Hey Dave
Glad we ironed it out. This is the second time I am responding to you. I was almost finished before, but my 20 month old son hit the delete key.
Nice
I will condense it a bit, since I m pissed my son messed me up.
I totally understand the strategy, but I have 3 big problems with it.
#1 A big injury hurts you more than the normal teams would. Since you are so reliant on your starting pitchers that you do have, a big injury would be catastrophic to you.
#2 Your strategy also makes it very important that you get 2 or 3 elite closers. If you are going to be hurting in wins and hopefully middle of the pack in k's, you have to make it an effort to get 2 or 3 big time closers........because the closers in addition to save usually have favorable k rates and have good ERA and WHIP. I hate wasting high draft picks on closers. In my 5x5 leagues, similar to yours...........A Kimbrel, Papelbon, Rivera, Axford would go for 12-15 bucks in an auction and start to fly off the draft board starting in round 5, or round 6 for sure.
#3 My biggest reason NOT to do this. If you go out and do this strategy, more than likely you will be hurting in at least ONE of the following offensive categories........HR and/or SB. Here's why. You devote so many high picks to the starters and closers you need to get.........Even if you get a few of the big SB guys, you will be exposed in the HR category, which is the biggest problem. But lets say you address the Home Run category, you will more than likely be stolen base poor. That means going into the Opening day of situation......there are 10 categories in your league.........and you are hurting in 3 of them.......automatically...........if no one gets hurt. You can certainly cash in this scenario, but I dont see how you win.
I can speak from experience that you can use your strategy as a plan B. I used it in a league 2 years ago. It was a 16 team 5x5 league with no innings limit. But it was weekly moves and I have to start 10 pitchers. It was the middle of May and all of my starters got off to an AWFUL start. 7 weeks into the season, my ERA was over 5, I was dead last in wins, strikeouts, ERA and middle of the pack in WHIP and saves. I traded my better starters, and struggling starters , sometimes for 60 cents on the dollar. Started the minimum 4 starters the remainder of the season........went 2 middles, and 4 closers. I had such a lead in saves and the deadline, I traded some closers for more power and Michael Bourn. I dominated the batting portion of the league, and I stabilized the ERA, WHIP. I knew I was dead in wins and k's........finishing near the bottom. My team was 14th right before Memorial day, and I finished in 6th, getting the last cashing spot of the league in the final 3 days of the end of the season.
If you are tempted to use your strategy, here is my advice.
Not only do you have to get 3 big K guys.........you have to get 3 guys who are AAA rated healthy guys.
You need one sure-fire ACE...........One of these, Verlander, Halladay or Kershaw
Then you need on ACE that people dont look upon as an ace. Matt Cain, Sabathia or Hamels
Then you need the sleeper Ace.........Matt Garza.
The composite of those 3 guys should give you 700 innings, half your allotment.......nearly 700 strikeouts.........and ERA around 3 and a WHIP under 1.2.....all of which are great starts.
Make sure you have 2 stud closers, and another solid closer and the only category you would be "punting" is wins.
This allows you to be competitive in ALL offensive categories and knowing that you are punting one category on opening day is a lot better than knowing you are going to struggle in 3........makes you a good bet to cash, and gives you a good chance to win.
Best of luck, hope this was helpful