[bdawg]

Yep the overall ratings are a joke (and frankly shouldn't be in the game if they are unusable). It's like watching Whose Line - the points don't matter. There's no math to calculate the overall from the ability ratings.

In lower leagues (Bronze and below) look for Power and Eye in your batters, and throw in a couple of players with good Avoid K and BABIP at the top of the lineup. In upper leagues (Silver and above) look for Avoid K, BABIP, and Eye, and mix in some Power with a couple of guys.

Best way to learn is to watch what players play well for other teams in your league.

The game has a formula for winning, and a lot of players on these forums will happily tell you how you should keep playing and enjoy, while they start new teams and zoom past you in the standings because they don't play for the same kind of "fun," they play to win with that formula. Nothing wrong with that, but it definitely takes some fun out of the game for a lot of us casual players (as does the fact that historically great MLB players don't usually perform as well in the game, and frankly I want to field a team with the greats that I know and love, not random guys from the 1910s Deadball era who only hit 5 HRs in a season having a power rating of 130 in the game).