Hi Ben
I'm a fellow Brit (or have I misunderstood your profile name !!) who has been playing the game for 3 years now.
Are you a Blade
There are a few podcasts that are quite good for baseball to help submerge yourself .... I listen to "Baseball Tonight" & "Behind the dish" - both very informative and also funny at times. If you're lucky enough to have ESPN America the just watching a few games is a great way to learn too.
This game is as good as it gets and I play it as much if not more than Football Manager Handheld, and also more than International Cricket Captain.
The ratings etc are not too complex and as you have already found the guys in the forum are amazingly helpful.
Thanks to their help I think I am 10 times the player I was back in 2011 when the iPhone version first came out.
All the best ...