Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

Ibe noticed the.abundance of the Forbes' small ball strategy for winning games. However, having all three teams in my division IS a bit much. Its a winning formula often...but is anyone getting a little bored seeing so many Forbes out there?

"Having all three teams in my division as Forbes teams, IS a bit much."

It comes and goes. But if you can't beat 'em, you might as well join 'em.

i don't think its small ball as much as negating the #hrs on all the cards

Isn't that what small ball is all about, negating ballpark HR's on your pitchers and enemy hitters while building an offense that can score without them?

To me small ball is more than that. It is winning with pitching, defense, and speed. Models for me are the Dodgers when Wills was flirting with 100 SB. Cardinals led by Coleman. Stop the other team from scoring and manufacture a run whenever you get the chance. I used to use it a lot in face to face get a stealer on and steal second and maybe even third and single them home or squeeze them in. Drove my friend who played crazy.

There are few teams in ATG that to me are true small ball teams because with every team able to field a -4 catcher the speed game is pretty much neutralized. So maybe less reliance on 3 run homer but small ball in ATG is more reliance on OBP and doubles. Perhaps a third category of team maybe we call dead ball teams.

One consideration though is if everyone is going Forbes then bomber may be way to go as in theory there may be fewer competition for the big HR hitters,

I gravitate toward small ball teams in open leagues where ballpark selection and division opponents are randomly distributed because I they believe they have a better chance of winning on the road - even in bomber parks - than a team reliant on ballpark HRs will in a pitchers park. Walks, doubles, triples (and to a lesser extent singles) are all the same regardless of which stadium you play in, so if you build good team with high BA, and players with lots of walks, doubles and triples on their card, they should do OK away from home. I don't have time to check closely, but many if not most of my small ball teams have had a winning record on the road. Winning 60% at home and 50% away is all you need to reach the playoffs.

"i don't think its small ball as much as negating the #hrs on all the cards"

I agree with scorehouse - Petco, Braves '20, County '57, Griffith '41, etc. are "small ball". To me, the idea of small ball is to take ballpark effects totally out of the equation.

- The Sheik

I am currently involved in a Petco/Wrigley78/Minute Maid/Dunn league. Each division has one of each park in it. The salary cap is 120 million.
Perhaps we could do something similar in a lower salary cap?