- Posts: 1906
- Joined: Wed Aug 29, 2012 9:13 pm
Can identify with the style of TLD's approach, though at a much smaller scale and easy in my case since I don't play too often. OTOH, I could imagine TLD figuratively selecting players with the left hand while moving chess pieces with the right (or maybe literally ). I obsess and immerse singularly in the matchup dynamics during preseason maybe even more than the cards themselves.
Diamond Dope is great, but I can't remember the last time I've used it. I just like ground truth based on first principles. For me, it's like digging with bare hands and feeling the earth firsthand.
Really, there are only so many ways to characterize a card by purpose and environment, so at some point they all get grouped into performance classes for me. I like the card columns themselves; looking at how many OBs, natural hits, XBH, types of outs, ballpark effects, asymmetries compared to other cards, etc just at a glance
I also have used JTJ ratings but have only updated once. They are well worth it IMO. With some exceptions, it usually confirms what one knows intuitively--but it is a heck of a lot faster when a bunch of new cards drop, or when sifting through a player set seeking certain characteristics. I think that's where it is extreme value-added.