Question

Top prospect with great pitching numbers over the top starter but his projected Durability is 14...huge red flag?

Kinda. Is your scouting 20 million? If it's lower than that, the Durability might be exaggeratedly low. Still probably won't top off more than 20. If your scouting is 20 million and his Durability is 14 then yes, red flag.
My rule of thumb is kind of, if Durability is 20 or lower you have to set his max pitch count around whatever his Stamina is. Bottom line is he might not be able to take a regular turn in a five day rotation, so you might have to find a different role for him. You call him an over the top starter but he might not be able to fill those innings.

Awesome information for a newbie

greatly appreciate the help!

Agree with damag on budgets. I don't trust anything lower than $20M

But if you have $20M and his ratings are elite I'd still take him absent a better option. Too many owners discount players with oddball ratings but come playoff time, elite ratings in the skills that matter make all the difference in the world. Even if he only gets you one, mayyybe two starts in a 7 game playoff series.

I always point to Hector as an example. His ratings are starting to dip now because he's on the tail end of his career but the guy is/was a beast. But this guy went 31st in the draft when he should have been a top 3 pick. All because he has a 0 vsLHP. The guy holds the league record for OBP by a wide margin. And he FEASTS on righties in the playoffs.

Yeah, that SP might not get a lot of IP, especially in the regular season, but if his ratings are amazing then take what you can get, cause he'll be better than a middle of the rotation guy with 25/80 DUR/STA

I do agree with that take. I like to remind myself that your first round pick's job will always be to be one of 25 on the ML roster. I've drafted a backup C in the first round for exactly the reasoning brianplath uses.

Posted by brianplath on 3/21/2025 12:07:00 PM (view original):
Agree with damag on budgets. I don't trust anything lower than $20M

But if you have $20M and his ratings are elite I'd still take him absent a better option. Too many owners discount players with oddball ratings but come playoff time, elite ratings in the skills that matter make all the difference in the world. Even if he only gets you one, mayyybe two starts in a 7 game playoff series.

I always point to Hector as an example. His ratings are starting to dip now because he's on the tail end of his career but the guy is/was a beast. But this guy went 31st in the draft when he should have been a top 3 pick. All because he has a 0 vsLHP. The guy holds the league record for OBP by a wide margin. And he FEASTS on righties in the playoffs.

Yeah, that SP might not get a lot of IP, especially in the regular season, but if his ratings are amazing then take what you can get, cause he'll be better than a middle of the rotation guy with 25/80 DUR/STA

Wow hector is a really interesting player. that .515 OBP in season 60 is a Barry Bonds level number!


Is it just me or have oddball ratings combos increased a lot in recent years? I played for a decade, quit for a few years, then came back last year. The way I remembered it, it was pretty unusual to have a difference of more than 40 between a guy’s L and R ratings. Or if he had contact and eye of 80-90, the odds were his L and R would be at least 40-50. Now it seems I see a lot more wide splits.

Another question: how does Hector hit against lefties? Have you ever looked at the splits in your batting lineup stats? I’m guessing that with his high contact he’s not totally helpless against lefties, right?

Yeah, he was still hitting something like .350 OBP .750 OPS vs lefties. But that's a small sample size (500 AB's maybe) since he's platooned against R's the vast majority of the time.

I actually don't notice too many of these types of guys in my leagues. I keep a lookout for them specifically since so many people seem to undervalue them. It Yeico is the closest I've come by lately. A catcher with 0 power but gets on base like a mofo and has respectable fielding ratings. I'll take 700 OPS at C if it means he's on base 2/5 of the time.

Yeico Pena is a very Moneyball player, huge OBP, above-average arm, nothing else. My initial reaction was that I wouldn't play him against RHP. My logic would have been that he's slow and powerless with low PC, so I would need him to have an insane OBP to play him. He probably has that insane OBP against LHP, .420 or so, but closer to .380 against RHP if I was guessing.

In any case, I'm reconsidering my position based on the success you've had with him.

Depends on the other players you could draft. I'll take elite SP that only give's me 160 innings over a worse pitcher at 200 innings. Depending on how much worse. Only you can decide that.