From the most cavernous stadium to the coziest bandbox, no position can make or break a championship contender like the starting rotation.
Taking a look solely at the current value of starter prospects brought in over the last 3 seasons, I've dug up 26 guys who might make a serious impact for some contender in the near future.
1) Lee Tillman (Salt Lake City) dominated minor league hitters, and at 23, the #1 pick in the S22 draft will get his first full season of major league experience. Tillman's combination of control, finesse, and velocity held opponents to a .592 OPS in 71 starts in the minors, and makes him a strong contender for NL Rookie of the Year.
2) O.T. Martin (Honolulu) has already made an impact on the big league stage. Last year's AL Rookie of the Year was a critical ingredient in Honolulu's success. The Wyoming native was 13-9 with a 3.11 ERA and 1.20 WHIP for the Oahuans, using his change up and sinker to great effect.
3) Rico Toca (Norfolk) is the best representative of what's really been a lackluster 3 years for international starting pitching. Year after year, teams slash payroll to arm themselves for the dogfights of the foreign signee market, and they've gone home largely disappointed of late. This 21 year old Venezuelan lefty is a notable exception--he's a legitimate 4-pitch pitcher who's averaged better than a strikeout an inning and held opponents to a .284 OBP. He may surrender some longballs when faced with ML hitters, but he still looks well-equipped for success in the show.
4) Magglio Nunez (Chicago) isn't a sure thing to work out as a starting pitcher--he doesn't have the greatest stamina, his ability to stay healthy isn't a sure thing, and he'll need to get better at getting lefties out. Still, he keeps the ball over the plate and down in the zone. His ratings look pretty good in most areas, but I'm just not convinced he's got the finesse to avoid getting hit hard, no matter how good his control and velocity are.
5) Alex Gallardo (Charlotte) might be in the mold of a Jermaine Knepper. Throws hard, keeps it down, works the corners--the only concern is that his stuff ranges from ordinary to useless. Quit throwing that cutter!
6) Jesus Gabriel (Honolulu) got knocked around pretty good in his rookie season, but the Dominican and his mustache are still young (he was just 20 last year!) and could become a serious workhorse for the HHHs.
7) Ed Winchester (Indianapolis) handled Hi-A easily as a 19 year old, going 8-3 with a 1.35 ERA in 30 starts. Winchester relies on an impressive screwball to get hitters out, and has posted strong strikeout numbers so far.
8) William Dimaggio (Toronto) might not have the stamina to be a big league starter, but any team in the league would be eager to find a role for this guy on their staff. The 6'6" lefty has dominated the low minors with a 1.59 ERA, 0.96 WHIP, and a K/BB ratio over 4:1.
Very honorable, if not deserving of lengthy mention:
9) Francisco Matos (Philadelphia)
10)
Terry Ferrell (Trenton)
11)
Alan Carey (Pawtucket)
12) Peter French (Philadelphia)
13) Rudy Carey (San Francisco)
14) Thomas Stroud (Jackson)
15) Elrod Darr (Little Rock)
16) Mark Bravo (Monterrey)
17) Hong-Chih Matsumoto (Salt Lake City)
18) Frank Robinson (Chicago)
19) Wilfredo Pinzon (Dover)
20) Buddy Powell (Philadelphia)
21) Mark Post (Burlington)
22) Patrick Bonham (Kansas City)
23) Theodore Fox (Jackson)
24) Chuck Bryant (Hartford)
25) Vince Thomas (Columbus)
26) Santiago James (Texas)
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Monday, September 3, 2012
Top 10 Suggestions For New Owners
1. Get a mentor (or several) outside this world to ask questions to. Forums >> scroll to Hardball Dynasty section >> click Hardball Dynasty forum >> mentors list is the 3rd post down.
2. Ask questions in the World Chat here...you'll tend to get several opinions plus some of the logic behind what people are advising.
3. A good way to get some sense of what the ratings "mean" (in addition to seeing what stats a player has produced) is to see what players with comparable ratings have done. World Office >> Reports >> Player Search >> set Franchise to "All Franchises", level to ML, View to Current Ratings and Position to whatever position the player you're looking at plays. That gives you a list of all the players on ML rosters at that position...convenient way to compare ratings and stats of players (note that ballparks can have a pretty severe effect on what stats players produce).
4. Please be cautious about trading until you've played at least a couple of seasons. There's no faster way to wreck a franchise (well, maybe you can do it as fast in free agency) than to fire off several trades before you really know what the ratings mean.
5. Pre-season (the period from the start of the season to Spring Training) moves pretty fast and can be overwhelming. If you're not sure what things you need to do on each of these days, ask questions.
6. Of the documentation HBD offers, I find the most helpful item to be the Help FAQ. Admin Office >> Help >>F.A.Q.
7. When I got started, one of the hardest things for me to figure out was what to offer free agents and how to "read" the free agent market. Ask off-world mentors about this one...I'll plan to do a complete post or page on this topic as well.
8. As much as you possibly can, try to ignore the OVR rating. Here's the distinction you need to understand: OVR is a composite of a bunch of the other ratings but it does absolutely nothing to determine performance of any kind. A hitter's power rating, for example, is a big factor in home run production. A pitcher's control rating goes a long way to determining how many walks he issues. OVR isn't like that...it takes a bunch of ratings (including things like stamina, durability and health) and combines them into one rating that's an overgeneralized guide to a player's overall "value". Trust me on this one, when veteran HBD owners are looking for a reliever who can give them 120+ innings and be a reliable, around 3.00 ERA guy, they're not paying any attention to OVR.
9. What ratings are important and which ones aren't? You'll get a lot of opinions on that one. All the ratings have meaning...they all interact to produce AB-by-AB results and an overall stat profile. Don't get locked in on one rating in your evaluation. For a long time I was over-focused on pitchers' vR. I figured it was more important than the vL and I couldn't understand what the pitch ratings meant. So I ended up with a bunch of P's with vR's in the 80's (very good) but vL's and pitches in the 50's (not very good)...with lousy results.
10. Above all, have fun. Ignore all the above if they don't fit your idea of fun. If you can't do HDB your way, what's the point?
2. Ask questions in the World Chat here...you'll tend to get several opinions plus some of the logic behind what people are advising.
3. A good way to get some sense of what the ratings "mean" (in addition to seeing what stats a player has produced) is to see what players with comparable ratings have done. World Office >> Reports >> Player Search >> set Franchise to "All Franchises", level to ML, View to Current Ratings and Position to whatever position the player you're looking at plays. That gives you a list of all the players on ML rosters at that position...convenient way to compare ratings and stats of players (note that ballparks can have a pretty severe effect on what stats players produce).
4. Please be cautious about trading until you've played at least a couple of seasons. There's no faster way to wreck a franchise (well, maybe you can do it as fast in free agency) than to fire off several trades before you really know what the ratings mean.
5. Pre-season (the period from the start of the season to Spring Training) moves pretty fast and can be overwhelming. If you're not sure what things you need to do on each of these days, ask questions.
6. Of the documentation HBD offers, I find the most helpful item to be the Help FAQ. Admin Office >> Help >>F.A.Q.
7. When I got started, one of the hardest things for me to figure out was what to offer free agents and how to "read" the free agent market. Ask off-world mentors about this one...I'll plan to do a complete post or page on this topic as well.
8. As much as you possibly can, try to ignore the OVR rating. Here's the distinction you need to understand: OVR is a composite of a bunch of the other ratings but it does absolutely nothing to determine performance of any kind. A hitter's power rating, for example, is a big factor in home run production. A pitcher's control rating goes a long way to determining how many walks he issues. OVR isn't like that...it takes a bunch of ratings (including things like stamina, durability and health) and combines them into one rating that's an overgeneralized guide to a player's overall "value". Trust me on this one, when veteran HBD owners are looking for a reliever who can give them 120+ innings and be a reliable, around 3.00 ERA guy, they're not paying any attention to OVR.
9. What ratings are important and which ones aren't? You'll get a lot of opinions on that one. All the ratings have meaning...they all interact to produce AB-by-AB results and an overall stat profile. Don't get locked in on one rating in your evaluation. For a long time I was over-focused on pitchers' vR. I figured it was more important than the vL and I couldn't understand what the pitch ratings meant. So I ended up with a bunch of P's with vR's in the 80's (very good) but vL's and pitches in the 50's (not very good)...with lousy results.
10. Above all, have fun. Ignore all the above if they don't fit your idea of fun. If you can't do HDB your way, what's the point?
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