How to pick out a pitching staff for a certain park

[gbrookes]

Your comment is good - i.e. "Because isn't it based...?"

There are a lot of comments and suggestions to make, but they generally should start out with the words, "all other things being equal...". But when you get into the nitty gritty of an actual league, your final choices for your pitching staff may be influenced by who your opponents are choosing for their batting lineups, as well as what ballparks they are choosing - just as you said.

However, "all other things being equal", you should think about...

1. What ballpark are you choosing for your team. 1/2 of your games will be played in your home ballpark. If you are in a homerun park (say, with the ballpark homeruns higher than 1-10), then you should "think twice" about pitchers with lots of ballpark homeruns on their cards - say 4 or more ballpark homerun readings. If they are star pitchers for whom that is their only "flaw", you might still choose them. However, be aware that the high ballpark homeruns will impact on their results more than pitchers with fewer ballpark homeruns on their cards. If, on the other hand, you are in a singles ballpark (say homeruns are less than 1-10), then you may find that you can live with 4 or more ballpark homeruns on the pitchers' cards if (!) they are otherwise good cards!

2. After the waiver draft, and even after the initial autodraft, check out your division rivals hitter rosters. Also, keep an eye on roster moves after the waiver draft. In a 12 team league, you play your division rivals 24 times each. That is twice as many times as you play most other teams. If, for example, your division rivals have many high valued batters (say $3 million or more) who are lefty hitters, then you may want to choose pitchers for your staff whose balance is more "L" balanced (say 2L to 5L). Or, your division rivals have many high valued batters who are righty hitters, you may want to choose pitchers who are more "R" balanced (say 2R to 5R). The more extreme the pitcher's rating, though, the more vulnerable they are to pinch hitting or lineup switching by your opponents. Relief pitchers whose balance is rated 5R (or 5L) or more may be more suited to a specialty role (i.e. "righty specialist" or "lefty specialist") in your bullpen settings. Or, they are a starting pitcher, you may want to save them to start when facing teams who are "stacked" with that "handedness" of hitter - i.e. 5R or higher versus all righthanded lineups, or 5L or higher vs. all lefthanded lineups.

Also, check out the balance ratings (9L to 9R) for your rivals' high valued hitters. If they are "skewed" to "prefer" one hand of pitcher (e.g. left), then you may wish to choose pitchers with the opposite throwing hand (e.g. right).

3. Re your division rivals lineups - how many high value switch hitters are there? Or platoons (pairs of hitters with extreme L balance or R balance hitting)? If there are many switch hitters or platoons, and if your ballpark is "unbalanced" - i.e. tougher on one hand of hitter than the other hand of hitter - you may want to have more pitchers of the opposite handedness. I.e. PNC is tough on right handed hitters. If your division rivals have lots of switch hitters or platoons, you may want to load up on lefty pitchers.

4. Also, to some extent, check out your division rivals ballparks, and, to a much lesser extent, the ballparks chosen by teams in the other divisions. If there is a clear pattern (ie. all homerun parks, or all singles parks), then this may influence your choice of pitcher. (See #1 above). Just remember though, 1/2 your games are in your own ballpark! If that is the opposite of most parks in the league, you may still want to build your team based on your own ballpark (#1 and #3 above) and/or based on your opponents lineups (#2).

5. Check out the "other factors" on the pitchers' cards (!):
- holding runner ratings
- defensive range and e-ratings
- on their cards, how many GB A results are there (these nice readings can result in double plays for your defense!)

By the way, are you familiar with the odds of each die roll occurring on the cards? Let me know by reply to this post, if you are not familiar with this. I can give you a briefing on this if you want.

:)
Geoff

[JKolak]

Great post by Geoff...he did make a great point in the last line of his post. How much do you know about counting card chances?

If you're new to StratOMatic period, you may want to select a ball park that is even for ball park effect home runs against both left and right hand hitters. Ball park singles are pretty irrelevant.

Pitching is half the game. You also need to groove your hitters to upur ball park too.

My advice would be to read as many posted topics that you can on the boards. It will give you a good education. Don't be afraid to play a season to learn more about the gane. Learning by doing is how you win. Pay attention to what the successful managers are dpoing in your league.

[gbrookes]

There is some really good advice here at this page in the "strategy" message board forum:

http://forums.sportingnews.com/viewtopic.php?t=9842

There is also a discussion of die roll probabilities here, as well as the good advice!

[motherscratcher]

I was just about to come here to make a topic very similar.

My first team is 24 games in and I'm barely holding my head above water. I picked Royals '80 for my stadium (a very poor HR hitters park) with the strategy of having a good defensive high BA/OBP team that could run some.

Right before my league started the guys here helped me get a respectable team, but I had to change just about everyone I had drafted and thought would be good.

What I think now, is that it is very difficult for an inexperienced player to put together such a specialized team and be successful.

What I plan to do in my next league (coming soon. I'm absolutely hooked) is pick an average park that doesn't skew much one way or the other. That way I can concentrate on just trying to find the very best cards available, and not necessarily good cards that also fit in my particular park.

I think once I've played a while, I'll have a much better idea of who has better cards and what they mean for different parks.

My .02$

[ClowntimeIsOver]

"Ball park singles are pretty irrelevant."

That isn't true, unless you think a swing of up to 100 points in your opponents' home (visitor) OPS is irrelevant. Rough estimate: every BP single adds 5 points to OPS for lefties or righties. 1-10 adds .050, etc. So low-walk pitchers (for example) would be far better in 1-20 parks, and far less valuable in 1-0 parks.

I'd welcome better estimates.

[toronto50]

if ur a new guy and stying around 500 be happy and patient. i bet ur playing against some experienced ATG players who know what cards work in what stadium. pay attention to other players parks and the type of players they use in those parks. certain things that arent obvious can be important.

1. Have the ability to dominate right handed pitching, u will face righty starters 70% of the time.
2. great middle defence. have a catcher with a good arm to hold runners at first. have a 1 ss and a 1 2b so u can turn double plays.
3. good outfield arms so they dont circle the bases on you.

etc- i gotta go to work now.

[JOSEPHKENDALL]

[quote:2787cea62e="motherscratcher"]
What I think now, is that it is very difficult for an inexperienced player to put together such a specialized team and be successful.[/quote:2787cea62e]

It is easier (in my opinion) to win in ATG with an extreme park than a neutral one. My definition of extreme is LH park only, RH park only, HR park only, SI park only. Wrigley Field 78 is an extreme park, but it's advantages can be enjoyed by everyone. It seems to work out best if you can draft for and take advantage of an extreme park for only a subset of the players available. I think a LH park is ideal, but you can easily get burned in the autodraft and miss out on the players you need.

[motherscratcher]

[quote:1ee42b3df7="quirks"][quote:1ee42b3df7="motherscratcher"]I was just about to come here to make a topic very similar.[/quote:1ee42b3df7]Still recommend [i:1ee42b3df7]Boyer and Cool[/i:1ee42b3df7] Papa Bell[/quote:1ee42b3df7]

Cool Papa Bell is hitting second behind Ichiro for me and doing really well so far. One of my better players.

I'm going to update that thread in the next few days. My team is hanging in there.

[AeroDave10]

Guys, I'd recommend moving this conversation over to the ATG forum. Typically, this forum is reserved for the 20XX games. Regular ATG players tend to check that board a bit more frequently than this one.