Salary Cap Effect on Draft?

I'm in my 1st SOM league (though I spent my high school days playing the board game). I had read here that you shouldn't overpay for your bench. I went with that strategy in my Auto League ($80M cap), but now I find that most of the batter strategy settings don't apply because my bench players are so bad.

Examples:

I've got it set to never pinch hit or pinch run for any of my starting players. Why would I? My bench is full of bad hitters.

Defensive replacements. I based my draft rankings on fielding range = 1 or 2, and with my bench made up of $0.5M players, my starters are better anyway.

Even my lineups are pretty static. My best 9 are my best 9, regardless of whether they are facing a lefty or a righty. And assigning my injury backups is a hair-raising experience.

So, I keep thinking that if I were in a higher salary cap league, I'd have a better bench, more relievers to have in different situations and have less fatigue, etc.

But if I go back to the rule of thumb I read out there that at least 6 of your players should be < $750k, it seems I'd be in the same situation in a $100M league as my current $80M league.

What have you seen happen in higher dollar leagues? Do people invest in their bench at all, or still max out on starting players?

Just curious.

Thanks!

Chris

That is pretty much the situation in 100m or 80m leagues.

I think more about defense in bench situations. No >1m SS is going to match, say, Nomar Garciaparra's bat if he goes down to injury, so why try? Find a good 2 (or the couple of 1's) at SS and take any offense he gives you as gravy.

Remember, the other guys in your league don't have a bench to speak of either. You are not necessarily at a disadvantage.

Sounds like good advice. Thanks.

One exception is if you have a starting hitter with a 2 or worse injury rate. You would want a slightly better backup for him. Another is if you go with a platoon you would have higher salary guys and one of them would begin the game on the bench.

One strategy I have used on occasion is to draft a high injury catcher and have a high injury backup catcher. Take advantage of SOM's unwritten rule of all players with a catcher rating can't be injured at the same time.

I try to have backups that are just better than .5 for the most part---I don't know what league you are in, but for the 2012 season I like to have players like Nyjer Morgan .58, Elliot Johnson .54 or Gwynn Jr. .67--even Fontenot .82---though most managers don't like to spend this kind of Money on subs someone like Ciriaco 1.24 can be a savior when 15 game injuries come---especially if you are using a high injury player like Longoria

DH leagues tend to go for less expensive backups, where you need a couple of at least decent Pinch Hitters in a no-DH league.

Here is one of my teams that made the playoffs with the cheapest player being .82---a no -dh league, and a horrible fielding team too, but a lot of high injury players that could hit. So its possible to go either way, but if I use all .5 guys as backups--I want a bunch of very low (3 game max) injury players.

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/1026290

edit 10/6----

One thing else I forgot to say---a lot of .5 guys are not worth .5---I think it is just a limit on low price players.

Some .5 guys I do think are worth the .5 is Delmon Young (as a LH DH or PH), Ibanez--maybe Petersen for OF backup, Segura as a RH PH, Brock Holt (though I have never been able to carry him as he only plays 2B) Bob Johnson (catcher) and a few pinch runner and A bunting B H&R type guys--if you go for just above .5 players at least you generally know the are worth the money.

I'm in my 1st SOM league (though I spent my high school days playing the board game). I had read here that you shouldn't overpay for your bench. I went with that strategy in my Auto League ($80M cap), but now I find that most of the batter strategy settings don't apply because my bench players are so bad.

Examples:

I've got it set to never pinch hit or pinch run for any of my starting players. Why would I? My bench is full of bad hitters.

Defensive replacements. I based my draft rankings on fielding range = 1 or 2, and with my bench made up of $0.5M players, my starters are better anyway.

Even my lineups are pretty static. My best 9 are my best 9, regardless of whether they are facing a lefty or a righty. And assigning my injury backups is a hair-raising experience.

So, I keep thinking that if I were in a higher salary cap league, I'd have a better bench, more relievers to have in different situations and have less fatigue, etc.

But if I go back to the rule of thumb I read out there that at least 6 of your players should be < $750k, it seems I'd be in the same situation in a $100M league as my current $80M league.

What have you seen happen in higher dollar leagues? Do people invest in their bench at all, or still max out on starting players?

Just curious.

Thanks!

Chris

$100M versus $80M typically the $20M goes towards upgraded pitching and higher injury risk players with a better backup
If you have bulletproof guys you can shift some bench payroll to other positions

While I agree that you don't want to overspend on a bench, I am willing to spend a little extra for some key backups that offer some value for the extra dollars spent. (See randall miller's post above for some good examples.)

Here's something to think about, though, if you're tempted to ignore conventional wisdom and overspend on your bench:

You spend $5 million for a starter who gets 600 at bats.
You spend $500K for a bench player who gets 60 at bats.

Guess what? The price per at bat for each player is the same! So, if you spend $1 million for a bench player who gets only 60 at bats, you're spending twice as much per at bat as a decent starter.