Sat Sep 26, 2020 9:35 pm
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.