Broken Bat - Help: High ERAs

Forum >> Help >> High ERAs

Post ID	Date & Time	Game Date	Function

#8390	06/21/2014 9:53:36 am
Jalapeno5 Joined: 06/01/2014 Posts: 226 Inactive	Hi all, Just hoping someone might be able to help me out with some advice please. I've only been playing this game for 20 days, but the ERAs of my pitchers (particularly starters) are woeful. They're generally getting good run support, and I know my stadium is a hitters park, but even guys like Amaya and Madrigal (who are probably the best I have on paper) are giving up far too many runs both at home and away. I cut the dinosaurs I inherited when I started, and I know long term I need to start developing players properly through the minors; but in the meantime is there anything I can do to improve things? I've got a bit of a carousel going at the moment, just hiring and firing free-agents and waivers trying to find anyone that can keep it in the park, but everyone I try-out seems too old and expensive with no longevity; or too young and inexperienced as these are understandably the only players other teams are shedding. I've set the focus of my training to 'Control' and signed up a few more expensive older players as a short-term solution, but these guys don't seem worth their price-tags given their ERAs have quickly exceeded 4. Any tips on developing/cutting my existing roster or leads on players or the types of pitchers I should be looking out for would be gratefully received. Many thanks!

#8391	06/21/2014 1:19:27 pm
Seca Joined: 05/05/2014 Posts: 5201 Waterloo Dinosaurs Legends	Control: ability to throw strikes rather than balls and to "paint the corners of the plate". Good control prevents walking and hitting batters. Both those guys have kind of low control. According to above, that doesn't just mean walks, but also means balls left over the middle of the plate. So they are a little more prone to homeruns. That said, Madrigal has only conceded 3 HRs in over 60 innings. Would be nice if his ERA was lower, but I think he's got a decent make-up. Amaya on the other hand scares me. Guys with a strong fastball but mediocre control and breaking ball seem to get shelled. Check out Kevin Lowe on my roster (17 HRs conceded in 70+ innings). PS - I've been viewing control as a double edged sword. If your opponents are free swingers with low BC and PD, low control could actually work to your benefit. Not sure about this tho.

#8392	06/21/2014 1:40:57 pm
Seca Joined: 05/05/2014 Posts: 5201 Waterloo Dinosaurs Legends	One other thought. I've been pretty impressed with how the pitching works in Brokenbat. Seems realistic to me. There are starts where your guy clearly doesn't have it, and is in trouble inning after inning. In good starts, most innings will be smooth sailing but there are still usually 1 or 2 rough ones where the pitcher gets in trouble. He can either pitch his way out of trouble (Ks, infield pop ups) or can get a stellar defensive play behind him (double play, outfield assist, etc.). I looked at your middle infielders. Neither are all that strong defensively. Kind of counter intuitive, but one way to improve your pitching is to look at upgrading your team defense (particularly middle infield).

#8394	06/21/2014 2:23:33 pm
ReekyLeek Joined: 11/19/2013 Posts: 115 Inactive	I took a look at your defence and I'm sorry to say this but their skills are simply awful. You want range everywhere you can and at least decent fielding. It took me 3 seasons to develop and find free agents with good defensive skills but it's finally paying off. I have very good but not great pitchers on my team but I believe it helps immensely. Take a look in the help section for and the newbie list and checklist. It will help you map out your defence.

#8396	06/21/2014 2:57:36 pm
nobodyjones Joined: 12/28/2011 Posts: 170 Seattle Rickey IV.1	There are many ways you can proceed due to your team's skill and level. Sign goood to very good potential college players every week and promote them to your big league team if they have AA talent. Sign 33-34 year old players with the most skills. Scout for potential in free agency to build around your best prospects.

#8400	06/21/2014 5:25:45 pm
Jalapeno5 Joined: 06/01/2014 Posts: 226 Inactive	Hi everyone, Thanks for the constructive and non-patronising responses on this. As a Brit who loves baseball but unfortunately hasn't had the chance to play the sport from a young age, I think it's a bit too easy to get beguiled by the hitting and pitching elements of the game, and overlook the importance of the core skills of throwing and fielding. Good to see Broken Bat recognises the variance between players in these regards - to me errors in MLB are relatively rare and may cost a team a run or two in a game, but it's easy to disregard an individual's overall propensity to surrender extra bases without being charged with an error. I suppose the ability to quickly and accurately return the ball to the optimum base isn't inherent within all players, and this is what's reflected in the fielding stats. I have read the manual thoroughly and aligned my team to batting and fielding recommendations, but I've not sought out players with proficiency in these stats to the detriment of hitting; perhaps that's something to look into. Thanks again for taking the time to help me out with this!

#8401	06/21/2014 6:08:30 pm
ReekyLeek Joined: 11/19/2013 Posts: 115 Inactive	I took the route of pitching and defence over offence and it has worked magically for me. Took a few seasons but I'm currently 51-18 on a 12 game winning streak and had success in the cup also. You have to be patient if you're rebuilding, you won't have success overnight. But once you start winning it makes it that much more satisfying. Until then what I suggest is to scout and find players with high potential for your minor league teams (13-14 bars of potential). The only skills that stay more or less the same is speed, range and arm until they decline with age. That being said stock up your team with great defenders with high potential. Make sure you do your draft every week also. Attempt to change your players positions while they are in the minors. It'll make your players more versatile when their ready to play in the majors. Until these players are ready find some cheap talent in the free agency to fill the holes in your team.

#8409	06/22/2014 6:51:37 am
Jalapeno5 Joined: 06/01/2014 Posts: 226 Inactive	Cheers all - I'll give that a go; start by rebuilding the infield with a renewed focus on fielding and go from there. Thanks again!

#8862	07/18/2014 4:48:16 pm
Pig_Cola Joined: 09/15/2013 Posts: 1445 Glendale Marshals III.2	Why do pitchers with high control have high ERA's?

#8865	07/18/2014 5:05:05 pm
admin Joined: 01/27/2010 Posts: 4985 Administrator	In general they shouldn't. In fact, if you throw a low control pitcher out there, he'll probably get killed (especially with the additional walks). Do you have specific examples? A pitcher will need more than just control to get players out though. He needs control to hit the strike zone, but he needs some combination of velocity, movement and change of speeds so that hitters don't just smack his fat pitches coming over the plate. Steve

#8870	07/18/2014 5:56:44 pm
Pig_Cola Joined: 09/15/2013 Posts: 1445 Glendale Marshals III.2	Here's an example of a pitcher with 16 control. Here he is: http://brokenbat.org/player/45561

#8872	07/18/2014 6:38:08 pm
Seca Joined: 05/05/2014 Posts: 5201 Waterloo Dinosaurs Legends	All he has is control. Every other pitching ability is at or below average. He knows where the zone is. But none of his pitches are good enough to consistently get batters out.

#8888	07/19/2014 6:34:16 pm
admin Joined: 01/27/2010 Posts: 4985 Administrator	Yeah...plus he's a left hander pitching to a lot of right handed batters. Steve

#8920	07/20/2014 9:05:17 pm
ReekyLeek Joined: 11/19/2013 Posts: 115 Inactive	When choosing starting pitchers the 4 essential skills are the first four, velocity/change of speed/movement/control. As for stamina you have control over the pitch count in management so as long as you don't overdue the pitch count any stamina above 10 should give you between 80-90 pitches. While in a perfect situation these 4 skills are balanced, it is not always possible. It is possible to have success with low control pitchers, but they do have inconsistencies, that being said try not to exceed 2 starters with control below 10 as it could be taxing on the bullpen if they aren't going far into games. You want to avoid a reliever having to throw 100+ pitches and getting injured, which I found the hard way last season. The best way to gauge in the end is by adding up the four primary pitching skills. I like my starters to have 50+ Skill points in these areas. The highest on top of my rotation and the lowest to the bottom. Total skill points include stamina and defence. While defence is not a must for a pitcher it does help, but when trying to fin starting pitchers remember that these skills are added to the skill index an not be biased by total skills but by the pitching skills. This has helped me put a pretty good starting 4 with a decent number 5 when one is needed.