Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

I'm not going to lie. I like playing with big time HR parks because I find it much easier to find guys who play well in parks like the Cell than it is to find guys who play well in AT&T, SAFECO, or Petco. The last few times I've tried to go with a small ball team, I've failed. I'm trying again in AT&T, but I missed out on some guys and this team doesn't look very promising.
http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/1025969
I know all about the strategy: High OB and doubles guys with low BPHR, and pitchers who can take advantage of the ballpark. But there are only so many of those guys.

How do you guys manage to put together productive teams in run suppressing parks?
I have never put together a successful team in one, and I'd like to know more about how to master Strat small ball.

Thanks for any help,
Lev

I know exactly how you feel. It seems every time I would try and build a pitchers park team I would always end up in a division with three Coors teams haha so I gave up on that idea and have mostly gone hitters parks. Hopefully MichaelGrammes who posts here will see this. He is prob the best at putting together small ball teams. Good Luck

Hey I'm new to the online game but I like playing pitchers parks. I think you need SP that can go deep into games, I would never spend $14m on a bullpen in a pitchers park. I really like a 1 in cf also

I dont know bout the best, but I usually can slap together a WC team no problem.

In pitcher parks, I live and die by a cheap 6 or 7 man rotation. With that, I do like what you started with your bullben. Kimbrel is gold. Koji, may hafta go. There are cheaper options, that will do the same, some, with an R2 rating, that your pen is sorely lacking. My bullpens are slightly cheaper than yours, by 1-2 mill. 1 stud closer. 1 guy thats an r2, in the 3-4 range, I try for an r2, but will take an r1 in the 2.5 range. and then two specialist, one for each side, usually no more than .8 each.

Def up the middle. That cannot be said more, or loud enough. A Barney or Galvis at 2nd, and something like a Crawford at SS, if I am looking to save money. a 1e24, will yield bout the same runs as a 2e16 or so.

Anytime, you can get a - arm in the OF, it cant be a bad thing.

Your wasting money at Catcher. Mauer can go both ways, and is a 3 gamer. Which means he will only miss 9 or so games a year. Let him bat both ways, dump that other guy, and save bout 1.75 mil finding a cheaper back up, instead of platooning who ya have.

In general, the team is not that far off from something I would attempt. I like Votto, but be prepaired to be without him for 30-45 games. On my one team that is 1 game up for the WC, I just lost him for 15 at the transaction deadline. I also have Moss on that team, so i dropped Joey, and grabbed Choo.

Natural power is something else ya want. Somebody that can just hit a HR anywhere. On the team with Votto and Moss, I also have Longoria. And, was surper lucky (so far!) he has only missed 15 games. While you want to win at your place, you need to be competitive in HR parks too.

I dont wanna give up the farm, but will toss a few names out there that do well for me in small ball parks. Brad Lincoln. i have him on the WC team from above, he's 18-5 with a 3.07 ERA. Wellington Castillo. Card says 5L, but can go both ways easily. David murphy in LF . And an uber cheap effective RP is Brad brach, tho he is only an r1.

Hope some of this was helpful, I hafta run to work.

Thanks guys. So far, based on your input, i have:
Dropped Uehara, gone from Asdrubal to Crawford, gone from Markakis to a Choo-Ross platoon (something that I was thinking about doing anyway).. I might end up going back to asdrubal or switching Barney out, just because I hate having two almost sure outs in my lineup..
Thanks!

Wait, what are you doing with Viciedo?

Is he platooning?

bertolett wrote:Wait, what are you doing with Viciedo?

Is he platooning?

yes, at DH with Mauro.. I've had a lot of success with guys like Gutierrez and Viciedo in HR parks.. hopefully that remains true at AT&T, because they do have some HR's on their cards

Michael Grammes wrote::oops: I dont know bout the best, but I usually can slap together a WC team no problem.

In pitcher parks, I live and die by a cheap 6 or 7 man rotation. With that, I do like what you started with your bullben. Kimbrel is gold. Koji, may hafta go. There are cheaper options, that will do the same, some, with an R2 rating, that your pen is sorely lacking. My bullpens are slightly cheaper than yours, by 1-2 mill. 1 stud closer. 1 guy thats an r2, in the 3-4 range, I try for an r2, but will take an r1 in the 2.5 range. and then two specialist, one for each side, usually no more than .8 each.

.

Well, that explains why I struggle at this. Although in one of my keeper leagues, I did win the title with the rotation and great d, cheap and very situational bullpen

Heres how I try to set up my pitcher's park teams:

Hitting:
1. High Ave hitters is more a priority to me than high OBP (a hitter with both is ideal of course). The reason is in a small park, you'll need hits to drive in the runners, not walks. You'll have more success driving in runs with a .300/.340 hitter than you would a .250/.370 hitter.

2. Doubles are nice, but so are natural home runs. Many times the game will be decided by a low soring 1 or 2 run game. May as well have that guy witha few natural HRs to decide a ballgame or two.

3. Don't neglect the power hitters, especially if they also play good defense. You don't want to be helpless in your away games.

4. Base running ability is far more important to me than SB's. I'm not one to rely on the stolen base.

5. Stay away from th GBA guys. A hitter like Bernadina will do wonders as your #2 hitter.

Pitching:

1. No need to go with a stud or two, rely on $3 to $5 SP's, preferably with 4 SP*. You need 5 SP's, so make the 5th SP a .50 cent SP/RP heavily RH'd or LH'd slanted one. Then find another RP that is heavily slanted the other way to balance your late inning specialist.

2. ONE stud R2 closer, to use as both set-up and closer, one $2 middle man to get to him.

3. Keep your pitching payroll at around $20 to $22, and load up on the hitting.

4. Ideally, it should look like this: 4 SP*'s totaling $14 to $16, one .50 heavily slanted SP/RP, one $3.5 to $5 R2/CL6 , one $2 middle man, one .50 heavily slanted RP opposite your #5 SP, and two $1 RP's.

This formula has worked more often than not for me. Nothing is more satisfying than having one of the best hitting teams playing in a pitcher's park

Occasionally, I'll go cheap, just defense @ SS, 2B or C.
And use the extra $ to upgrade somewhere else.