As a newbee, I have been investigating vets successful rosters of the teams in my leagues. I am in 3 leagues, and vet's dominate. Sadly , to me, these guys all use the same formula; large parks with an adverse affect on HR's, high OBA, staffs made up of 1920 pitchers and earlier (mostly 19th century), 3 man staffs, or some version of this. Can't anyone win in the band boxes of baseball in open leagues? I am trying to win in modern yankee Stadium and playing at .500, learning everyday.

Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying my experience and will continue to learn. Thanks !!

Keep looking, there are plenty of examples. I've won many times in AFCS.

Here's a team (not mine) that just won 100 games in an open league playing in Yankee III:

https://www.whatifsports.com/mlb-l/playerstats.asp?teamid=1511578&ltid=0&lid=125737

Same league, this team won 97 games using all modern players:

https://www.whatifsports.com/mlb-l/playerstats.asp?teamid=1511639&ltid=0&lid=125737

I personally don’t like using pre-1920 pitchers. I almost exclusively draft 1995-2019 pitchers, with a few exceptions.

there’s a lot of variety out there though, just may not see it in every league you’re in.

Lots of ways to win. Pitching is only a part of the game. Recently played in an 80m open league where the winning team had a starting rotation consisting solely of different versions of Kyle Hendricks. His pitching staff’s total salary was under 35m.

Join ArlenWilliam's open league theme league. Info is in the classifieds. Many ways to skin a cat...

I am with contrarian23 and chargingryno, though I am far less successful and accomplished than they are here.

When I play OLs, which I haven't for a while, but the latest developments here of new players and discussions opening up again in interesting ways makes me think of doing so again, I use post-1920s, and usually post 1950s pitchers in four-man rotations. I like hitters' parks, especially the Kingdome, even though as a Yankees fan I hated it in real life (1995, don't get me started...).

I have played around with teams in Fenway, though with at best mixed results. Had some success in variations of Yankee Stadium.

But you are right, the most classic formula for years here is a high OBP and batting average team with a lot of speed and deadball era pitchers in parks that suffocate the long ball.

Anyone with any character here got bored of that strategy a long, long time ago and has been trying to find new and clever ways to outwit for a while. Look for the threads of contrarian23 on experiments with teams with defensive range and/or strikeout pitchers for example.

So there are many ways to win, and yes, we are all sick and tired of seeing the same 3-4 deadball era pitchers in game after game.

When you are ready, look around for theme leagues and even more to the point progressive leagues, where you usually play one season at a time (sometimes that varies) and can pick the era you want to play in or join in anyway. On the other hand, you lose the fantasy what if quality in most of those of Babe Ruth versus Pedro Martinez and so on.

Hang in there, you are not alone here. Read a lot of the permanent forum threads in the "Best of Forum" section for example. Lots to try and learn from.

good stuff!