Newbie Serious Help

First, you only get a 5% penalty during the first 40 games. So tweaking your team and losing up to maybe a million or so in salary is not that big of a deal (but distinguishing between systemic problems and just bad luck can be very hard to do)....

I have been only been playing mystery leagues for well over a year, and they indeed have a only 5 percent drop penalty in first 40 games. However, last time I played in a single season league, the standard drop penalty was 20 percent as soon as the first game was played. (Yes, I know the penalty can be changed in customer leagues.) Has the standard drop penalty for single season leagues (in which the OP is playing) been changed?

Sure about that? The drop penalty can be chosen for each league. I just checked list of open leagues and it’s the usual 5/10/20 for the single season leagues.

Wow! It's been longer--a lot longer--than I thought since I played a single-season league!

I'm pretty new to this. I'm a couple games into this and I'm getting slaughtered to put it mildly. I've included a link to my team looking for help/ideas on how I can improve my team. I don't want to be losing every game by 10-20 runs.

For the most part when I drafted I was trying to get pitchers and hitters close to even as possible. If that the wrong strategy? If that is not correct what should I be doing. Open to any advice. Thanks


https://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1577858

Pretty much in the same boat here. Brand new rookie, not even a newbie yet. I'm 21 games into an ATG 8 (post WW2, no NeL) season. I'm 8-13, and have lost 13 of my last 18. My pitching is led by Hershiser, Nomo, and JR Richard who have a combined ERA above 9.00, WHIP substantially above 2.00; team ERA above 7.00 This is a standard $80M league with a DH, so one would expect them to get hit more than in a regular season, but so far all my pitchers can comprehend is serving up batting practice each and every outing. Other comparable pitchers in the league are doing substantially better. I also have a defense of 5 1 gloves & 3 2's (which should help pitching), so the stats so far make absolutely no sense. So far, I'm chalking it up to the strat-o dice having a curse on my early season, which hopefully should even out over the course of a long season. I'm not dumping anybody at this point, but it's frustrating getting pounded night after night.

Here is my team if any of the season veterans have insight, or is this just bad luck so far?

https://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1569744

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Pretty much in the same boat here. Brand new rookie, not even a newbie yet. I'm 21 games into an ATG 8 (post WW2, no NeL) season. I'm 8-13, and have lost 13 of my last 18. My pitching is led by Hershiser, Nomo, and JR Richard who have a combined ERA above 9.00, WHIP substantially above 2.00; team ERA above 7.00 This is a standard $80M league with a DH, so one would expect them to get hit more than in a regular season, but so far all my pitchers can comprehend is serving up batting practice each and every outing. Other comparable pitchers in the league are doing substantially better. I also have a defense of 5 1 gloves & 3 2's (which should help pitching), so the stats so far make absolutely no sense. So far, I'm chalking it up to the strat-o dice having a curse on my early season, which hopefully should even out over the course of a long season. I'm not dumping anybody at this point, but it's frustrating getting pounded night after night.

Here is my team if any of the season veterans have insight, or is this just bad luck so far?

https://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1569744

You've had really bad luck to have your stud pitchers perform this poorly. Also, if you look at the Sim Misc. tab, you will see you are getting a lot more rolls off of the opposing hitters' cards compared to your pitchers. This certainly has contributed to your poor pitching so far.

I don't play your set of cards, so I will leave analyzing your team to others who do know the set. However, I noticed you don't have a single pitcher who is more effective against left-handed hitters. Your starters are all right handed and rated 2R or 4R. Even your bullpen lefties are at most even.

Your park isnt exactly a pitcher's park (bp hr 12 12 bp si 9 9); Diablos have a crazy offensive park in Fenway, Mudhens have Forbes and a lot of bp singles and only Rock Lobsters have a park that is really bad for hitting. Both Mudhens and Lobsters have a lot of lefties, which matches up well against the weak side of all starters. Diablos have a lot of righties but then they have a crazy offensive park. Your defense is not bad (78% X chances) but I looked at one blow-up of Nomo against Diablos at home--which should been a good match-up given all those righties--but in a 7 run inning only one result was off his card, the rest was off of the batter's and two defensive miscues. Just some bad luck.

So kind of an offensive division with the ballparks and two of the teams are lining up lefties, and your starting pitching is weaker against lefties, and only Nomo and Hershiser have low WHIP numbers. And some bad luck, probably.

It's not a bad idea to take a look at your division mates and see what kind of teams and parks they got. And maybe adjust the quality and type of your pitching accordingly, if your pitching does not match up well.