Need Advice

[Warfsu]

So I’m currently in the Bronze Level and have completely dominated each level (including my current one) to date. I’m trying to improve my team in a way that it will be successful in Diamond/Perfect, and could use advice on the best place to upgrade. Currently my roster is:

C - Campanella/Montero
1B - Bagwell/McCovey
2B - Sandberg/Baerga
SS - Nomar/Rollins
3B - Caminiti
LF - Foster
CF- Trout/McCutchen
RF - Slaughter
DH - Wilson
SP - Young/Peavy/Wood/Hudson/Verlander
RP - Eck/Foulke/Sutton/Nagy/Langston/Josiah Gray

Currently, catcher and LF are my weak spots statistically. I have about 100k PP currently. Piazza is a little pricey. Gibson isn’t likely based on current Negro League cards I have. I could spend all my PP on Wainwright to get Brock or spend it all to get Charleston. Charleston is the better LF, but I miss on the packs.

Thoughts?

[Ty Cobb]

Hack Wilson deteriorates at higher levels, unless you enjoy a .230 hitter with power who can't play good D. Look for a Goose, too. Can't hurt. My experience with Foulke has been unpleasant. That could just be me though.

[Warfsu]

Yeah. On one of my other teams Wilson is dead weight at Gold. I do have Goldschmidt, McRae, and Salmon on reserves, but I’m not sure any of them are much different going forward. I’ve been keeping Wilson in the lineup while he produces. Baines/Frank Thomas could be options.

[chazzycat]

Just as a heads up, since you mentioned diamond/perfect as a goal...there is a massive, massive difference between bronze and those levels. Probably just a handful of those players are going to play well up there (Cy, Wood, Hudson are solid, Enos is ok). Honestly just to level-set, you're probably hundreds of thousands of PP away from a team that could conceivably make perfect.

Main problem is too many power hitters. Power is a rating that is great in lower levels, but essentially gets worse & worse as you rise through the ranks. Contact and avoidK become much more valuable up there, the power hitters just strike out too much.

If you've been progressing through the missions, there are some better contact-oriented cards that could play well. Guys like Mattingly, Paul Molitor, Wander Franco are good. And of course several of the 100 BALs like Fernandez, Raines and Pete Rose fit the bill if you've got those.

For pitching you're a little better off, but still guys like Verlander and Langston are definitely not going to cut it up in the higher levels. You really want 80+ movement and 90+ control, or thereabouts.

Of the guys you mentioned, Charleston is certainly very good and plays all the way up through the ladder. I would prefer to play him in CF with all that defense, rather than a corner spot. I like Piazza over Gibson, but he's still not exactly meta for the highest levels (catcher ability is valued extremely highly, teams that win diamond tend to have like a McCarver/Dickey platoon or close to it).

It also is worth mentioning that a big mission drop is coming tonight. It's entirely possible that some great new cards will come out tonight, in which case previously-meta cards value could plummet. It may not be a good time to be splurging on high end cards due to that.

[bailey]

Originally Posted by Warfsu

Yeah. On one of my other teams Wilson is dead weight at Gold. I do have Goldschmidt, McRae, and Salmon on reserves, but I’m not sure any of them are much different going forward. I’ve been keeping Wilson in the lineup while he produces. Baines/Frank Thomas could be options.

How many packs are you earning per week? Are you watching the streams for about 30 each week? Are you spamming iron or bronze tournaments for 50-100 more? That is the only way forward.

[Warfsu]

Originally Posted by bailey

How many packs are you earning per week? Are you watching the streams for about 30 each week? Are you spamming iron or bronze tournaments for 50-100 more? That is the only way forward.

One of the biggest adjustments I made from team 2 & 3 is pack purchasing. This is year 4 for me on team 3, and I’ve yet to purchase a pack. I spam bronze and iron tournaments daily, generally getting 10-20 packs a day, sometimes more.

[professor ape]

The comments are all solid so far. Having players who can get on base is critical. High ratings for Contact, Eye, and AvoidK are are all necessary, especially AvoidK as the top pitchers will eat you up with Ks. Defense is very important at the higher levels. Opposing players will be putting balls in play a lot and you cannot waste opportunities to get outs. As example; none of my starters are below a 90 at their position, up the middle my 2B, SS, and CF are all over 100 and my D is just above average at the Diamond level. As mentioned earlier, Catcher Ability is important as are the guidelines provided about Movement and Control for pitchers.

[bailey]

Originally Posted by Warfsu

One of the biggest adjustments I made from team 2 & 3 is pack purchasing. This is year 4 for me on team 3, and I’ve yet to purchase a pack. I spam bronze and iron tournaments daily, generally getting 10-20 packs a day, sometimes more.

Great! Then you are well on your way to diamond. I think the NL missions is still +EV so I would work on that. Try to get Pop Lloyd, also.

[daves]

Originally Posted by Warfsu

So I’m currently in the Bronze Level and have completely dominated each level (including my current one) to date. I’m trying to improve my team in a way that it will be successful in Diamond/Perfect, and could use advice on the best place to upgrade. Currently my roster is:

C - Campanella/Montero
1B - Bagwell/McCovey
2B - Sandberg/Baerga
SS - Nomar/Rollins
3B - Caminiti
LF - Foster
CF- Trout/McCutchen
RF - Slaughter
DH - Wilson
SP - Young/Peavy/Wood/Hudson/Verlander
RP - Eck/Foulke/Sutton/Nagy/Langston/Josiah Gray

Currently, catcher and LF are my weak spots statistically. I have about 100k PP currently. Piazza is a little pricey. Gibson isn’t likely based on current Negro League cards I have. I could spend all my PP on Wainwright to get Brock or spend it all to get Charleston. Charleston is the better LF, but I miss on the packs.

Thoughts?

Where did Tramell go for SS? What value is your Sanberg? How are you doing on BAL collections? This version seems to be more about the missions, but it looks like you finished the live mission and went to the auction house for the rest of your team? If you can finish the Charleston Negro league collection with the 100K PP you should do it. Great defense in CF with a bat.

Your defense in Centerfield, Catcher (Unless that is Perfect Campy) and maybe 2b seem to need upgrades.

[Warfsu]

Originally Posted by daves

Where did Tramell go for SS? What value is your Sanberg? How are you doing on BAL collections? This version seems to be more about the missions, but it looks like you finished the live mission and went to the auction house for the rest of your team? If you can finish the Charleston Negro league collection with the 100K PP you should do it. Great defense in CF with a bat.

Your defense in Centerfield, Catcher (Unless that is Perfect Campy) and maybe 2b seem to need upgrades.

I sold Trammell, since Nomar and/Rollins are no different. Actually, none of my roster was bought via the auction house, either missions or packs. The Sandberg is the perfect one, along with any other BAL I have on my roster. Currently I have completed the BAL for: Guidry, Nagy, McRae, Hudson, Salmon, Rollins, McCutchen, Sandberg, Peavy, Goldy, and Marichal.

To add to the story, I decided to purchase Charleston.

[daves]

Originally Posted by Warfsu

To add to the story, I decided to purchase Charleston.

Good move!

[Hertston]

Originally Posted by Warfsu

Thoughts?

As has been said, the difference between Diamond (let alone Perfect) and anything below it is vast. TBH, I wouldn't even worry about it until you get to Gold and can do well there.

For what it's worth, try and balance remedy of obvious weaknesses with what the market throws up. 'Bargains' are rare, but they can happen, especially when someone is trying to offload quickly to take advantage of an opportunity they have identified. Take full account of collection mission paths, particularly when reward cards are needed for subsequent missions, and be prepared to adapt depending on what might drop.

Mostly, though, DON'T USE PP TO BUY PACKS, I can't stress that enough. The cost to reward ratio is absolutely terrible, and designed to be so. Packs are your lifeblood, but get them through tourneys and develop competitive tourney teams at every level up to gold as soon as you can. Take advantage of capped tourneys to make use of good, lower level (and cheaper), cards.

P.S. Perfect really is 'whale' country unless you have lottery winner luck or truly elite skill. Or probably both. In their absence (?), I really would advise not to worry about reaching it, let alone being 'successful' in it.

[ncap99]

Originally Posted by chazzycat

It also is worth mentioning that a big mission drop is coming tonight. It's entirely possible that some great new cards will come out tonight, in which case previously-meta cards value could plummet. It may not be a good time to be splurging on high end cards due to that.

This comment did not age well, sorry chazzy.

At least we got Pedro...

But wow was that a disappointing drop.

[professor ape]

Originally Posted by ncap99

This comment did not age well, sorry chazzy.

At least we got Pedro...

But wow was that a disappointing drop.

The big test will be the FH2 drop. With the amount of work and PPs involved in getting the four needed components, there should be a number of very strong cards in the mix. I’m talking pitchers with 85+ on both MOV and CON and hitters with real power, AvK of 90+, and solid defense.

[chazzycat]

Originally Posted by ncap99

This comment did not age well, sorry chazzy.

At least we got Pedro...

But wow was that a disappointing drop.

Hahah...you're not kidding, we really didn't get much...especially in terms of position players. I think the pitching scene was shaken up a bit with Pedro (of course) but also Lowe & Plank seem like pretty solid options. I guess we wait for FH2 for some position players.

[ncap99]

Originally Posted by chazzycat

Hahah...you're not kidding, we really didn't get much...especially in terms of position players. I think the pitching scene was shaken up a bit with Pedro (of course) but also Lowe & Plank seem like pretty solid options. I guess we wait for FH2 for some position players.

I hope so. I think outwardly the mission rewards would have been just ok if it weren't for the massive amount of investment that went into building to them. To get just a single meta card and 2 others that may prove useful (I'm using Lowe in the 'pen in diamond and he is rocking it, but got shelled last season) after working on several missions including the whole BAL process just was a huge let down. The BALs at are just a part of it and gave us far more useful options like Heilman, Rose, Raines, Hudson, Wainwright, Fernandez, etc. You could even argue the future faces release was overall better with Franco and Rowe. Kinda silly that an incremental step gives far better rewards. Heck even the all star sets gave us Kershaw, Vaughn and Key and that was a much smaller thing.

If FH1 was any indication it isn't going to rock the boat too hard. Cueto, Mattingly and Camaniti have their uses don't get me wrong but it wasn't some meta shattering content release. TM1 was really weak in retrospect, Wood is the only card I'm using from that set these days.