Second Worst Team in RBI?

[Gantry]

Who does everyone think the second worst team in RBI is?  I'm assuming (perhaps falsely) that most people consider the Astros to be the worst team.

For years I thought St Louis was the worst team thanks to their lack of power, but they have grown on me recently.  The speed it good and they haev plenty of lefties.  So I now say the Mets are the second worst team in RBI - their bench is decent but the starting lineup is brutal...

Disclaimer - I play straight pitch

[mookiewilson]

I gotta go with the Giants as the second worst team.  I have yet to witness the power of Chili Davis, as he always seems to suck when we play.  Will the Thrill and Kevin "Crackhead" Mitchell are sometimes decent and Candy Moldonaldo has never done anything except for one game where he hit 4 homers off me in a row. I think their pitching is pretty subpar as.

[Gantry]

Welcome Mookie...

I agree with Candy-man sucking and Chili Davis not being the whole package.  Just ask Potsie, Chili was his #1 player awhile back but  he doesn't seem to do much anymore....

I can't go with SF though because of my man Harry Spilman.  I don't know if it's me but I kill with the guy, hit seven straight homers with him once.  He just dominates for me and as a result I'm pretty competitive with San Fran.  As for the Mets, if anyone uses the top teams against me, I have no chance....

[jwlutz]

Well...Gantry, your disclaimer's pretty important.  From a non-straight-pitch view, Houston's still the worst, but - and I know there are some Cali fans here - the Angels are no picnic either.  None of the pitchers have a solid curve - Doug Corbett's is probably the best, and it's pretty bad.  
I'm trying to imagine straight-pitch... Probably Minnesota.  I can't get the heart of the lineup to perform, and the bench isn't all that helpful (with the occasional exception of Larkin).

[Gantry]

All good points Lutz, and I bet taking pitchers out of the equation does alter things quite a bit....

Everything you said about Minnesota is completely true, I don't like the heart of their order either.  Ditto with the subs, except Randy Bush is a complete stud with our style.  Or maybe it's just me, but he's probably the most consistent home run hitter on the team  (Hrbek ain't too shabby either, but he can be hit or miss)...

And Roy Smalley is one of the worst lefties in the game...  Boy does he suck...

I'm sure there gotta be some curve throwers out there who will stick up for Cali...

[SlavePhanLutz]

I might put a shout out to California at least for being above st louis
I mean, keep in mind, you have a team in st louis that has a number of homeruns
outnumbered by only 3 california players
St Louis just cannot win

California has its sides
Personally, Bob grich is my least favorite player in the entire game, so i sub him out
I normally go
Wilfong
DeCencis - who has had multiple 3 homer games recently
Joyner
Jackson
Downing
Hendricks
Schofield
Jones

even in curve pitch, their power outmatches st. louis
I've been playing with both recently to decide, and the lack of solid hits puts st. louis
at a huge disadvantage
while St. Louis pitching is clearly superior to california, worrell is fast, tudor is a solid 6 innings,
curves make the pitching staff less important since you can always fool the opponent
with slow balls and edge-nicking strikes that are impossible to hit

In terms of minnesota, well, there we have a problem
I think they just might land in there with st. louis just because they have no dominating
players - no go-tos. Hrbek is ok and pucket does fair, in fact the most luck i have normally
comes from lower rankers like Lombardozzi and Laudner. their pitching staff rocks though

~ Dave

[Gantry]

So how many Lutz's are there?  We have three signed up, though two look to be the same person...

I also am a fan of Laudner, very underrated catcher...

For Cali, I go Ruppert at #6 and Hendrick/Burleson at #8.  Been leaning towards Burly lately, but Hendrick gets the nod in the slugfests...

[Greg Pines]

  St. Louis might be the 2nd worst team in RBI, but NY and Ca are pretty bad, SF isn't on the top of my list either.
       But also I may add, that Houston playing in non-straight pitch rules can be tought to beat with Nolan Ryan velocity, Mike Scotts sinker, and Kerfelds side-arm action, if you pitch a good game a victory is not out of the question. Playing against Bo or Dt is always fun an upstet could occur and 7 or 8 power ranking points can be yours.

  We ranked our teams, Ho still being a 1, cause they can't hit, Bo topping the list with a value of 8.

Underdog victory receives the point difference, favorite would take difference and divide by 2, and would lose that amount.

Favorite victory gets 1 point and underdog would lose none.

[mookiewilson]

here is my ranking of teams from best to worst, based on strait pitch rules:
1. Detroit- I always get my ass kicked when Joe plays with Detroit.  Trammell and Whitaker always kill me, and Gibson, Nokes and Evans hit a bunch of homers a game.  The pitching aint that great, but they hardly ever need it.
2.Boston- They are either all or nothing, and its all about the long ball.  In any given game, Boston can hit about 15 homers.  Tony Armas is famous for hitting homers off the screen and lately Don Baylor has just been tatooing the ball.  Clemens is good for a solid 7 or 8 innings if you don't throw too many fastballs.
3.California- Reggie is simply the man.  Meat and Potatoes in the middle of the order can get you back in the game in a hurry.  And its always fun to pitch with a dead guy.
4.Minnesota-would have been lower, but they've been on an offensive tear lately.  Kirby (the only black guy in Minnesota) and Hrbek form a solid middle of the order.
5.New York-probably should be lower, but i'm partial to my home team.  Darryl is the whole package, Doc is good for 7 innings, and Ray Knight has been hot lately. Anyone who leaves Rafeal Santana in should be beat over the head repeatly with a tire iron.
6. St. Louis- I like the team speed, but they've been in a big offensive slump lately.  Vince Coleman has to learn to stop doing crack and hit the ball on the ground.
7. San Fran- Bad pitching and a lackluster offense make them fall to a low seed on my list.  However, ever since i said they suck, I've gotten my ass kicked 2 times in a row by them.  Sorry Gantry, but Harry Spilman sucks.
8. Houston- Nolan ryan kicks ass, but the offense is terrible.

[Gantry]

Mookie:

You guys are cracking me up with the posts...

I still vouch that San Fran is a decent straight pitch team, though not at the Big Three (Detroit, Cali, Boston) level.  Harry Spilman is the most underrated player in the game, you guys are going to get sick of hearing about him....

I urge everyone to sub Spilman at the one spot in straight pitch....

[Gantry]

PS - If you guy want to see how we feel about the top teams, go here:

http://dee-nee.com/rbi/rankings.shtml

[Dill]

About Mookie's rankings:
You are right for the most part.  Pitching with a dead guy IS extremely fun.  I would've ranked Minnesota lower than NY.  I can never get anything going with Minnesota, nor have I ever seen that team excel unless Hrbek is hot.  You should give Rafael Santana a chance every once in a while.  In a curve pitch game, my boy Santana is good for at least one run-scoring double over the hot corner, guaranteed.  Houston is the worst team, but their offense can be helped with some timely substitutions.  Gotta have Lopes in there instead of Glenn Davis.  Lopes is good as cleanup.  If you want to get risky, you can sub in Scrap Iron Garner instead of Walling.  Terry Puhl in the lineup doesn't hurt either.  This is the greatest website of all time

[Gantry]

Lopes for Geena Davis, eh Dill?  You know what, I can see that working.  Davis might be the worst hitter in the game with a runner on first, a master of the double play.  Might give that a shot next time, thanks!

Mookie's "Anyone who leaves Rafeal Santana in should be beat over the head repeatly with a tire iron" quip gets funnier everytime I read it.  Quote of the year so far on this forum...

[Stuart]

The second worst team in RBI is Minnesota.  That lineup is all aboot Hrbek.  Although he has his days when he does nothing but ground out hard to first base.    Every once in a while Bruno will get it done for you.  Same goes for Laudner.   Puckett has to be the most overrated player in the game when you look at his stats.  He has no pop whatsoever.  The only shining light for the Twins is getting a nice 7 inning performance from Viola and then going to Senor Smoke for the last two innings.  I think he has been shelled once in his RBI career with me.  

[Gantry]

Welcome Stuart, any friend of Dill is a friend of ours...

Very accurate assessment on Minnesota.  The laundromat and Bruno are streaky, while Puckett is way overrated.  In fact, I was thinking about starting a thread about the most overrated player stat-wise.  Puckett gets my vote with Kevin Bass coming in second...

[Dill]

Kirby is a mediocre player, much like Candy-Man, but Kirby's stats are so great that he should be so much better.  Extremely overrated.  I would put Matt Nokes up there on the most overrated list also.  The fact that he is a lefty and doesn't hit like his stats suggest he should  puts him high on the list.

[GPines]

Matt Nokes is still the man, my only problem is that he lines out to second baseman too much, George Brett has to be pretty overated with his stats, i'm not a frequent Boston user, but I never stop hearing Joe and Aaron whining about Baylors lack of produciton.

[Stuart]

You can't really factor in George Brett in this discussion since that really isn't him.  A right-handed George Brett?  Of course in me and Dill's games the All-Star teams are only rarely used in exhibitions.  Another highly overrated player is Will Clark.  Given the fact that he is a lefty and with his numbers, he should do more.  Yet time and time again Chili picks up the slack for him.  

[mookiewilson]

Don Baylor has been extremely hot in the past few weeks. For whatever reason, it seems like he hits at least 3 homers a game.  As far as most overrated player in the game, i'd have to go with Vince Coleman. The guy has great speed but he NEVER HITS THE BALL ON THE GROUND.  Someone needs him to lay off the cocain and fire crackers and hit the ball on the ground to the third base side.

[Gantry]

It's good to see that everyone loves the lefties as much we do...

I concur that Coleman is a bag of ass, give me Ozzie and his Grand Slams anyday.  In straight pitch, it's all about the intentional grounder to the SS.  Of course I only get it correct about 1/2 the time, but that's the only way I can get him consistently on base...

By team here's how I define the overrateds:

Cali - Doug Decinces, VERY streaky.  Too many double plays...

Boston - Baylor, this guy just doesn't intimidate me.  I think Jim Rice is much better.  Disclaimer - I never play Boston (aka righty-central), only against them.  Dwight Evans is no picnic either....

Detroit - Chet Lemon, I'm sorry he is not that good.  One guy emailed me and said he's one of the top couple players in the game, I just don't see it...

Minnesota - Puckett, already explained...

NY -  Wally Backman, one of the VERY few starting lefties that I actually take out.  Straight-up poo....

Stl - Coleman, even though his stats suck, his legacy-factor is high...

Hou - Kevin Bass, what a waste...

SF - Bob Brenly, he has heart, but absolutely blows...