So elite BA hitters can’t hit as well vs elite pitchers but players with high walk numbers see very little impact to their OBP? Doesn’t seem to add up.

In terms of least underachieving to most underachieving...

Switch hitters
Lefty batters
Right batters

Posted by schwarze on 7/1/2023 8:38:00 AM (view original):
My first completed iteration of the 255M team also had '01 Nap Lajoie. Then I realized that '93 Tony Phillips (Box 25) might end up getting on base just as much as Lajoie and was much "cheaper", both in salary and Box equity. Currently, Phillips is at .256/.379/.309 with 11 + plays (and only 5 errors).

The two 1901 Lajoies in my league are at .258/.289/.347 and .321/.343/.408.

Yes thanks for the reminder that I need to complain about this. . . that sh*tty Lajoie would be mine. I am clearly not as in tune with the numbers of this game as you guys, but that Lajoie should be raking in any format, any cap.

Posted by Jtpsops on 7/1/2023 10:39:00 AM (view original):
So elite BA hitters can’t hit as well vs elite pitchers but players with high walk numbers see very little impact to their OBP? Doesn’t seem to add up.

Part of the equation is due to park factors. Most owners in high caps try to pick parks that limit hits (-1B, -2B, -3B, -HR, etc), but there's nothing that hinders BB. So a .400 hitter facing a pitcher with a .200 OAV could have multiple factors against him. For BBs, it's just the batters walk rate and the pitchers BB/9 that impact it.

Posted by schwarze on 7/1/2023 8:38:00 AM (view original):
My first completed iteration of the 255M team also had '01 Nap Lajoie. Then I realized that '93 Tony Phillips (Box 25) might end up getting on base just as much as Lajoie and was much "cheaper", both in salary and Box equity. Currently, Phillips is at .256/.379/.309 with 11 + plays (and only 5 errors).

The two 1901 Lajoies in my league are at .258/.289/.347 and .321/.343/.408.

I have the .321 version so I can’t really complain about his performance, but he walks so little that he’s at odds with how I built the rest of the offense

.258 for a .400+ batter is ridiculous.

I don’t usually post my vents of frustration but, this team is driving me nuts! My $70M team should not be this bad. We are currently 17-39 with an ExpW% of .381 and our opponents are only hitting .208 against us, tied for 4^th in the league. Offensively we’re batting .229, tied for 8^th in the league but we’ve only scored 215 runs, 18^th in the league.

Turns out the problem for both my pitching and offense is walks. On offense, although our .295 OBP is 11^th in the league, slightly less than league average, we are 19^th in walks with only 170. What’s mostly troubling about this are my top OBP hitters: Rickey Henderson, RL .410, 20 BB/100#; Norm Cash, RL .382, 15 BB/100#; and Eddie Stanky, RL .363, 14 BB/100#. Henderson and Stanky set the table for Cash and Greg Vaughn and getting them on base is a big part of our scoring.

This season, Henderson is hitting well but his OBP of .371 and actual 14 BB/100 is far below where he should be in a $70M league. Norm Cash is not hitting well at .187 and is also well under his RL OBP with a paltry .295. Most of that can be attributed to his horrendous hitting, his actual 13 BB/100 is also below where he should be. Stanky is probably the biggest surprise under-performer here. He’s hitting better than RL at .251 but his .307 OBP is far under what we were expecting from him and his actual 7.5 BB/100 is nowhere near what it should be for this league. Totally unexplainable!

On the pitching side, its much worse. The starting staff had a RL BB/9 avg of 3.2. They are currently at 5.48! This is really bad as it prevents us from getting 7+ innings out of our starting staff. If we don’t get at least 7 inn/start, our bullpen will get overused. The bullpen, in my strategy, bears the weight of our pitching fatigue and we can usually balance out in 40 games or so. The extra 1.5 walks per start is keeping our starters down at 6.27 IP. That makes an extra 108 innings for my relief pitchers if we’re to make it the full 9 innings. The damage done to the bullpen is evident by the 3 saves in 16 opportunities we’re currently sporting.

The walking issue seems to be affecting 4 of my 5 SP’s: Marco Estrada (5.57 BB/9 vs 4.02 RL), Jeff Robinson (6.51 vs 3.15), Zac Gallen (4.95 vs 3.77) and Ray Robbie (7.42 vs 3.88). Only Julio Urias (2.94 vs 2.30) is performing almost near expectations. The one thing I can rule out is fatigue as they only pitch at 98 or better. But a 1.5 BB per appearance increase seems ridiculous at $70M.

It’s hard to say how badly the walking issue is affecting the bullpen since they absorb the extra pitches. We were pitching down into the 60’s far longer than anticipated and more severe as well. We’ve worked our way up to the 80’s but full recovery by season’s end may be a challenge, especially if the SP’s continue to not throw strikes.

I don’t know why my best OBP guys can’t get walked whereas my pitchers can’t hit the broad side of a barn but it really feels like BS! They should not be this much worse than RL or their normalized numbers at this salary cap. WHAT GIVES???

In my 70M league, the league average is 3.6 BB/9. The best in the league is 2.36 and the worst is 6.89.

It doesn't appear there's a strong correlation between walks allowed and wins, as 3 of the top 6 teams in fewest walks allowed have losing records. Home runs, however, are strongly correlating with success. None of the 12 teams yielding more than the league average has a winning record, and 11 of the 12 allowing fewer do have winning records.

My first “schwarze” gets me to the .500 mark overall … finally! Tied 49th. Playing .500 ball was my original goal. Anything above that in my first WISC will be gravy!

First schwarze for me...much needed, especially in the divisional games.

I have followed mine up with a trifecta of 2-4s. Back down to row with the other slaves! : (

Notes from the 60-game mark:

1) At 18 games under .500 for the entire tournament we have no chance of advancing. My unorthodox choices of Tommy LaStella and Vida Blue in the $110mm clones league and the methodology used for the *Goat's Head Soup team in the $255mm are predictably failing. But they were really fun teams to build according to the master plan.

HOWEVER

2) The one team that I built because I really thought the combo of players might do well, $100 *Me and Chipper, Chipper Jones, is all alone at the top of the standings for that theme and the only $100mm team with 40 wins (Jinx, right?)

Having fun rooting for these teams anyway and am really enjoying the themes chosen for this tourney.

Posted by redcped on 7/2/2023 9:09:00 PM (view original):
In my 70M league, the league average is 3.6 BB/9. The best in the league is 2.36 and the worst is 6.89.

It doesn't appear there's a strong correlation between walks allowed and wins, as 3 of the top 6 teams in fewest walks allowed have losing records. Home runs, however, are strongly correlating with success. None of the 12 teams yielding more than the league average has a winning record, and 11 of the 12 allowing fewer do have winning records.

I would agree that excessive walks will not affect all teams the same way and therefor would not be a driver for poor performance for everyone. However, on a team that drafted 21000 pitches, the excessive walks are like kryptonite. Adding HR's into the mix, my RP's have been shelled much more than anticipated, also due to the excessive walks driving down their fatigue levels, although due to excessive bullpen fatigue, it's difficult to pinpoint how much of an effect. Our SP in RL allowed .99 HR/9 and this season are at 1.19 HR/9. My bullpen however is RL 1.19 HR/9 and is currently at 2.77 HR/9. I'm pretty sure fatigue is playing a big factor here and that fatigue was driven by the excessive walks of our starting pitchers.

My 70 mil team just had a 10 game stretch where it allowed just 7 runs (total), including 6 shutouts.

Reverting to the mean is gonna really suck there.

My 70M team is now 8-20 (.285) at home, and 20-14 (.588) on the road. It looks like regression is finally happening, but it’s so frustrating to watch my pitchers give up more hits and bombs at -2 singles, -2 HR RFK, than on the road, but my hitters were producing a .519 OPS at RFK