First time draft 200M ATG

Any tip experienced drafters want to share?

I counted 52 different starting pitchers above 9M. Looks to me that, if I don't put my hands on the short list of the top six-seventh best pitchers, I might as well be patient and wait for the later rounds before I draft a SP?

My first time also. I used that strategy and went for relievers early mixed in with everyday players. The last 5 picks except for a back up catcher were my starters. I wound up only getting 2 of the starters I wanted.

Everyone has a strategy for higher caps mine is draft 5 hitters almost always. It's been my experience in these high cap leagues that hitting wins. Walter Johnson will be lucky to have an ERA under 4 playing in Petco. I really don't want to advertise my strategy too much but for me personally, I usually get my CF and SS in the first 3 picks. I use this strategy in 12 and 24 team leagues. I don't know for sure but it seems to me that the top relievers are usually all gone by the 11th/12th round.

Well, I've been through my first experience. It went relatively well, but I did some rookie mistakes. There are three lessons that I take home from this first experience.

I followed my strategy of picking starting pitchers late. I had already picked 8 position players and 2 relievers before I drafted my first starting pitcher, Juan Marichal. In retrospect, I think the strategy went well, but late in the draft, the pool of attractive starting pitchers was smaller than I anticipated. First, owners don't hesitate to pick up six/seven starting pitchers. Second, because hitters stadium dominate, and so, pitchers like Tom Seaver, who has 4 BP homeuns vs lefty hitters, is not as attractive as he can be in leagues where more small ballpark stadiums are found. Maybe next time, I will start drafting starting pitchers maybe a bit sooner.

That said, my biggest regret with regards to pitching was not drafting Maddux with my first round pick, 11th choice. I gambled that he would be available with my 2nd pick, 14th choice, but he was not. In my ratings, once I set for a high ballpark average rating, Maddux is clearly a first-rounder in terms of WAR (winning above replacement).

Second lesson is that centerfielders seem to run much deeper than rightfielders or leftfielders. As we speak, in my league Cedeno and Edmonds are free agents. Cedeno might be a bit overpriced but they are both worth at least 9M in power stadiums. So, dollar for dollar, it might be more useful to draft a left fielder or a right fielder than a centerfielder.

Final lesson: I thought that 200M in ATG was like an uncapped draft and I acted as such. But in fact, money was missing at the end to do everything I wanted. For example, I drafted Boggs and Rolen, in order to create an outstanding platoon, but I couldn't afford the two (unless I had gone with a 4 *SP rotation, but my pitchers are not strong enough to have them pitched in all settings, I need to platoon one of my lefty SP with a righty SP depending on the stadium I play). I am under the impression that a full uncapped league in a 12-team ATG league would probably bring my payroll around 220M-240M. As a consequence, I think you need to have at least four-five everyday starter in order to allow a 5-men 9M+ rotation and a team of 4-5 4M+ relievers. Of course, if I had 4 strong starting pitcher I could use everywhere, I could have an extra platoon, perhaps even two extra platoons with fewer relievers---so it's a GM decision to take.

Next up for Barnstormers is 140 Mil with live draft again optional. Should make for all new LD strategies.