I've got 1980 Ross Grimsley as the "Ace" ('91 Wegman and '96 Darwin pitch in relief) of a current Champs League team on a 60 PC. In his 1st start he allowed 0 hits and 3 BB... through 6 starts and 23 IP he had a slash of 4.37/.271/1.50 and had a 1-1 record. Through 27 starts, he's now at 101 IP. and a slash of 7.69/.325/1.88 and is 2-14.

Despite not having dynamic pricing in use, there is no One Way to win here. There are Open leagues with great teams who are pitching heavy, and also teams succeeding with less than $35M spent on pitching. If nothing else, it is a good time to think outside the box. Try a new strategy. Give other players a look. Use a stadium you haven't tried.

I’m growing discouraged after years of fair success. It seems the leagues worth entering now generally feature 0soup, dougpalm, mensu and several other aces who understand this game better than most of us; it seems my teams are stuck in a flight pattern in which most games are close until the 7th inning and then the opponent racks up 3-7 runs to win, even though I cannot discern any significant differences in our bullpens; has WIS condensed in the number of leagues and owners and, if so, the effect helps the rich and hurts the poor.

I’ve put off posting this big whine for a couple of weeks, but now I’m sad to say I feel like Trump complaining that things are rigged against him (yes, voting officials took pains to make sure they ran an open and honest election — not what he needed.)

The last five playoff teams I had each lost in the first round. I have two teams in first place at the moment of 11 teams in all. I’m like the gambler who can’t quit. Just one more team, and then I’ll strike the winning formula… Does anyone have a WIS Entries Anonymous club I can join? I’m tired of treading water in a baseball uniform while barely avoiding sinking.

I need to limit my game to real draft leagues, so that everyone doesn’t have the same players. There just aren’t many such leagues, but I’m looking for one before I waste another entry on the same old leagues.

Mensu1954 and I talk quite a bit strategy wise, have been Tagteam partners, we draft very much alike. Are known to keep eerily similar draft boards, constantly take each other's picks.

I have been given lots of advice from some of the very best. Many of us are really not so far behind the top players. It boils down to detail. They do more things well, do a bit better with their choices, and waste virtually nothing.

Keep trying to improve. Pay attention to what they're doing that you're not...

They have it wired... let's put it this way...if you are drafting even 50 unnecessary innings, that's wasted salary that could be used to improve elsewhere. You don't need 700PA up and down your lineup. Stop doing the same old thing, obviously it isn't good enough. Dig deeper.

I just approved rosters for my Stadium Tourney#2. I was feeling really good about my $110M Petco team and their team 0.84 whip. Then I see 06gsp puts in a team that weighs in at 0.77. I'm not far off, my batting and defense look to be good enough, but has he outdrafted me? Probably...

(I do this without Excel, I'm not any good with spreadsheets, probably explains at least some of why I lag behind)...

Posted by DoctorKz on 12/19/2021 9:24:00 PM (view original):
They have it wired... let's put it this way...if you are drafting even 50 unnecessary innings, that's wasted salary that could be used to improve elsewhere. You don't need 700PA up and down your lineup. Stop doing the same old thing, obviously it isn't good enough. Dig deeper.

I just approved rosters for my Stadium Tourney#2. I was feeling really good about my $110M Petco team and their team 0.84 whip. Then I see 06gsp puts in a team that weighs in at 0.77. I'm not far off, my batting and defense look to be good enough, but has he outdrafted me? Probably...

(I do this without Excel, I'm not any good with spreadsheets, probably explains at least some of why I lag behind)...

Interesting to see the comments about your skill level in Excel. I too am not any good with spreadsheets and have envied those who are. I think it is a decided advantage and a big time saver. That being said, I'll just keep muddling along in the only way I know how. I've learned management of settings at inception and throughout the season can help offset some of the statical advantages we see comparing teams. Often those advantages come at the expense of defense, which is rather expensive. It's tough to evaluate a competitor's team without digging deep into what sort of D they have; certainly more difficult than simply clicking on their hitter/pitcher total RL compilations. It's still (almost) as much fun to me to build a team as it is to play out the season.

I know just about everything the draft center can do, and I work at it so I don't feel too disadvantaged. Obviously the spreadsheets would help, but I get where I'm going...you can ask it for several stats at once, so that's a big help.

Anyone who uses favorite players rather than crunch numbers is putting themselves at a disadvantage, plain and simple. This is math, not baseball.

Speed and defense do come at added expense, especially if a player plays well at multiple positions. Those guys are a commodity. Still, when it gets super competitive you can't skimp...the competition exploits it. Go back and look at how many were within 10 games of making The Cage...it's the little things that separate the haves and have nots. Splitting hairs playing over 900 games...

Posted by thunder1008 on 11/21/2021 11:33:00 AM (view original):
Sam Leever `07
228 IP
$6.08M

Cy Young `06
303 IP
$7.17M

Barney Pelty '09
216 IP
$5.77M

Walter Johnson `07
119 IP
$2.87M

All good. Doc doesn't like Cy Young but he's one of my go-to's @ $80M.

Here you go, Thunder...not particularly cheap, but discodemo has the '07 Young 31-6 on a 105-35 team right now....that's getting it done....

If/when they put dynamic pricing back in effect, it's going to keep us rotating stock rather than constantly run out the same guys season after season... you'd better have a few more bullets ready to load...

'88 Charley Radbourn ($6.15M) is 13-3 in 22 starts for me, as we pass the Game 81 mark...The '05 Pelty is 16-2... He's pricey, $6.5M...;)

The '09 Killian tags along, is 11-4 on the back half of a tandem, not shabby for $4.43M, and a 2.40 ERA to boot.

We've won 22 of 23 recently, got us over .700 and a 3 game division lead...darned Paperclip201 doesn't want to give it to us, is really playing well...

I enjoyed great success for many seasons drafting old-time lefty Pastorius as my 4th starter, but lately he’s having a hard time reaching even .500. I suspect the problem may lie in subtle changes I’ve made in lineup choices and ballparks.

1908 Pastorius (RL 4-20) broke even at 13-13 over 70 performance history seasons (probably 20 from my teams). One season he put up a 24-7 record at a price of only 5 million.

Posted by doubletruck on 12/20/2021 8:02:00 PM (view original):
I enjoyed great success for many seasons drafting old-time lefty Pastorius as my 4th starter, but lately he’s having a hard time reaching even .500. I suspect the problem may lie in subtle changes I’ve made in lineup choices and ballparks.

Sometimes those little changes impact things in ways you don't easily see...

I ran similar style teams in several leagues over a period of time while testing pitching fatigue and most of these teams had similar players from one team to the next, but there were some changes. I ran'00 Donlin at 1B, '97 Joyce at 3B and '19 Peckinpaugh at SS for a few teams and they were largely successful winning 110-115 games and many playoffs. I subbed out Donlin, Peckinpaugh and Joyce for cheaper options that had similar profiles and similar RC from their PH. I then took the $ saved to upgrade a couple of pitchers '96 Maddux to '97 Maddux (for example). On paper, these teams were better: Same RC, ballpark, and defense, with better pitching, but they consistently won fewer games (90-95). When looking at the individual players performances the new SS, 3B, & 1B matched or outperformed Donlin, Joyce & Peckinpaugh offensively across the board and their defensive numbers were right on par or better, as well. I couldn't figure out why such a difference in win totals.

Then I looked much closer and saw that the small gain in offense and even defense was worth roughly 0-1 extra win per season, and my pitching improvements were worth 0-.5 extra wins per season, but the impact my more hitters than Donlin/Joyce/Peckinpaugh were saving my opponents roughly 45-50 errors per season. In other words, Donlin, Joyce & Peckinpaugh were reaching on error 45-50 times per season MORE than the hitters I had drafted to replace them. These ROE were hurting their performance stats so it didn't look like they were doing as well as they were, but in actuality, these ROE were contributing more in net wins than the offset from normal offense/defense and pitching improvements. Then, they also had better speed ratings than their replacements and had less GIDP, as well. I couldn't come up with enough of a gap to make up the full 20 win discrepancy I was consistently seeing, but found enough of a gap to know that those hidden factors like ROE were contributing much more than it appeared initially or than what could be seen on an individual player by player comparison.

Posted by doubletruck on 12/19/2021 8:25:00 PM (view original):
I’m growing discouraged after years of fair success. It seems the leagues worth entering now generally feature 0soup, dougpalm, mensu and several other aces who understand this game better than most of us; it seems my teams are stuck in a flight pattern in which most games are close until the 7th inning and then the opponent racks up 3-7 runs to win, even though I cannot discern any significant differences in our bullpens; has WIS condensed in the number of leagues and owners and, if so, the effect helps the rich and hurts the poor.

I’ve put off posting this big whine for a couple of weeks, but now I’m sad to say I feel like Trump complaining that things are rigged against him (yes, voting officials took pains to make sure they ran an open and honest election — not what he needed.)

The last five playoff teams I had each lost in the first round. I have two teams in first place at the moment of 11 teams in all. I’m like the gambler who can’t quit. Just one more team, and then I’ll strike the winning formula… Does anyone have a WIS Entries Anonymous club I can join? I’m tired of treading water in a baseball uniform while barely avoiding sinking.

I need to limit my game to real draft leagues, so that everyone doesn’t have the same players. There just aren’t many such leagues, but I’m looking for one before I waste another entry on the same old leagues.

I went through a spell like this as well. I'd not won a title in almost 2 years (2019 - 2021) had lost I think it was the last 6 world series I'd been to and I was talking to my wife about quitting because as the number of users on the site dwindled it seemed the users left were better and it was looking like I just wasn't good enough anymore. Then in a 3 and half month period this year I won 3 leagues and a TOC. Some of it is trusting what you're doing and some of it honestly is luck, getting a good draw in an LOTD league or one of 0soup's random type leagues or having your short inning ace pitch a gem in game 7 instead of getting bombed. Mostly I just wanted to say I understand the feelings you're describing cause I was right there not too long ago