I am just past the all star break with my first team. My team s@#ks, which is to be expected for a first season team. My pitchers are my worst. I do have one rookie prospect who is 5-0 after 9 starts (should be 7-0 no bullpen) 3.47 era, 1.27 WHIP with 9.76 K/9. Would like to move him up, but when and how far?
What I don't understand is why I am 16-38 at home and 30-25 on the road. What is going on at home, are they flooding the fields at night?
Could also use some help with some of the terms. Know most of them from SIM League games, but there are new ones here that are not explained. A more comprehensive player guide may be in order

First, don't look at minor league stats as an indicator of BL-ready. I'll look at your team in a bit. And, if you'll list the terms you don't know, I probably do.

Your 2B is terrible. Poor fielder who doesn't make up for it with his glove.

Your hitting is weak. You have 1 player over 70 VR. You have to address that. It's a hitter's world(which leads to my next observation).

I'd expect league average pitching and that 1.41/4.48 is way off from the 1.30/4.10 in most worlds. But it's really close in your world. Maybe add one quality arm to replace your worst.

Overall, I don't think you're that far off. Improve your VR at the plate and get a 2B who can either hit or field(both is preferable but there's only so much you can do).

You are short 1 credible player from having at least vaguely reasonable solutions to all positions. The way you're deploying your guys right now you have total holes at 2B and DH-- seriously, a .630 OPS from your primary DH?-- but if you promote Perry Wallace to DH in the majors and then deployed them the way I would you'd have no RF instead of no 2B.

Your biggest problem is that you only have 2 genuinely good players on the team. Navarre is an SP2, and Salas is a championship quality LF. Beyond that you're limping along with a bunch of stopgaps and mediocrities. You'll have some of that type of player on a genuinely good team, but not across the board. There's no help from the farm any time soon on that front-- you have some guys in rookie that are a few seasons away.

This sounds ridiculous, but you need to get good players.Top pitchers, guys who can both hit and field or who can really hit.

Also, internationals mostly don't develop more than a few points per category after age 21 (there are exceptions); don't sign as many old internationals as you have been.

So would you promote Perry Wallace? What does VR and the stat RF mean? On grading players stats, where should I not look below? Of course a hitter with high contact and low power can be valuable, same as a pitcher with high control and low velocity.

But really why am I losing so many home games? I am ahead on the road. This factor could possibly contribute to other negative factors that affect my w-l record.

Wallace should be on your BL roster.

VR-versus righthanders. Same for both hitters and pitchers. RF is Range Factor.

I like to use 70 as my baseline for VL/VR for both pitchers/hitters. The rest of the categories vary greatly. There is no simple answer.

Home/Road is often just a product of many variables. Just build the best team you can if you're in Chicago. That's practically a neutral park. The extreme parks are more specialized.

I am bidding on a unsigned free agent pitcher he has stamina 28 control 86 velocity and 81 groundball/ flyball. He only has a 59VL 16VR. he wants a lot of money. i'm up to a signing bonus of 2.5m and he wants more. Would you give more?

No. 16 VR? You're putting way too much emphasis on VEL and GB and not nearly enough on control, VL/VR.

ok

Yeah my very first season in free agency I concentrated on Velocity and control. I figured if they can throw hard and locate, they would be effective pitchers. They were not. I ignored VS/R and VS/L

Posted by MikeT23 on 5/15/2017 5:03:00 PM (view original):
No. 16 VR? You're putting way too much emphasis on VEL and GB and not nearly enough on control, VL/VR.

If the guy is really only 16 vRH, he's not worth above $50k.

That said, I'm guessing from the way it was framed that he's an IFA. If so, he doesn't "want more" in a vacuum, he's demanding more because someone else is offering more. Depending on what your IFA scouting budget it, it could be the 16 vRH that has no relationship to reality. If he's legit a 86 control RP with 59 vLH and 61 (instead of 16) vRH, he could possibly have a ML future (if his pitches are plus). For me, VEL and GB may be even less important than they are to MikeT23, but if you can figure out who is bidding the IFA up (and you have more confidence in their IFA scouts than your own) you can glean useful information from that.

He won't have access to the other bidder's IFA scouting either. In my experience, with low scouting, something like 59/16 equates to 40/31. Which is still terrible.

Posted by MikeT23 on 5/15/2017 6:51:00 PM (view original):
He won't have access to the other bidder's IFA scouting either. In my experience, with low scouting, something like 59/16 equates to 40/31. Which is still terrible.

He won't have access to the hard $ for the other owner's scouting, but context clues can often give a pretty solid idea. It is likely something that is easier to do once you've been in the league a while and have a better feel for other franchises, owners, and your own comfort level.

Posted by MikeT23 on 5/15/2017 3:56:00 PM (view original):
Wallace should be on your BL roster.

VR-versus righthanders. Same for both hitters and pitchers. RF is Range Factor.

I like to use 70 as my baseline for VL/VR for both pitchers/hitters. The rest of the categories vary greatly. There is no simple answer.

Home/Road is often just a product of many variables. Just build the best team you can if you're in Chicago. That's practically a neutral park. The extreme parks are more specialized.

Evaluate pitchers by using a weighted average of control, VsR, VsL, P1, P2, and GB/FB. Control, VsR, and P1 are the most important.

A pitcher who is exactly 70 in all those categories will be a marginal ML pitcher. 75 is a little better than average. If a pitcher is under 70 in a key category, he has to be above it in another key category to balance out. I have not seen a pitcher with VsR < 50 who was effective in the majors, or control < 40.

Position players are more complicated because you tolerate much worse hitting if a player plays a key defensive position well. An average hitter will have a weighted average of power, contact, VsL, VsR, and eye in the mid-to-high 60s-- but a hitter can be much worse than average if he's a good up-the-middle defender.

That's the biggest learning curve in this game IMO, developing your own understanding of player value. At the start you tend to think ratings in the 50s must make a player about average. Nope, average is more like up around 70.