i have this love hate relationship with WIS. i am trying to understand how to be compete in 80 mil league's. when i think i am getting it right, i'm way off. i have a couple of question, since reading as many posted that i can wrap my brain around (with all of the acronyms flying).

i am a big Albert Pujols fan... whenever i pick him up, i get nothing out of him. i have used at&t park, candlestick park and i think once angel stadium. i top out with him around 20-25 hr and barely 100 rbi's. right now i am using him in at&t park, i realize this is not a homerun friendly park, but for a long time his batting average was hovering around .220.

this leads to my second question... how do i put a guy like pujols in a pitcher friendly park and put him in a park where he can be most productive.

last question... how do you know what AAA players you will get after you set your team up?

I would say at 80 mil if you get 25/100 out of Pujols you should be pleased.  

AAA: Look for Merkle's AAA Thread

If you want to win, forget about players names.  They mean nothing.  Focus on the stats behind player's name and year.

Both, Zubinsum and Crazystengel are dead on.  The very first thing you must do in building a team, i.e., if you truly want to win, is FORGET ABOUT THE PLAYERS' NAMES, for the simple fact that the sim doesn't recognize names.  The only thing that the sim recognizes is NUMBERS, i.e., stats.  So forget about your "favorite" player and draft players that will produce good NUMBERS within the parameters of the sim.  In addition, just as Zubinsum noted, open leagues have tons of deadball pitchers, i.e., pitchers who simply do not, and will not, give up a lot of HRs. Me personally, I would never draft him for an open league because in my opinion he's simply not worth the cost in comparison to the numbers he'll produce for you.  But on the other hand, if you're truly insistent on having him on your team in an open league and want him to put up very good numbers, try putting him in a ballpark like Wrigley or Coors Field or Atlanta Fulton County Stadium. Your pitchers will likely get hammered, but Puljos would get his!   Good luck!

looked at your 'glutton for ...' team and you drafted 1437 innings for Petco. Its a theme league, but looks like you have AAA also. I think 1150 innings with average AAA would be about right for a -3 park.
On a related note, you do realize that the singles park factor (and only the singles factor) effects batting average?

And by the way, you say that Puljos keeps burning you. Well, if that's the case, the simplest way to stop being disappointed by him, put simply, is to stop drafting him and consider other players. There are tons of better players than Puljos that you can draft.

Try '94 Jack Doyle.  He won't disappoint.

Thanks everybody for your input... I picked up a little something from everyone of you who posted.

Hey Boogerlips... How do you know what is sufficient with innings drafted? I get a little nervous with drafting pitchers because I am afraid of running out of innings. Does it matter the type of park that you use?

I realize that everyone has a different philoshpy on drafting a team... but would you focus most of your money on starting pitching or bullpen?

You have to have quality starting pitching, and 3-4 stud relievers, but how good the quality needs to be is a dicey variable that depends on other variables: the home stadium, your fielding, strikeout ratios, whether it's a high-cap, mid- or low-cap league, the productivity of your offense, and one over which you have no control, that is, the stadia that you will be playing in on the road.

If you explore, you will find owners who succeed with the studliest pitchers and others who fail with those pitchers. You will see owners who succeed with three starters, some with four starters, and some with five.  So, you need to try to figure out what variables are making the difference.

One way to do this is to use a spring-team draft center to do your own draft of another owner's roster to analyze the player differentials and normalization to see what he or she built and try to infer what strategies the owner had in mind. (The other trick then is to copy only the strategy, not the team. There's no law against copying a team, but it's very poor form.)

Cap size and park factor determine how many "innings" you draft, because you're actually buying pitches. If that sounds confusing, its because it is, so don't worry about it just always ask someone else in the theme you're in how many innings you ought to draft if you aren't sure. For an 80 mil cap with AAA draft...
1150 for a -3 park
1175 for a -2 park
1200 for a -1 park
1225 for a 0 park
1250 for a +1
1275 for a +2
1300 for a +3
(The +/- numbers being the singles factor)
Hope that helps...

Posted by boogerlips on 5/14/2011 5:00:00 AM (view original):
Cap size and park factor determine how many "innings" you draft, because you're actually buying pitches. If that sounds confusing, its because it is, so don't worry about it just always ask someone else in the theme you're in how many innings you ought to draft if you aren't sure. For an 80 mil cap with AAA draft...
1150 for a -3 park
1175 for a -2 park
1200 for a -1 park
1225 for a 0 park
1250 for a +1
1275 for a +2
1300 for a +3
(The +/- numbers being the singles factor)
Hope that helps...

I think those #'s are a little low for a new owner.   I would add about 40 to each to be safe.

Fella's thank you so much... I'm beginning to see that it is definitely a trial and error thing. Thanks for being patient and answering my questions... Micki... send me one of those magic 8 balls to 1313 Mockingbird (LOL).

Hey Doubletruck.... what do you consider to be a stud reliever?
Thanks Booger.... You have been a big help.
Trent... thanks for your input that helps a lot.

Hey guys I am also relatively new to the WiS world, and was looking for tips. I have a few questions about the team I a currently building. I usually try to go with four $7 million starters with dennis eckersley closing and a few $1-2 million dollar relievers. As this will only be my third simleague team I was wondering if there are any really popular or good relievers I could grab for a bargain to get from my starters to Eck who has always been great for me. I am going with 3 starters ('02 Noodles Hahn, '69 Mike Cueller, '09 Cy Morgan).

I know usually what to look for in pitchers (i.e low WHIP, OAV, and HR/9) but have had trouble in the past with the likes of Dick Bosman, '05 Addie Joss, but have gotten strong performances from Larry Gura, and Orel Hershiser.

I usually do well on offence, but always have trouble with my pitchers. (i.e. never having drafted a starter worth more than $8 million. Some of the relievers I am looking at right now are '15 Tim McCabe who I have noticed as being a good reliever in other leagues, '08 Jack Ryan, '11 Buck O'Brien, and '18 Earl Hamilton. They all have extremely low OAV's (except Hamilton. but I'm willing to let it slide on account of his 0.00 on HR/9), and none of their WHIP's are above 1.11.

Just looking for suggestions on players that have worked well for you guys in the past and wondering with these pitchers what sort of park I should go in. (My lineup is speed, AVG, and OBP, with two sluggers in the heart)