Archive of SportingNews.com's old SOM Baseball forum

Hey, I'm relatively new to SOM. I was just wondering if anyone out there has picked up any discernible characteristics that undervalued cards have? Is there any method or tips for determining when a $500,000 player might outperform a $7 million dollar a year player in online SOM? Or if anyone knows would they be unwilling to share...

The best you can do is platoon players. Heavy against R and L pitchers. Only do that with 1 position as I have read that HAL has trouble with more than 1 platoon. I have found it useful but not with $500 players. They don't do very well hitting but you can find them for your bullpen. Heavy against RH or LH hitters. Set them for only against their strong side with quick hook. $500 players are what you paid for, they can get hot but over all they have bad defense and can't hit their way out of a wet paper bag.

It all depends on your park or your needs. If you play in a big HR park then a hitter with lots of BPHR symbols (#) on his card could be undervalued for your team. If you are in a pitcher's park then a player with lots of speed or lots of OBP with little power could be undervalued for your team. Maybe you need a defensive replacement for a player with terrible defense. Then a light hitting/good glove guy might be undervalued for your team.

It all depends on your park and the makeup of your team.

Bombers hit the key point. The value is in relation to your park and the rest of your team.

Take a look at cards like Cody Ross versus L in a hitters park. His natural and BP HR's provide good value. And he can play a corner OF.

Or Felipe Lopez as a cheap DH v R in a pitchers park. Good OB and speed.

These players won't win for you but if you spend the money saved well then you can build a good team.

Two guys who are incredible for platoons are Eric Young and Edaurdo Perez they have been awesome for me.

80M league, home park - Wrigley

Brendan Harris .50M platoon DH vs LHP

.268 - 12 - 33 in 183 PA

.548 SLG & .385 OBP

I believe there is also another way to spot an undervalued player.

Check their % vs. LHP and RHP. Consider a hitter who hit very well against lefties, but only batted 17% of the time against LHP. He may be undervalued in a league where he may face LHP 30% of the time, since his "strong side" will come into play more often than it did in "real life".

Or a hitter who stunk against LHP (faced them 39%) and ripped RHP (faced them 61%). If used in a platoon vs. RHP, this gentleman's card might be considered undervalued.

So the idea is to also look for unbalanced cards where the hitter's strong side might come into play more often in your league than it did in MLB.

The word "incredible" should not be used to describe E Young or E Perez for any reason in the 2007 game.