2007 Starting pitching

[Free Radicals]

I've been pouring over all the SP . I gave them ALL a quick glance and have come to the conclusion that this crop of pitchers is pretty mediocre to bad . It's going to be bombs away for most hitters in my opinion . Pitching , starting pitching will be a premium to get . :cry:

[RiggoDrill]

Big year for hitters, banning 'roids hurt pitching bad. :shock:

[Urishade]

I couldn't agree more and further exasperating the problem is that a number of high priced guys like Zambrano (7R), Weaver (9R), and Arroyo (8R) are somewhat useless in my mind since all the parks are basically the same this season. Without an old Minute Maid or Wrigley type field what good is it to invest $5M + in a guy who is going to get shelled by lefties?

I have to say this year's game looks rather lame to me. Not the features themselves, which are awesome but the set of cards and parks are going to make for rather game play in my opinion since there are tons and tons of hitters to choose from, few great pitchers, so many balanced parks (no park has a HR differential of more than 3 and only five have a differential over 3 for singles), and a bevy of defensive stalwarts.

It is used to be you could get an edge defensivey by playing a 1 at key postions. But this year there are nine, count them nine, CFs with 1s. Granted not all of them are offensively studs but basically if you just wanted to go on defense 75% of the league can play a 1 in CF. If you aren't using a 1 it almost like you are at a disadvantage.

Perhaps I am jumping the gun and don't the proper prespective in that maybe there were years like 07 in the past where offense and defense were so prevelant while pitching was so weak. I have only been playing since the 05 season but for a guy who has made his Strato living off of strong defense, excellent pitching, and unbalanced parks this new sets scares the crap out of me!

[Free Radicals]

Even the differences in ballparks plus some less than enthusiastic pitching make for hitters havens . Petco is now 1-1-9-9 so there really isn't anywhere to hide with a great pitching staff . It's going to be hitter based and rock'm sock'm robots . I think it will still be a blast but it's not going to be so cut and dry on what you can do with players , pitchers , and parks combined .

[Urishade]

Good points Radicals and that is what concerns me about this set. It seems very limited to me in that it is just who can great the greatest offense and just sock their way to a championship. Admittedly build offenses is one of my weakest points and that is why I am fearful of this new set. The idea of playing season after season of 9-8 games en route to a bunch of 75-87 records doesn't sound appealing to me.

I have never been one for the nuances of the game and playing each series based upon my opponent. Sure I have used match-up pitching but I had to compile that date myself and while it took a long time it gave me an edge. Now with all the reporting functions even that advantage has been eliminated.

So what is a poor boy to due if he can't gain an advantage from the park or compiling data, or having a superior defense, or building a great pitchign staff? I guess just strap himself into the 07 rollercoaster and see if he can win a few more slugfests than he loses.

[Free Radicals]

Scoring has never been my problem . Stopping my opponent is a whole different story though . Defense is also a thing I just never put much thought into . I've used plenty of 2's and 3's up the middle and still won ...and lost . It should be interesting and I'd have to say Brandon Webb seems to be the no.1 pitcher in my book . He will be hard to get .

[zonachoke]

The principal differences in SP: 2006 vs. 2007.

1) If you carve the top 8 SP out of the 2006 game, you get the 2007 game.

2) A 2007 SP will surrender about .014 higher OPS than a comparably-priced 2006 SP. In price terms, you'll pay about $0.20M more for the same 7* SP in the 2007 game than in the 2006 game (I don't know if the price difference is as large for 6*, 7, or 6 SP)

[goredsox33]

[quote:e20bf2d2ea="Free Radicals"]Scoring has never been my problem . Stopping my opponent is a whole different story though . Defense is also a thing I just never put much thought into . I've used plenty of 2's and 3's up the middle and still won ...and lost . It should be interesting and I'd have to say Brandon Webb seems to be the no.1 pitcher in my book . He will be hard to get .[/quote:e20bf2d2ea]

I was lucky enough to draft Webb.......

im going to try the strategy that worked for me in the 2005 game.....

an ace, then avg SP's.......decent BP.........

balanced lineup with better than avg power

[goredsox33]

There is some depth at SP...but VERY LITTLE depth at SP*.....