Now that I've got a few seasons under my belt, I have made some observations about player ratings. I wanted to run these by the experts and see if I'm on the right track. Does this seem correct to you?

1. Control is a very important rating. If a pitcher has control below 50, he's probably never going to succeed in the Majors (with some few exceptions). 70 or more is preferable.
2. However, there is not a huge difference at the top end. A pitcher with control of 90 is better than a guy with 75 control, but not by a huge margin.
3. VR is a very important rating. If a pitcher has vR below 50, he is probably never going to succeed in the Majors. Again, 70 or more is preferable.
4. Unlike control, there is a BIG difference at the top of the scale. A pitcher with 90 vR vs. one with 75 vR is the difference between an ace and a mid-rotation guy.
5/14/2014 6:15 PM
IMO, VR is easily the most important rating.   I'm less of a control stickler. 

My Coop team was 2nd in ERA with 5 SP/LR types with control of 49, 50. 53, 57, 57.   But I have 3 VR at 88 and 2 at 81 on my staff.    P1 is important also(I've got it on par with control).    3 under 79 at 74(P2 at 76), 73 and 68(P2-P4 at 79, 60, 52). 
5/14/2014 9:50 PM
One thing I believe I figured out is that good P1/P2 can prop up lesser splits, and poor P1/P2 can torpedo good splits. I also figure minimum control can be down around 45 if a pitcher has good splits and pitches.

5/14/2014 10:17 PM
I'm still trying to sort out what I think about P1 and P2, which is why I didn't include it in my list of observations. I've been looking for some odd combinations to see how they do. For example, I have a guy whose P1 and P2 are 69/81, and I want to know if that's an okay combination. Problem is, this guy has splits of just 62-61, so I don't know of be sucks because of his splits or his pitches.

Can a pitcher be successful with a P1 under 70 if he has a good P2? Lets say for the sake of argument that his vR and control are both around 70.
5/14/2014 11:19 PM
If you have a pitcher with great splits, think 80-85+, it seems to almost nullify pitches as low as 65-65-60-45 or whatever.  But if your splits are in the 70s or lower, it's no good.  I could be wrong, it's just my observation.
5/15/2014 10:15 AM
I tend to agree with Mike. VR is #1 for me. Followed by CTRL and P1, then P2 and VL and then the rest.
5/15/2014 11:12 AM
arcticlegend - Generally, you seem to be on it. If you keep testing & tinkering, you'll find all the ratings work together. One or more being higher works to offset one or more being lower.

Low control is very hard to makeup for.  There can't be a Nolan Ryan or Fergie Jenkins in HBD. Maybe for one season, but not for a career.

Like in real baseball, the ballpark and the D behind the pitcher matter a lot. You go with sluggers over D up the middle, your pitching stats will be much worse than the same staff on a team that chose D over hitting. Slugging up the middle might be the right call, but your pitching will suffer.


5/15/2014 4:09 PM
Hardball Dynasty – Fantasy Baseball Sim Games - Player Profile: Ryne Narveson averaged 4.15 BB per 9 in almost 3500 innings and won a CY.   I got him from an owner who insisted on 70+ control. 
5/15/2014 4:28 PM
Posted by tufft on 5/15/2014 4:09:00 PM (view original):
arcticlegend - Generally, you seem to be on it. If you keep testing & tinkering, you'll find all the ratings work together. One or more being higher works to offset one or more being lower.

Low control is very hard to makeup for.  There can't be a Nolan Ryan or Fergie Jenkins in HBD. Maybe for one season, but not for a career.

Like in real baseball, the ballpark and the D behind the pitcher matter a lot. You go with sluggers over D up the middle, your pitching stats will be much worse than the same staff on a team that chose D over hitting. Slugging up the middle might be the right call, but your pitching will suffer.


I don't get the Jenkins reference. He had great control.
5/15/2014 8:02 PM
Yeah, bad call on the Jenkins analogy. Not sure what I was thinking. How about Bob Feller? Or young Randy Johnson?

Setting aside my crap example, the game does not create high walk, high strikeout, very low BAA SPs.

5/15/2014 8:50 PM
Sorry tuft I had more to say but got called away. Now its late and I'm too tired to think straight
5/16/2014 1:27 AM

I checked.   VR, CON, VL, P1, P2 in that order of importance.   Each rating is weighted and VR carries a much heavier number.   That said, 98 control/P1 with 47/51 VL/VR still isn't likely to do much pitching for my BL team regardless of the formula number.

5/16/2014 11:54 AM
One owner in my world... his team currently leads the majors in ERA and WHIP... purposely does not use any LH pitching.

Basically, unless a LH pitcher has excellent VR, this owner sees them as not worth bothering with considering the imbalance of RH bats to LH bats.

5/16/2014 12:10 PM
I like it when owners automatically dismiss a player because of some pre-set belief. 

I haven't checked for awhile but it was 68/32.   I wouldn't dismiss 32% of AB as unimportant.
5/16/2014 12:38 PM
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