Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

I started playing Strat in 1971 and for the next ten years. Then I "grew up" and quit. Then played a few leagues in 2005 and had very little success. Got to one playoff. Started playing again recently and it has been rough. I start out good and then the team falls apart. Have never finished over .500 in six leagues. One league i started out 22-14 and now have gone 3-18 since. One league I am 20 - 64. I don't know if it is the ballpark combination with my team. Even good pitchers like W. Johnson went 0 -7 before a win. I am not asking for trade secrets but what ballparks work best for you and/or combination of pitching and hitting. Do you stick with the players forever even when they are hitting below the mendoza line.

I'll copy this to the ATG Forum.

There are lot of experienced managers who are more than willing to help. My suggestion is to post a link to your team and ask for input. But a few things based on your post--
1) making lots of changes after the onset of the season is usually not going to help you that much. It is a salary cap league and making changes erodes your team value. I may make a few changes but honestly, I usually just ride it out.
2) As mentioned above, it is a salary cap league where bang for buck is everything. Take a look at what the winning teams do. Understand the logic, and try to imitate it.
3) Ball park effects are pretty important and it is very important to pick pitchers and hitters that will benefit from your park (don't put a bunch of pitchers with lots of ball park homers in a homer park, or they will get shelled as an example. Another example is that if you are in a park that doesn't give up many homers, better have a team that can score in other ways, gets on base and is fast).
4) Defense up the middle is pretty important. Good pitchers can really be hurt by a bunch of 3 and 4 defenders at SS, 2b, and CF.

Two very simple and imo crucial pieces of advice that I can give are

1) play to your home ballpark. The ballpark itself isn’t as important here but for instance if you’re in sportsman 1938 have a lineup filled with power lefty hitters, if you’re in cominsky park have a strong defensive team suited to play small ball. Half of your games are at home. Having a winning record at home is key in a successful season. And this strategy works across all ballparks.

2) is matchups within your division. After home games this is what I see as most important. These teams you’ll play more than any other. So for instance….. if the three teams you are playing have mostly right handed starters you want to have a lineup that will do good vs righties , or if there is a few left handed dominant lineups you want to have pitchers that are good vs lefties. You can counter speed with pitchers with good hold ratings and strong arms behind the plate and in the outfield and so on…..

A lot of these guys that play use diamond dope or other card readers , and spreadsheets and so on. I don’t but I will tell you that all of the top players do more in depth analysis. The more you do the better you will be

Stonebridge, if you follow those two posts, you are well on your way to some amount of sustained success. Devil is in the details of course but those are solid "secrets"

Thank you for the responses. Some of them I have done with the defense and hitters. I admit I have been too quick to give up on players so I will quit that.

The previous posts provide a solid baseline. I would add that salary cap management in 100Cap and lower cap leagues is very important as well. Maximizing your cap dollars is key in finding the right balance between hitting/pitching dollars. I look at it from the perspective of how many rolls a specific card will get over the course of a season and how to maximize the dollars. If you are in a league where the majority of pitchers are righty for example, you want the lesser salary 4R-7R righty bashers with a cheap lefty platoon and can save money that way. Its easy to pick a Bonds, Ruth or Mantle. Its the lesser $$$ players and knowing how to spread the money that makes the difference. Using a rough estimate, a hitting card will usually get about 350-360 chances over a season and good pitchers will get about 650 over the course of a season. If you are in a league with mostly pitchers parks, especially with a DH, a good ace in the 9-12M range will be even more valuable because they will get more rolls on their card and have a greater impact, whereas in a bomber league, the aces pitchers value diminishes a bit because they get less rolls and you will need a decent bullpen so you have to spread the money around between starters and bullpen. This is also true in non-dh leagues, where pitchers will get pinch hit for a lot more often

Rule #1 - Match your players to your Ballpark - Your players must be set up for success in your ballpark during the initial draft.

Rule #2 - Match your players to your Division - After the draft runs, you need to adjust your team to compete in your Division - If your division is all bomber parks and you have a smallball team, you'll probably have to tweak your pitching staff and add a slugger or two to your lineup. If your division is loaded with Right Handed Starters, you should get 1 or 2 righty killing hitters in your lineup.

Rule #3 - Match your players to your League - If your league is loaded with Lefty Home Run parks, go get some cheap lefty killing starters like Dennis Bennett. Look at how many lefty and righty starters there are in the league and adjust your hitting balance accordingly. Look at the league's ballpark makeup (keeping in mind that you play 81 games at home) and adjust your team accordingly.

Rule #4 - Don't panic after a slow start - Over the course of the season things quite often will normalize.

Rule #5 - BUT ... If you failed to do steps 1-3 properly, don't be stubborn and don't be afraid to make SMART, WELL THOUGHT OUT roster moves. Preferably before the 10% hit kicks in (after game 40). Example: If you find that you've faced 80% right handed pitching, you probably need to load up with some righty killing hitters. Same applies to your pitchers, if they're facing all righty batters, make a change. If you're facing a ton of platoons, maybe get some Reverse Starters.

Finally, don't forget the small things: Team Defense, Team Speed, Hold Ratings, Balk Ratings, Wild Pitch Ratings, Catchers Arms, Throwing Error & PB Ratings. Small ball teams need to pay attention to all of the details while bomber teams can often overcome those things.

Stonebridge, I also began playing strato in 1971, although I took a sabbatical for about 45 years. I'm only on my 7th or 8th team with the computer throwing the dice. The ballpark adjustments didn't exist back when we played so we have a lot to learn. Make sure you watch the good teams in your league. Study them. You can learn a lot by checking out their park/lineup etc. I learn something new all the time. Strato baseball is great.

Artie

I'm a lifelong gamer. Everything from magic the gathering, to poker, strat, video games, board games, etc. It basically all comes down to this: Try the game and analyze your results. See what went wrong and make adjustments. This can be very nuanced in Strar since there are tons of factors to consider but often you can pinpoint problems and easily fix them.

A simple example would be using a +5 arm catcher in a division with three base stealing teams. Assuming your pitcher arms aren't great, they're going to have a field day at your expense. So by getting rid of that +5 arm catcher you should see an immediate improvement. And basically, just exercise this sort of reasoning across the board and gradually you will learn all kinds of cool stuff and your results will improve. A failed season is a prime opportunity for learning!