Noob Questions: Acquiring Pitching Topic

I'm a new owner (3rd season) beginning to get past some of the raw basics, and from what I can see in my world, ace pitching is nearly impossible to come by. I don't mean Cy Young quality, I just mean legitimate front-end starters.

I'm wondering where such pitching comes from. From what I can see, they are all top-five draft picks or mega-dollar IFAs. With only two full seasons under my belt, I could also be over-reacting to a small sample.

My questions:
1) Do aces ever come from anywhere OTHER than IFA and early draft picks? (FAs, for instance, or DITR)
2) Is it possible to win by just cobbling together not-quite-average pitching and trying to excel elsewhere?
3) If the answers to #1 and #2 are no, does it make sense to reach for pitching in the draft, over much higher OVRs, because it's by far the toughest position to fill?


Thanks for your patience with the long post!

8/18/2014 10:39 PM
the answer to question 1) is TRADES. target specific teams and try to have enough prospects to make it happen
8/18/2014 11:56 PM
#1 I can already tell you that you will be successful because you are asking great questions.

Aces can come from four places. The draft and IFA's, free agency, and trades.

Personal I like to pay a little extra and get them in trades and FA since I now no how good they are. I develop hitting and buy pitching, but to each his own.

Don't about the overall numbers all you care about are their individual skill numbers. Now obviously there is correlation, but the best player I've ever had never got above 87 and the best rp never got above 81. You want to focus on contact, power, vs. R, the most for hitters, and vs.R and control for pitchers. Obviously lots of the individual ratings will impact performance, but some animals are more equal than others. I often like to look at the top 10 guys I am interested in the draft, pretend they are real players, and then decide who to draft. Often the SP who is 85 overall looks like a #1 starter to me and the SS with an 88 overall who looks like a above average SS, but nothing special.

This is more than you asked, but you are doing fine. Butch Glauber looks to be developing into a very nice 3B who could start for the big league club next season. I don't think he should, just he could. Julian Cerveza doesn't have enough bat for me, but at worst he's a wonderful utility IF and a decent value for where he was picked. When it comes to IFA's, I won't even look at a guy I couldn't see myself drafting in the top half of the first round and therefore usually end up getting 1 or 2 bigger one's instead of smaller IFA's, though that 1b you got was a good value. Your pretty covered at SS now, but overall for a new owner you are doing a nice job of brining in talent.

If I was in your place I would link up with a vet and pepper him with questions. Scooter would be an excellent choice.
8/19/2014 1:40 AM
You don't have to have aces to win.   Not sure you can win with "not quite average" pitching but not sure why you'd have to do that.   My first WS winner was 10th in ERA. 

One of the biggest faults by new owners is thinking they need to have 15 superstars to win.   You don't. 
8/19/2014 7:01 AM
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Posted by hcross22 on 8/19/2014 9:49:00 AM (view original):
"Aces can come from four places. The draft and IFA's, free agency, and trades."

What other options are there besides the 4 listed above?  Basically you can get good starting pitching anywhere but the tryout camp. 
Not usually the WW either, or Rule 5 draft.
8/19/2014 10:04 AM
Thanks, guys! As always, the boards are very helpful.

It looks like I'll have to be prepared to pay extra for pitching wherever I can get it. This helps me plan my draft a little better.
8/19/2014 10:20 PM
Posted by MikeT23 on 8/19/2014 10:01:00 AM (view original):
The SP from my first WS winner(S11 of Happy Jack).    Looks like a bunch of 3s or 4s to me.

Hardball Dynasty – Fantasy Baseball Sim Games - Player Profile: Allan Lunsford
Hardball Dynasty – Fantasy Baseball Sim Games - Player Profile: Sean Cooper
Hardball Dynasty – Fantasy Baseball Sim Games - Player Profile: Bonk Daniels
Hardball Dynasty – Fantasy Baseball Sim Games - Player Profile: Daniel Santangelo
Hardball Dynasty – Fantasy Baseball Sim Games - Player Profile: Nick Reed
I'd argue a couple of those guys look like 2s, to be fair. But yes, point stands. You don't need the ace that makes $20M a year on the FA market to win. But good pitching, overall, is important.
8/21/2014 8:02 AM
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I think it's easy to make an argument that Daniels and Lunsford were 2s.  At least closer to 2 than 4.
8/21/2014 9:23 AM
Seems Daniels was better than I was giving him credit for.    Using my rating system,  he's a 2, 2 and 4(MG) on my current teams.  Lunsford is a 4, 5, 5. 
8/21/2014 9:31 AM
Not sure if you'll want to, or if you have already done so 1000 times, but I'm curious about this 2,2, and 4 and the 4,5, and 5. This is just in interest of trying to understand the game a little better.

And, for context overall, I'm prepping for a draft and wondering if I reach a bit for pitching with the #2 overall. The answer seems to be reach. I'll never be prepared to pay over $10M for pitching, I don't think. It's just too risky until you really know what you are doing. 
8/22/2014 10:03 AM
Mike was saying that on his current three teams, team 1 Daniels would be the #2 and Lunsford the #4 starter; on team two, they would be #2 and #5; on team three, they'd be #4 and #5.  This is probably due to their splits (Daniels is 59 vL, 77 vR, and Lunsford 62 vL, 70 vR in season 11, which Mike was talking about).
8/22/2014 10:16 AM

SP1, SP2, SP3, etc.   Meaning a 2 is the 2nd best SP on a staff, 4 is 4th.

I don't think anyone should ever "reach" with the 2nd pick.   Take the best player and find a spot for him.    There's only one 2nd pick in every draft.   You never know when you'll get another.

8/22/2014 10:17 AM
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