The Big Post for 2016

With the Winter Solstice upon us, only two weeks to go in 2016 and the forums fairly inactive with the coming holidays, I thought I would open the discussion to what has worked in SOM Online 20xx this season.

This card set has been one of the more challenging sets of recent times, and while I often felt like the captain of a rudderless ship throughout this year, I think I have a few items of interest to finally offer.

Fortunately or unfortunately, I still have a team competing in the Tour Semi-Finals. Like most tour playoffs, the 12 finalists will likely be decided at or very near the last day of the regular season, which is still three weeks away. While I don't think what I have to offer here is game-changing in any way, I also don't want to lay my thoughts bare when I still may have a team to draft publicly, if I'm lucky enough to stay ahead of some pretty stiff competition.

So, to avoid any hints of low grade gamesmanship or rank hypocrisy (if I were forced to embrace a philosophy opposite that which I might lay out here), I'm going to sit on my hands and my opinion for a while longer while I listen to you other managers out there.

So, regarding "How to Win in 2016", what say you?

What worked for me was rather simple, but it worked every time I was able to pull it off.

spend my first 4 picks on the best * SP I can get. I would spend 40 mil on that if possible.

cheap bullpen, and cheap higher average hitters. You have to go cheap at certain positions to fit that. My favorite is Segura at SS, he typically ends up hitting .260 to 290 vs LHP, but like .210 vs RHP. Sadly he hits about as well as SS that are in the 2-4 mil range, but is much cheaper. Nunez, at 3B, was another cheap option I tend to go for, as he's less than 2 mil.

Examples of teams:

Won a title in a theme league: http://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1430005
Autoleague, won title: http://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1429036

Of course, it doesn't work out now at the end of the cycle. It's practically impossible to pull that off in an autoleague now. There is no way to get SP like that anymore, it's all gone, as people have moved to realize the importance of pitching in this set.

but that did get me some good ratings in the beginning

I like those teams a lot, and agree with your observations. You might have seen the four stud starter team I posted just earlier in the resurrected Team Building thread.

What was the theme in the theme league?

I agree with the starting pitching assesment. OTOH it's difficult to get a good 4 man rotation in the draft.
Here's one with 4 SP and focus on hit units on hitters cards

http://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1430189

Other than one of cristano's earlier teams, I have not seen another 20xx team with a +200 run diff. Well played, sir. A shame that Brantley went down late in the playoffs for you.

Thanks. I had a terrible year in the playoffs, 8 playoff teams yet no rings.

http://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1434746

+160 RD in this fun league. Highly competitive managers.


I hate spending too much on SP. The BP effects can make some guys look like Sandy Koufax.

I am curious as to the reason owners think certain types of teams do well if they are willing to proffer one. Why does these pitching teams maximize the value of their pitchers to give an advantage? Theorectically, if you just buy expensive pitchers then that would be off-set by a loss in offense. One reason might be that Strat does not truly reflect the value of a * pitcher. A S7* pitcher should have 40 starts with an average of 7 innings but they typically will pitch 40 to 50 innings more than that. Also, if you can put an ace staff together you can go cheap in your relief staff without really hurting you and this saves money and is an advantage. You also minimize Hal's poor management decisions and situations where you have blown pitchers or having poor pitchers with bad match-ups where your pitching just completely blows up. Of course if you swing and miss and only get maybe two elite guys now you get caught with either having to spend a lot on relief or your relief blowing up when your two weak pitchers are in. But getting four primo guys has a lot of built-in benefits.

I am curious as to the reason owners think certain types of teams do well if they are willing to proffer one. Why does these pitching teams maximize the value of their pitchers to give an advantage? Theorectically, if you just buy expensive pitchers then that would be off-set by a loss in offense. One reason might be that Strat does not truly reflect the value of a * pitcher. A S7* pitcher should have 40 starts with an average of 7 innings but they typically will pitch 40 to 50 innings more than that. Also, if you can put an ace staff together you can go cheap in your relief staff without really hurting you and this saves money and is an advantage. You also minimize Hal's poor management decisions and situations where you have blown pitchers or having poor pitchers with bad match-ups where your pitching just completely blows up. Of course if you swing and miss and only get maybe two elite guys now you get caught with either having to spend a lot on relief or your relief blowing up when your two weak pitchers are in. But getting four primo guys has a lot of built-in benefits.

I didn't have this kind of success with this method in the 14 and 13 card sets. Each year's set seems to have it''s own dynamic

CF seemed to be top heavy, more hit or miss this set. Looks like next year is the same. Hitting was 1968 like, few .300 hitters due to pitching.