Why am I losing?

[TuckerDuckson]

So, in my modern league I am having trouble, my players cant pitch, bat or even do anything. For example my scout says Ronny Rafael is 48C/78GP/74HR/46ED/29AK hes batting .201 with zero homers.

Another example is Hunter Parsons 4* 4.5P*
95S/50M/66C
Pitches:
92FB
79CB
95CH

currently is 1-4 with a 4 something ERA, its not a lack of pitching problems and my pitching coach is outstanding rating, what is going on? So far i'm on a 10 game losing streak.
Thing is though, this happens EVERY season, I start out 20-5 Then by AS break im 10 under .500, then im out of the play offs. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[TuckerDuckson]

Also another funny tid bit, Any players I trade away suddenly become All stars and constant POM and POTW mentions.

[actionjackson]

Small. Sample. Size.

[tysnkole6]

It could be your coaches. They could have low ratings at handling players, as well as the strategy you use for your team.

[TuckerDuckson]

Originally Posted by tysnkole6

It could be your coaches. They could have low ratings at handling players, as well as the strategy you use for your team.

Could you give me a decent strat set up? or should i just listen to my bench coach or something?

[Hammercraft]

Coaches matter, a good coach who uses players' strengths is good, and check to make sure you don't have a clubhouse cancer guy

[baseballonly]

Originally Posted by TuckerDuckson

Could you give me a decent strat set up? or should i just listen to my bench coach or something?

Set player-by-player strategies:
1. For anyone who doesn't have extremely good running ratings, slide stealing all the way down to "never" and baserunning to 1 or 2 spots away from conservative.
2. Make Hit in run high for guys with high avoid K and bad contact/power. Otherwise, make it really low.
3. If someone is fast and has a good bunt for hit rating, turn bunt for hit up really high. Otherwise, set it to never.
On the overall strategy screen:
1. Turn infield shifts all the way up.
2. Everything else, use your own opinion.

[baseballonly]

Oh I forgot to mention, check "override team strategy settings" on all of the individual player strategy screens.

[Honorable_Pawn]

Make sure you have excellent defense up the middle (SS 2B CF C)


Or try great infield defense with ground ball pitchers in a pitcher friendly park.

[tysnkole6]

^ what he said for strategy...set your slow guys to never run, fast guys to run, etc...when building my teams, I always focus on defense and a solid bullpen, in case there's a lack of hitting.

[Westheim]

"Why am I losing?"

Easy. The game hates your guts. But relax. It hates everybody's guts.

[The Game]

Post some screenshots of your team. Stats and also ratings from the Team Home Page - Player's List.
I tend to suck early on then take off by Mid- May.

[bbmichael]

Yeah the sample size is small. It takes time to see if you're really bad or not. Could just be a bad run.

[TuckerDuckson]

More updates, I got fired, again for failing so hard so I took up the royals, and traded for Hunter Parsons, the game strategy think has really helped as my slow 40 year old 1B man isn't running into outs on hit and runs.

[tysnkole6]

It's all about the strategy. If your team is slow, play small ball without the base running. It usually works for me. My teams usually take a few years to build, and then they're dominant...I don't mind taking my lumps at the beginning

[ttaka808]

Team chemistry is the key to success.

[NoOne]

well-rated players = success more than anything listed

then, probably making sure strategy isn't awkward- coach and per player.

the rest is likely ~.1-2% of the pie.

i made a coaching staff of "0" rattings across the board. the team still played well with my team strats/player strats.

i'm on board with all that was said about strategy excect turning things all the way up. i wouldn't bump SB attempts more than 2 ticks above even to start out. if their SB ratting is below 70-80/100 (easy to convert to your scale) i don't run them much. they may be anywhere from 0-3ticks. i do take speed into consideration. try to maintain 75% success rate. go ahead and increase if still maintaining a high %. if a player with similar ratings comes along in future, you will know exactly the tailored settings for him.

same with baserunning aggressiveness. if they are fast and good baserunner i will go 2 ticks above the middle. if one of the two is average, then 1 tick up... then down from there. in an extreme case 80/80 or higher i might got another tick.

hit and run is high risk, high reward. you are gambling when you do it. i usually have this setting pretty low. run and hit is even riskier. if you you want to use either of these strategies more, i'd suggest when you are down by 3-4 or more type situations... where it will take many runs to come back and % of success is already very low.

i don't like bunt for hit - its low % with a good player compared to my typical regular's batting ability. if it is a bench player i will set it to middle or not more than a tick or two above. the worse the player, the more i'd use it - with good ratings for bunt for hit, of course. even the really good hitters with the ability to do it i keep at at '1' tick, excluding power hitters. maybe it affects defenses, maybe it doesn't.

i've never fooled around with extreme settings for shifts. i usually do middle or 1-2ticks above. with good fielding teams i can get .720+ fielding effeciency and regularly lead the league- as much as that can tell you.

keep the high risk / high reward stuff to appropriate situations. don't be too aggressive on the basepaths. the only way to test this stuff is by locking all other factors and only changing 1 strat at a time and reviewing results. with a large sample for each test, you can compare average runs and be confident about resutls.

[RchW]

Think of the character enhancement you're getting from this short term pain.

If it is short term.

[monkeystyxx]

Originally Posted by baseballonly

2. Make Hit in run high for guys with high avoid K and bad contact/power. Otherwise, make it really low.

Wait, what? It's the opposite, surely?

In a hit and run play you're telling the batter to swing no matter what, trying to make contact and using the runner to pull infielders out of position so that virtually any contact is able to find a gap.

Surely for that you'd want the guy with the best contact hitting possible, but weak in Avoid Ks (because foul balls actively hurt the play). Avoid Ks should be irrelevant. You're literally telling him to ignore that stat, so if he's good at it, you're robbing him of one of his strengths. There's no point him fouling a ball off, because then the runner has to come back, so the play fails anyway.

Have I massively misunderstood something here, or was this a typo?

I always thought the Hit & Run strategy was suited to players with decent contact who suck at everything else, especially guys with no discipline/eye.