Newbie advice thread

[visick]

Welcome casey and of course you are allowed to post here.

Posting questions/comments helps you understand the game. Your question may not get answered right away, but in time it will. Most of the guys here love helping out the newbies to this game.

OBP vs. SLG:

Well, I'm guilty of having too much slugging on a recent Coors team. The top of your lineup needs guys that get on base. As a matter of fact, so does the rest of the lineup. If guys do not get on base, guys do not score.

[pedakrla]

Welcome, casey. My take on WHIP before ERA is this: WHIP is a better indicator of a pitcher's ability than ERA. There's too much luck (or "randomness") in a pitcher's ERA. We've all seen the pitcher who keeps putting guys on base, but gets out of jams time after time. Commentators will often call that "bearing down in the clutch," or something like that, and there may be some element of that. Most of it, though (according to guys who study baseball stats a lot more than I do), is just luck. You may not be so lucky if you have that pitcher on your team.

To take it a step further, which may be further than you want to go at this point, you will hear guys on the boards recommending that you "look at the (Strat) card" when evaluating a pitcher or a hitter. If you're into statistics and spreadsheets, and know a little about sabermetrics, you can fine-tune your analysis and calculate probability of success from the raw data on each card. There are plenty of successful Strat players, though, who don't go to that level of detail. Also, with practice and experience, you will learn to scan a card quickly for key things and reach valid conclusions.

On speed vs. OBP at the top of the lineup: "sabermetricians" are pretty unanimous that the stolen base is not as potent an offensive weapon as many baseball people believe. It's more important to have a lot of guys getting on base (giving them the opportunity to score) than it is to have fewer guys on base that steal a lot of bases.

An example to illustrate: player A has an OBP for the season of .300 and steals 50 bases. Using some sabermetric thumbrules and reasonable assumptions about the other hitters on the team, this player "creates" approximately 90-95 runs for the season, only about 5-10 of which are due to his stolen bases.

Player B has an OBP for the season of .350 with no stolen bases. This player creates approximately 100 runs for the season. A difference of 5-10 runs may not seem like much, but it can mean an extra win or two over the course of a season. As competitive as these on-line strat leagues are, that is often the difference between making the playoffs and not.

[caseybats]

Thank you socalchiro and dave3504.

I think I get it.

I read in another thread something about ratings disks. Is this the same as the spreadsheet you can download from the strat-o-matic 2006 page?

Since the baseball season will finish in about a month, is it worth it starting a team now or would it be better to wait until this years simulation is available to play?

Thank you.

Casey

[Rant]

Ratings Disk is different from the spreadsheet. It lets you break down the strat card, versus actual stats.

[url=http://strat-o-matic.com/eshop/10Expand.asp?ProductCode=B2005DNEWI]Ratings Disk[/url]

Definitely worth starting a team now. Particularly since next year's cards won't come out for about another six months, give or take. There are leagues forming all the time, and it -- at very least -- gives you the chance to cut your teeth.

[visick]

The ratings book is also available.

[MARCPELLETIER]

Ratings and Book aren't 64$. You can find them at the bottom here: http://strat-o-matic.com/eshop/10Browse.asp (for 13$)

[Nippithon]

Hey, Cummings2, I'm going to chime in on [quote:139b4ed01e]#12 - No more than one 4 in the OF. [/quote:139b4ed01e] as I believe this advise is unsound. True, in the real world a rangy centerfielder can compensate for a weak left or right fielder. But in Strat this is not a consideration. A 1 in centerfield is not going to help the 4 you have in left, and a 4 in center isn't going to make your other 4s any worse.

What matters is individual value. Every player produces runs with his bat and allows runs with his glove. Judge each player on total runs-for-the-buck. If it is wise to put a poor-fielding slugger in left field, then it very well may be wise to put one in center and right, too. Same goes for the infield. Many vets disagree, though. More than once I have read the advice on these boards: 'if you have a 4 at 2B, make sure you have at least a 1 or a 2 at SS.' I can't imagine why this would be so. (I may be missing something; if so, please correct me.)

Weigh batting order into the formula. Obviously hitters near the top of the lineup get more opportunities to compensate for a poor glove than those near the bottom.

To the excellent collection of newbie advice at the top of this string I would add:

To get maximum value from a player, play him at his best position. E.g. if a player is listed as "2B-1e14, SS-3e28," for heaven's sake play him at 2B. Otherwise you're paying for a slick-fielding second basemen while getting a mediocre SS. The answer to the question "Should I play so-and-so in CF?" is usually "No, you shouldn't."

[jcr54]

I just drafted my second team, and reading this topical thread has been very instructive. Have any of the experts here considered adding any new insights to it?

[Detroit-Tigers]

Nope.

[jcr54]

Obviously not. I am relatively new to the message boards as well as the game itself, and noticed all of the entries in this thread that simply read "bump," so I figured there was no harm in asking.

I mentioned that I just drafted my second team, so if anyone wants to offer a gentle, constructive critique of my inexperienced efforts, I'd certainly be grateful for that:

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/2006/team/team_other.html?user_id=13785