Looking at my career record (which, believe it or not, has gotten much better in recent years), clearly I have to acknowledge I'm not an elite SIM owner.

But that makes me wonder...is it a problem with my drafting or my team management?

I feel like I can draft good teams with the best of them, which would then mean I'm a mediocre manager of my teams.

So I'd like to get some opinions...how much of a difference do advanced settings and other managerial moves really make?  Are they huge factors, or am I just not as good at drafting teams as I think?

I'm sure I'll get a few smartass responses, which is fine, but I'd like serious opinions as well.

Put me down for a smartass response.

Deal.  Can you throw in a serious opinion to counter it?

The team you draft is far more important than how you manage them.  At .477, you're not drafting good teams.

I know it took me a long time to realize how important pitch count settings were. The number of times I had a pitcher pitch well for 6 innings then fall apart in the 7th after he passed his ideal pitch count is embarrassing. To me, that's one of the most important managing lessons I've learned.

the one thing I had to learn how to do was to NOT draft too many PA's and IP's......and I still fight it with every team I build.  I HATE fatigue and used to waste alot of $$$ on plate appearances and innings that I did not truly need just so that I didn't ever have to played tired guys.  It takes more day-to-day managing (not settings, but line-up moves) but once I learned to milk more out of the guys I drafted, I was able to draft MUCH better players with fewer PA's or IP's and started to win much more consistently.  

Unless some of your managerial settings are just butchered, they usually don't help much if you're under .500 anyway.  The difference between decent and "ideal" managerial settings is maybe 1 or 2 wins a season.  So if you're in the playoff hunt, or in a postseason game, they can matter a lot.  But for teams under .500 it's very unlikely that better settings would have helped you (unless you were in a terrible division).  I don't know what kind of leagues you play, but for fairly standard ones, a .477 career winning percentage is mostly about drafting.

I''ll add a point, it's about drafting, but it's about drafting to suit the park your chosing to play in. When I started playing this several years ago, I picked position players without a great deal of thought as to what park I'd be playing in.   The park was, sort of, an after thought.  It would be chosen more on enabling my staff than suiting the types of hitters I'd be drafting.  Now, with many years and several teams later, I recognize the most important part of of building a team is to fit the position players around the park they'll be playing half their games in.    I've had some success doing this. Another thing I do, which is against the grain a bit, is to build a staff without figuring on guys who fill the long A or long b rolls.  I can't remember a team where I "managed" a pitcher in this slot.   

I am mostly echoing what others have said but I think

1. 90% of "managing" is just making routine substitutions to maximize your PA and IP. 
2. If you don't understand "in game fatigue"  you should look it up or ask a question
3. Picking a home park is very important in leagues where your player options is not limited.
4. Set intentional walks to zero or one.

I should also add I have won 21,000 games without (more or less) ever moving a managerial setting off of 3.  I have recently started changing the intentional walk thing done to 1, when  I remember.

Admitting I did not read the responses but I have found that Stadium choice is critical.

All of the above, and I'll add my two cents. I was, and am, a child of Strat-O-Matic baseball, so I came into this with some rock solid conceived notions on what players I liked. Well having a hard head and a thousand losses later I had to admit I was not drafting competitive teams. So I literally started from scratch, beginning by looking at the good teams I was up against and the experienced owners who put them together. A couple I admit I copied outright in the beginning, just to see if I could manage them, but gradually I found my way in terms of the kinds of teams I want to field and still be competitive. I still can't draft and properly manage a team with under 1300 IP, but that is another story. Bottom line, take a hard look at who your drafting, and heed redwingscup concerning the park you put them in. GL.....

jtpsops, you've always been competitive in the leagues I've been in with you...I'm not sure there's a problem.  What's your record been recently? 

One possible thought could be that cap makes a difference.  I'm more or less useless under 80M, and my "sweet spot" is probably 90-120M.  Do you have greater relative success at low/medium/high caps?

Perhaps type of league also makes a difference?  I tend to do well in leagues that require significant research - like twist leagues, puzzle leagues, etc.  I'm just so-so at OL/CL, a bit better than average in progs, and not particularly good at 1-time drafts.  But I do know a fair bit about baseball history, and that allows me for example to probably find good players for twist or teammate themes quite a bit faster than someone who is navigating the environs of history through baseball-reference.com for the first time.

Just like most others I'd say bad drafting. I don't touch managerial settings unless i have some studs on the bench I'll put pinch hitting at a 4 or 5. I always adjust my base stealing #'s because they're always off. Pitch count is important.

I think choosing the right park is vital. but also thinking about what others may do in the league. Is it a random league where lots of teams may get stuck with high hr/9 pitchers?

I am finding this to be a very helpful thread. (not that I am being very helpful)