I originally posted this in another thread, but thought it might deserve it's own.  Add your own advice. 

NOTE:  This advice is for general newbies, and how to look at things in the sim way.  Admittedly, teams built as described would probably not be WS teams, but they will not be 100 loss teams either.  I want to give them the basics, without naming names, and helping them to understand WHY something works, rather than saying: Here, copy this roster.

EDIT - Updates after the 10/3 release are now in bold.  Most of this post is original, modications are noted.

10 things I would tell newbies.  Those with more experience would receive different advice.

1) - Read the AAA revealed thread, and don't be afraid to play AAA players.  Know that AAA players are real MLB players with the names changed, and usually are worth $1.5 - $4.0m each. Edit - AAA players now seem to be worth $1.0m - $2.0m.  If you draft one or two players with only about 500 PA/162, you can PROBABLY count on AAA to fill in when those guys are tired. 

2) - Draft 1200 quality IP.  Split 900 evenly among your starters (3 x300, 4 x 225, 2 x 450, whatever).  Get a 75 IP setup guy with WHIP < 1.05, a 50 IP closer with whip < 0.9, and the rest 1.25 WHIP for Long A duty.  Also, draft a $200k guy to pitch mop up, you don't care if his arm falls off, just set him to only pitch when you're losing badly Edit - For newbies, 1300 IP seems better after the new release.  900 IP from starters. 175 Ip over TWO long A guys, with WHIP 1.25-1.35, 150 IP over 2 < 1.10 WHIP set up guys, and another 80-100 IP for 2 closers.  Don't forget to get a mop up guy to kill, any $200k guy will do.  AAA pitchers are probably best for long A work, you can probably cut 75 IP from the long A part IF you have AAA.

3) Spend your money either 50/50 hitting pitching, or 55/45 pitching.  You can vary this when you learn more. Edit: Pitching heavy teams seem a little more common. 

4) - Fill your hitting roster with 8 full time players (625 pa/162 each) and the rest $200k scrubs.  Your AAA guys will usually be better than the scrubs.

5) - Understand the basics of normalization.  Hitters from big pitchers years (1968, 1908, etc) and pitchers from hitters years (1930, 1894, etc) tend to do better than their raw stats would indicate.  Modern HR hitters will hit fewer HR's in the sim than they did in real life  (also:  HR's are usually suppressed somewhat in the SIM due to many deadball pitchers and huge fields commonly used in open leagues).  EDIT.  Ok, take a look at the normalized avg+.  A good rule of thumb is that players with higher normalized avg+ should come closer to their R/L batting average. 

6) - Know that nearly all of your players will underperform in the sim.  You're facing all-star level lineups for 162 games.  You really think Ted Williams would hit .406 against Pedro, Koufax, and Bob Gibson every game?  Similarly, you think Pedro would have a 1.5 ERA facing Ruth, Cobb, and Lajoie nearly every game? 

7) - Set your advanced settings, especially pitch counts.  The recommendations are OK at the beginning of the year for newbies.  Your closer should be 9th inning only, your setup guy 8th inning.  Ensure that you use the auto-rest feature, you don't want any pitchers (other than mop up) going at less than 90% if you can help it.

8) - Defense is critical.  Nothing statistically corellates better to winning in the sim than good defense.  Range is more important than Fielding %, but ignore fielding percentage at your own peril.  NOTE:  Good catchers have no impact on the running game.  I-Rod catches no more stealers than Piazza. EDIT - adding Catching Arm in the 10/3 release changed that.  Know now that you'll face probably 90% A or A+ armed catchers, which will slow down your running game quite a bit.  Figure on getting a good armed catcher yourself

9) - Understand your home stadium and use it to your benefit.  Pick your stadium before you pick your team.  If you like HR hitters, think Wrigley first, then look at maximizing your HR potential for hitters, and minimizing it for pitchers.  If you want a pitching team, keep in mind that negative stadium effects don't hold back walks and speed.  Know that you will face MANY pitching stadiums in the current flavor of the sim.

10 - Understand what stats WIS uses. ERA, RBI, Wins, and Saves are useless.  The sim uses the following stats:

• Hitter - AVG influences whether an at bat results in a hit
• Hitter - Actual 2b/3b rate (not shown in draft center) influences whether hit is 2b or 3b.
• Hitter - Hr/100 influences whether hit is a HR
• Hitter - BB rate (not shown directly in draft center) influences whether BB occurs.  Note that this happens BEFORE hit event is calculated
• Hitter - SO rate (not shown directly in draft center) infulences whether SO occurs. 
• Pitcher - BB/9 - Influences whether a walk occurs
• Pitcher - k/9 - Influences whether a K occurs
• Pitcher - OAV - If no walk or K occurs, influences whether batter makes hit or out (defense can figure in here, superior defense can turn hits into outs, weak defense can turn outs into hits)
• Pitcher - ERA - Influences whether hit is 2b or 3b
• Pitcher - Hr/9 - Influences whether hit is HR

Finally, know that you will probably lose a lot in your first leagues.  Open leagues are full of "sharks" who fine tune a team and play against newbies, and feature strategies like Superman Long A, AAA strategies, etc.  Edit - Current strategies seem to feature triples hitters in Petco, Walking teams (8 guys with 100 or more walks each) in Safeco or Petco, and Pitching Heavy teams in Coors.  Extreme stadiums are popular as you can customize your team to them

Hope this helps.

==========================================================

Updated 2/28/06 -

Some more things that newbies Need to Know.  Some of these are more advanced.

• WIS is not baseball, it is a computer simulation of the game.  Some things the computer simulates very well, some things it does not.  If you go into the sim expecting it to behave exactly like regular baseball, you are doomed to disappointment.  It's very, very, good, but it's not perfect.  Some examples of where the sim fails are situational hitting, team fielding, and more. 
• Experienced players exploit the sim at the "extremes", because sometimes the sim doesn't handle extremes quite as well.  For example, 1920 Babe Ruth is so far above his peers in HR/AB rate that he is a true outlier, and might hit 90-100 HR's in an open league.  Some years of Lance Johnson have him hitting 50% more triples that the nearest other player that year.  These are examples, your job is to find more of these and use them, and not to be shocked when they are used against you.
• Right now, the sim is dominated by extreme fielding, particularly in the OF.  It was discovered that players are priced by the letter grade (ie: A, B, A+) etc, yet their performance is determined by the TRUE underyling range factor.  Some A+ range players have range factors 50% higher than other A+ range players, and these players can be used to turn ordinary pitchers into super stars.  Imagine a team where Ozzie Smith played every position.  Where would the balls be able to fall for a hit?  Well, it is possible to build teams that field better than that right now.  Refer to other threads for more detailed analysis.
• Pitchers can throw about 10% more pitches in the sim than they threw in real life before reaching permanent fatigue.  Hitters about 15% more plate appearances.  Permanent fatigue, especially for pitchers, is an ugly thing, you might as well be throwing underhand soft toss to Barry Bonds.  Keep in mind that if you bought those innings/at bats, they're yours to use.  If you can keep a outstanding pitcher/hitter fully rested until the end of the season, he can start a LOT of games for you then, when you really need it.

Briancampos - Why?   When it's their turn to start, I want my SP at 100% each and every time.

Lemay - yeah, but that's more advanced.  I intentionally didn't go into the playing out of position theory, that's a whole subject to itself.  Feel free to expound on that here, though, newbies need all the help they can get. 

I agree they should be 100% for every start but if I have use a 4 man rotation a pitcher should not be 90% after pitching. Maybe I should not add my advice on this as I have never used auto rest.

I understand now.  The autorest is really for Relief pitchers only.  It has no impact on SP's.  You have to manually adjust your rotation if you're about to start a SP at less than 100%.

Closers comming in in the 9th is simply bad percentage baseball. The problem, of course, is not being able to see into the future. There are MANY ballgames that would have better served the losing team if they had put their closer in in the 7th, or even earlier! The modern bullpen is mired in tradition and defined rolls, when in depth analysis will show you things like LOOGY's aren't really worth it, and closers should probobly not finish alot of the games they are brought in to do so with.

Any ideas on how to revise Sparky so that he can recognize extremely high leverage situations and chose pitching matchups accordingly?

How will the 50 IP closer changes with the update as well.  For example.  In Latman's cookie season he only pitched 13 games to get to his 49 IP.  Will he be hit with a fatigue modifier or what ever the term is after he gets to 20 games or so?

Or am I misunderstanding that modification?

He'll be fine.  You have 50 IP to use, do what you wish with them.  You might have a hard time pitching him on 3 straight games, but that's similar to real life. 

The modification has NOTHING to do with the number of R/L games a player pitched in.  It seemed about half the test leagues thought that it did, so you're far from alone in thinking that. 

For example, I drafted the 42 IP Adams as my closer, and here's his stats at the end of the season in the test league.  He had no trouble going 6 IP over his R/L stats. 

Quote: Originally posted by biglenr on 9/13/2005

---

Finally, know that you will probably lose a lot in your first leagues. Open leagues are full of "sharks" who fine tune a team and play against newbies, and feature strategies like Superman Long A, AAA strategies, etc.

---

 How about "butt licking unoriginal scumbag bullies" ?

This post points out why biglenr is considered one of the "BEST" of the "BEST IN WIS".
Honest help with no strings attached. He certainly always can be counted on for absolute
honesty and he's a straight shooter. Number One in my book. Add to that that his leagues
are Super and so well thought out he can't even win in some of them. He may not be the
absolute last word on a subject but you'll never get a knuckleball from Len.

Tony

You guys are making me blush.  Thanks. 

Just started writing this in another post, it all popped out in like 5 minutes, then I thought it might be useful to those who don't read all the other threads.

Quote: Originally Posted By biglenr on 9/13/2005

---

8) - Defense is critical.  Nothing statistically corellates better to winning in the sim than good defense.  Range is more important than Fielding %, but ignore fielding percentage at your own peril.  NOTE:  Good catchers have no impact on the running game.  I-Rod catches no more stealers than Piazza.

---