Yes, True! Thanks so much for the help!! How does my Norfolk team look this year? :D

Posted by Mr_Kid on 4/21/2017 11:12:00 AM (view original):
Yes, True! Thanks so much for the help!! How does my Norfolk team look this year? :D

Eeps. You're in trouble. Starting pitching looks rough. Hitting is mediocre and you don't have anyone who can play SS or CF. And 2B is questionable.

I don't know about "in trouble" but that's not a contending team in most worlds. He's right about CF/SS. You have a couple of "almost" CF/SS so they won't kill you but they won't help your pitching. And your pitching does need help. That's gonna be rough. The hitting will probably end up around league average but you don't have any "I want this guy batting!!!!" players. You need tweaks with hitting/fielding and a pitching overhaul. That said, I can't recall the park effects in Norfolk. I want to say pitching park, which will help, but, even so, .500 is the area where you'll live if all goes well.

That's another great point. I usually try to grab as many elite defensive SS's/CF's in the draft as possible regardless of their bat because they reduce any headaches in the minors and give you cheap UTIL players for 3 or 4 years in the majors. I'll rank them right after the top 30 or so players that I manually rank every draft. Usually end up with 2-4 of these guys each draft.

Okay, any suggestions guys? I'll admit that I'm an idiot. I drafted 3 89 overall projected starting pitchers i traded away. This team literally had one player with at least a 70 overall when I became the coach. I wanted to not lose 120 games every season so i gave up great prospects for current players. Definitely a mistake on my part....

One suggestion is to not put any real emphasis on overall ratings, as they can be artificially inflated (or deflated) by high (or low) numbers in non-core categories. Sometimes a 75 OVR player might be more valuable than an 85 OVR player, depending on his role on your team. So you'll want to get comfortable with understanding what the important categories of ratings are for pitchers/position players.

Good point tec. I am slowly recognizing the flaw in just looking at the overall. Some drafts are completely a bust I feel :(.

Posted by Mr_Kid on 4/21/2017 1:08:00 PM (view original):
Okay, any suggestions guys? I'll admit that I'm an idiot. I drafted 3 89 overall projected starting pitchers i traded away. This team literally had one player with at least a 70 overall when I became the coach. I wanted to not lose 120 games every season so i gave up great prospects for current players. Definitely a mistake on my part....

Look at what is still available in free agents. Chances are there are 2-3 guys that are above 85 across the fielding board. Or at least 85+ glove and range. Put 2 of these guys at SS and CF. Don't worry about their hitting. Put your good bats at the corners. (LF, RF, 3B,1B) watch as they rack up the + plays if they are above the league average. In the draft, focus on good SP and don't trade them away. The rest can be obtained by other means.

Thank you for the advice hockey! I will look right now!

Posted by Mr_Kid on 4/21/2017 1:46:00 PM (view original):
Thank you for the advice hockey! I will look right now!

Welcome. Actually I lie about the draft (We have a big thread talking about everyones draft strategy)

Personally I prefer drafting good pitching and shaping them in my farm system. A lot owners will say that you can get good Free agent pitchers in their prime as pitchers tend to keep their skills and abilities longer (this is all true by the way) the thing is, you get what you pay for. I have a guy who is 34 right now making $15 million, he's a good pitcher but probably not worth that amount. That being said, 3 seasons ago I needed a good pitcher and this is the contract I had to give to win him.

My theory is, you can get good hitters in the draft but you don't need good hitters to win. If you have a solid defensive core, and then a few guys who can get on base and steal bases, you can win games 2-1, 3-2. The best part is, these skills are not coveted. Everyone wants the guys who hit +.300 with over 30 homeruns. Meanwhile guys who walk, steal 30 bases and make 25+ plays tend to get passed over. Its not as exciting but its an easy way to tack on a few more wins every year.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I'm not really into having someone who can smash the ball. I care more about getting on base, yanno. Getting the singles and doubles. I really like to have a fast team, but I'm nowhere close to that. It really does take a while to shape a team as this is only my 3rd season. And yes, that is what I had to do this season. I paid up for 2 good pitchers. Probably not worth 10 and 15 million a year, but that's what I have to do since i stupidly traded my 3 prospects away.

The key is to find the market inequities and exploit it. For example, most want pitchers with 28 DUR/77 STM so they can go 7 innings every 5th day. I don't give a damn about that. I have some 20/52 that can go 3-4 every fifth day. I pay 4-5m for them. You pay 15-18m for the other guys. With the extra dough, I can build a bullpen that makes my guys every bit as valuable. Without getting into bidding wars.

I did a "speed" think in MG because my two best young players had good SPD/BR. I coupled it with D and EXPENSIVE pitching to lose in the LCS.

There's more than one way to skin a cat. Always remember that when someone says "You have to...." You don't. The only thing you have to do is make sure you have the players that fit what you're trying to do. With my MG team, since I intended to steal, couldn't have 3-4 plodders. They'd have undone any good from the rest by going 1-15 in SB/CS.

That is interesting Mike. Yeah, I have gotten slandered for some of my moves, which I understand, but at the same time don't. I understand veteran owners have more experience but they simply told me I was an idiot for trading 3 starting pitchers. What they fail to realize is my team literally had nothing on the offensive or defensive side. I would have been losing games 3-0 all day every day with probably 2 errors a game minimum.

That is on your league mates and no on you. Anyone can say 'you are an idiot for these trades' but to build a long lasting league someone should at least TC you and say 'this is why you didn't get appropriate value for your trades' or something to that akin.

Posted by Mr_Kid on 4/21/2017 3:41:00 PM (view original):
That is interesting Mike. Yeah, I have gotten slandered for some of my moves, which I understand, but at the same time don't. I understand veteran owners have more experience but they simply told me I was an idiot for trading 3 starting pitchers. What they fail to realize is my team literally had nothing on the offensive or defensive side. I would have been losing games 3-0 all day every day with probably 2 errors a game minimum.

I probably wouldn't trade three SP either but, either way, you have to get value back. I often "lose" deals but still get what I want. Just because no one else wants them isn't my problem. My record indicates I have a clue.