What am I doing wrong????

Hi. I'm in my second season of 365. The first was 2020 imagined, in which I went 76-86, but only after a strong rally in the last 20 games. In my current season, 2017, I'm 11-16, six games out of first place out of my division.

The common thread has absolutely been this: My pitching staffs come up at least a full earned run higher overall than their cards, whereas the leader of my division hits his/her predicted ERA or comes close. That is the difference.

So how do I acquire that poopie dust? My team's defenses are adequate, neither great nor abysmal. Why should another team get what it expects from its pitching staff while I get, basically, shit?

Welcome to the game Aaron. If you post a link to your team(s) you will get better advice. The link will look like this:

https://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1656421

Aaron, there are a lot of factors for building a successful team. Depending on what you mean by "predicted ERA" you could be looking at this without an eye to the game mechanics of SOM. ERAs will fluctuate greatly with ballpark factors, defense (as you pointed out), luck, and how a card actually reads. A real life ERA happens with real life situations, and if you ran the season exactly how it played out (pitcher x faced 75% LHH and had a 2.50 ERA, versus in SOM facing 20% LHH would yield a different result).

Happy to take a look at your actual team. There are a number of good resources on these boards for new players, give a search for some accumulated insight from vets.

OK. Thanks for the thoughtful reply. Here's my current team:

https://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/real/1655946

Look, I think I get it now. It's just BS, mostly luck.

Exhibit A: In the middle innings of a tied game, my unfatigued Tom Glavine (2.47 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, home run every 17.6 innings) gives up a crucial two-out, three-run homer to Brook Fordyce (.673 OPS, home run every 52 plate appearances, does favor lefthanders 4L). It's not me. It's luck, and I have to live with it. OK, fine.

For a $.50 guy Pulsipher's 7 IP is 7 IP to many for him. Drop him for a $.50 SP who won't appear in a game since you have 4 *SP's. Or drop him for a $.50 9R RP-only to balance out your extreme LH RP's. I see you only have 50K available. Hopefully the drop penalty is still 5% so you can do one of these.

Shaw is doing great. Is he used as Setup as well as Closer? The more innings the better for him.

The main issue is your offense isn't built to hit RHP which, on average, makes up 75% of the SP's you will face.

Here is one of the resources Rant was referring to for new players:

viewtopic.php?f=17&t=631692

You are probably not doing that much wrong---If you are new to 365 (or Strat in general) ---ERAs will be up and hitting will be down, the teams in 365 have better pitching and hitting than actual teams--(you would have to play all the bad players as much as they actually did to get accurate stats)

HRs especially will be up as most guys use high HR parks and high HR players.

Looking at team stats in your league--generally you will see that all of them are up in ERA and Down in BA/OB though HRs can be up because of high HR parks and a lot of power hitters usually.

Team stats are the best way to compare your team to other teams---see where you rank in runs scored and runs allowed. Are you better or worse than league average??

Expected W/L on second standings page kind of reveal the good or bad luck a team is having.

Also, examine team Home/Road, and LH/RH stats (all those categories really) and you will start to see trends with current team that will help you when putting together future teams, or with making a drop/add that could help, even though you lose team salary. (Drop/Adds need to be done only if you see a clear advantage to it, not because a player is having bad luck)

Jeter and Clark are your only two hitters I’d even bother with, and only as a last resort (Jeter overpriced). The rest of your offense are guys I’d plug in when low on cash, not make up 7/9 of my starters.

For pitching, Ashbys been unlucky with more hitter rolls than pitcher rolls. Pulsipher shouldn’t even be on your roster, as Palmtana mentions. Lefty pitchers tend to disappoint, since their always seems to be an abundance of right handed hitters that hit lefties very well.

Of course there’s an element of luck, because it is all based on dice rolls. But it’s because of the fact it’s based on dice rolls (ie, probabilities), that you can build a better team if you read the cards better - generally hitters will face righties 2/3 of the time, so always keep that in mind, pay attention to #’s in hitters parks. (for both hitter and pitchers), pay attention to the makeup of other teams in your division, as well as their stadiums and build accordingly. And most importantly have patience before making any knee jerk reactions.

Look, I think I get it now. It's just BS, mostly luck.

Exhibit A: In the middle innings of a tied game, my unfatigued Tom Glavine (2.47 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, home run every 17.6 innings) gives up a crucial two-out, three-run homer to Brook Fordyce (.673 OPS, home run every 52 plate appearances, does favor lefthanders 4L). It's not me. It's luck, and I have to live with it. OK, fine.

it is more than luck....some managers win consistently some lose consistently....
teams have to fit their park and not be too much of any one thing.....

I am only going to add one thing to all the other smart comments people have made. I think you are putting way too much emphasis on "real life" stats. Glavine may have been an excellent pitcher in 1998, but Fordyce doesn't look like a bad hitter against lefties. The reason his 1998 season stats are so poor is that he had nearly 60% of his real life at bats against righties, and against whom he was atrocious. If you look at his 1998 splits from baseball reference, he hit .302/.371/.492 against lefties, with 2 homeruns in 70 at bats. Thats not a bad hitter. So, yes, when that bad luck of getting a hitters roll for a good hitter against lefties comes up, every lefthanded pitcher is going to look bad against him. But that is all part of learning how to read the cards and recognizing how you can get value from your players by finding hidden gems whose cards are better than you would expect based on their salary and real life stats.

Over the course of a season (or perhaps many seasons) things will even out. This game is much more about getting the odds in your favor than it is about baseball as most of us think about it, so I will reiterate the point about not making impulse moves and changing your roster when things go bad. It's really hard to improve a player when you are taking a 5, 10 or 20% hit on the salary cap.