Franchise Ball News

The Lions Den: Q & A #1

Aug 6th 2019 By Los Angeles Lions

What would u consider a bad, ok, good, and great k/9 and k/w? -Anonymous

I’m not the most knowledgeable about baseball stats, and stats about Franchise Ball, but I’ll try to answer...usually 10 Ks/9 innings is pretty great. 8 is good, 6 is ok, 4 is bad. As for K/W, 2.5 or more is great, around 1.5-2.5 is good, 1-1.5 is ok, less than 1 is bad.

Please explain the Vegas Odds to me, please.  -New York Flames

So, the Vegas Odds are based on historical team success and the individual game’s pitching matchup [odds are actually determined by a hybrid run of overall team strength and some rough sim runs]. -100 means the game is 50/50. -200 means that, if you were betting, you would have to bet $200 on the winning team to earn back a $100 profit. So, -200 is a pretty significant favorite. -150 means you would have to bet $150 to earn a $100 profit. I consider -130 or lower to be “toss-ups”, and 130-200 being games where one team should have an edge, and -200 or higher to be safe bets. You usually only see -200 or higher when it’s an elite active team vs a dead team.
[ included by admins ]

Hey, I had a question about strategy. If I have a new player, whether batter or pitcher that I have just called up or recruited, should I let him play in the minors for a while or should I bring him straight up. I have noticed that the few times I have taken a fielder or batter from the bench, they have done terribly. Is this because they have not played at all in the season? Should I switch out my minors and bench so they get experience playing?
-Arlington Sharks

Well, if the new player has good ratings and can instantly earn a spot in your lineup, that is ideal. If he isn’t good enough to make your lineup but has good speed (so you could use him as a pinch runner) or might make a good DH, you can keep him on the bench. I am also hesitant to send good players down to the minors simply because their contact will likely drop and I try to keep all my best players either in my lineup or on my bench. I’m not quite sure about the difference in performance from being moved into the lineup from the minors or from the bench, so I can’t really answer that one. I do think the best strategy is to just experiment with all of your players and see which ones perform best. If you put a player in your lineup and he hits .300, keep him there. If not, replace him. Even great players do go into slumps sometimes throughout the season, and  the best thing to do is just keep them on the bench for a little while, because if they go down into the minors, their contact will permanently drop, and that’s bad. So, just be careful about having your best players in the minors for too long. If you acquire a good player in a trade, give him a shot at being in your lineup.

Could you do an early season rankings article thing for the Lions Den and maybe offer some advice on what to look for in the draft? -Anchorage polarbears

Sure, I’ll do a midseason power rankings this season!
As for the draft, look for players with great scout ratings. For hitters, contact is the most important, then power, then speed, then defense. Look for players with 90+ power and 90+ contact, those are usually great. As for pitchers, usually they need stamina over 70 to start, and the better the control and movement, the better. If you find a pitcher with both 90 control and 90 movement, that is a rarity, make sure to draft him if you can. Otherwise, 80/90/90 and 80/90/80 and even 90/80/90 are pretty good scout lines. If you can’t find anything like that, 80/80/90 is still solid. It also depends, of course, on your team. If you have 5 elite catchers, for instance, you might want to lean towards drafting somebody of another position (unless you find a superstar catcher that you can’t pass up). It’s all about finding players that you think will fit into your lineup and improve your team.

Thank you all for the questions, and please continue sending them in so that I can continue answering them and making the Lions’ Den articles! See you around in FB!

-Authored by Los Angeles Lions

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