OAV, BB/9, HR/9, and to a very very very small amount ERA are the only stats that factor into performance. I primarily look at WHIP since it has both OAV and BB built in, but depending on ballpark and cap, might lend more weight to one or the other component stats along with the total. I rarely pay any attention to HR/9. No one drafts HR hitters, and most ballparks are -HR, so… it rarely matters

I understand the perils of relying on that category exclusively for evaluating pitchers ... especially relative to the stadium you are using.

However, what I can't reconcile is how by one measurement, the pitcher is really good (ERC+ and ERC#) while another metric (ERA+ and ERA#) has him below average ... in the exact ... same ... category.

Maybe I'm not understanding the difference between ERC and ERA.

ERC is a Bill James formula attempting to predict expected ERA based on OAV, BB/9, HBP/9 and HR/9. If the two don't match it's because the pitcher either allowed a lot more or a lot fewer runs than you would expect from looking at how many baserunners and home runs he allowed

I've found ERC+ and ERC# to be a beneficial tool in evaluating pitchers, but the raw OAV and BB/9 data is far more accurate in finding what you are looking for. I'm looking hard at $/IP, HR/9 isn't critical unless approaching extreme, or you are using a + HR park. IP/G is useful in determining how deep you can take pitch counts. Fatigue is always a consideration.

What all these guys said.

I think the reason your guy had the success he had was because his ERC was so much better than his ERA.

I think HR/9 is more important depending on the era you draft from. If you're drafting deadballers (pre-1920) they don't really give up homeruns regardless, so it doesn't matter. If you draft more modern pitching (like I do) it can play a bigger role.

I wanna make a good team.

Home runs by a hitter should not be looked at as a predictor of SIM performance for home runs about to be hit in a certain WIS League, nealry as much as the normalized numbers, . If you want hitters who are going to hit the most possible home runs in this sim, you always, without exception, have to look a the normalized amount of home runs they have listed, as it takes priority over the raw, real life number.

It's all about relative performance.

this is indicated by the # sign, and look for #HR/9 for those players.

the raw amount of homeruns they hit is still a factor, but less so.

Babe Ruth from 1920 season has a #HR/9 of about 15.

That is pretty much the best there is for a full season player.

In fact, the # sign, is what you should be looking at, for the relative comparison for every player, in certain stats, when you are drafting.

#erc is the hypothetical normalizes era, and is very useful for drafting pitchers. Same with the # for their BB(walks) and other stuff like batting average against.

But back to hitters, a hitter from 1911, with a batting average in real life of .350, will probably only have a normalized batting average of maybe .326

If a player led the all of MLB in a certain category in their real life season, by a wide margin, you can be sure that they will excel in that stat in the sim, RELATIVE to the other players in that particular League you happen to be in.

If you are expecting Babe Ruth to hit 60 Home Runs in a 255 Million $ League, you will be disappointed. ( unless a bunch of people are at HR friendly parks, and failed to draft enough pitchers with low enough normalized Home Runs against, as in #HR/9 )

OK, I am going to post a request here. It took me several hours to write the posts in this thread, and if you include previous iterations of it, plus the time spent searching the forums over the years to pull this together, conservatively I am going to estimate that I have put close to 100 hours into compiling information that might be helpful to new players.

Now I ain't a martyr and I am not asking for anything here other than what I consider to be basic decency in return. If you are a new player and you are reading these posts, please do not:
-- Sitemail me asking specific questions about the nuances of this game. I am not a public utility, nor am I employed by this site. I put this together as a labor of love because I care about this game and I think it benefits all of us when new players can get up to speed more quickly. But I am not your personal help desk for SLB. Post questions here in this thread, or in the main SLB forum, and perhaps other users will take the time to respond.
-- Sitemail me asking for recommendations on which players to use. First of all, you're barking up the wrong tree. I am nowhere near the best player on this site, and there's a good chance that any advice I give you is going to be lousy. Second, I'm not going to do your work for you. There is a ton written here, and in other places in these forums, to help you understand how to play this game. Yes, if you really study it and are willing to put the time in, you can learn a lot more than I have written here about how to win this game. But if you are not willing to do that, do not expect me to be your personal shortcut.
-- And please, for goodness sakes, don't sitemail me asking me to give you a free team so that you can "try this game out." Yes this has happened. More than once. C'mon...

An excellent resource is here:
https://help.whatifsports.com/hc/en-us/categories/360000859752-SimLeague-Baseball

Many many questions about how SLB works are answered there.
Many more questions about how SLB works are answered in these forums.

It really is a very thorough writeup, Contrarian.....thanks for puttin it together.......one other thing,has anyone heard any news or updates or even possibly that Simleague Live will be brought back.......the MLB website advertisement for WIS in 2005-2006 brought me to the site and introduced me but i really really miss Simleague Live......I really feel like it was one of the main driving features of the site back when the site was really boomin......i took a hiatus from 2010 until recently and hated seein Live play gone when i came back for the first time in over a decade. Live play, in my opinion makes the game way more fun and exciting whether i was winning or gettin blown out. Haha

Posted by titan2006 on 2/27/2022 3:01:00 PM (view original):
It really is a very thorough writeup, Contrarian.....thanks for puttin it together.......one other thing,has anyone heard any news or updates or even possibly that Simleague Live will be brought back.......the MLB website advertisement for WIS in 2005-2006 brought me to the site and introduced me but i really really miss Simleague Live......I really feel like it was one of the main driving features of the site back when the site was really boomin......i took a hiatus from 2010 until recently and hated seein Live play gone when i came back for the first time in over a decade. Live play, in my opinion makes the game way more fun and exciting whether i was winning or gettin blown out. Haha

Live Play will return with a rewrite, not before. The old software isn't at all compatible to make major, even minor changes. The Live feature just wasn't capable of running on the old software anymore. So we wait. The last word we got was that SLB will be the first to receive a rewrite, but they are doing some other work first.

From Admin about a month ago

Hello,

SLB is definitely not on it's last legs. The Dynasty games, particularly HBD has been a focus atm. GD is bringing out playoffs to DIA and HBD has been having issues filling worlds so we were trying to drive users to try those games. From discussions with the devs, the plan is to have SLB be the first game to get a "rewrite". I know they've been working hard to get a new base code for the site completed so that we can bring a facelift to the site, an online store for merchandise and help with future update implementation. From there we hope to get some things done with SLB thereafter.

did the original post get deleted? I don't see the writeup, just responses to it.