn’t change, so the cuts are spread over more players than the raises.

In total, this time around 1976 players received salary increases, 206 were unchanged and 3266 dropped.  There are 282 minimum salary ($500,000) players.

Who are the new biggest bargains?  Why not join a Classic standard or custom league and see for yourself?

This month we have two completely unrelated tips – one Classic, one SSG:

Classic: Your Best Pitchers Should Pitch As Much as Possible

Sounds obvious, doesn’t it?  Yet basically since the inception of the game, I personally used a 5-man rotation with a spot starter and rarely, if ever, the “Ace” setting.

These days I play mostly SSG, but when I do play Classic, it’s with a 4-man rotation, more often than not set to “Double Ace”.  And if your “best” pitcher is “just” some pretty good value $6-7 million guy, you still “ace” him, since you want your best guy, even if he’s not exactly great, getting every inning you can squeeze out of him.

SSG: Playing the Pumpkin

I wouldn’t do this for a whole season in a “normal” league, but as a way of saving money up front and creating a spot you can upgrade later, or even for all or most of the season in a low cap league, playing a minimum salary (or nearly minimum) Ex fielder in CF or at SS can be a handy strategy.

In the Big Fishes Small Pond leagues, teams have a $62 million cap and must have two players on the roster from the same season with a combined salary of at least $32 million.  Real splits are off; DH on; injuries off; 26-man rosters; standard weekly cash, loans and interest; and your eligible players are everyone from your Big Fishes’ season.

In the current league, my team from 1973 began the season with two L-hitting $500k Ex CF’ers: Dave Schneck and Rich Chiles, in a park that favors L hitting.  At the 148-game mark of the season, the starter, Schneck, batting in the 8 or 9 hole all season, has a batting line of .228/.290/.321 with 7 HR and 59 RBI.  We had a great PH’er (more about him in a moment) to hit for Schneck when needed, with Chiles on the bench to replace him or serve as a defensive replacement for one of the corner OF’ers.  (Chiles was an upgrade casualty late in the season.)  In a league where every PA, IP and dollar count, that strikes me as great value.

Now, about that pinch hitter.  Mike Corkins tossed 122 not completely putrid innings for the woeful (60-102) ’73 Padres.  But, as a hitter, in 36 PA’s he had one 2B and three HR.  That was worth 40 PA (110% PTL) as a pinch hitter, when he wasn’t mopping up, and he posted this insane batting line: .359/.375/.897 (that’s an OPS of 1.272) with three doubles, six HR, 14 RBI and three game-winning hits.  And the “cherry on top” is his pitching line: 47.2 IP, 2-1, 3/4 3.02.

When filling that last spot at the end of the pen, I’m always looking for a pitcher who hit well and had lots of (not totally awful) innings, so lots of PA.