The FOOL way...

[spot]

Hey everyone. I'm spot, one of the new guys around here, and I am giving FOOL-H a shot because of the format. In solo I tend to fast sim so I wanted to see what it'd be like online.

Without tipping your hand too much is there any advice you can give to how to be successful with the season/week approach? I can imagine there is less opportunity to "negotiate" with FA because of the long FA sims making the initial offers sort of important. Also I am unsure about the role of bench players since injuries are turned off.

Just trying to get a sense of "how to" in this league. Feel free to keep strategies to yourself, I understand, but any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by spot

Hey everyone. I'm spot, one of the new guys around here, and I am giving FOOL-H a shot because of the format. In solo I tend to fast sim so I wanted to see what it'd be like online.

Without tipping your hand too much is there any advice you can give to how to be successful with the season/week approach? I can imagine there is less opportunity to "negotiate" with FA because of the long FA sims making the initial offers sort of important. Also I am unsure about the role of bench players since injuries are turned off.

Just trying to get a sense of "how to" in this league. Feel free to keep strategies to yourself, I understand, but any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Regarding free agents, the fast sim can both help and hurt you depending on the player. On high demand free agents, this format doesn't let you put in a low ball offer and then modify it accordingly. You pretty much have to put in your best offer up front and hope no one overbids you. On the most prized free agents, you can often put in an offer that you think is crazy high only to find someone else beat you by 15%.

On the other hand, often times the lesser desired free agents can often sit around as everyone goes after the big names. Sometimes you can get a steal on one by offering a low ball amount to them and being the only one they occasionally accept your deal. (This becomes far more true during the spring training sim when players will often accept almost anything that is not insulting if it is the only offer they receive).

As for bench players and depth.. there are two things to consider here. Often you spend so much under the salary cap to try to get the big names, it leaves you very little for the rest of the roster. Often you have to find yourself the best deals or most servicable players for the least amount of money. Even though injuries are off, fatigue is still on, and I have seen time and time again a team that was only 10 players deep who start out great and then fade into oblivion as the season continues as their players don't get enough rest. I personally am still trying to get a feel for fatigue in a historical setting however so can't say if it has more or less of an impact than our modern day fool leagues. Also with the seasons passing so far, a stud prospect you bring up early will enter into full blown free agency within 5 weeks, so often depth has to be players getting ready to fill in holes left by free agents as well.

Hope that helps, don't ever be afraid to ask strategy questions here, we have many managers who love sharing their ideas or strategies, as many different managers handle things entirely differently from one another and do it very successfully.

[ekcut]

We have a lot of people here who like to share there tips and secrets...This is a great place to learn all about how OOTP works...For one, if you make a HORRENDOUS error, it only takes a few weeks to recover from it!
As for tip on tackling FOOL life...I would say the first thing to do is learn the schedule so you can anticipate what needs to be done every day.
Check the FA pool EVERYDAY...For various reasons people will release players at different times...you probably wont land a superstar during the playoff sim, but you may find a bullpen arm, or a decent role player has suddenly dropped his asking price and is now affordable. Looking through my FOOL-X team, I see 3 or 4 players on my 25man roster signed after the regular season sim.
Also, check your pending FA list everyday!!! From the flip of the season, to the playoff sim, make sure you are fully aware of who is going to walk if you don't come to terms. You dont have much chance to negotiate so use everyday you can! And don't wait until it's the final arbitration year before negotiating the long term deal...the earlier you can lock them up, the cheaper it will be, If you wait until the player has the leverage of "pay me or I walk" you'll be paying through the nose.

Start thinking trade after the regular season sim. That gives you time to make a deal, and then have an idea of next years salary cap hit before the first FA bidding sim.
And when it comes to FA bidding, you only get 1 chance at most good players....so make it count! That said, if you know EVERYONE else is going after the big fish, you might be able to sneak in and get the above average player at a bargain price! My rule of thumb is to bid on the 2nd best player available that fills my need!

Dont be afraid to cut players....you probably have $15mil in cash...if you have dead weight, buy them out and use the freed up cap space!

Buy a voodoo doll of Alan T....and don`t listen when he says `I dont think I can compete this year`

Backup players are important. Players still get tired and you do need some decent pinch hitters for your pitchers. I always like to keep a pinch runner too (try and get a 100 sp 100st guy who can play many positions well...hitting doesnt matter for them...i`ve had guys get 40 AB`s in a year and steal 50 bases just from pinch running. Every run counts in the deadball era...give your underachieving AI manager some options! Even a blind squirel finds a nut some times...he may make a smart call and pinch run and steal you a base getting a player in scoring position in a 1-1 game some time. Don`t get carried away with stealing though...if you arnt successful 66% of the time, you are doing more harm then good....So give the burners a green light to run, and put the reigns on everyone else.


Well there are some random thoughts...I`m sure others will have much more to say...or they may direct you to some articles writen by some of the league legends regarding many many things. I`d cut an paste those links but i am outta time to look for them.

Welcome to the league...don`t be afraid to experiment...at worst it will cause you 4 years of last place finnishes, which will mean in 1 month of real life you will have 4 superstar prospects on your team...that`s not a bad punnishment at all!

And serious...get a voodoo doll of Alan...he is the man to beat!

[muns]

Spot

First Welcome. I dont have the time to write up a nice paragraph like the guys above me did at the moment, however if you search the FOOL Forums, youll find some nice articles and tid bits to pick up.

Id start with the post "MY Way How Chief Rum builds a team"

Good luck and as mentioned, if you have questions feel free to ask!!!

[TimGuru]

All sound advice. I can't offer anything additional since I have never met with notable success in the fool fast sim format, much as I love it. Actually, one thing I can point out is that "the Muns way" back in the early-mid original FOOL years was damned effective too...he would consistently trade a mid-career stud, locked up for a few years, for 93 undeveloped high draft pick prospects. He only won 13 league titles in a row in that way.

ps This is not a dig, I never did know if he had a great "eye" or had a secret recipe for the minor league progression, but he would make trade after trade that on surface would look like a huge loss for him, trading a dollar bill for 5 nickels, and usually at least 2 of those nickels should up later as shiny silver dollars, lather rinse repeat.

[TeachEnEspanol]

Welcome! I'm with Tim in that I don't have a fool proof (haha...fool) method to my madness. I've been mostly learning from these guys as well so my best advice is to listen to them! You'll pick it up as you go for sure but make sure to keep asking questions because they will always be answered (to the detriment of the guys answering them). Also like Tim said, Muns has definitely been one of our most successful players and someone who has been most instrumental in mentoring me and I can guarantee you that he would have a paragraph or two up himself if his schedule wasn't so crazy right now so wait a couple weeks and then go bug him!

In any case, if I can do anything let me know, but mostly just enjoy the league. I can't speak for the historical one, but nothing beats original FOOL and we have a lot of fun around here.

[TheMeat]

Originally Posted by Alan T

fatigue is still on, and I have seen time and time again a team that was only 10 players deep who start out great and then fade into oblivion as the season continues as their players don't get enough rest.

Totally, I saw some retard field a roster of only 9 batters and he ate turd for the last two months of the season.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by muns

Spot

First Welcome. I dont have the time to write up a nice paragraph like the guys above me did at the moment, however if you search the FOOL Forums, youll find some nice articles and tid bits to pick up.

Id start with the post "MY Way How Chief Rum builds a team"

Good luck and as mentioned, if you have questions feel free to ask!!!

Thanks, muns.

Alan T has a fantastic one on doing the strategy settings, too (and touches on other things). I forget the name of the post, but it's pretty obvious if you run back through Alan T's threads started (there will be a lot, BTW, fair warning).

[muns]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Thanks, muns.

Alan T has a fantastic one on doing the strategy settings, too (and touches on other things). I forget the name of the post, but it's pretty obvious if you run back through Alan T's threads started (there will be a lot, BTW, fair warning).

im glad you reminded me of that one Chief. As when I bump yours I thought there was a second one, but for some stupid reason I thought you did it. So when I searched for it I couldnt ever find the damn thing.

Now I get why.

Alan, my bad, didnt mean to slight ya by not ever bumping yours lol.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Thanks, muns.

Alan T has a fantastic one on doing the strategy settings, too (and touches on other things). I forget the name of the post, but it's pretty obvious if you run back through Alan T's threads started (there will be a lot, BTW, fair warning).

There are only 232 threads to search through!

Here is the one Chief refers to:

Strategy Slider discussion (Plus other tidbits) - Front Office Football Central

Keep in mind this was oriented towards OOTP9 (not ootpx) and was more for FOOL than a historical approach.

There are some big differences I do in FOOL-H because of the era of play. For instance "Stuff" pitchers are rare and it is tough to build a strategy around it, likewise home run hitters are few and far between. So you have to focus more on Movement/control for the pitchers and more on Contact+Gap+Eye for hitters.