Do think that other pitchers would be successful if used ?  Or is this just the way this game and these pitchers are set up ?  I can't use my own experience as an example.  Because I have not been successful, even with those pitchers.  Has anyone found consistent success with any others ? My second game in my first season, Clemens pitched a no hitter. ( Down hill since than ) Since than I've had little success with him, B. Gibson, S. Koufax, F. Jenkins, Z. Grienke, D. Drysdale, W. Spahn, etc.

I would think mgmt would notice the same results and would make some adjustments.

Why is this happening ?  There are to many excellent owners for there not to be more successful pitchers, if there were any.  

If you think OL's and 80 mil leagues are bad, you should see higher cap leagues.  Unfortunately, you cannot deny their dominance.  The difference with Babe Ruth is that he is so expensive.  Frankly, no matter how well he does he really underperforms for the money.  But Pedro and Maddux?  They are worth every penny. Especially since with the current Playoff fatigue, they can start 3 or even 4 times in a series. 

I think the biggest reason is you're only sampling mid to high cap leagues... Not many Ruth's, Maddux's, or Martinez's below $80m. Not to mention you also get more realistic stats across the league. In a $40m league, my WS winning team had the 1888 Lev Shreve as my ace. In a recent $60m league Waite Hoyt was my ace. There's two $60m leagues and a $40m league trying to fill now if you want to see what a league without all the Ruth, Maddux, and Pedro's is like....

I agree with Just, support the small caps!

ac67: The signup thread is posted in Theme Classifieds as "The Other Guys"...

Is there a theme league that prohibits pitchers from the Deadball era? I'm so tired of Addie Joss, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, but especially Addie Freaking Joss...

lots of them....just go into the classifieds.   Some league specifically design rules to limit deadballers (like only players 1947-2010) some leagues kinda accidentally exclude them (like having the cap low, or only allow non US born players, etc.)

I guess I'm stubborn. I'm in an open league trying to win with non-deadball era pitchers (Mickey Lolich, Joe Coleman, Harvey Haddix). We'll see how it goes...

Badcentury, no offense, but I think it may be fair to say that you might be in for a long season with those guys.  However,  I'm not totally convinced that 00 Pedro and 95 Greg are "worth every penny" that they cost because I've had several more cost friendly pitchers on the same team as those guys who had put up better numbers., i.e., 02 Bill Bernhard, 10 Russ Ford, Jake Weimer, etc. I've had 95 Greg in regular open leagues where more than once his season ERA was more than 3.00.  And the thing with 00 Pedro is that you have to somewhat hold him back and restrict his regular season innings if you want several starts out of him in the playoffs. I agree that 08 Joss is pretty much money in the bank and an absolute given nine times out of ten.  But I've traded him once (for Koufax who ended the season with a sub 2.00 era) when his ERA was damn near 4.00, so even 08 Joss isn't invincible.

I'm doing okay (five games below .500). Lolich has been pretty solid, the others not so much...