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is it better to use pitchers - especially closers - who allow fewer baserunners (like Mariano Rivera) or is it more important to eliminate natural homers and ballpark singles, particularly against lefties? Any advice/input is appreciated

If you're in a homer park for lefty hitters, you need to get pitchers who have as few #HOMERUN and #flyball results as possible. These will turn into homers in Fenway. Mariano Rivera will kick *** in any park :)

Well, my park is Fenway and two of the other parks in the division are tough on homers, good for singles. The fourth is neutral. I guess I was asking more from a philosophical point of view. In a park good for singles/bad for homers, is it better to further limit the number of homers possible by taking a guy with no homers on his card but might give up a few more singles/walks, or is it more important to reduce the number of baserunners as much as possible and accept the occasional homer on his card? Especially for a closer since 1 run late in the game will probably be more critical.

I want to limit baserunners. A HR can hurt, but many times you will still get the save in no one is on base. You may want a less extreme situation based on your division make up, but you still play 81 at home and only 24 in their park. For example, if you had to choose between Brian Wilson, who is balanced and has no # HR's and Soriano, I would choose Soriano. His WHIP is lower, he is dominant towards the side you want and while he has #HR vs LH hitters, these will be neutralized at home and they are not so bad that he can not still be effective on the road.

This explains why I'm a loser! No, just kidding............but it's a valid question. For a closer, you'd think given 81 games at home at least, that you don't want to give up a long ball vs. a runner or two on base. So, even better is to spend more (ie. Rivera) and wait for the saves to roll in. And I've got Kauffman '09, yet my bullpen's starting off rough. And I've got Bell, Wuertz, and Jackson to boot! I've seen patience mentioned many times, and am buying into that, big time! Deeper questions on closer/relief rolls will follow in another post - really enjoy seeing the experienced viewpoint!

[quote:db888989a9]Well, my park is Fenway and two of the other parks in the division are tough on homers, good for singles.[/quote:db888989a9]
One of the simplest things you can do before a league starts is count the situations your team will face based on the ballparks in your league. For example, you are in Fenway with a Kaufmann and a Petco. In your division alone you are already committed to 105 games played where a LH hitter has a very small chance of success when rolling a # HR. Three more parks in the league with similar dimensions, which can easily happen, would result in you playing about 3/4 of your games in this situation that's extremely tough for LH power. So, generally avoid LH power hitters and look for bargain pitchers whose weakness is the #HR, especially vs LH hitters. If the other park in your division is a LH park, make your strategical decisions less extreme to assure a chance of success in the LH park. Tough on homers is too ambiguous a statement. Many parks are tough on homers, some are unbalanced, some are balanced. However, as a definite rule of thumb, you want to limit runners by using pitchers with a low WHIP whose weakness, if they have one, s/b the # HR, as many of these rolls will be neutralized by the ballpark dimensions. Again, to what extreme you go with these basic strategies is based on the other parks in your league.

Thanks! That was brilliant and extremely helpful.

I really like managing teams at Fenway. Ditto to everything that has already been said, with a couple more thoughts:
-For your pitchers, avoid pitchers with lots of Ballpark Homerun rolls against right handed batters. You get more bang for the salary dollars if your pitchers avoid those readings. ballpark homeruns against lefty hitters is not as big a problem, due to the low chances for ballpark homeruns for lefty hitters.
-Pitchers who don't give up ballpark singles (there aren't many - Volquez (both handed hitters) and Harden are a couple) do well at Fenway.
-For hitters, consider lefty hitters who are not N power. If they are great hitters but without power - esp. hitters who have some die roll chances for homeruns anyway, you may get more bang for your salary dollars - especially from lefty hitters. Put another way, paying big bucks for a lefty hitter with 8 die roll chances for ballpark homeruns doesn't get you much, due to the mere 20% chance of converting those to actual homeruns.
-Right handed hitters are different. The slightly better chance of homeruns make ballpark homeruns an OK proposition - esp. in 2009 when the homerun chances went up slightly over 2008.
-CONSIDER HOW TO MAXIMIZE THE ADVANTAGE FROM THE HIGH BALLPARK SINGLES. Since these ALWAYS result in a potential for base runners to take extra bases, consider building a team with good running ratings! Also consider getting outfielders with very good throwing arms. In the same vein, consider getting pitchers who allow singles without the **. These singles force the opposing runners to work for the extra base. Pitchers with non-**singles, coupled with great outfield arms, maximizes value from your pitchers, by reducing the practical value of singles given up. For all of these reasons, try to avoid pitchers with lots of doubles and triples, and try to GET batters with lots of doubles (and triples).

I can tell you that these strategies seem to work for me. I would be interested in any feedback from others on these Fenway ideas!

Geoff