New to Strat-O- Matic

New to this game! I feel like this mode would be best applicable to me because I followed baseball a lot last year... does anyone have any general advice with drafts, etc, or what league I should join?

I assume you want to play the 2015 season.

For leagues, you might just try a 80M auto-league to start. Players' price were set with the 80M default, so it's easier to start with this league.

I wrote this article for beginners. You might need to subscribe to the letter, but subscribtion is free (donation is suggested for the editing).
http://www.ultimatestratbaseball.com/US ... ch2016.htm

Here is a quick summary of what you should be deciding:

0-Stadium has a huge impact in this game, so I would suggest that you select a more extreme rather than a more neutral stadium and try to take advantage of that stadium with your player selection.

1- Starting pitchers with a star can pitch with 3 games rest all year long. So you only 4 of them to have a full rotation. That will leave you with 6 relief spots. That being said, there is more selection among starting pitchers without a star, so if you can't get the 4 *SP you are looking for, don't hesitate to drop them all and go for 5 regular SP that will fit your stadium better:

2- Relievers can be exploited without much penalty. If you set your "pitchers pref" properly, you should get 150 innings out of your set-up man and 100 innings of your closer. As a consequence, you don't really need to spend big money in no more than 2, perhaps 3 relievers. I like this setting:
An expensive set-up/closer
A really good R2 middle/set-up
A "third"-string reliever between 1 or 2 M who have some closer hability C2-C3
A mop-up R3
One or Two specialists (for example a lefty specialist)

3-Offensively, everything you know about baseball applies here!! The importance of on-base for a lead-off hitter, the importance to have a real power hitter, especially in the 4th spot. Consider spending cheap cards with great defense ratings for the bottom of the lineup. In my opinion, if you go for a more offense-oriented stadium, you should try to get at least one (and perhaps two) 9M+ player. Any of them in a stadium with power are good buys in my opinion.

Generally, the salary reflects the value of the player "in his best stadium". For example, Dee Gordon's salary roughly represents his true value in a low-homerun stadium. Hence, in a more neutral or a stadium advantaging stadiums, he's overpriced. In my opinion, there are only a few categories of players I consider overpriced no matter the stadium: outfielders with great arms, especially at the corners (Cespedes, Heyward) and perhaps some players with good-not-great offense cards and below-average defense and running in the upper 6M range (I think of Encarnation, Bautista, JD Martinez).

4-Platoons are underestimated by many GM. But most of the time, they pay off. Consider to have one or two, but don't overspend on these players----When I use a platoon, I like to spend 3M-4M for the starting player vs rhp and around 2M for the starting player vs lhp. A good example at the dh spot is a combo of Eaton-Santana

5- Think of the interations among the players you've selected. For example, if you select a stadium favouring lefty hitting and consequently select 4 lefty starting pitchers who happen to have a very good hold of -3 or -4, don't spend on a catcher with a negative arm, you're just wasting your money.

If you have time to spare, you might want to look at the strategy section, there is some posts adressed to beginners.

Wow, thanks for the reply.

I have some follow up questions.

1) How can I find a good league? The ones I am trying to target all seem to have 1 player.
2) How does a pitcher "tire" more quickly in Coors? Is it the air, or is it cause of more hits?
2a) I get how hitting is affected by ballparks, but does lefty/righty/pitching also get affected?
3) How do you see a pitcher's hold rating or a catcher's arm rating?

The rest I pretty much got. Thanks so much for the sound advice

1) How can I find a good league? The ones I am trying to target all seem to have 1 player.

I just got a look, and you're right, there's no autoleague forming. So you better create one once your draft settings are done. I think the system will ask you whether you want to join a league or create a new league.

2) How does a pitcher "tire" more quickly in Coors? Is it the air, or is it cause of more hits?
More hits. And also because of the strat rule that any combination of 3 walks/hits, 4 walks/hits in 2 innings or 5 walks/hits in 3 innings will trigger a beginning of tiredness if the last walk/hit is done at any pitcher's inning of weakness (which you can find beyond the S or R, for example, for Arrieta, S7, the 7th inning and beyond are his "inning of weakness")

2a) I get how hitting is affected by ballparks, but does lefty/righty/pitching also get affected?
A stadium that allows more hits or homeruns to lefty hitters will in turn give an edge to a lefty pitcher because usually, a lefty pitcher will face somewhere between 20% and 30% of lefty hitters, whereas right-handed pitchers will face between 48% and 58% of lefty hitters.

3) How do you see a pitcher's hold rating or a catcher's arm rating?

Catchers: it's the parenthesis right after the range. Posey has a -2 arm: c-1(-2). For pitchers, if you look for pitchers when drafting, it's right up there besides the wild pitch and the balk numbers.

Your amazing! Thank you so much! I have one final question, then ill start waiting a year for a draft to fill up


1) How do you make your relievers close AND set up, or in general make it so your relievers do what you want them to?

Also read as much of this as you can:
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=631692

I usually go back and re-read it about once a year. There is a wealth of ideas here

my .02 for your first team.

1. hitting vs righty pitching is very important. you will face 65 to 80 % righties, so make sure u you have some good lefty bats that hit righty pitchers.
2. don't be in love with your favourite teams or players from mlb. fall in love with good cards that produce, especially with the style of play or stadium u are employing.
3. do not overspend on bullpen. specialists (high leftie or rightie imbalance) can be effective for cheap dollars. but find a few relievers under 3 million and a couple of specialists. there are postings on how to maximize good or dominant relievers...we often see a relief pitcher as an mvp.
4. platoons- 3 or 4 platoons can really wreak havoc against other teams...but make sure the ratio is based on use and production. for example the hitter vs rhp should almost always cost more than the platoon partner vs lefty pitching.
5. don't forget about defence...even the best pitchers will struggle if your defenders have terrible range and error ratings. Kershaw is not so great with a 4 ss and 4 2b.
6. don't panic!!! if your team is off to a poor start don't change every player who has a bad 9 to 15 games. its a long season. maybe find a league with a 5% drop all season so it doesn't hurt so bad as u get a feel for the game.
7.similar to mlb, defence up the middle ss,2b,cf and c is important due to frequency.
8.budget- there are a few articles about your most expensive player and how much it can impact your overall team performance...harper trout votto and Goldschmidt on the same team would be amazing....however, not much room left for every other position, pitching etc. feast and famine. what is better..a 12 million $ superstar or 2 excellent 6 million players...arguments can be made for both.

I have more crap that flows out the brain but these are just a few tips.

Welcome to the game!

As you have already seen, the community loves to give advice...and most of it, if not all, is excellent! Don't be afraid to post your team on the boards once the league is drafted. People here will help you out (sometimes in contradictory ways, but always in a friendly manner)...even people in your own league. We like to win (who doesn't?) but we like to win in a fair fight.

Bill

Another .02 cents worth.

When you do get a team going, don't expect your player stats to be all that similar to the printed stats---80M salary leagues (the most common) tend to have better pitching and hitting than the real MLB equivalent--therefor both the pitchers and hitters stats will be worse than the printed stats usually.

a 24 team 60m league will come the closest to matching real MLB stats--but still the underperforming players from that season are not used very much.

Some leagues may have 8 or 10 power parks (since anyone can pick any park, theoretically 12 teams playing in Coors is possible)--parks affect the overall stats as well as the salary of the league.

Your amazing! Thank you so much! I have one final question, then ill start waiting a year for a draft to fill up


1) How do you make your relievers close AND set up, or in general make it so your relievers do what you want them to?

Once your team is set and draft is done, a page called pitcher pref will be available. You can set up your instructions.