- Posts: 683
- Joined: Fri Oct 25, 2013 4:40 pm
Fri Aug 12, 2016 8:39 am
Well, a few observations and opinions:
1) DEFENSE, IN GENERAL: Remember that a "3" is an AVERAGE ranged-fielder, not a bad one. Semantics, maybe, but it helps to keep that in mind. It's the 4's who can't get to anything. E-ratings are about sure-handedness, positioning and judgment, and -- sometimes -- the results of someone with great range attempting players others wouldn't have a shot at.
3) MIDDLE INFIELD DEFENSE: Pitchers with high frequency gbA's can reduce the need for supreme defense up the middle. That said, having a pair of 1's, PLUS high frequency gbA can get you out of a LOT of jams. The real life truism concerning defense up the middle tends to hold firm, even in Strat. And, yeah, you can win with Hanley or Cecil at SS--but I'd rather have a SS I don't have to replace late in the game. Shutdown D in the middle increases run prevention, and run prevention can take you a LOOOONG way, regardless of what bomber enthusiasts believe.
3) ERRORS AT THE CORNERS: E-Ratings matter a lot more at the corners due to the large split range, resulting in more E-chance results. Say, a 4e3 at 1B is not going to hurt a ton, save for some DOUBLES down the line. Downside to sloughing off defense: you need late inning replacements, which might limit your bench choices, which, in pitcher-hitting leagues (all I play), might cost you a decent bat later on.
4) OUTFIELD "D": Arms. Arms, arms, arms, especially in CF, will save you runs. Range in the corner OF is less important, though a 4 is going to cost you extra base hits, so tread lightly. Outfield errors produce extra bases. Bad throws can clear the sacks of everyone. So, OF miscues can lead to really big innings. That said, do not be afraid to play a 4 somewhere who can give you some offense on the cheap. For example, Danny Tartabull produced his .858 in Royals stadium. He's an abysmally bad fielder all around (4e14), but he does have a -2 arm, so he'll bring you SOMETHING out there. Further, if he's in any sort of power park, he'll give you more than his 26 real-life HR's. As for as CF, there are a lot more X-opportunities and throwing situations. So, to me, it's worth it to consider a defensive replacement your CF late in the game with someone who can throw, even if they're a decent fielder. Bernie Williams is a 2e5(+2). Good fielder, but that arm might cost me late, so I might want cheap Butler (1e2, -2) late game. Maybe.
5) BENCH (for pitcher hit leagues, which is all I play): (1) It pays to spend a bit more: you're going to have situations where you need a hit late. Even moving up to spending .54 over .50 on a player can give you a huge advantage late. Pinch hitters are important. (2) Don't overemphasize defense on your bench: except for a situation where your replacing a truly awful starter (say, Gary Matthews in LF),make sure your bench guy can hit a little. Get a couple guys with good clutch, and maybe some who can give you a dinger late (though, to me, the important thing is they can get on, and get you back into your lineup. (3) No single position bench players: unless you're platooning them. Flexibility allows you cover more positions, maybe carry fewer on the bench if you want to grab an extra RP. (4) Platooning at a couple positions automatically gives you some great bats late in the game: but watch the skew.
6) STARTING PITCHING: Build your starting staff in accordance with your home park, but also with your divisional foes in mind (this assumes the usual, 12-team league). Managers in the online game love extreme parks. This sometimes makes choosing your pitchers easy, especially when you're the sole pitcher-defense team in bomberland, and everyone is skewing lefty. You can just "skew" them right back (well, and pray--because Bonds is going to hit 4 HR's against you anyway). If you see a league-wide trend (say, lots of HR heavy parks for RH batters), you might want to consider tweaking your staff to address that. That said, half your games are at home. Your pitchers should benefit from where you play.
7) REAL LIFE MATTERS: Take advantage of real life effects on player performance. For example, Daryl Strawberry and Jose Canseco played in crappy hitter's parks. Their cards will almost always overperform if you put them in a park with even a 1-6 chance of a dinger. Further, since these guys produced in bad parks, you can play them in a pitcher's park and still get something from them. They'll be suppressed, like everyone else, but less so, and will thrive on the road. On the flip side, pitchers who thrived in hitters eras, or hitters parks, will shine in more forgiving environments, while still performing well in hitter-friendly environments (translation: Fergie Jenkins is the bomb).
8) BULLPENS (pitcher hitting leagues--because super relievers in this simulation are just b******t): For pitcher-batting, unless you're going with 4 super studs (10M or higher on 4 SP*'s), it pays to have a modern bullpen approach. Your hurler is going to be replaced, more often than not, so it pays to spend some money, even if your starters are decent (6-8M range). Regardless of your approach, you're absolutely going to play a lot of close games. Your entire season will oftentimes come down to performance in 1-run games. So, it pays to have someone who can shut it down late. If you're going deadball, then your starter already IS that guy. But if you're not going the "4 horseman" route in SP's, it's not a bad idea to plunk down some $$ on specialists who can get key outs (Lavelle, Bennet, MJackson, Pina, etc.). Further, unless you're going with prime SP's (starters with values at 8-9M or higher), it's usually better to have your relief setting on aggressive. This assumes you've built a decent pen.
9) BOMBERBALL AND THE FRUITLESSNESS OF STRATEGY: There will be teams that club 300 HR's. They are the devil. They are therefore eternal. Anyways, if you're NOT one of these types of managers, don't feel pressure to play that way. No strategy is automatic. Let me put it this way. Went against the grain with Pujols in Crosley (SI=1-11, HR=1-2). He ended up .264/.345/.506, 37 Bombs, 116 RBI. He was WORSE on the road. Anyhoo, the team wins 90. Makes the finals. Gets swept. But...11 postseason games, including 3 playing on the road in Coors field. Albert goes 3-44 with 2 HR's, 6 RBI. That's a slashline of .068/.196/.205. That's a .401 OPS for one of the best 1B ever to play. This was his 9.69M card, by the way. Which leads me to...
10) THE POINT OF IT ALL: No matter what, have fun. If you're playing just to win credits, or to satisfy some ego urge, you're missing the point. Nobody cares what your winning % is. Enjoy the game. Build a theme team every now and then. Experiment. It's not like the $20 is coming back to you somehow. That Pujols situation, above, is why I play the game. You never know. One season, I had 2 no-hitters from Sid Fernandez. In a 60M league, Dan Plesac had a 40 out of 41 in save situation year as my closer. In another cheapie league, Tony Kubek game me 91 RBI from the 8th spot. For my last postseason team, Larry Christenson gave me a great start when we were down 2-1 in the series (we lost 4-2, with the last 3 games all being decided by 1 run). It's not about, "Well, Bonds gave me 85 HR's in Coors...again..." We EXPECT that.
Bottom line--it's supposed to be fun, right? With that in mind...feel free to disregard anything else I wrote up there.
1) DEFENSE, IN GENERAL: Remember that a "3" is an AVERAGE ranged-fielder, not a bad one. Semantics, maybe, but it helps to keep that in mind. It's the 4's who can't get to anything. E-ratings are about sure-handedness, positioning and judgment, and -- sometimes -- the results of someone with great range attempting players others wouldn't have a shot at.
3) MIDDLE INFIELD DEFENSE: Pitchers with high frequency gbA's can reduce the need for supreme defense up the middle. That said, having a pair of 1's, PLUS high frequency gbA can get you out of a LOT of jams. The real life truism concerning defense up the middle tends to hold firm, even in Strat. And, yeah, you can win with Hanley or Cecil at SS--but I'd rather have a SS I don't have to replace late in the game. Shutdown D in the middle increases run prevention, and run prevention can take you a LOOOONG way, regardless of what bomber enthusiasts believe.
3) ERRORS AT THE CORNERS: E-Ratings matter a lot more at the corners due to the large split range, resulting in more E-chance results. Say, a 4e3 at 1B is not going to hurt a ton, save for some DOUBLES down the line. Downside to sloughing off defense: you need late inning replacements, which might limit your bench choices, which, in pitcher-hitting leagues (all I play), might cost you a decent bat later on.
4) OUTFIELD "D": Arms. Arms, arms, arms, especially in CF, will save you runs. Range in the corner OF is less important, though a 4 is going to cost you extra base hits, so tread lightly. Outfield errors produce extra bases. Bad throws can clear the sacks of everyone. So, OF miscues can lead to really big innings. That said, do not be afraid to play a 4 somewhere who can give you some offense on the cheap. For example, Danny Tartabull produced his .858 in Royals stadium. He's an abysmally bad fielder all around (4e14), but he does have a -2 arm, so he'll bring you SOMETHING out there. Further, if he's in any sort of power park, he'll give you more than his 26 real-life HR's. As for as CF, there are a lot more X-opportunities and throwing situations. So, to me, it's worth it to consider a defensive replacement your CF late in the game with someone who can throw, even if they're a decent fielder. Bernie Williams is a 2e5(+2). Good fielder, but that arm might cost me late, so I might want cheap Butler (1e2, -2) late game. Maybe.
5) BENCH (for pitcher hit leagues, which is all I play): (1) It pays to spend a bit more: you're going to have situations where you need a hit late. Even moving up to spending .54 over .50 on a player can give you a huge advantage late. Pinch hitters are important. (2) Don't overemphasize defense on your bench: except for a situation where your replacing a truly awful starter (say, Gary Matthews in LF),make sure your bench guy can hit a little. Get a couple guys with good clutch, and maybe some who can give you a dinger late (though, to me, the important thing is they can get on, and get you back into your lineup. (3) No single position bench players: unless you're platooning them. Flexibility allows you cover more positions, maybe carry fewer on the bench if you want to grab an extra RP. (4) Platooning at a couple positions automatically gives you some great bats late in the game: but watch the skew.
6) STARTING PITCHING: Build your starting staff in accordance with your home park, but also with your divisional foes in mind (this assumes the usual, 12-team league). Managers in the online game love extreme parks. This sometimes makes choosing your pitchers easy, especially when you're the sole pitcher-defense team in bomberland, and everyone is skewing lefty. You can just "skew" them right back (well, and pray--because Bonds is going to hit 4 HR's against you anyway). If you see a league-wide trend (say, lots of HR heavy parks for RH batters), you might want to consider tweaking your staff to address that. That said, half your games are at home. Your pitchers should benefit from where you play.
7) REAL LIFE MATTERS: Take advantage of real life effects on player performance. For example, Daryl Strawberry and Jose Canseco played in crappy hitter's parks. Their cards will almost always overperform if you put them in a park with even a 1-6 chance of a dinger. Further, since these guys produced in bad parks, you can play them in a pitcher's park and still get something from them. They'll be suppressed, like everyone else, but less so, and will thrive on the road. On the flip side, pitchers who thrived in hitters eras, or hitters parks, will shine in more forgiving environments, while still performing well in hitter-friendly environments (translation: Fergie Jenkins is the bomb).
8) BULLPENS (pitcher hitting leagues--because super relievers in this simulation are just b******t): For pitcher-batting, unless you're going with 4 super studs (10M or higher on 4 SP*'s), it pays to have a modern bullpen approach. Your hurler is going to be replaced, more often than not, so it pays to spend some money, even if your starters are decent (6-8M range). Regardless of your approach, you're absolutely going to play a lot of close games. Your entire season will oftentimes come down to performance in 1-run games. So, it pays to have someone who can shut it down late. If you're going deadball, then your starter already IS that guy. But if you're not going the "4 horseman" route in SP's, it's not a bad idea to plunk down some $$ on specialists who can get key outs (Lavelle, Bennet, MJackson, Pina, etc.). Further, unless you're going with prime SP's (starters with values at 8-9M or higher), it's usually better to have your relief setting on aggressive. This assumes you've built a decent pen.
9) BOMBERBALL AND THE FRUITLESSNESS OF STRATEGY: There will be teams that club 300 HR's. They are the devil. They are therefore eternal.
Anyways, if you're NOT one of these types of managers, don't feel pressure to play that way. No strategy is automatic. Let me put it this way. Went against the grain with Pujols in Crosley (SI=1-11, HR=1-2). He ended up .264/.345/.506, 37 Bombs, 116 RBI. He was WORSE on the road. Anyhoo, the team wins 90. Makes the finals. Gets swept. But...11 postseason games, including 3 playing on the road in Coors field. Albert goes 3-44 with 2 HR's, 6 RBI. That's a slashline of .068/.196/.205. That's a .401 OPS for one of the best 1B ever to play. This was his 9.69M card, by the way. Which leads me to...10) THE POINT OF IT ALL: No matter what, have fun. If you're playing just to win credits, or to satisfy some ego urge, you're missing the point. Nobody cares what your winning % is. Enjoy the game. Build a theme team every now and then. Experiment. It's not like the $20 is coming back to you somehow. That Pujols situation, above, is why I play the game. You never know. One season, I had 2 no-hitters from Sid Fernandez. In a 60M league, Dan Plesac had a 40 out of 41 in save situation year as my closer. In another cheapie league, Tony Kubek game me 91 RBI from the 8th spot. For my last postseason team, Larry Christenson gave me a great start when we were down 2-1 in the series (we lost 4-2, with the last 3 games all being decided by 1 run). It's not about, "Well, Bonds gave me 85 HR's in Coors...again..." We EXPECT that.
Bottom line--it's supposed to be fun, right? With that in mind...feel free to disregard anything else I wrote up there.
