First of all - WELCOME!!!!
I think one of the prior posts may have provided this link, but I'll provide it here also, to be sure. This is a thread with links to lots of good advice:
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=631692I will chime in here with some specific advice. I hope you will take this in the spirit that I mean it, which is to give you a helping hand as a new online player.
One of the cool features of the online game is the use of salary caps. It takes a while to discover where the value is for cards, in relation to the salaries. Strat does a great job pricing players in the online set. This means that the optimal use of players, in relation to your ballpark, as well as your opponent's teams, will go a long way to determining your success.
I also noticed that you are using the mystery game. I really do like the mystery game, but I almost think that for someone who is new to online strat, that it might be kind of like trying to learn chess by playing 3 dimensional chess first, before you learn 2 dimensional chess. In other words, the mystery game adds a different layer of complexity, and makes the strategy choices more costly. Also, you won't necessarily know whether your results are from strategy (good or bad) or luck (getting good cards out of the 5 mystery cards - or bad cards).
BUT, I will venture into some strategy comments. Please keep in mind that these comments are assuming that you're playing a non-mystery game, where the cards are known:
-Defense up the middle - your defense at SS and 2b is terrible, if I may be so bold. If you go to the "Fielding" tab on the team page, you can see the number of X chart chances for your SS and 2b, and how many outs they got from those X chart chances. Your 2b is at roughly 50%, and your SS is only slightly better at 60%. I think I'm right in saying that most veteran players prefer to have those ratios at 80% if possible. It's not just the lost outs, it's also the lost double plays that you would have had with 2b's and SS's with better range ratings (fielding ratings). I think you'll find that improving the defense there will significantly reduce your total runs allowed - and also your earned runs. Base hits instead of double plays at 2b and SS will kill you over the course of a season.
-Pack a punch. You have too many $ spread over too many hitters. You have 12 batters with salaries over $1 million, in a non-DH league. That might be OK, strategy-wise, if you have some good platoons going, with radical L balanced hitters platooning with solidly R balanced hitters. But I don't see that happening. Having high salary spares on the bench, or having platoons with E balanced hitters, just means that you don't have all of the dollars available working hard for you at the plate. You're better off to have cheaper back-ups and have an extra $500k to $1M working for you at each of the main positions, or else have a really effective platoon. Basically, when it comes to hitting and position players, go big (or field big) or go home.
-As a new player, you may want to start with ballparks that are not "skewed", in order to test your understanding of the game without that additional variable coming into play. That is one cool ballpark, that Wrigley park that you're playing in. I find it to be fascinating when ballparks favor singles for one hand of hitter and homeruns for the other hand of hitter. But it adds another layer of complexity. I would suggest picking a neutral park to start with (say 1-10 singles and 1-8 home runs for both hands), then try some singles or pitcher parks with low ballpark homeruns, then try homerun parks, while avoiding radical skews between lefties and righties (a difference of 3 or less is fine). This will allow you to explore the strategies that are unique to different types of ballparks, without worrying about lefty-righty ballpark effects. You can add that later. BTW, the main differences between pitcher parks and home run parks relate to the value of walks and homeruns - which may be obvious, but probably worth saying. In a pitchers park, singles, doubles and triples have their value increased, whereas walks and home runs are more important in homerun parks.
-Mixing * and non* starting pitchers, and using starter/relievers as pure relivers - The strat pricing system adds extra salary cost for * starters who can start every fourth game. The salaries are also higher for mixed starter/relievers than they are for pure relievers. To get the most value out of your salaries for pitchers, you normally should use either a 4 man rotation with just * starters, or a 5 man rotation with all starters who can only start every 5th game (no asterisk). You should normally try to avoid using mixed starter/relievers as pure relievers. These points are relative in nature, and there are good strategies that are used that contradict these statements, sometimes. But as a general strategy point, you will normally find that you will get more "bang for your buck" from pitchers if you keep things strictly organized - pure relievers doing relief duty, and either a 4 man rotation with * starters or a 5 man rotation with non-* starters.
I hope this helps!
I am the moderator of the 200X discussion board, here. I don't think that we want to get too fussy over which board you're posting on (say, this one or the mystery game forums). Per the previous poster, there are other discussion boards on this forum for the other games, like mystery games or the All-time Great (ATG) sets. But as a new player, feel free to post here to let us know what you think, and how things work out for you. You can post on those other forums, too, for sure, if you want. You will get more mystery game advice on the mystery game discussion board. But feel free to check back here either way, but especially with results from the 2012 game, if you move on to that.
(I just want to say, to be clear, that I really do like the mystery game, and I am currently in a 70's league too that is all kinds of fun).
Good luck! Let us know what you think, and how it plays out!
Geoff
Tue Nov 26, 2013 10:47 am