I prefer a good D but, if a guy wins 98 games with a 77/74/79/80 SS, he's not tanking or stupid.   He's just taking another route to the W.

The reason I prefer a good D is because I'm not afraid of the 22/54 DUR/STM combo as SP.    For the most part, they're only giving your 4 innings.    And, if your crap D makes them throw extra pitches, it might be 2-3 innings.   That will smoke your bullpen.

The intent of the post was/is to help struggling franchise owners with high ERAs. I equally intended the information to perhaps keep soneone out there from quitting the game because they cant compete. There are some long time faithful players who sign up season after season who dont have much success. I have a lot more to learn, but i can promise any "qualifying" (see OP) cellar dwellers they will be more competitive if they eliminate negaitve plays from key defensive positions.

Frankly.. it was late at night and i just felt like contributing my two cents for the benefit of the community. There might be a lurker out there who gets something outta the post

I agree with you.  Sure there are owners who are trying to lose for their own reasons.  Have at it.  But if you're not trying to lose on purpose, a few more Ws, a few less of those six run innings you know you're going to give up in the seventh inning or later, can change your perspective.

None of my posts were directed at you.   They were directed at the poster who said that anyone ignoring D was tanking or stupid.  That is incorrect.    My point is there are several ways to play the game. 

Your suggestions are very good.  No issue with any of that.   I just wanted it to be clear that having a crappy SS isn't ideal but, if his hitting more than makes up for it, there are worse things in the world.

I agree, MikeT, and I think the OP was valid and likely helpful for new owners.

To add to that original intent:
I came into my first HBD season with nothing but several Sim League Baseball spring training seasons under my belt. One thing I had observed there is that lower scores contribute more to expected winning% than higher scores at the same run ratio (i.e., 4 runs for, 2 runs against had a higher expected winning% than 8 runs 4, 4 runs against - even though each case had the same ratio of runs scored to runs against). I had played around with several roster types in SLB. (only in the free Spring Training leagues, so there was always SSS bias, but...) I had the most success in pitcher's parks with good pitching & defense. That, along with the expected winning% thing I mentioned before led me to pick an extreme pitcher's park (San Jose) and build for pitching & defense when I started 15 seasons ago in World Bench.

Then, I read in the guides and forums about the impact pitch calling has on OAV/ERA/overall run prevention, and noticed that high PC catchers were pretty undervalued.

Before my first season started, a veteran owner posted that a SP "needed a change of scenery." His ratings looked pretty good (based on very little experience, I thought he'd likely be my 2nd best SP), but he had just lost 20 games the previous season with pretty horrible ERA and WHIP. So I traded for the SP, giving up only a prospect I liked at the time (but after several season I realized he wasn't as good as I thought at the time).

I assumed (and I think I checked to confirm before the trade) that ballpark, defense, and catcher's PC had all more or less contributed to a decent/good pitcher having horrible stats, and wanted to use him as an experiment for my pitcher's park, good D, and high PC plan.

These were his numbers the season before: 3W-20L, 6.50 ERA, 1.71 WHIP, .304/.375/.498 avg/obp/slg against
First (and only) season for the San Jose Aces: 13W-11L, 3.42 ERA, 1.33 WHIP, .239/.317/.402 avg/obp/slg against

Another benefit in trading for him (even though I didn't understand how it worked in HBD at the time) was I thought he would either be a deadline trade chip or a type A/B FA, since he only had 1 year left on his contract. He ended up being a type B, and somebody excitedly signed for him (which probably wouldn't have happened if he had another 20 loss, 6+ ERA season... but then, without my park, defense, and C his numbers regressed to low 4's ERAs and decent-to-bad results for the rest of his career.

He was a big reason why I stuck with my plan. As MikeT mentioned, this is one of many paths to success (and it took me to back-to-back WS rings).

Now I'm trying the other extreme with a team in Colorado... we'll see if I can match the success with a very different approach!

Well, we can yammer on about defense or pitching or whatever but I can check 6 of my 8 titles(one world went kaput).    Runs scored:  1st-3 times, 2nd, 5th and 24th.  If I were to use that as a legit sample size, I'd say "Score a lot of runs". 

Posted by MikeT23 on 2/12/2016 1:12:00 PM (view original):
None of my posts were directed at you.   They were directed at the poster who said that anyone ignoring D was tanking or stupid.  That is incorrect.    My point is there are several ways to play the game. 

Your suggestions are very good.  No issue with any of that.   I just wanted it to be clear that having a crappy SS isn't ideal but, if his hitting more than makes up for it, there are worse things in the world.

I hear you Mike. I am not as serious as my posts might make it seem. Any post or any thread generating discussion is good. And ... on an unrelated note. I am still new to Coop.. but I'm looking fwd to kicking your *** if our teams paths cross. Or at least spiking your 2b with a chase utley -like slide

https://www.whatifsports.com/HBD/Pages/Popups/FranchiseStats.aspx?fid=2518