I have a few seasons under my belt and still (re)building. I'm wondering what minimum ratings I should look for in major league hitters with respect to Contact, vL, vR. Same question for SP in Stamina, Control, vL, vR, and individual pitches 1-5. Thanks!

You're seeking an easy answer to a complex question.

As soon as someone says "57, 56 and 73", someone will post a player who meets none of those and is successful.

Look at the league leaders in your world and work down.

While this is all subjective, here's what I look for. I think BE is more important than CNCT. I will not consider anyone for the ML with a BE less than 40, and that's not a good BE. I like splits of 50+.  As to pitchers, I look for good CNTRL(60+), good splits(again 60+) and 3 good pitches for SPs and 2 for RPs. Keep in mind that I've seem many different combos work. I've had guys with bad splits but great pitches do well. Had a guy with 30 CNT but a good BE and power who was a 40+ HR guy for years. It's nice to find a player with all good qualities, but it's really rare, so you have to make your own judgement as to what works. The more seasons you play, the better feel you'll have for the type of player you want in your system.

A very complex question.  I can't answer it.  You will find guys that are successful not because of their individual ratings, but because of the blend of their ratings.  The best advice is to look around the world, and I like the advice of using the franchise rankings page to "get an idea" of average ratings.  Start there.  Then keep looking around...when I first started I would go into the trade page to look up not only the big league rosters of every other team in the league, but also every minor league player they had as well.  I wasn't making offers, just looking.  I spent many hours doing this.  Gradually I came to the point where I could glance at any players card and their current ratings and just know what they could contribute.  I don't have any hard specifics on how to do this, just keep looking and it will happen.

Once that happens, then you move on to more looking around and now you pay attention to projected ratings.  Sooner or later, with enough looking around, you just know if they will reach them or not.  You just know what players are worth, and you just know if they will help or hinder your team, now or in the future.

More than likely this reply only confused you further.  That is a good thing, start looking around.