- Posts: 265
- Joined: Sun Jan 19, 2014 11:25 am
Mon Apr 14, 2014 3:11 am
... in a 200mil or higher cap.
So being new to strat online I jumped full in to the game as it seemed like it would be fun to try since the net play version of the game has a high learning curve, and difficulty finding a league that fits my long work schedule.
With little research and a fly by the seat of my pants attitude, I jumped into a 12 team 200mil league and decided to test my drafting skills against the rest of the players here. I plopped down my twenty bucks and got excited to draft. It was an auto league and so I did what the instructions stated and took an approach I had used to dominate the leagues I played in back in the 80s and 90s. That is, Get the best pitching possible and supplement it with speed average and defence. In the leagues I played in the big power hitters always were drafted first, so getting a great pitching staff was always first on the list. When the other managers saw the pitching begin to dry up there would be a frenzy of pitching picks where I would be able to pick up hitters and platoon players I needed to compete.
It was a mistake in the ATG. Little did I realize that power out performs pitching in this superstar version of the game. At least in the regular season. Looking at the free agent pool at the waiver period of the draft, and seeing pitching still available that was only inferior by perhaps a 6-6 roll difference made me realize my mistake. Even choosing a non homerun park couldn't make up the difference my opponents had on their hitters cards compared to what I had on mine.
But saying that I did compete somewhat anyway finishing with an 80-82 record and at least not last in my division:
My first 7 choices in the auto draft were pitchers and I got all 7. But with only Larkin and Cobb to lead my offence, I was sorely outmatched by teams with way better power. I even got many of the players I wanted in the auto draft as I sacrificed power for speed, getting players like Chance and David Wright. But you live and you learn.
So the next auto-draft I participated in I decided to concentrate more on power. I chose all the big names, ranked them in order of salary and put pitching lower on my rankings. Unfortunately I was low in the draft order and no joke I got absolutely none of the players I selected. I ended up with Larkin and Charleston as my only 10mil players. I looked at the other teams in my league and everyone had a large number of more great players than me. And I thought I was in a lot of trouble.
But I looked at the waiver order and I was first in line. Ralf Kiner was there so I took him first. In fact I looked over the remaining free agents and said, I will need to improve my team this way and I did. I chose 8 players in the waiver draft and got almost all of them. Then with a half decent hitting team I looked at pitchers and grabbed as many as I could. I platooned pitchers like I would hitters and it seemed to work. I was out scoring my opponents by almost a run per game, but I still was losing more games than I was winning. My pitching was amongst the top in the league and after half the season had passed I turned the corner and began winning. I now have an above 500 record. Not bad I said to myself considering the deficit I began with at the start.
But since I have always been a pitching first kind of guy I thought to myself Is pitching really that unimportant to winning at the ATG 7 at the 12 team and high range salary cap? There was only one way to find out for sure. I needed to be able to have control over my draft. That way I could draft a team without any pitching. And have a chance at the power guys and elite hitters that I was always missing out on in the auto-draft. So to test my theory I began a 999mil 12 team live draft league.
I drafted and ignored pitching until I had all my position players and platoon players. By the time I finished that I had Henderson, Griffey Jr, Sisler, A. Rodrigues, Lajoie, Wagner, Hodges, M. Williams, Yount, Bresnahan, Heavy Johnson, Clemente and Chino Smith. Not as much power as I wanted but again I was low in the draft and decided ss and 2b was more important. By the time I got around to pitching the best guy left was Chesbro. Then I started drafting pitching that was good but not as great as the Maddux's of the league. J.R. Richard, Lefty Gomez, Kevin Brown, Pud Gavin. I spot started each pitcher I had to match the team I was facing, and none were worth 9mil let alone 10.
And much as I thought the system is working, at least for the first 42 games, Im the cheetahs and Im in 1st place overall with a 28-14 record.
http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/league/349124
http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/1124020
Lets see if the experiment works for the rest of the season.
Any opinions on this team everyone? Any predictions on how the team will finish? I would like to know as learning about the game is what I find most fun, even it takes a few arguments and discussions to get a good dialogue going
Scott.
P.S. Both Griffey Jr. and Nap Lajoie have been injured twice so far so I have been using their other cards in replacement.
So being new to strat online I jumped full in to the game as it seemed like it would be fun to try since the net play version of the game has a high learning curve, and difficulty finding a league that fits my long work schedule.
With little research and a fly by the seat of my pants attitude, I jumped into a 12 team 200mil league and decided to test my drafting skills against the rest of the players here. I plopped down my twenty bucks and got excited to draft. It was an auto league and so I did what the instructions stated and took an approach I had used to dominate the leagues I played in back in the 80s and 90s. That is, Get the best pitching possible and supplement it with speed average and defence. In the leagues I played in the big power hitters always were drafted first, so getting a great pitching staff was always first on the list. When the other managers saw the pitching begin to dry up there would be a frenzy of pitching picks where I would be able to pick up hitters and platoon players I needed to compete.
It was a mistake in the ATG. Little did I realize that power out performs pitching in this superstar version of the game. At least in the regular season. Looking at the free agent pool at the waiver period of the draft, and seeing pitching still available that was only inferior by perhaps a 6-6 roll difference made me realize my mistake. Even choosing a non homerun park couldn't make up the difference my opponents had on their hitters cards compared to what I had on mine.
But saying that I did compete somewhat anyway finishing with an 80-82 record and at least not last in my division:
My first 7 choices in the auto draft were pitchers and I got all 7. But with only Larkin and Cobb to lead my offence, I was sorely outmatched by teams with way better power. I even got many of the players I wanted in the auto draft as I sacrificed power for speed, getting players like Chance and David Wright. But you live and you learn.
So the next auto-draft I participated in I decided to concentrate more on power. I chose all the big names, ranked them in order of salary and put pitching lower on my rankings. Unfortunately I was low in the draft order and no joke I got absolutely none of the players I selected. I ended up with Larkin and Charleston as my only 10mil players. I looked at the other teams in my league and everyone had a large number of more great players than me. And I thought I was in a lot of trouble.
But I looked at the waiver order and I was first in line. Ralf Kiner was there so I took him first. In fact I looked over the remaining free agents and said, I will need to improve my team this way and I did. I chose 8 players in the waiver draft and got almost all of them. Then with a half decent hitting team I looked at pitchers and grabbed as many as I could. I platooned pitchers like I would hitters and it seemed to work. I was out scoring my opponents by almost a run per game, but I still was losing more games than I was winning. My pitching was amongst the top in the league and after half the season had passed I turned the corner and began winning. I now have an above 500 record. Not bad I said to myself considering the deficit I began with at the start.
But since I have always been a pitching first kind of guy I thought to myself Is pitching really that unimportant to winning at the ATG 7 at the 12 team and high range salary cap? There was only one way to find out for sure. I needed to be able to have control over my draft. That way I could draft a team without any pitching. And have a chance at the power guys and elite hitters that I was always missing out on in the auto-draft. So to test my theory I began a 999mil 12 team live draft league.
I drafted and ignored pitching until I had all my position players and platoon players. By the time I finished that I had Henderson, Griffey Jr, Sisler, A. Rodrigues, Lajoie, Wagner, Hodges, M. Williams, Yount, Bresnahan, Heavy Johnson, Clemente and Chino Smith. Not as much power as I wanted but again I was low in the draft and decided ss and 2b was more important. By the time I got around to pitching the best guy left was Chesbro. Then I started drafting pitching that was good but not as great as the Maddux's of the league. J.R. Richard, Lefty Gomez, Kevin Brown, Pud Gavin. I spot started each pitcher I had to match the team I was facing, and none were worth 9mil let alone 10.
And much as I thought the system is working, at least for the first 42 games, Im the cheetahs and Im in 1st place overall with a 28-14 record.
http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/league/349124
http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/1124020
Lets see if the experiment works for the rest of the season.
Any opinions on this team everyone? Any predictions on how the team will finish? I would like to know as learning about the game is what I find most fun, even it takes a few arguments and discussions to get a good dialogue going
Scott.
P.S. Both Griffey Jr. and Nap Lajoie have been injured twice so far so I have been using their other cards in replacement.