Your thoughts?

https://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1742942

I built this team with the thought that between the hits and stolen bases, I could win. I also drafted a power hitting left handed bat in Ryan Howard and a power hitting right handed bat in Sal Perez to help with the HR parks. My defense is very good and my SP is respectable at the least. Yet I continue to lose. My hitters are doing exactly what I wanted from them and my SP has been a little subpar to my expectations.

I am new to ATG9 but do pretty well in 20xx. What am I missing? Thanks in advance for your suggestions and ideas.

I personally wouldn't try the "all SPs/no Pen" approach unless I was willing to put more $$ into my SPs.

Your Pen is getting more work than it should because it can't lean on the SPs

At a glance (and not knowing the rest of the BP's in your league), looks like your record is a bit below where it would be in expected Pythag. Howard and Perez both not ideally suited to a singles park--higher batting average singles/doubles/triples cards might have been better (you have a few of those who are doing quite well). Howard hasn't been terrible, just has been hurt by BP home runs and is underachieving for that price.

Thanks Andy, do you suggest cutting back on the cost of the offensive players?

Dan, most of the parks turned out to be parks similar to mine with just a few exceptions. But going into the league and not knowing what the parks would look like, I thought it important to have a couple sluggers to help me on the road and their straight up homers (which are plentiful) would help me at home as well. Would you abandon all power and sell out for basehits and extra base hits?

Offense is where you'd have to do it. Probably could have gotten similar production for a smallball park at 1b for less than Howard costs.

And that's only if you want to do the 4 studs and a cheap pen, which I don't know if that I'd do at 80m anyway.

Thanks Andy, do you suggest cutting back on the cost of the offensive players?

Dan, most of the parks turned out to be parks similar to mine with just a few exceptions. But going into the league and not knowing what the parks would look like, I thought it important to have a couple sluggers to help me on the road and their straight up homers (which are plentiful) would help me at home as well. Would you abandon all power and sell out for basehits and extra base hits?

I think what you’re saying makes sense in terms of a couple of sluggers, and at this point the loss from moving on would be huge. You’re not far off from a good team. Just your avg and OBP are low given the high singles park. To the point someone else made, you probably could have gotten power a little cheaper (lots of good power at 1b in the mid 5’s, and even down to mid 4’s with platoon). For higher average, the Al Oliver 5.02 card would probably do quite well there.

Ps-I am no expert, so take anything I say with a grain of salt

Thanks for helping Andy and Dan, It gives me something to ponder while looking at future team building.

Typically not one to offer my thoughts, but you asked and here goes. ATG is like poker. It is a skill game based on probabilities, but there is a ton of randomness built in. I think you may be too premature judging this team after 90 games. Get a few more ATG teams under your belt. Then you have some comparisons.

My observations are that you lack the OBP required to play in a pitcher's park. Drop the power hitters next time and go for OBP. Build to win in your park, not road games. A number of the players did not register to me meaning that I never focus on them. For example, out of the 1645 possible starting pitchers, my stupid rating system ranks your four at 487, 616,1062, and 1226 in terms of desirability in Forbes. Just one knuckleheads opinion: go for better starting pitching and get more OBP.

-Crabby

IMO slow sluggers don't generate enough wins in that park. You're better off having more speed and higher batting average. I did exactly as you did, one lefty and one righty power hitter but in actuality it did not help me on the road at all and hurt me at home.

Thanks for your input Crabby and Backfire. There are so many ways to go in ATG and I am still figuring it out.