Hitters’ Park Strategies

I’ve been playing for a while (back after a sabbatical) and would say that I’ve learned a few things but I’m far from being “good.” That said I have never had anything other than completely disastrous results when I’m trying a heavy hitter’s park.

Without giving away too many of your secrets, who’s got any tips or strategies they’re willing to share for building a good team in a hitter’s park? One of my biggest questions is what ratio of spending to use on hitters vs pitchers.

Thanks in advance for your help!

This is only a scratch of the surface, but you have asked the HOLY GRAIL of questions (in my opinion)....How can I use stadium design to IMPROVE my SOM experience and ultimately enjoy above average success?

You might start with these 3 questions first.
1 - Cap?
2 - DH or no DH?
3 - What is your offensive philosophy? (yes, it matters)

** Do you want to go pure masher with high power and batting average to all fields and lead your league in runs scored without concern of how many runs you give up?

*** or do you want to create a home field advantage? ....if yes to 2... then.....
A - Do you want to favor righty power hitters or lefty power hitters?
B - How much do you want to PUNISH small ball speedy teams that are your opposition? (less important for caps above $160)
C - How much do you want to PUNISH power teams that are opposite handed to your stadium?

Questions B and C are serious questions to be considered.

These questions help you to determine how extreme you want to make your stadium.
* Remember the more extreme your stadium, the less flexibility you have post draft to find suitable players in waivers to fill holes for the positions you missed out in the draft.
Typically, the closer your cap is to $100 million (above or below) the more flexibility your have post draft for extreme stadiums.
** For caps below 80 million and above 160 million you may choose to AVOID extreme stadiums until you gain experience as to what philosophies work better for you.

After you pick your stadium philosophy, now you begin to target the 60 or so players to fit best into your stadium philosophy and the basic makeup for your rotation/ lineup / bullpen(this is where dh or no dh makes a huge difference) and of course defense. Lower caps defense is NOT quite as important, however, as your caps climb north of $160 million, defense becomes more and more paramount into stadium design concepts.

Learning to read and take into account Ballpark HRs for both hitters and pitchers' cards is critical for maximizing the value of your power park.

In answer to your question above: For caps between $60 and $160 million you want to spend about 38 to 40% of your cap on pitching and 60 to 62% of your cap on hitting.

And then you are ready to learn how to read and evaluate the cards to determine which are the VALUE cards for your combination of cap with stadium.

Believe it or not a player may have an "A" value card in one power stadium and yet and "C" or "D" value in a differing park....NOT knowing how to determine which cards are the PREMIUM cards for your selected stadium will bring frustration and heart break. Yes, this goes for both hitters and pitchers. Many newbies struggle for a long time trying find the right pitchers for the correct stadium and cap type. Over spending on pitching (more than 38% of your total cap) is another hazard to try and avoid.

This is just the beginning of things to consider, but if you are both sincere and teachable you can begin to experience some success in as little as 20 to 30 leagues.

I find extreme hitting parks the most difficult ones to deal with. (I'll assume 80 to 100 caps, dh, with parks high bp si and hrs equally to both sides)I would consider the following things:

(1) Make your sure you have enough pitching so you dont have F0s or weak pitchers pitching a lot of innings. Consider having a deep (but not ) great bullpen. I would avoid really cheap starters. Dont hurt your chances by having weak pitchers go out there. Decent (not great) starters supported by a good number of decent not great relievers. Avoid pitchers with bp homeruns.
(2) For hitting I would say all 8BP homeruns. That should be a given. Beyond that, how do you balance on-base with with guys who have huge homerun numbers?Also, what 2b and SS are out there that give you power and defense? Those positions are going to be more scarce for guys you like.
(3) Consider platoons.

As with any park, it's how do you gain value vis-a-vis other managers? The tricky part for me in extreme parks is messing up the pitching. It's just a lot easier to pick starters who cant handle a extreme park and become bad values or run out of pitching. I dont number crunch like other guys so I try to figure out what investments in pitching, defense, or offense have a bigger pay-off? In an extreme hitting park finding the right on-base base/power balance to maximize runs is key. And of course the more money you spend on offense the easier that is to do. But then what pitching/defense combo do you need to get so your pitching doesnt totally blow up?

Saw this 100 million team that really worked. You can see how the high on-base/power created this great offense. Very little spent on pitching but just good enough starters starters and enough decent relief that it didnt totally implode. Only 26 million on pitching. I would study that team.

https://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1631274

You're getting great diverse advice.
One thing to add to your considerations is once you get into a league, what do your intra-divisional and extra-div opponents look like?
If you are the only extreme hitter park in your div, and your div mates are all pitcher parks, in addition to a few outside your division, you may have a rough time winning the division, even if you get the players you want. It doesn't mean you abandon your strategy for up to 50% of your games (that would be a disaster), and we are not talking neutral parks or just a few parks, but if many of your opponents are tuned to their extreme parks and you to yours, it's a stalemate. Of course, you can take the angle you will just do it better than they do at home...which is a strategy too.

You don't need much differential to get an edge--maybe if you are a hitter park in a sea of pitching parks, it is adding a true #2 hitter who still has some power but can get hits and move guys without DP balls. Or getting a few power guys who aren't station to station on the basepaths. Yes I am one of those crunchers sometimes, which is why I don't like playing more than a team or two simultaneously...so I get a feel for the R/L slant for singles and HRs by park, give it a weight based on division. Then I'm looking at if I throw a lefty or righty starter, am I seeing LH bats or RH bats mostly? That may give me pitching options I wouldn't ordinarily consider. Many times there is no need to adjust, but sometimes a perfectly well constructed team for your park doesn't win much more than half the time and that is where I'd start looking at why.

So with that said, for the team link shared by freeman, before I took a recipe away from it, my question would be where is the league link, then we can see how universal or proprietary the team is . Same idea as you would adjust with extreme lefty/righty parks.
Though even without seeing the league--that team adheres to much of the basic tenets nomadbrad and freeman brought up.
Cheers

So with that said, for the team link shared by freeman, before I took a recipe away from it, my question would be where is the league link, then we can see how universal or proprietary the team is . Same idea as you would adjust with extreme lefty/righty parks.
Though even without seeing the league--that team adheres to much of the basic tenets nomadbrad and freeman brought up.

https://365.strat-o-matic.com/league/454317

Can’t thank you guys enough! Thanks for taking the time and putting so much thought and details into your responses. Most of my ri he in the past most of my rings have come from righty or lefty parks (Wrigley ‘59 is my honey park, for sure) but the idea of how to gain an advantage in a full on home run derby has always mystified me. Strat is a game of inches but it’s hard to figure out how to scrape out that advantage. I think I’ve got some tools to give it a shot. If anyone has anything else to throw out there, I’m all ears!

It's simple -- find the guys with three, four ballpark homer on a given side, R or L. Or two in the right spots. Look for cheaper guys who maximize BP effects, for half your lineup, and two or three studs who are no doubters.

@Hack Wilson - thanks! What about pitching? Do you stay around a 60/40 ratio? How many usable relievers do you carry?

It's crazy how much the extreme hitters parks stress me out--I have never picked one, and tend to gravitate to extreme pitchers parks while trying to find guys who hit HR's regardless of the ballpark, or guys with high doubles/triples/walk percentages.

I find the extreme hitters' parks more difficult and less forgiving of strategic missteps. Seems like things can unravel out of control easily. So yeah, I am not a fan nor skilled at it either, but some are great at it.