Alright boyz, here we go!!! 'OOTPX' First Impressions!

[bhlloy]

Awesome DC. I'll try these out in my fictional league today.

Is there any way to make minor league teams inherit all the settings of the major league they are affiliated with/easily copy settings between all leagues? I had assumed that this would happen automatically, but I'm seeing screwy things with attendance/league totals in the minors and I guess they are all set to default.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

Awesome DC. I'll try these out in my fictional league today.

Is there any way to make minor league teams inherit all the settings of the major league they are affiliated with/easily copy settings between all leagues? I had assumed that this would happen automatically, but I'm seeing screwy things with attendance/league totals in the minors and I guess they are all set to default.

The only way to do it, is to start the major league first and then once you've got your settings how you want them, create minor leagues after the fact and then it'll do it. Otherwise, no.

[Big Fo]

Originally Posted by Alan T

Out of curiosity with the 8-3 / 3.89 ERA he has had so far, how many innings is he averaging per start? Are more of his runs against coming later in the game vs earlier?

He didn't keep that form up during the late June and July.

22 starts, 11-7, 4.79 ERA

135.1 IP, 132 hits allowed, 23 HR, 32 BB, and only 80 k despite those two killer pitches and high stamina.

I sim too quickly to notice when the runs are coming.

He's back to being a setup man now that I've traded for Zack Grienke.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Big Fo

He didn't keep that form up during the late June and July.

22 starts, 11-7, 4.79 ERA

135.1 IP, 132 hits allowed, 23 HR, 32 BB, and only 80 k despite those two killer pitches and high stamina.

I sim too quickly to notice when the runs are coming.

He's back to being a setup man now that I've traded for Zack Grienke.

Thanks for that, So it looks like he averaged roughly 6 innings per start (if the 135.1 innings is based only in his 22 starts this season and no relief appearances).

What you posted actually makes me feel pretty good about one of the concerns I had about the new pitching system and possible ways to abuse it. What I was hoping to see would be a pitcher with high stamina but low number of pitches that the game says would be best as a relief pitcher able to start if you need, but unless their stuff was incredible for their two pitches, about the 3rd time around the order they'd start getting hit on more often.

I hope at least that is what is happening, because that would then give managers a tough question of whether you start an average or slightly below average starter and then heavily use this guy in relief or if you try this guy out at starter, but might end up with getting only barely better results from him.

[Big Fo]

Yeah it was a cool lesson to learn. The pitch ratings add a bit of strategy to the game.

[MizzouRah]

Woo Hoo!

Off to a nice start with my drafted Cardinal team.. we'll see how the rest of this staff does.

[RainMaker]

I'll be buying this tomorrow. Always a sucker for these games.

[Peregrine]

I'm really enjoying being able to create my own fictional players - it's fun to track them and will be nice for dynasties.

[DanGarion]

Well that took awhile.

BNN Home Page

It's uploading right now so it will take a bit till it's all online.

If someone has a different request for the 100 years I can do something different. Basically I just started the game up from the 2009 season and simmed out 100 years (no removal of previous stats or anything).

Let me know and I'll get to it, it takes about 2 days depending on if the game crashes for who knows what reason (I think it crashed 2-3 times total while I was simming, but it appears no data is lost now like there could be in the past versions).

[Atocep]

Running real MLB rosters with an inaugural draft I'm seeing some very strange minor league numbers with the option to adjust to your major league numbers turned on. I've simmed a full season and a quarter of another so far and in both I'm seeing huge offensive numbers and a ton of strikeouts.

Out of the 11 pitchers in my AAA staff the lowest K/9 is 7.0, but 6 of the 11 are 8.2 or higher with 2 guys over 12 per nine. AA is almost the same. Very small sample size that I'm looking at right now (just a quarter of a season), but the previous season I ran was nearly identical.

Going to backup my save and run a couple seasons with the ajustment option turned on and a couple with it turned off.

[Atocep]

WARNING: Do not read if you don't care at all about the minor league stats OOTP produces.

Decided to just sim a season with default rosters and settings to see what sort of minor league numbers I'm getting. There's a mix of numbers that look ok and some that just look weird.

Here's the top 3 AAA prospects:

T. Hanson AAA - 156.1ip 160h 31hr 159k 6.04era
M. Bumgarner AAA - 94.1ip 130h 26hr 76k 7.06era
N. Feliz AAA - 123ip 117h 14hr 79k 4.46era

Here's a couple with stats that look pretty normal (oddly enough they pitch in the same home ballpark):

Brett Anderson AAA - 92.2ip 60h 8hr 81k 1.94era
Trevor Cahill AAA - 151.1 125h 13hr 121k 3.69era

Guys like these two are fairly rare out of the pitchers in the top 100 prospects list.


Out of the top 20 pitching prospects 5 had ERAs below 4 and 8 had ERAs above 5.

In the International League 5 guys hit more than 40 homers (league leader had 50). In the PCL 1 guy hit more than 40.

AA had 1 guy across the 2 leagues hit 40 homers.

High and Low A had zero.

Short Season A had a guy that hit 25 homers, another that hit 20, and the top 10 ended with a long tie at 17.


Minor league stats really don't mean anything in OOTP, but they're a pet peeve of mine and they've probably taken a step backwards from what I've seen so far. Its hard to really show how off they are and what areas they're off in without spamming screenshots.

I'll try simming a couple seasons with the adjustment option turned off tomorrow morning and see if things are better or worse since I'm still working with a very small sample size and have no idea if this is just a problem with the MLB players or what.

Major League numbers look solid outside of the innings pitched being a tad high for starters as poined out earlier in the thread.

[jbergey22]

This will be patched up. The minor league totals arent set up right.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Big Fo

He's back to being a setup man now that I've traded for Zack Grienke.

So, what did you have to give up to get Zack in a trade?

[Capital]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

So, what did you have to give up to get Zack in a trade?

Also, what trade settings did you use (Normal, Hard, etc)?

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I've been playing around with the game for a few hours now. My real struggle is trying to sort out all of the players in my minor leagues and figure out who needs promoting/demoting. I did quite a bit of reading of the manual to better understand the waivers/DFA/Rule 5/etc., so I'm a bit clearer on that. Trades are a bit overwhelming right now trying to sort through all of the prospects and figure out an equitable trade value for the ones I might want. Stats seem to be pretty good overall for me, though I'm admittedly not as big of a stat nazi as some in this thread who are much better data miners than I.

[fantom1979]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

Well that took awhile.

BNN Home Page

It's uploading right now so it will take a bit till it's all online.

If someone has a different request for the 100 years I can do something different. Basically I just started the game up from the 2009 season and simmed out 100 years (no removal of previous stats or anything).

Let me know and I'll get to it, it takes about 2 days depending on if the game crashes for who knows what reason (I think it crashed 2-3 times total while I was simming, but it appears no data is lost now like there could be in the past versions).

Thanks for throwing this up.. the league history page is showing a page not found error, i am guessing it is still uploading.

[Big Fo]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

So, what did you have to give up to get Zack in a trade?

The trade occurred at the deadline in 2015 so most of the players were fake. KC was not drawing well and Grienke was making a fifth of their $90m+ payroll.

The trade was ZG and a good prospect for a pretty good first baseman, a top reliever, two decent prospects, a couple of AAAA guys and a second round pick in the draft. Trading difficulty was set to normal even though it probably ought to be on the next level up.

After my Braves started another streak of playoff appearances with no Series wins from 2009-14 Grienke has helped us win two of the last three years.

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by fantom1979

Thanks for throwing this up.. the league history page is showing a page not found error, i am guessing it is still uploading.

Um, that's because I didn't almanac the history because that's like a bunch more files. I'll redo the almanac and get that up. Forgot that it might be useful.

Expect some delay...

[Capital]

Originally Posted by Big Fo

The trade occurred at the deadline in 2015 so most of the players were fake. KC was not drawing well and Grienke was making a fifth of their $90m+ payroll.

The trade was ZG and a good prospect for a pretty good first baseman, a top reliever, two decent prospects, a couple of AAAA guys and a second round pick in the draft. Trading difficulty was set to normal even though it probably ought to be on the next level up.

After my Braves started another streak of playoff appearances with no Series wins from 2009-14 Grienke has helped us win two of the last three years.

I could see KC making a trade like that. I do play on the hard trading difficulty and I find it to be quite up to par.

Is the ability to trade draft picks something one can do is baseball? If not, then it must be a selectable option.

[Big Fo]

Originally Posted by Capital

I could see KC making a trade like that. I do play on the hard trading difficulty and I find it to be quite up to par.

Is the ability to trade draft picks something one can do is baseball? If not, then it must be a selectable option.

You can toggle draft pick trading and whether or not you can trade someone drafted in the last 12 months in the league menu.

Currently you cannot trade draft picks in MLB and it is a rule which I do not like.

[Atocep]

Had my first waiver oddity today. In my inaugural draft with real players league Baltimore took Allen Dykstra in the 25th round, thought enough of him to send him to AAA as a 21yo, and then put him on waivers after 2 months. I was able to successfully claim him despite having one of the 5 best records in baseball.

[RainMaker]

Do you guys set it to favor prospects too? I know in the old versions they never seemed to put enough emphasis on top prospects. Nowadays prospects are treated like gold.

[Scoobz0202]

Originally Posted by Peregrine

If you start a custom league, you can have any amount of minors you want - including none. Just put in your major league, and then there's the option to add any level of minors you like.

Uhm. Am I not doing something that is not obvious or what?

I went to advanced mode when creating a new league, checked Major League, Japan's league, and the Mexican Winter league. Then I went to the list generated at the bottom there and deleted the minors I did not want. Then when I generate the league it goes to the the draft with fictional players... I want real players with limited minors.....

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Scoobz0202

Uhm. Am I not doing something that is not obvious or what?

I went to advanced mode when creating a new league, checked Major League, Japan's league, and the Mexican Winter league. Then I went to the list generated at the bottom there and deleted the minors I did not want. Then when I generate the league it goes to the the draft with fictional players... I want real players with limited minors.....

The way you are doing it is going to create the major league format but not the real players. I think the only way you can get the real players is to use the MLB quick start.

[Scoobz0202]

But then is it possible to delete some of the minor leagues without having to drop all the players (in the deleted leagues) into the Free Agent market?

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Scoobz0202

But then is it possible to delete some of the minor leagues without having to drop all the players (in the deleted leagues) into the Free Agent market?

I don't think so doing it automatically. I think you're going to have severe problems though if you try to keep all of those players with less minor leagues however. Right now most teams have roughly 130-160 players in their minor league system that is spread out over 5-6 teams. If you cut it down to just AAA, AA and A ball, you now have 160 players for 3 teams (or around 50 a team).

Even though you can set your minor leagues to have no roster limits, you are going to run into all kinds of severe development issues for players with that many players (as well as any AI teams are just going to cut players until they get down to around 25 per team anyways).

Even though it is a pain in the butt at first, I think I would still recommend you going by hand and making sure the better prospects are moved up to the lowest level that you aren't deleting and then just cutting the rest if you don't want to play with that many minor league levels. In the end it will end up saving you some frustration I bet.

[Big Fo]

Originally Posted by Alan T

I don't think so doing it automatically. I think you're going to have severe problems though if you try to keep all of those players with less minor leagues however. Right now most teams have roughly 130-160 players in their minor league system that is spread out over 5-6 teams. If you cut it down to just AAA, AA and A ball, you now have 160 players for 3 teams (or around 50 a team).

Even though you can set your minor leagues to have no roster limits, you are going to run into all kinds of severe development issues for players with that many players (as well as any AI teams are just going to cut players until they get down to around 25 per team anyways).

Even though it is a pain in the butt at first, I think I would still recommend you going by hand and making sure the better prospects are moved up to the lowest level that you aren't deleting and then just cutting the rest if you don't want to play with that many minor league levels. In the end it will end up saving you some frustration I bet.

This is what I did. I deleted one level each offseason for a few years until I was down to MLB/AAA/AA/A. I moved anyone with 1.5 stars or more over to a higher team, it didn't take too long. It's worth it for the faster sim speed.

One funny thing I came across was that after I contracted the Orioles and Astros their minor league teams stuck around (I thought they'd be deleted automatically and just hit the reschedule button for each league without looking too closely), and they are doing pretty well. The former AAA teams have some major league talent they've picked up in free agency and all of them are in first place. The Delmarva Shoebirds are 132-5 and the Lexington Legends are 129-8.

Delmarva has a team OPS of 1.100 and a 1.71 team ERA. Runs scored/against is 1506/266.

If you delete a team, be sure to delete their minor league affiliates.

[kcchief19]

Had my first sucked-in moment last night night. I'm running the Royals and we played just under .500 ball in 2009-10. Heading into 2011 we have a solid 1-3 rotation and a better than average bullpen but the offense is weak. We had some big contracts expire in 2010 so we had almost $30 million to spend on free agents. We made a trade with Atlanta for an underperforming 1B for a comparable prospect (fortunately, the prospect got a talent boost shortly after arrival). We went out and signed Josh Beckett to add a veteran innings eater to the rotation, signed Jeremy Affeldt to add to bullpen depth and picked up 2B Felipe Lopez and 3B Garrett Atkins to stabilize the IF.

Unfortunately, everything blew up. Beckett absolutely sucked. The bullpen couldn't get anyone out. The offense was putrid. Felipe Lopez went down with a season-ending injury. We were 5-13 in May, improved to 15-14 in May and then the bottom fell out. On our D-Day (June 14) we were 22-38 and 15 games out of first.

That was the day Garrett Atkins sent me an e-mail saying the Royals were "in the tank" and he wanted out immediately. I had already gotten e-mails from Beckett and Affeldt that they were demanding trades and it pissed me off. All three of them plus Johnny Damon and Miguel Olivo hit the road. I picked up young players including an OF from the Dodgers, a SS and C from the Cardinals and Dustin Pedroia to play 2B. We brought up a couple of OF from Omaha along with a DH. We got Jered Weaver in a trade and blew up the bullpen, shipping out the guys who weren't producing and bring up fresh arms from Omaha.

Magically, we started winning. The team went 17-8 in July and played .500 ball in August. The Twins were collapsing at the same time and we got within 5 games. In September, we went 16-10 and on the final day of the season, we caught the Twins to force a playoff. From 22-38 we go 61-41 the rest of the way.

I'd like to say from there we went all the way but unfortunately we lost the playoff game. But it was a thrill to rebuild the team in a few days with young players and make that kind of run. We'll see what happens next year with these guys.

Even more fun -- I shipped Atkins, Affeldt and Beckett all to teams that finished last or next to last. In September, there were news reports on all three talking about how unhappy they were in their new locations and wanted to be traded.

[Passacaglia]

Here's a stupid question -- when I look at the transactions screen (the one where I can call players up and down), at the upper right corner, I've got the options of Ratings scouted by OSA, or by my scouting director. When I select the scouting director, I get some nice 1-5 star ratings for overall and potential, but when I select OSA, they're all blank. What's OSA and why don't I get those ratings when I choose it?

[JPhillips]

OSa only gives star ratings when team scouting is turned off.

[Passacaglia]

Do I look like someone who knows what 'team scouting' is?

[JPhillips]

If you use the scouting system OSA won't give overall and potential ratings. Scouting can be checked on or off in the Game Setup. Personally I think scouting error is so terribly flawed that I have started to play with scouting turned off.

IMO the overall and potential ratings are still screwy, but that's the best of two poorly done systems.

[Passacaglia]

Thanks! I like the OSA figures a lot more, so far.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

If you use the scouting system OSA won't give overall and potential ratings. Scouting can be checked on or off in the Game Setup. Personally I think scouting error is so terribly flawed that I have started to play with scouting turned off.

IMO the overall and potential ratings are still screwy, but that's the best of two poorly done systems.

I've played with scouting off since I think ootp4. I just don't care about it at all myself.

[JPhillips]

I'd really like it to work as it provides another layer of depth ad difficulty to the game, but as it is it's just too random.

The draft is even worse. Even with OSA ratings only I'm still frustrated that @1000 of @1050 draftees have the same minimal rating. I tend to draft the first two rounds and the supplemental and let the scout do it from their. It's not nearly as fun as it could be IMO.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

I'd really like it to work as it provides another layer of depth ad difficulty to the game, but as it is it's just too random.

The draft is even worse. Even with OSA ratings only I'm still frustrated that @1000 of @1050 draftees have the same minimal rating. I tend to draft the first two rounds and the supplemental and let the scout do it from their. It's not nearly as fun as it could be IMO.

If you want difficulty, play without ratings and go off of stats. If you want random, then scouting is a good place to go!

[Big Fo]

How often are closers winning Cy Young awards in some of your leagues? I've only played ten years or so but it seems to happen a little more often than it should. Five times in ten seasons (two leagues) on my game versus only once over the past ten years in real life.

This last season my closer didn't even have all that great a season (11-5, 40 saves/5 blown, 3.79 ERA) but won his second Cy Young award. It must have been the wins plus the saves that made whatever formula there is choose him. Batting awards seem to be based a lot more on VORP but my closer was not even among the top ten relievers in that category and his total was about a fourth of the league's top starters.

[Atocep]

I play with stars or an overall rating turned off. I go by their individual skill ratings/potential skill ratings and stats. When I play with stars or something similar turned on I tend to be lazy and go by those ratings which results in a lot less immersion for me.

[kcchief19]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

I'd really like it to work as it provides another layer of depth ad difficulty to the game, but as it is it's just too random.

The draft is even worse. Even with OSA ratings only I'm still frustrated that @1000 of @1050 draftees have the same minimal rating. I tend to draft the first two rounds and the supplemental and let the scout do it from their. It's not nearly as fun as it could be IMO.

QFT

I typically draft through the first four rounds then turn it over to the AI. 25+ rounds of 1-star disasters is just too much with full minors.

I sort of like the full minors but ultimately I'll probably play with it downsized in the future. Running one major league team is fun; running a full minors system makes me feel like I'm actually working in a GM's office, but not in a good way.

[INDalltheway]

Originally Posted by Big Fo

How often are closers winning Cy Young awards in some of your leagues? I've only played ten years or so but it seems to happen a little more often than it should. Five times in ten seasons (two leagues) on my game versus only once over the past ten years in real life.

This last season my closer didn't even have all that great a season (11-5, 40 saves/5 blown, 3.79 ERA) but won his second Cy Young award. It must have been the wins plus the saves that made whatever formula there is choose him. Batting awards seem to be based a lot more on VORP but my closer was not even among the top ten relievers in that category and his total was about a fourth of the league's top starters.

This. Just coming to post this up actually.

[INDalltheway]

Dola

8 out of 20 years a closer won in the NL
3 out of 20 years a closer won in the AL

[DanGarion]

Ok the history is up now.

So I think that's everything.
BNN Home Page

[Peregrine]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

Ok the history is up now.

So I think that's everything.
BNN Home Page

Wow, Lawrence Moore for Seattle is a beast - anyone that can win three straight Triple Crowns...damn.

[DanGarion]

Honestly I still miss the old scouting system from 6.5, I wish there was a way to have that instead of the way OSA does it, it still seems very clunky, plus it slows down simming.

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by Peregrine

Wow, Lawrence Moore for Seattle is a beast - anyone that can win three straight Triple Crowns...damn.

And the guy Sherman Walker had triple crowns the two years previous to that. Interesting.

[DanGarion]

Two players almost hit .400

25 Julián Vega .3994 2027
26 Sam Thurlow* .3992 2060

[SackAttack]

Huh. So I just went through a heinous arbitration period, with the core of the Dodger lineup basically all up for arbitration, and afterward, their contract demands had come down from the $10-12m they were each asking to 3-4 year deals at the same salary they were awarded in arbitration (~7m each).

Yoink.

[stevew]

Just noticed something dumb.

I was after Rich Harden, and had some clause in his deal whereby he got 3m if he pitched 20 innings(it was a typo)

Apparently he didn't like my last offer, and kept shopping around, and finally signed a deal containing that 20 innings pitched clause.

I only had 14m to offer out in the first year, so I made Matt Holliday an offer where the structure was like 14m/20m/20m/14(player option).

He tells me im not in the running, and ends up signing a deal similar to what I'd been offering. In its odd structure.

So, to make it short, I think the OOTP contract AI for free agent is similar to what it's been before...The AI just cheats and matches exactly what you've offered plus a few dollars.

Basically bullshit.

[stevew]

And before I forget, Darrin Erstadt(sp) went in the rule 5 draft as well.

[Peregrine]

I finally got my Continental League set up right, with a historical majors in the mid 60s right now, but a separate 8 team major Continental league. It's been funny to see some of the contract negotiations. Sandy Koufax came up as a free agent and between the two leagues there must have been 15 of those "Koufax is in talks with X team" messages - finally he ended up signing with the formidable Buffalo Bees as the highest paid player in the CL, by far.