As the payroll cap increases, the quality of the pitching goes up. My intuition tells me that in the lower payroll range, you should draft for power, and in the upper range draft for average. I have the right to twist to any season of my drafted players. I'm thinking of starting either Cy Williams and benching Charlie Hickman or vice versa. If this were an $80 million theme, I think I'd play Cy and he'd hit about .250 with 40 HR. But since I'm in a $100 million theme I'm thinking he might hit only 25 HR and bat .220. So I think I'm better off playing a doubles hitter like Hickman.


Cy Williams hits hr#/100=9 and Charlie Hickman hits only 2. But Cy hits only avg#=.281 while Charlie hits .370. I'm playing in Robison, a park with -1 for singles, -1 for hr to left, +2 for hr to right.



I have similar quandaries with many of my other players : Gerge Brett, Stan Musial, and Goose Goslin all have high average low Hr seasons and lower avg. higher hr seasons. My guess is an extra 10 % on ba is worth more than an extra hr/100. This would be even more true in a $120 m theme league, right?

HRs are always a touchy proposition in leagues that allow deadball pitching. Not saying it can't work, but merely use with caution.

In any league that bans or severely limits deadball pitching, I've always found HRs to be a very good buy for the money and effective strategy.

In either case, this does not change whether the cap is $40 or $255 or anything in between.

^^^ What UncleAl said. It's not the cap so much as the deadballers. They can kill HRs at any cap.