Foundation cards (Poll)

[grenoble72]

Hypothetical situation: You're not a whale. You pull a great historical card (Cy Young, Ruth, Hornsby, Pedro).
What you consider more important to build your team around, a great batter or a great pitcher? Would you sell that great pitcher card, to buy an equivalent batter? or opposite -Sell the batter to look for a great pitcher?

[Magus978]

None of the above. Cash in to upgrade EVERYWHERE.

[bailey]

Collections have caused the prices of low end cards to rise while high end cards depressed, in some cases, way down. A top 5 pitcher will earn plenty of PP in the lower levels of the game, so keep him for that and maybe sell later.

[Westheim]

Keep. A doubtless-top-of-the-tops card will give you plenty of wins AND points. Why trade it in for some run-of-the-mill gold and diamond cards?

[Drezik]

I usually sell every card I get to feed my pack ripping addiction. Maybe not smart but I'd rather rip 20 packs than replace an 89 ovr pitcher with a 93 ovr pitcher for example.

Every once in awhile I get one of my "targets" and keep him on my roster.

The reason I rip packs is for a perfect Pedro or Walter Johnson. I'd Keep.

[justpatrick]

Wow, a tough call. I´ll tell you what I´d do once it happens.

[grenoble72]

Originally Posted by Drezik

I usually sell every card I get to feed my pack ripping addiction. Maybe not smart but I'd rather rip 20 packs than replace an 89 ovr pitcher with a 93 ovr pitcher for example.

Every once in awhile I get one of my "targets" and keep him on my roster.

The reason I rip packs is for a perfect Pedro or Walter Johnson. I'd Keep.

I'm in the PACK addicted group, always in doubt since I got Keefe 99 (great ratings, great pitcher). Worth it, change a great pitchers for 250 regular packs? But I open packs to get cards like Keefe. I don't know.

[Matt Arnold]

Originally Posted by justpatrick

Wow, a tough call. I´ll tell you what I´d do once it happens.

Yeah, I know if I got lucky enough to draw a Ruth or a perfect Pedro early on, I'd have a killer time at it.

If it was early, I'd try to sell it for a massive rate and hope that I can save enough to buy them back cheaper. If you can either buy them or a similar star card and save 100k in the process, that can build you a team to put around them.

But now? I'm not so confident that I could do that exchange for a profit, so I think I would just try to build around them.

[neugey]

I'd be inclined to keep perfect Pedro. I wouldn't want to lose 10% of his value. Let him dominate and earn mounds of PP and then build around him. He's an end-game starting pitcher - let him dominate for you from June to next March and enjoy the ride.

[dancariaz]

Some guy always tells us that '99 Pedro Martinez is pretty good .. so I'd keep him

[old timer]

How much is a perfect Pedro worth? If you could get two SPs like a 99 Keefe and 99 Clarkson (or a 100 Seaver, etc.), then I'd definitely sell the Pedro and buy two lesser SPs like those. In my opinion, two guys like that will be more valuable than 1 Pedro. I'd not even consider using the PP to get position players since strong SPs will take you further.

[Germaniac]

Originally Posted by Magus978

None of the above. Cash in to upgrade EVERYWHERE.

Same here

[Matt Arnold]

You can also sell it to buy packs. Because Pedro is just Pedro, but a pack could have any card in it. Even a Pedro!

[PocketsAintFull]

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

You can also sell it to buy packs. Because Pedro is just Pedro, but a pack could have any card in it. Even a Pedro!

Spoiler - it wasn't a boat

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by PocketsAintFull

Spoiler - it wasn't a boat

Just like the packs won't have another Pedro

[SpacePope]

If you're trying to build the best team you can, then clearly you sell it. You can get a whole rotation of great pitchers for the price of one of the top 5 pitchers.

If you're trying to save PP, then I'd keep it to rake PP and put up for auction every weekend you aren't gunning for a title. In my experience, one elite pitcher is going to earn more PP than a rotation of slightly less good pitchers.

Since PP rewards only get harder as you tier up, the decision is just a matter of deciding whether it's more important to you to win or to build your team.

[Goliathus]

Depends on the vision of your end game.

Short term: Sell it, because screw that pitcher, you want your team to compete now so having the PP to upgrade the whole squad is better.

Long term: Keep. You might sell it if this is opening day of PT 20 but now, eh. Assuming you agree that card is part of your end game finalized dream team, then keep him. You will eventually get to the end game in time, and your team will eventually have him, you get him now, might as well keep.

Another factor is your financial and time investment into the game. Do you believe you can have your dream team before PT20 closed down, whether through financial investment(P2P) or time and dedication(F2P; working auction house; understanding of game mechanics, experiment, dedication to learn the game)? If you think you will, keep it. The alternative is "sell him now, buy some upgrade now; in the future, sell those "upgrade" that can't compete at the higher level anymore and buy back him". That's a lot of unnecessary work(IMO) for "I still want him on my team for long term:. Just keep him and roll with it. You will have PPs for other upgrades in time. If you think you will not, then sell, because a single godlike card is not going to carry your team to the higher divisions that you have no resource to compete in.

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As for the batter vs pitcher, my personal observation and experience is that building a winning team through pitchers is easier and boring(personally). I find it more challenging and fun to build a great hitting lineup. Pitching is partially solved in PT, MOV>CON>STU. You just get 10-12(I have seen expert players running smaller bullpen) MOV-CON pitchers and load your team with a lot of defensive wizards and you are bound to win. It's a proven playstyle and arguably easy because the stats you looking at are "dead set". High MOV high CON, yeah I will get you; high defense, blue-as-ocean 120 on the position? You are in! Of course, it's not as easy as I exaggerate because your blue-as-ocean defensive wizards still need to hit, but the card pool that fits the blue-as-ocean group is very small and you are just picking the best hitter out of that group, not a huge lot to consider IMO. Thus, keeping Pedro is the best option if you just want to win. No point in being fancy, just grab great pitchers, go defensive and he will carry you up the ladder.

On the other hand, building a great offense is fun and complicated because there are more things to consider. Let's first start with the premise that your pitchers are downright average, that makes you think what kind of offensive team you want to build. Do you give up on defense for the best bats? Do you prefer them to have okay defense with good bat? Do you want five tools with decent speed? Or maybe you want a full speed lineup? What about a full LHB/Switch lineup and make your home-field ultra-great for left-handed players? Maybe you like eyes and use BB to your advantage? The options are so wide compared to pitchers, you can play anyway you want, have the ballpark factors to toy with, and that makes it tougher and fun to build a great lineup. You have to know what you want, and get players that support what you want, while also making sure that they can do some other stuffs(speed, defense, platoon).

[Ty Cobb]

with a batter. Big hitters are a dime a dozen. A staff ace is always a thing of value.

[justpatrick]

Originally Posted by Ty Cobb

with a batter. Big hitters are a dime a dozen. A staff ace is always a thing of value.

Here´s a dime, run out and get me a dozen.

[Ty Cobb]

yada.