It seems like most of the teams with top records in all the regular sim leagues (not theme league) have 3 stud pitchers from the old days that anchor the staff.  Can you win though with a more balanced approach of just pretty good pitchers like Orel Hershiser, Boddicker, etc. etc. and a decnt bullpen?

Absolutely. It might be easier to win with deadball/ace pitchers, and I'm not sure I'm a fan of Boddicker specifically, but you can win that way. It might be harder to win a short series without an ace though.

I have...  know what you are buying on offense tho.  you will struggle to win in the playoffs  IMHO

Your problem with alot of (but not all) of your later era pitchers give up to many dingers.

A guy like Kevin Appier may do well.  I like working with the staffs, spot starting guys. I'm not sure how a tandem works but that would be interesting.  Thanks for all your input!

I have won 90+ games a few times in OLs with Coors Field teams and way less than average pitching.  My last 90+ win Coors field team, "Yankees in Coors", had '30 Red Ruffing as the "ace" and it went down hill from there.  Of course it did have Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle, Dimaggio, Berra, Lazzeri, etc.  The trick was to have that Rivera-type closer and real good setup men so if you did get the lead you kept it.

I think that your mediocre pitching will have a great effect on making the other teams hitter better than the offset you receive by spending more money on your own hitters.

I have had some success with using Mark Prior/Jamie Moyer/Carlos Silva and only letting them pitch in pitcher friendly parks. Made my first (and only) play off with that tandem (plus '08 Joss).

I am also starting the "Tommy John Haters Club" if anybody is interested. We should be holding officer elections soon. I have nominated myself for President and would appreciate your support.

Sign me up for V.P Micki But if we were still in post OCT 2009 update I would not be.Before the update 1967 Tommy was money for me always pitched great with his 179in.

Posted by micki on 6/25/2010 7:02:00 AM (view original):
I have had some success with using Mark Prior/Jamie Moyer/Carlos Silva and only letting them pitch in pitcher friendly parks. Made my first (and only) play off with that tandem (plus '08 Joss).

I am also starting the "Tommy John Haters Club" if anybody is interested. We should be holding officer elections soon. I have nominated myself for President and would appreciate your support.

I'm going to stay out of the club, so long as the 1974 Tommy John continues to perform well for me, as he usually does

You can definitely win with a below-average pitching staff.  You can even win a TOC with that.  You need to have a very well-balanced and well-thought-out offense that can score several ways and you have to get a little bit lucky.

There certainly are many, many, managers in this game who are far better at this than I, but my main method of research is examining winning teams, and seeing what works. I don't (automatically or necessarily) just pick the same players, I try and figure out what that guy knows that I don't, and sometimes I can even exceed what I learned. One thing I certainly have learned is that any strategy that is well thought out and well planned can work out. If you read the forums, as I do, You will read about gents who have won with 7 man rotations, tandem rotations, low IP rotations with spot starters and every other permutation you can think of. The right guys in the right park is a simple and consistent winning formula.

the ballpark effect is way to pronounced IMHO

thanks again for your help everyone........one last question......what is a TOC? By the way I'm in my first league and I basically picked up some players off the top of my headand some favorites but there is 8 games left and I'm like 60-90...... not too bad for a first season. I have Orel Hershiser, Frank Dwyer and Alex Fernandez as my starters and I spot started and switched Randy Wolf and Rick Sutcliff but my era is really suffering although my pen isnt too bad (Rod Beck, Matt Thornton, JJ Putz, Neal Cotts). With the team that I have I needed to get really luck and have most of my players have stand out years but it didnt work out but it was fun playing.  I'm excited to start my second season! 

I don't think you can win a short series with average pitching unless you get very lucky. The TOC is the tournament of champions. The top 2 teams (i.e. World Series opponents) in every league advance to the TOC. 32 TOC teams play each other in 5-5-5-7-7 series structure. The top 2 teams win WIS credits totaling $250.