stadium choice

is there any guidelines other than draft power hitters for HR parks and good pitchers hi-OBP players for pitcher's parks ?.....is there more to it than that ?

home/road:

my season is almost over and I'm 10 games over .500 at home, and like 20 games under .500 on the road.....

it's a 12 team league, so it seems unlikely my squad matches up badly with all stadiums

any input or thoughts ?

thank you

btw, apologies for team/manager name....it's not my main one, just made a new one to practice and was frustrated by recent results

I've been playing SOM online for many years: 114 teams, 49 playoff appearances, 14 championships. Various formats, but mostly 12 team keeper leagues 2007-2022.

I personally have had more success with pitcher's parks, so I can tell you a few things about them. I think most people go with homer parks for obvious reasons (they're fun!), but building a team around a pitcher's park can give you quite an advantage. First of all, you can afford to have modest-salary pitchers with good peripherals whose salaries are tanked because of their bp hr ratings. Put good homer prone pitchers in the Coliseum and they slay, because their bp homers die in the outfield. This works even better if you just have a couple of those guys, at least 6 SPs, and can sit them when they're on the road. You can also carry relievers who are the same: low WHIP but high HR guys. Save some money to spend on hitting and defense. Putting CYA guys in pitcher's parks is sort of overkill and they end up being just as good (not really better) as in any other stadium.

You have to be willing to see your great hitters have mediocre numbers...MVPs can hit 70 homers in Coors but may only get 25 for you. You still need them on your team because you play half your games on the road and they crush there, but teams roll in with a bunch of sluggers and get shut out in the low-homer parks if you have a good staff.

Another pitcher's park tweak I do is bump my aggressiveness one grade when playing in low offense stadiums. Final scores are often very low scoring, so stealing an extra bag or sending the runner on a gapper can make a winning difference.

I *will* switch to homer parks when my teams evolve that way; sometimes I end up with a bunch of sluggers and it just makes more sense.

wow, so cool, thank you so much padrenugle

"that's GOLD Jerry, GOLD !"

wow, so cool, thank you so much padrenugle

"that's GOLD Jerry, GOLD !"

Constanza's epic Jay Buhner rant...

There is a definite home field advantage in online play--Strat claims it is about 1% chance for an altered result, (similar to pitchers fatigue but much more unlikely occurance) but in my opinion I feel it is more than that. I would like to know my home and road totals for the 200 or so teams I have played.

Even when there are several parks that are the same as mine--I generally do much better at home than on the road in the same park.

My general goal each team is the play .500 on the road and .600 at home--as my win % is .520 over the years I don't get there that often--but it is a reachable goal as a few managers are at least near a .550 win percentage. (20xx for me mostly)

I agree that a pitching park does give advantages--but probably more so in a keepers league when sluggers and players in general vary more season to season--In general draft leagues I tend to go for LH or RH parks and hope I get most of my draft picks as Hal just about always saddles you with the wrong type player for your park if you miss.

The real key to winning online consistently to me is the waiver period--can you cover the holes from your missed draft picks and also adjusting to the park distribution of the league generally.

My advice to a new player would be to try a few different styles of team. You will gravitate towards the type of team you are best at--it has been a bit more difficult to go with pitching teams the last few seasons as MLB is HR driven right now--but High OB, low gb-a (fewer DP hit into) is always a plus--especially in front of that HR or Doubles guy.

thanks everyone,

milleram great stuff, I appreciate the stadium knowledge and tips very much