Newb Requesting Your Assistance

After 18 years of playing 200x, I’m starting a transition over to ATG in anticipation of not likely playing the COVID shortened 2020 season next March.

I’ve started a few teams and really have no idea what I’m doing, let alone what I’m even attempting to do.

I’d like to hear some veteran pointers, and if possible be directed to any useful threads from over the years.

Looking over the Barnstormers rosters, it appears so many different ideas can both work and be disastrous at the same time. If anyone can get me pointed more or less in a right direction, it would be very much appreciated.

Different people have different playing styles ... Small Ball, Bomber Teams, Heavy pitching teams, no pitching teams and all of them can work.

You need to start by deciding what direction you want to go. And searching the Barnstormers teams for teams that fit your mold is a great way to go. You can learn from bad teams as well as good teams.

You can also search the boards using the search function. Many people have posted useful threads about building winning teams over the years.

There is no magic bullet and no one size fits all. Once you have an idea of the direction you want to go, you can get a little more definitive advice. For example: Small ball teams, my simplest suggestion is that speed kills. Get guys that can steal bases and take extra bases and you will produce more runs than your hitters cards indicate.

I just started playing ATG after playing 20XX so I might have some ideas.

First, and foremost, diamond dope (diamondope.com) is an amazing tool. It spits out ba obp slug for your pitcher or batter for all of parks and gives run created numbers. You can play with different line-ups to see what works best.

There are a LOT of cards so scarcity isnt as much of an issue and you can really max out on your strategies. Using a lot of platoons becomes much more viable and effective.

Ive had mixed success...but what success Ive had has been by using a lot of platoons in power parks. And you can find parks at all ends of the spectrum, so that helps to max out on strategies, too.

Another common successful strategy is to get the four best pitchers you can in a pitcher's park, set them as low as F0 (different managers have different views on the right setting) go with minimal relief, get good defense and platoon. This is more from observation than personal experience as I only went with a pitcher's park once, twice used different strategies and got crushed. And, yes, it's easier for your team to really be bad in ATG...

Obviously, there is no substitute for experience but I think you wont have too much of a problem.

Keep in mind-- there's a huge difference between ATG8 and ATG9, due to the reliever fatigue rules. I tried 9 once and went running back to 8 where I feel more comfortable. I like having more control over my bullpen (and, I admit, I like to use the dreaded super-reliever strategy.)

Welcome J-Pav! I transitioned back in ATG 3 and haven't really looked back. I recall you from a long time ago when I started with a 2003 team and you were always one of the helpful blokes. Good luck and have fun! One thing--the Barnstormer tourney is pretty awesome. But there are also plenty of keeper and theme leagues. Cheers

Brings to mind the old Munich Man Strategy.
Look at the cards.
Bold is good for hitters.
Bold is bad for pitchers.

Freeman and egrevich both offer really good advice.

It's hard to over stress the value of Diamond Dope. You can determine the exact performance value of any given player in any give park.

Then there's the question of value for money. If you survey the Barnstormer teams, you'll find that certain players are used repeatedly. That's generally because they represent good performance value for money. There may also be excellent value players that go unrecognized. If you can find these players, you gain an edge, since they'll generally be available at draft time.

One fascinating thing about ATG is that each standard cap level generates its own set of values and strategies. With standard caps of 60M, 80M, 100M, 140M and 200M--plus other variants thrown in for good measure--there are a lot of different ways to go. A strategy that works at 60M might not make any sense at 200M, and vice versa.

The wide variety of parks also lead to different strategies. A lot of strategy turns on limiting or expanding the effect of ball-park homers. There are questions about how much platooning, how to value offense vs defense, SP vs RP, etc, and there are no hard right or wrong answers.

Once a league is drafted, you need to look at the other teams in your league. What kinds of parks are in the league, and particularly, in your division? Are there a lot of LH starters, or RH starters? LHB or RHB? Maybe a team in your division is set up to just kill your team as currently designed. What can you do to counter that? All of these factors may call for adjustments.

So in my own mind, I go through a process. Choose a salary cap. Choose a strategy. Choose a park to fit the strategy. Draft my team. See how my draft turned out and what my opposition looks like. If I missed some players, what alternatives are left? Work hard at waivers (not everyone does, I've noticed.) Explore trades (these are more likely at higher caps). After waivers, re-assess the league and make adjustments to my team as a consequence. Then, choose my hitter and pitcher and strategy settings, and get ready to play.

One cool thing about the Barnstormer tourney--aside from providing a lot of teams to study-- is that it pushes you to develop as a manager by forcing you to play at different caps and in different kinds of parks. Consider giving the tourney a try if you're still interested next year. It's my favorite part of ATG.

Many thanks for the great replies!

(And I hope more keep chiming in! )

Choose a park and strategy and step on it as hard as you can. There is always a player or combination of players available to fit the theme.