Home Field/Division Strategy

[JohnnyBlazers]

I have 2 Dodger 65's and a Forbes Field in my division. 3 extreme pitchers parks while I am at Yankee 56. Should I tailor my team exclusively to my park, or should I add more high avg/obp guys to be able to compete in these pitchers havens? opinions? Any teams that the experts could post who played in this type of division would be appreciated. Thanks!

[goffchile]

I always build for my stadium. I will be playing half my games there. I can't remeber the exact schedule makeup, but the division games on the road probably account for maybe 25% of your scheduled games. If you can find a few guys that will both thrive in a lefty power park and have speed and obp, I would certainly grab them--having some balance on any team usually helps, but my point is, I wouldn't give up a lefty slugger for Frank Chance because Chance is great smallballer.

[egvrich]

You play 81 games in your home park (so that is always most important). Of those game, 36 are from within your division and 45 from the other two divisions.

You play 36 road games within your division.

And you play 45 road games outside of your division.

[sschu]

You have a huge advantage right now at Y56 vs these pitcher park teams, you should target 55 wins at home and playing 5 under on the road for a 92 win team. If you get the right pitchers, Seaver, Carlton, Sutton, Lolich, Kaat, or a host of 4 day guys you can have an excellent ERA. Cheap LH power gives you a big lift at home, but get the good/cheap RH platoon players to play vs LH on the road. Do not necessarily load up on LHs, make sure your staff matches the hitters you will face in your division, but leans LH if it is a wash.

Best of luck, sschu

[egvrich]

Strategy wise ....

Sometimes when I'm feeling really ambitious, I plot out the entire season with regards to the number of games played in each park and the BP HR's for those parks and then total them up and divide by 162 to give me the "average BP HR's per game" then I try to build a team that fits that number best by finding a similar park and customizing the team to that park.

For example: If my average BP HR number is 9, then I build a team suited to Sportsmans, if it's a 5 I build a team suited for Crosley, if it's a 7 I build for Bennett, etc.

[JohnnyBlazers]

EVGRich, that is interesting with the avg BPHR's. I'm going to try that. Thats what I love about this game-always some new twist you can learn! My team right now features R. Jackson, Snider, Matthews as my LH boppers. I have Gary Carter to beat up on those opposing lefties. I'm on the fence about Ripper @ first base and Joe Jackson in LF. The appeal of Ripper to me is that he's switch hitter, though stronger batting lefty. I like Joe Jackson's card, but in this lineup he would probably have to bat leadoff. Am I wasting resources here?

[JohnnyBlazers]

EVRich, how can you customize your home field to match the avgbp's of the rest of the league, BEFORE, the draft? In other words, it sounds like you are picking your home field AFTER everyone's drafted. I think I'm surely missing something here.

[egvrich]

[quote:7c54f57d09="johnnyblazers"]EVRich, how can you customize your home field to match the avgbp's of the rest of the league, BEFORE, the draft? In other words, it sounds like you are picking your home field AFTER everyone's drafted. I think I'm surely missing something here.[/quote:7c54f57d09]

Johnny B,

No, I mean to fix your team after the fact via waivers and free agency to match your league.

[The Last Druid]

Hmmm... let's see. In a game where everyone starts with parity and where there is very little that separates winners from losers in many cases and where 1% is all that separates a .530 manager from a .540 manager, does it make sense to ignore any variables?

Obviously your own park is where you play half your games. But if you are in Yankee 56 and the other three parks in your division are, for arguments sake, all Forbes, you most definitely do not have an advantage. Your division opponents will be playing 60/72 division games in parks for which their team is ideally suited. You on the other hand will be playing 36 games in a park tailored for your team.

I run into this dilemna all the time as I have a distinct fondness for Yankee 56. I would argue that it is possibly the easiest park to draft a winning team in because of the 70% differential in ballpark hrs favoring lefties (19 vs 5). In fact I encountered it in a waivers today. And I ended up picking up Cobb and dropping Reggie Jackson -- the latter being perfectly suited for Yankee 56.

Here's the team.

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/atg2/team/team_other.html?user_id=108156

Originally I got Banks from waivers but dropped him and grabbed Yount. That was a tough call but Yount is less one-dimensional than Banks and should lose less in my park while still being better on the road. Later I dropped Shoeless Joe for Oglivie to get more power. I had a bunch of different first baseman. Later on one of the better managers in the league dropped Meusel. I love the guy anywhere so I grabbed him and had to drop Norm Cash and Oglivie. I then decided to drop Rolfe and get Walling who is ideally suited for the park. And I have used Footsie Blair to good effect at 1B so I feel OK about that. Point is that alot of the changes I made weakened my team in my park but strengthened it in key road parks.

My starting staff is just about ideal for my park. My only regret is not having Clemens... My overall team is not ideally suited for the park. But apart from having two pitching parks in my division, the two best opposing managers in the league (in other divisions) are also in pitchers parks. So I drafted a team that will play comfortably in their parks assuming we make the playoffs.

Overall I don't have a great team but it should be very competitive and I would be very surprised to not make the playoffs.

Bottom line is you need every advantage you can get to do well in this game. So, I think it is highly ill advised to ignore any relevant variable and certainly opponents parks are a huge variable.

Posting got me thinking. I just dropped Ojeda for Key, got rid of Blair and got Mincher and dropped Evers for Whitaker who will platoon with Maz. Like the D and offense much more, pitching obviously took a hit, but cest la vie.

[boss_of_um]

It is hard to follow a detailed posting such as the one from Petrosian just now but I want to echo some of his sentiments. You cannot have a blind eye towards your divisional opponents stadiums. Sometimes it is a matter of trading out a one dimensional hitter for a guy who is more balanced. Other times it can be picking up a starting pitcher you plan to use solely in those parks. If I am in a pitching park, for example, and there is one or 2 other pitching parks in my division I will take a chance on Drysdale even if he might get bombed on the road. At the same time, I will pick up a spot starter such as Speer or Frock to use in place of Drysdale in those home run parks.
Being the only hitting park in a division full of pitching parks is a very tough position to be in. You would have to play .600 ball at home to have a chance, but those other 3 teams very likely will have good enough pitching to prevent you from doing that.

Petrosian, I liked your team before you made those moves that included dropping Shoeless and Banks, but then again I am still sure you will be towards the top. Meusel has upset me on my Barnstormer's Tour team and since I did not get the pitching I wanted I decided to go for a little more offense. I hate Ozzie Smith as well but I was not able to make the money work to drop him for Yount.