OOTP Blitz 25: Solo RTS meets Moneyball

[Young Drachma]

Seems I might have finally found a dynasty format that I can sustain for a bit, or at least this is the idea. Having done all of the typical DC-type things in this world I'm currently playing including moving teams around, screwing up histories and adding hella international leagues all over the world, it's currently 2061.

I've been using this save for a few OOTP versions, it started in 2024 where I retired all of MLB and refilled it with entirely fictional players of my own making, then gradually started adding international leagues to make it work for me more.

I'm starting a new OOTP dynasty with a twist - using a "Blitz" format (akin to chess) that transforms the game into something closer to real-time strategy. Apparently I did this back in 2015, too.

Back then, it was fast-sim style so I played without injuries and I was aiming to get through an entire season in 15 minutes. I wouldn't do that now, I'm more interested in the strategy and also, I played the season with injuries now to create more randomness.

Instead of micromanaging every detail, I'll have just 6 moves per season
(15 minutes each)

The Format

- 6 moves per season (15 minutes each)
- High injury rates during regular season
- Talent Change Randomness: 150+
- Limited intervention creates organic storylines
- Both teams share the same move pool

TIME VIOLATION SYSTEM:*

First Violation:

- Lose next available move
- Highest rated healthy player suspended 30 days

Second Violation (Same Season):

- All penalties from first violation
- $10M budget penalty next season
- Must make a positive countermove for division rival

I'm planning to take over two teams, I was going to do both in MLB but ended up deciding not to. We'll be with the Cardinals and the San Juan team in the Federal League.

The St. Louis Cardinals(MLB)

- Last World Series: 2011
- 15 playoff appearances since 2023
- Only 2 division titles in that span
- Goal: Restore this storied franchise to its former glory
- No financial constraints besides the $150M salary cap

The San Juan Toucans(Federal League)

- Never posted a winning season since 2051 inception
- Operating under strict $25M salary cap
- Perfect laboratory for extreme Moneyball tactics
- Initial strategy: Complete teardown and rebuild

Like I said, this is a different world. MLB has 36 teams. More on those later.

The World of 2060

This universe features a rich tapestry of international leagues, from the winter ball powerhouse in St. Lucia to the emerging talents in the African-based Federal League.

MLB sits atop the pyramid with 36 teams, but talent flows globally through:, here's what the rest of the world looks like:

- Federal League (Africa's premier competition)
- Traditional powers (Japan, Korea, Cuba)
- Emerging markets (India, Australia, Central Europe)
- Winter major leagues (St. Lucia, Mexican)

Will the Cardinals return to October glory? Can the Toucans find success through analytics? Can I manage both teams effectively with such limited moves?

Let's find out.

First move coming soon...

[Young Drachma]

PRE-MOVE 2061
I want to get the Cardinals into contender status sooner than later. The last 3 years ahve not been good, despite a mid-table payroll, they’ve won 73, 68 and 81 games respectively. It doesn’t help that the 20-team playoffs have gone away and we’re back to just 12 teams, so they can’t even sneak in substandardly.

It’s been an absymsal few decades for a once-venerable franchise in baseball, since 2023 here’s how things have gone, 15 playoff appearances, 4 division titles (2024, 2025, 2034, 2046) and zero NL pennants. Nearly 50 years without a World Series appearance is hard to imagine and yet, that’s where the Cardinals in this shifting baseball universe.

We’re going to build on what they have using our moves.

The San Juan Toucans meanwhile have been all over the place, they went from Atlantic City to Montreal and now in San Juan for the last 4 years. They have the 4th lowest payroll in the federal league, next year almost no one on this team is under contract after 2061 season, so they’re a perfect team for a rebuild. I’ve spent almost no time in the Federal League besides occasionally looking at players, so it’ll be very weird to figure out how to build a winning team there without spending money.

My goal is partially to get better at this analytics shenanigans in 2024, while IDing some weird thing I want to arbitrage around, sign players like that and then see if it works or not. It’s purely an experiment and I don’t particularly care if they win or not, though it’d be fun if we’re able to do that over time. For this first season, I’m going to conserve most of my time by letting San Juan mostly operate on auto-pilot, but I’m not going to sign any of their existing players to new deals, I might make trades to get rid of guys since everyone is in a walk year save for the prospects and aggressively tank while I get a sense of what I want to do with this team.

We’re going to use our first season (2061) to focus on the Cardinals and getting them back into shape.

[Young Drachma]

2061 SEASON LOG
St. Louis Cardinals (MLB) & San Juan Toucans (Federal)

OFFSEASON LOG 1 - NOV 17, 2060
Time Remaining: 1:35

CARDINALS MOVES:
- Signed St. Lucia MVP IF/OF Pinwheel Brown (23)
- Landed Japanese CF Monta Matsui (32) - 7y/$216M + $32.5M posting
- Added veteran IF depth with Rodriguez (34), 2y/$5.2M
- Inherited AI signings: RP Avery, SS Lindblad

TOUCANS MOVES:
- Flipped Hite/Burnett to St. Lucia for SP Mejia
- Committing to full rebuild, minimal intervention

OFFSEASON LOG 2 - JAN 4, 2061
Time Remaining: 4:27

CARDINALS MOVES:
- Landed SP Urban Henry after protracted negotiations
- Final terms: 5y/$232.9M
- Sets rotation anchor for contention window

COUNTERMOVE 1 (81s):
- Signed C Smokey Gonzales (Cuban League) for the Toronto Blue Jays
- Blue Jays emerging as potential AL threat
- Due to some past history silliness on my part, Carolina & Toronto had mixed up histories, so I swapped all their players back and changed the franchise names for 2061.

More Notes:
- Henry signing depleted remaining budget
- Playoff roster taking shape
- Will monitor winter league FAs for mid-season depth
- Toucans rebuild on hold during Cardinals push

SEASON LOG 3 - April 27, 2061

CARDINALS (21-17, 2.5 GB)

TEAM NOTES
The interesting thing about playing this way, is knowing how far to let things go early in the season. We have the highest payroll in baseball thanks largely to the Urban Henry signing, but we also inherited a few outfielders the Cardinals had who are on overpriced contracts relative to their performance, but they're young guys and I suspect they wanted to lock them up early. I'd hoped to sim through to the draft, but I needed to stop in and at least see how the team was doing.

One of them is 28-year old LF Spencer Van Doren (.282/.383/.483, 141 wRC+, 3.4 WAR in 2060) who is in the 1st year of an 8-year $156.3 million extension that he signed the year before we got here. He won a Gold Glove in 2056 and a Silver Slugger in 2057, but I think he strikes out too much. A Cardinals 1st rounder (21st overall) in 2055, he's clearly delivered on his promise as an in-house talent, but I think I can get recoup some value for him if packaged in a deal whether it's prospect capital or fixing our problem with catching. I don't love that we're using him as a leadoff hitter.

I decided to make some lineup changes, something I don't normally do because I want to assess what sorts of moves I want to make before the All-Star break when the Federal League is over and there are some guys on the market. We don't have any money to spend, but if I can move an expensive outfielder contract, I can free up some cash to really fix the offense. As composed, this team could miss the playoffs and that's a really bad idea.

Offensively, the team is doing okay, we're 3rd in the NL in Batting WAR (7.1) to start out the year, 6th in Defensive efficiency and our starters ERA is 3rd (3.13). Where we're struggling is the bullpen, currently 12th (4.28) and so I'm going to want to look at fixing that. I think the bottom of the lineup is also really struggling, as I have defensive guys holding down the fort (Catcher Ray Van de Veer .240 SLG & SS Justin Lindblad, .212 OBP)

I don't allow myself to make trades before mid-May, it feels a bit unrealistic.

I have 3 moves left this season, the draft will be one of them and I'll try to sim to the All-Star break within that same timeframe just so I have a sense of where we are. If I have any time left, might start shopping some guys, but it might not work out.

I'll use a move at the trade deadline for sure and then we'll have to save one last move for September in case we're in a situation where we need it because the team is in a pickle or there are injuries I need to account for. It's not clear simming whether that's the case, which is a bit problematic.

TOUCANS (28-40-4, 14 GB)

TEAM NOTES
The FL season is wining down, it ends in late May and the Toucans are poised for another last place finish in the WL East Division. The trade I made this off-season for SP Algenis Mejia, whose last major league appearances came with the Cubs back in 2054 and spent the last six years in St. Lucia paid off. The 35-year old ace has navigated leading a bad team pretty well, going 5-10 with a 3.51 ERA/88 FIP-, 1.3 WAR and 12 QS, despite abysmal run support (1.8 RSG) by our anemic offense. He's a guy that might provide some stopgap support during the MLB season once he's a free agent after the FL season ends.

[Young Drachma]

SEASON LOG #4, MAY 15, 2061

CARDINALS (34-20, 1st in NL Central)

On balance, it worked out how I was hoping it would. I did some lineup reconfiguring and it worked. I moved Spencer Van Doren from leadoff to 3rd in the lineup, he's now batting cleanup but it worked extremely well with Japanese import Monta Matsui (.288/6 HR/25 RBI) having a respectable for MLB season and playing leadoff for us. St. Lucian star Pinwheel Brown is our leading hitter (.335/12 HR/40 RBI) and bats 3rd. First baseman Chase Zuniga leads the NL in RBI (51) and is on track for a 4 WAR season.

Offensively, we're among the Top 5 in the NL outside of HRs including Runs scored, OBP, OPS and WAR. Pitching remains our strength as our starters lead the league in ERA, but our bullpen needs a lot of help, currently 11th in the majors in ERA.

DRAFT NOTES
I stopped to look at the draft. One of the things I did during the recent iterations of this save before I opted for this format was to improve the intake of Latin American players into the game. For whatever reason, I had far fewer Dominicans coming through my league in the last 20 years, so I wanted to rebuild that link, as well as fix the Puerto Rican baseball pipeline, as I have fond memories of that from the 80s.

That said, it initially created a wave of very young talented Dominican players entering the majors all a bit too young and I've had to actually make them a few years older so I don't have a glut of 18 year old super players proliferating my league and turned on an 18 year old age limit to MLB.

Anyway, the Dominican players and Puerto Rican players are all part of the draft, as part of my robust feeders pipeline in-game that stocks enough players for an 80-round draft (I miss that about baseball, too.)

KEY DRAFT PROSPECTS
The Cardinals had the 18th pick, there are some decent college prospects in here but two standouts from the DR are the ones I'm most interested in. Oscar Regalado, a starting pitcher who I think would be a very valuable bullpen arm for us right now. He spent the last 3 years at Texas after not being drafted out of HS. College stats are fickle for pitchers in this league, but he had a 7.7 K/9, 108 ERA+ and 1.54 WHIP.

OF Leuri Ramirez, who was actually the 6th overall pick in 2058 by the Giants, but he failed to sign. He had a great college career winning National Player of the Year in 2059, an All-American selection and .390/.464/.776 slash line with 160 wRC+ this past year at the University of Washington.

DRAFT RESULTS (MOVE #4)
We ended up picking Regalado, it's just not everyday you have someone with 5 pitches ready go and with our bullpen woes right now, I don't really have the luxury of taking a bat that might take a while to adjust to major league pitching.

I was going to use a countermove to keep Ramirez out of the NL, but it seems like for whatever reason, the AI absolutely hates guys who have difficult signability and prefer prospects with lower potential. I think this is a flaw based on the fact that my leagues play with higher than average ratings, and the game doesn't really know what to do with it, but it's still not logical behavior.

Nonetheless, we're past the supplemental round and into the 2nd round and another 16 teams pass on Ramirez, meaning that I'm indeed going to take him. The AI wanted me to take Arizona State OF A.J. Barringer, who hit .470 during his senior year of HS, but didn't make the lineup at ASU.

NEXT STEPS
Drafting used all of my 4th move, so we're down to two moves left this season to get me through a hopeful post-season appearance for the Cards, I hope the offers I made were good enough to get everyone on board, as I won't be able to waste another move trying to make another offer.

Given that Van Doren is playing so much better, I'm less inclined to move him, that contract is a bargain relative to his production, though he'd be worth a haul on the open market. We really need to improve our offense at catcher and middle infield, unless we're just going to double down on defensive options, but all we can really hope to do is look at the market.

I'm going to be simming all the way to the trade deadline or nearby, to see if we can bolster the lineup for a post-season run. We use a ladder style playoff system, and we currently are fighting the New York Mets for the top seed, there's a strong incentive to win as much as possible because 1) rust doesn't exist in OOTP and 2) it means fewer games we have to play to potentially win a World Series.

TOUCANS UPDATE
Still in last place, I haven't checked in on them this move, I'll focus on them in the off-season and I might cut them loose for now, it's a lot easier to manage just one club and the Federal League job is so different and I don't enjoy the context switching. I think at some point I'll add a 2nd club because I like the challenge and the different lens, but I need to get a better handle on this first club before I do that.

I have a separate GM profile for them anyway, so I'll just resign when the season is done.

[Young Drachma]

COUNTERMOVE, JULY 4TH 2061

CARDINALS (60-35, .5 GB, +6.5 WC)

I stopped to do a countermove to check things out, wanting to stall on actually making moves until closer to the deadline.

I decided to look at teams very far out of the race to see if there are some moves I could make on behalf of a team but doing so swiftly, given that we don't get a lot of time you really only get one deal to make to scope out.

In this case, Montreal (53-42) is 7 GB in the NL East and .5 GB in the Wild Card race. Even though they're my competition, I'd love to get them into the post-season if we can, so I went trolling from the out of contention teams to bolster their situation, except they are 31st in farm system so it'll be tough to help them out.

They acquired three players from Boston for prospects including SP Calvin Reitmeier (4-7, 3.61), OF Gabe Braithwaite (.380 SLG) and infielder Christian Wood. They needed some depth and this should help, though not sure it'll be enough to get them into the post-season.

LEAGUE STANDINGS - JULY 4, 2061

AMERICAN LEAGUE

Eastern Division
Team W L PCT GB
Toronto 56 44 .560 -
Baltimore 52 50 .510 5.0
Cleveland 51 50 .505 5.5
New York 46 54 .460 10.0
Boston 43 58 .426 13.5

Central Division
Team W L PCT GB
Minnesota 58 43 .574 -
Carolina 54 47 .535 4.0
Milwaukee 52 49 .515 6.0
Detroit 49 51 .490 8.5
Indianapolis 40 61 .396 18.0

Western Division
Team W L PCT GB
Sacramento 57 43 .570 -
Seattle 51 49 .510 6.0
Portland 41 59 .410 16.0
San Diego 40 60 .400 17.0

Southern Division
Team W L PCT GB
Nashville 61 39 .610 -
Houston 53 47 .530 8.0
Texas 48 52 .480 13.0
Kansas City 43 57 .430 18.0

NATIONAL LEAGUE

Eastern Division
Team W L PCT GB
New York 63 38 .624 -
Montreal 56 45 .554 7.0
Philadelphia 56 46 .549 7.5
Washington 46 54 .460 16.5
Atlanta 37 63 .370 25.5

Central Division
Team W L PCT GB
St. Louis 64 37 .634 -
Cincinnati 63 37 .630 0.5
Chicago 54 47 .535 10.0
Louisville 45 56 .446 19.0
New Orleans 45 56 .446 19.0

Western Division
Team W L PCT GB
San Francisco 50 50 .500 -
Vancouver 49 51 .490 1.0
Los Angeles 47 53 .470 3.0
Arizona 46 54 .460 4.0

Mountain Division
Team W L PCT GB
Salt Lake 54 46 .540 -
Colorado 52 48 .520 2.0
Albuquerque 45 55 .450 9.0
Calgary 41 59 .410 13.0

Next Move: Trade deadline maneuvering, aiming for that crucial #1 NL seed for playoff positioning

[Young Drachma]

MOVE #5 - JULY 18, 2061
Cardinals (67-40, 1 GB, +8 WC)

I had to make my pre-deadline move here because I would prefer to see what's on the market and try to position us for some better usage out of whatever rentals I can get my hands on. One side effect of the smaller playoffs is that the trade market goes bonkers at this time of year.

With not a lot of time to do tons of shopping, I opt for just seeing what's on the trade block and who we can bring in. We could use additional offense, a bullpen arm or two and depth. Farm system is Top 5 now thanks to our recent draft picks, and I have a few players who we inherited from the old regime who are ready to get promoted and either would be good depth guys or trade bait, depending on which way I want to go.

We make a blockbuster with the struggling Padres (43-64) that brings us 1B Owen Nielsen (.251/.309/.414, 12 HR, 45 RBI in 90 games), CF Liam Bright (.244/.312/.364, 5 HR, 13 SB), veteran RHP Chase Benjamin (5-10, 5.30 ERA, with San Diego retaining salary), and C Ralph Judd (.140/.222/.217) for depth. We give up some interesting young talent but no elite prospects - two Single-A players with potential (LHP Garcia with a 1.50 ERA and 1B McGowan hitting .267), Double-A outfielder Jordan Avery (.309/.429/.436 with good speed), and two MLB-ready pieces in Jace Coulter (.250/.279/.312) and Julian Vo (.143/.143/.143 in limited time).

That deal didn't take long, so we still have another few minutes to see what else we might be able to do. Nothing really materialized, but I decided to shop 3B Terrance Adkins, a 20-year old who has not yet cracked the lineup — he's not ready — but would do well someplace he can develop and not on a contender where we need someone to fill a spot right now.

He's the 7th best prospect in baseball, so I can't just give him away, but I'm opting to sell high here rather than see if he's going to develop in a few years well after this window of winning might be gone. I don't know if anyone is offering me anything when I shop him worth moving him and we might just have to roll with what we have right now, I'm about out of time to figure something else out and it's not clear to me what else I can really do — realistically — without dealing a bunch of players and/or taking on bad contracts to do it. Rentals are cool, but I hate trading top prospects for them unless it's something truly elite.

[COUNTERMOVE]
I bought some time freezing the clock. Sacramento signed 30 year Cuban OF Kaka Machado, the Solons have been bouncing around Northern California and Vegas over the past few decades and they're now in 1st place in the AL West and this is a big moment for them to establish themselves, so I want to see if they can do it.

AMERICAN LEAGUE STANDINGS
Eastern Division: Tight three-team race with Toronto (56-50) leading Cleveland by 1.0 and Baltimore by 1.5
Central Division: Minnesota (60-48) leads Carolina by 3.5
Western Division: Sacramento (61-46) comfortable with 6.0 game lead on Seattle
Southern Division: Nashville (64-42) leading Houston by 6.0

NATIONAL LEAGUE STANDINGS
Eastern Division: Mets dominating at 69-39, 9.5 ahead of Philadelphia
Central Division: Cincinnati (68-39) leads us by 1.0, Cubs 9.5 back
Western Division: Giants (55-52) barely ahead of Vancouver by 2.0
Mountain Division: Salt Lake (57-49) leads Colorado by 2.0


These standings are particularly crucial because of our league's unique ladder-style playoff format. Unlike traditional MLB playoffs, teams face an increasingly difficult path based on their regular season finish:

• The two worst qualifying teams meet in a single Wild Card game
• The winner faces the next worst playoff team in another single elimination game
• That winner advances to a Best-of-3 LES against the next team up
• The survivor then faces a better seed in a Best-of-5 Division Series
• Finally, whoever emerges from this gauntlet faces the #1 seed in a Best-of-7 LCS
• The pennant winners then meet in a Best-of-9 World Series

This makes our current position (67-40) and the tight race with Cincinnati (68-39) and the Mets (69-39) absolutely critical. While we're safely in playoff position at 8 games up on the Wild Card, winning the division - and potentially claiming that #1 seed - would mean avoiding the brutal ladder climb through multiple elimination games

[Young Drachma]

MOVE #6 - JULY 25, 2061
Cardinals (71-41, +0.5, 2nd Seed)

I changed my mind about holding onto this move for late-season insurance. With our strong position - now leading Cincinnati by half a game and guaranteed the #2 seed in our ladder-style playoff format - I decided to be aggressive and use our final move before the deadline. We send Terrance Adkins (#5 prospect in baseball), along with two other Top 100 prospects in CF Dusty Fergus (#195) and 2B Olier Johansson (#99) to the Yankees in exchange for All-Star infielder Sandy Cook and veteran pitcher Joachim De Los Santos.

Cook (.324/.423/.470, 13 HR, 8 SB) is a significant addition - a 3-time All-Star having a 5 WAR season who can play multiple infield positions. He's arbitration eligible but controllable, making this more than just a rental move. We also got them to include De Los Santos (8-10, 3.84 ERA, 150 IP) in his walk year to add pitching depth.

The prospect cost is steep - headlined by one of baseball's elite prospects in Adkins - but this feels like the right balance between going for it now while still maintaining long-term stability. Taking Cook's arbitration rights means this isn't purely a win-now move, and his versatility gives us lots of lineup options.

The standings show why this move made sense - we've edged ahead of Cincinnati by half a game, the Cubs have fallen 8 games back, and we're actually ahead of everyone except the Mets (74-40) in winning percentage. Getting Cook could be the difference-maker in avoiding the longer playoff path through the ladder format.

I hate using our last move this early (July 25th), but sometimes you have to strike when the right deal presents itself. Between this and our earlier Padres trade, we've significantly upgraded the roster for the stretch run without mortgaging everything for rentals.

AMERICAN LEAGUE STANDINGS
Eastern Division: Toronto (59-53) holding slim lead over Baltimore (1.5) and Cleveland (2.0)
Central Division: Minnesota (63-51) ahead of Carolina by 2.0
Western Division: Sacramento (64-49) comfortable with 4.5 game lead
Southern Division: Nashville dominating at 69-43, up 7.5 on Houston

NATIONAL LEAGUE STANDINGS
Eastern Division: Mets pulling away at 74-40, 10.5 ahead of Philadelphia
Central Division: We've taken the lead (71-41) by half a game over Cincinnati (71-42), Cubs 8.0 back
Western Division: Giants (57-56) barely above .500 but leading
Mountain Division: Salt Lake (59-53) up 2.5 on Colorado

The Mets remain the team to beat overall, but we're sitting with the second-best record in baseball and in prime position to avoid the ladder format's gauntlet by securing one of the top seeds. The Yankees (52-60) being 7 games out in the AL East likely helped make them willing to deal Cook despite his strong season.