OT: (OOTP6) Should I go after this free agent pitcher?

[Young Drachma]

I'm posting this here, because it seems to take a lot longer to get responses on the OOTP Boards and I want to make a decision fairly soon.

http://www.ishouldstudymore.net/league/stumm.gif

This guy is the hottest free agent right now and as expected, he's being pursued by everyone. There is little doubt, since I'm the Yankees that I can pay more than any of them.

The question is, should I?

It's 2011, but despite that the payrolls have largely been kept in check - the highest paid player makes just under $21 million per season.

The highest offer we've put out there was for about $32 million per year for four years and he rejected it. Past history says it could be worth it, but I really don't know.

Thoughts?

[stevew]

I ended up getting outbid on a guy for 43 million dollars in a solo league the other day. Insane.

[Maple Leafs]

No. Do not pay 150% of the current highest salary to get one pitcher. $32M? You will regret it.

[TroyF]

Depends. Do you want realism? If you do and you are the Yankees, you must sign him quickly. Sign 3 of his teammates too. You can never have too much depth. :)

[stevew]

Im willing to bet that you will get outbid, even at 35 million/5 years. The AI is relentless when they desire a player, especially if this fellow is the last good pitcher.

[Young Drachma]

That's exactly what I was thinking. I'm the YANKEES. We haven't won the World Series in two years, and if you check out the dynasty (http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=66444) its a sequel to my Moneyball dynasty over there.

Basically, I took over a new club that in Nevada. We won the World Series in year six and instead of staying around, the Yankees "wooed" me to their club to help get them back to dominating. They won the Series in 2008 (we just ended the 2010 season) but otherwise they hadn't won since back during their real life titles.

As a new ownership group, we want to come in and have a big splash early since we're negotiating a new stadium deal. So, part of me is heading for realism - though admittely I'd sworn off being involved after we went up to $30 million.

So, yeah...I'm torn.

[Young Drachma]

Im willing to bet that you will get outbid, even at 35 million/5 years. The AI is relentless when they desire a player, especially if this fellow is the last good pitcher.

They've been fierce. My even most recent offer is $160 million over 4 years was spurned. So it seems he wants a longer term deal.

[stevew]

They've been fierce. My even most recent offer is $160 million over 4 years was spurned. So it seems he wants a longer term deal.

I just checked back on the 40 million dollar pitcher I was telling you about....he got 6 years too! Throw out a 50 million dollar offer for 6 years....I bet you get outbid.

[Young Drachma]

Most recent offer was upended by St. Louis, so it must've been over $50 million.

Oh well, not my problem. I'm not going to sign him.

[Maple Leafs]

Is this a solo league? If so, isn't there a known "issue" where AI teams will outbid you no matter what on certain guys?

[Young Drachma]

Indeed, it is a solo league. And that seems to be pretty true, since its happened on a few free agents this off-season. I'm not sure what I think of it. When teams that can't afford it sign huge contracts, its fishy. But then, it does happen.

[stevew]

Is this a solo league? If so, isn't there a known "issue" where AI teams will outbid you no matter what on certain guys?


Well, that certainly explains a lot.

[Young Drachma]

The Mets signed Stumm to a 2/yr deal worth $107.16 million.

[Franklinnoble]

The Mets signed Stumm to a 2/yr deal worth $107.16 million.
http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/%7Efof/forums/images/smilies/eek.gifhttp://dynamic2.gamespy.com/%7Efof/forums/images/smilies/eek.gifhttp://dynamic2.gamespy.com/%7Efof/forums/images/smilies/eek.gifhttp://dynamic2.gamespy.com/%7Efof/forums/images/smilies/eek.gifhttp://dynamic2.gamespy.com/%7Efof/forums/images/smilies/eek.gif

Yeah, that's realistic.

And I was thinking about buying this game...

[rkmsuf]

The Mets scouts were convinced Stumm was a least as good as Mike Hampton so they opened up the checkbook.

[stevew]

The Mets signed Stumm to a 2/yr deal worth $107.16 million.

Nice... I guess the (b) in the newest OOTP patch is for "Bugs."

Having seen a similar situation arise the other day, when I really needed that 40 million dollar pitcher, I think im not gonna play solo anymore. I got into a bidding war for a vintage 1980 Terry Shumpert the other day that went into the 12 millions.

[CentralMassHokie]

I've been having the same problem. I was going to start a thread about some of the wackyness I've been seeing in OOTP now that I've restarted my solo career, but you guys are already highlighting a big one. Teams grossly overpaying for talent. In many cases, league average or replacement level talent. It's like the CPU GMs look at the market, see that it's a thin year at SS, and start rocketing up the salaries, without bothering to notice that the available guys are only marginally better than guys who you can snag on the waiver wire.

Little things I've been noticing:
-No Batting Average on Balls In Play stat? For a DIPS based game, you'd think it'd be important to be able to see whether or not that fluke season was due to an abnormal BABIP. Well, you can, but you just need to calculate it yourself. Bleh. How is this not on the pitcher card?

-Huge platoon splits for everybody. Yes, platoon splits are real. But there *are* some players who don't have huge ones. Nearly every "stud" hitter in my universe just gets killed by lefties. Unbelievably so. To the point where I'd be willing to pay huge dollars to a player that I don't have to find a platoon partner for.

-Really low OBPs. I need to look at it on the macro level, but on my team, I can't find but a handful of players who can put up OBPs above .330. Especially middle infielders. Yet these guys were then sought after like crazy by the computer in FA.

I know the OBP stuff is tweakable (and I think the platoon stuff is too), but it just seems really odd. Every time I think OOTP has sucked me in, I get frustrated for a bunch of new reasons.

[Fonzie]

I recently bought OOTP6 and just hit this very issue last night. No matter how high I went with a bid, the AI would *always* outbid me. Not cool.

*sigh*

[Young Drachma]

http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/%7Efof/forums/images/smilies/eek.gifhttp://dynamic2.gamespy.com/%7Efof/forums/images/smilies/eek.gifhttp://dynamic2.gamespy.com/%7Efof/forums/images/smilies/eek.gifhttp://dynamic2.gamespy.com/%7Efof/forums/images/smilies/eek.gifhttp://dynamic2.gamespy.com/%7Efof/forums/images/smilies/eek.gif

Yeah, that's realistic.

And I was thinking about buying this game...
I think the AI just mimics whatever you do. In other words, when I was offering him long-term deals, the PC teams countered with long-term deals. When I went to a 2-year deal worth, I think $50 million, St. Louis went to $52 million (yes, I looked..I was curious) and then the Mets won him with that offer.

So, its not just some wackball offer as much as the AI just competing with whatever the human team does. Not that it makes it any better. But yeah.

[Franklinnoble]

I think the AI just mimics whatever you do. In other words, when I was offering him long-term deals, the PC teams countered with long-term deals. When I went to a 2-year deal worth, I think $50 million, St. Louis went to $52 million (yes, I looked..I was curious) and then the Mets won him with that offer.

So, its not just some wackball offer as much as the AI just competing with whatever the human team does. Not that it makes it any better. But yeah.
Hmm... well, I suppose that's one way to keep a human player from just buying up all the good talent - still, that would be awfully frustrating after a while.

[Young Drachma]

No doubt. But at least he's not a bust so far.

It's May 20th (2011) and look at his numbers thus far:

http://www.ishouldstudymore.net/stumm2.gif

[CentralMassHokie]

Hmm... well, I suppose that's one way to keep a human player from just buying up all the good talent - still, that would be awfully frustrating after a while.

Not to mention potentially devastating to the AI team payrolls.

[Logan]

Is what appears in the player history box correct? He was originally traded for PLACIDO POLANCO?!

[Young Drachma]

hehehe...yeah, that's correct.

[Young Drachma]

Dola -

I think the saying on the OOTP boards is "the game doesn't know names"

[Suicane75]

Not only that, he was in a package for Placido Polanco, heh.

[Young Drachma]

Injured on 5/18/2003 with a Stiff Shoulder, out for one week...
Traded from Chicago (A) to Cleveland on 7/30/2004 (Going to CHA: 3B P. Polanco. Going to CLE: P J. Stumm, RF C. Young)...
Injured on 5/22/2005 with a Pulled Bicep Tendon, out for 4 weeks...
Injured on 6/25/2005 with a Stiff Shoulder, out for 5 days...
Earned first career win on 8/7/2005...
Had first career hit on 6/7/2007, off Aaron Heilman (LA)...
Was selected to the 2007 Allstar game...
Injured on 7/14/2007 with a Inflamed Back Muscle, out for one week...
Won Player of the Week award on 8/31/2009, winning 2 games with a 1.13 ERA...
Won Pitcher of the Month award on 10/1/2009, going 3-0, 1.33...
Was selected to the 2010 Allstar game...
Signed as a free agent by New York (N) on 2/20/2011 to a 2-year deal worth $53,580,000 per year...


Pitching Leader Boards Appearances

ERA
2007 - 2.80 - 3rd
2009 - 3.38 - 6th
2010 - 2.66 - 4th
WHIP
2007 - 1.13 - 8th
2010 - 0.96 - 2nd
Wins
2007 - 20 - 3rd
2009 - 18 - 4th
2010 - 17 - 3rd
IP
2008 - 250.0 - 5th
2009 - 252.2 - 3rd
2010 - 254.0 - 1st
K's
2007 - 199 - 7th
2008 - 204 - 9th
2009 - 195 - 7th

CG
2009 - 5 - 7th
2010 - 4 - 3rd
SHO
2007 - 2 - 5th
2009 - 2 - 5th
2010 - 3 - 2nd

[stevew]

Last night I made 2 expansion teams. I gave each one a stud "franchise" player, one a 8/10/6 RF and the other a stud pitcher. The stud hitter was hitting about .320, and had stolen a ton of bases. Then I see something odd, he isnt on the NL leader board anymore. So i look over to the AL one. Well lo and behold I find that the AI traded the stud hitter, all of age 21, for a crappy ass 2.5 star pitcher. And trading was set to very low. If you can, picture Albert Puljos heading out for Vincente Padilla(to use another shitty average Phillie for example). If not for online leagues, I wouldnt have bought it.

[Franklinnoble]

Last night I made 2 expansion teams. I gave each one a stud "franchise" player, one a 8/10/6 RF and the other a stud pitcher. The stud hitter was hitting about .320, and had stolen a ton of bases. Then I see something odd, he isnt on the NL leader board anymore. So i look over to the AL one. Well lo and behold I find that the AI traded the stud hitter, all of age 21, for a crappy ass 2.5 star pitcher. And trading was set to very low. If you can, picture Albert Puljos heading out for Vincente Padilla(to use another shitty average Phillie for example). If not for online leagues, I wouldnt have bought it.
Yikes... this thread is really scaring me away from that game. I don't have the time for online play... so I'd only be getting it for solo play.