Hey I am a new user. First season. I am in a big rebuilding mode and will likely focus on starting pitching. Any tips?

if you're in a big rebuilding mode, it might be better to take the best player available than to set your sights on one position.

welcome to the game, and good luck.

thanks Sched1 my philosophy though is that you cant have too many strong arms. Seems on the trade boards everyone is looking for starting pitching. thoughts?

sure, SPs are great. but i wouldn't leave a stud SS or CF (or even 2B) on the table if he were far better than any pitcher available.

oh, here's one big tip: don't pay too much attention to overall rating. the attributes are FAR more important.

so which attributes do you overweight

i should've headed that question off. i'll give the mikeT answer that i think is best: look at the top performers in your league, and see what ratings they have. look at the teams with the top offenses and see how they're built. there are a lot of effective ways to build a team (power, speed, defense, pitching, balance).

I have been doing a lot of research with respect to that, but when it come down to drafting I just dont get how the bot factors things like "durability" or "makeup" these are so arbitrary. I get velocity and control...but I also dont understand how a guy can be great across the board but his pitche numbers are all mediocre??? so what matters? th fact he has control and Velocity and stamina or that he has three great pitches?

don't pay any attention to velocity. 0 attention.

For pitchers, Control, Splits and Pitches.

For hitters, Eye, Splits, Power, Contact.

In those orders.

Rough estimates for IP by a pitcher [(DUR/100)*150]*(STA/13.5)

Rough Estimate for PAs by a Hitter (DUR/100)*700

Projections will most likely never be reached. Close sometimes depending on scouting, but rarely, rarely reached.

and i agree with a good portion of that, and disagree strongly with other portions. as i said: lots of ways to build a successful team...

What do you disagree with?

Ya Sched... spread some of the good stuff around

With pitchers, I worry less about ST/DU and more about quality. I'd rather carry a 13th pitcher than have innings-eaters who are subpar.

DU reflects how quickly a pitcher can bounce back after an appearance. For SPs. you want DU above 20, or you'll have to skip or push back his starts. A guy with a 30+ DU can move up a day every few starts, and potentially give you 35+ starts on the year.

ST reflects how deep into a game a guy can go. 60 is about the lowest you can get away with. 75+ is solid. A guy with a 25 DU and a 75 ST can probably go about 100 pitches (6-7 IP). A guy with a 20 DU and a 60 ST will only be able to go 70-75 pitches (maybe 5 IP).

While it would be great to have CN, vL, vR, VE, GB and three or more pitches at 80 or above, that's rare. I try to get as many categories as high as possible, even if it means lower DU/ST. Other owners have made it work with pitchers with 60ish control or lower, or with splits in the high 50s. You'll quickly figure out what you can get away with in your home ballpark.

Pitchers with higher VE are more likely to get Ks. Pitchers with high GB are less likely to give up HRs.

Your pitchers will be helped, of course, by a good defense and a high PC catcher. If your pitchers are high GB, then make sure you have an excellent SS/2B combo to gobble up all those grounders. A low GB pitcher will be helped by a CF with great range and glove.

In terms of ranking for the draft, keep in mind what your scouting budget is. The further you are from 20 for either college or HS, the further off your scouts are going to be. I've noticed that scouts will over-project vL and vR, and pitch quality, by quite a bit if your scouting budget is 15 or less.

Rank as many players as you can. Put crap pitchers all the way at the bottom, and then thoroughly rank your Top 100. As others have suggested, don't avoid excellent hitters in your rankings.

I tend to draft a lot of pitchers, and so my Top 50 might include 35-40 pitchers. Figure that if you rank really thoroughly, you'll land a very good SP in the first round (a front-end SP if you are drafting in the top 12-15 overall). Supplemental 1st round and 2nd round might land you a back-end SP or above-average RP. You might get lucky and find a late-inning RP in those rounds. 3rd-5th rounds you may still be able to grab a very nice RP.

Remember that guys with lower DU have lower OVRs, and some owners don't rank very deep into the draft. So the guy you rank 30th may still be around in the 4th or 5th round. Also, remember that guys may have solid ratings in most categories but vL, and be very useful major-leaguers as RHSs -- capable of giving you 50 IP in that role. Such a guy might project as, say, 75 CN, 42/63 splits, and pitches of 85-70-55. Even if the guy has limited ST/DU, he can be very useful as an RHS, and be someone you can grab in the 4th-6th rounds.

LHS, by comparison, has limited usefulness at the MLB level. A lot of owners have tried to use a guy here, and wound up with a 13th pitcher who gives them 15 IP in the whole season.

i disagree with ignoring velocity completely, especially if your defense is subpar. and i disagree with the order of importance on the batting attributes.

i'm of the "give general advice instead of talking about specific attributes" school, since i think a lot of that is best discovered for oneself.

Always draft the best available players. You can always trade them later if they get blocked at their position.

Manual ranking is the key to draft success. Since you can't use the formula builder yet as a new user, set your draft settings first (I usually looked for sluggers at every position, but the pitching attributes are less cut-and-dry) and then go to the draft prospects page. Order your players by various attributes (fielding, pitching or hitting) and move players up the list if you like something they offer. Don't change your draft settings once you start manually ranking, or they'll reset your work.

Once you go through and make sure useful players aren't ranked below the top 100 or so, then go through and manually rank as many players as you've got time or patience. Drop players that won't make the majors (pitchers with awful splits or control, position players that don't do anything especially well, players that absolutely won't sign) and move up players you like. You may find yourself moving a player -- particularly RPs -- from the 80s or 90s into your top 20, or vice versa. If you've got time, go through and rank 'em again.