A Little Help Please?

I used to play Strat online A LOT, but quit about 7 or 8 years ago. (Can't figure out my old login so I just started a new one.) Anyway, I'm back, and apparently I remember absolutely nothing about building a team, so I have a few questions for folks that are willing to help.

1) What's a good spending ratio between hitters/pitchers? If memory serves 60/40 was a good rule of thumb but honestly I have no idea.

2) What pitching roles do I need to account for with my relievers? Either DH or no DH. I have no recollection at all of how many usable relievers I should carry and I'm sure that's a great way to accidentally waste money cap money.

3) Any tips on the high value cards out there? I seem to recall winning quite a few rings with Lloyd Waner in that #2 spot. I know there were others but I can't remember. Not asking anyone to give up any secrets - just looking for some of the commonly-agreed upon cards that folks like to grab. (But if you have some secrets that you want to spill, I won't stop you.)

Thanks in advance! I've missed being here and I'm stoked to be back. The game's a blast, but I remember that the community was pretty fun too.

Cheers,

Pete

I used to play Strat online A LOT.............1) What's a good spending ratio between hitters/pitchers? If memory serves 60/40 was a good rule of thumb but honestly I have no idea.

I find that at caps BELOW $120 million a good rule of thumb is 32-34% on 9 pitchers and 66-68% on 15 hitters.

There is a new tool stats history (go to info, select player set browser and it will be an option) which can aid you in assessing which cards have done particularly well in leagues. Diamonddope.com is a free web site that can aid you in assessing the value of cards in particular parks.

The other questions are park/strategy dependent. You can get by in certain parks at least up to 100 million with spending almost nothing on relief (Im not saying you should but it is a feasible strategy). The new rule capping relievers to two roles and having to rest more means you can probably at most count on 160 innings per reliever (assuming R2+). So you need to figure how many innings you are going to get from your starters to assess how many relievers you are going to need. But if you think youll need 500 innings...probably three good guys. But if you got a reasonably good staff thats going to be overkill. And then how long your starting staff goes is dependent on the setting (quick hook...or dont relieve before F0...F8 or no settings?) There is no general answer to this question because there are too many variables...you get the feel of it from experience. Probably the best thing to do is go to the Barnstormer tournament site and look at the leagues and see how other managers are doing it.

Good luck!

And Nomadbrad has a ridiculous winning pct...so I would definitely listen to him!

Thanks all. Keep 'em coming. Had no idea Diamond Dope was even still up. I assumed that Adrian got tired of running it and let it lapse, but I'll def hit that up. It was a big tool for me back in the day too.

I'll have to read up on the new rules. Without knowing any details, I'm probably pretty glad they made some changes. It was getting old watching guys use an R5 guy for 300 innings.

Again, cheers and thanks. It's good to be back. Filling out a draft card last night was a blast, even though it took me about five hours...Apparently I've forgotten a lot.

There is no definitive percentage of allocation of money between hitting and pitching. So much depends on what kind of team you are trying to build as well the league and divisional contexts in which you find yourself and even the cap at which you are competing.

That said, the game is based on 216 chances for outcomes with each plate appearance. Obviously 108 of these occur on the hitters card. Of the 108 chances on the pitcher's card 30/108 are defensive X chances. Thus the a priori role of hitting is 50%, the role of defense is 13.8 percent, and pitching is 36.2 percent. So I have always used 36.2 % as the baseline for allocating my money on pitching.

Personally I have been spending a tad more on pitching lately, but many of the better managers have been spending less. Bottom line is salary allocation is literally a balancing act and you just need to experiment and see what works for you. I view every team I create as an experiment, for what that is worth.

Sorry, can't help.This ATG game has passed me by. I thought the secret to winning was drafting Bobby Wallace.

That said, the game is based on 216 chances for outcomes with each plate appearance. Obviously 108 of these occur on the hitters card. Of the 108 chances on the pitcher's card 30/108 are defensive X chances. Thus the a priori role of hitting is 50%, the role of defense is 13.8 percent, and pitching is 36.2 percent. So I have always used 36.2 % as the baseline for allocating my money on pitching.

What Bruce said.

That said, the game is based on 216 chances for outcomes with each plate appearance. Obviously 108 of these occur on the hitters card. Of the 108 chances on the pitcher's card 30/108 are defensive X chances. Thus the a priori role of hitting is 50%, the role of defense is 13.8 percent, and pitching is 36.2 percent. So I have always used 36.2 % as the baseline for allocating my money on pitching.

What Bruce said.

Makes an awful lot of sense. Glad I accidentally took that statistics class in college.