***The Official OOTP Thread***

[KBLover]

I don't know if this was always a thing, but one of my 16-year-old prospects went to see a guru.

That, I know was a thing. But what I didn't know was the guru's name:

Vishnan Hitmehard


I don't know how I feel about a pitcher taking advice from a guy named Hit me hard...

[KSUowls]

This game loves Bryce Harper and Juan Soto. I have had a few different 2019 season restarts so far (beta, official release, post release updates). Each time I noticed both of these players just destroying baseballs. Meanwhile Ronald Acuna has been a decent to good player each time.

Finally went into commish mode to look at how the game really views these 3 players. Maybe I'm suffering from some bias but I was surprised at just how high the ratings were for Soto and Harper. Not to say they don't deserve high ratings, but they are both extremely high, even compared to Acuna whom the game likes but doesn't love like it does the other 2.

Sent from my S10 using Operation Sports mobile app

[KBLover]

Quote: Originally Posted by KSUowls

This game loves Bryce Harper and Juan Soto. I have had a few different 2019 season restarts so far (beta, official release, post release updates). Each time I noticed both of these players just destroying baseballs. Meanwhile Ronald Acuna has been a decent to good player each time.

Yeah Juan Soto is like the next Mike Trout, basically. I don't know a lot about him so I did some quick scouting report searching on Google. Based on what I can see, he's highly regarded, ranked as high as #22 on prospect lists, and his minors stats and rate do kinda jump off the page, especially that 16% walk rate. Minors stats are what they are, but young hitters with high plate discipline aren't usual, and walk rate should carry to at least solid strike zone discipline in the majors.

I don't know if he should be rated quite as high as he is, but guys go whichever why they do once you start playing.

Keep in mind, I'm in the 2023-2024 offseason right now, so my observations are based on that, not just 2019.

Harper in my game isn't doing bad, probably what you'd expect, but it's not amazing or out of the ordinary (as opposed to Soto whose lowest full season WAR is 5.7. The only times he's been under that is due to injury).

Ratings - Soto is killing it: 80/60/70/75/55 - not all that out of line with the scouting reports I've seen, so, basically, OOTP is modelling he hits his expectations and makes the usual young-player-filling-out growths in power and his BABIP kept climbing. That + HR Power + decent Av. K = rapidly increasing Contact rating.

Harper: 55/60/70/80/40 - not bad at all. The Contact and Av.K hold him back at times...or all the time in the case of 2023 where he batted just .215 and posted his lowest OPS+ and WAR in five years. Still, he'll probably bounce back. Probably some bad luck (.252 BABIP) as much as anything else.

Acuna: 70/70/60/55/50 - he's awesome in my game, though WAR doesn't like him...wRC+ shows his offensive prowess. In that department, only once has he been under 130 wRC+ (2019), and twice he's been over 150 (2018, 2020). He's been 149, 147, 139 in 2021-2023, respectively. I don't know why his WAR is so low. He's been moved to LF so maybe that's part of it. (Cristian Pache came up in 2020 with his OMG defense... 80/70/75 OF defense... and took CF).

[Scott]

Officially popped up on Origin Premiere today...

[KBLover]

Guess I need to give McKay more ABs

[KBLover]

Sometimes I swear this game's AI is trying to learn what kind of players I like.

I've been playing a lot of lefties ever since I started my expansion team. I've decided to run with it and try to stockpile lefties, maybe even start a roster of all lefty hitters and lefty pitchers.

So, in the draft, my scout director has been suggesting lefties almost constantly.

Reminds me in my Angels save in '19, I went gap power galore and the scout would consistently bring up players with high gap ratings, even if they were lower POT than another player (and neither had "Impossible" signability).

It's probably nothing, but it's a creepy coincidence in that case

Does the scout director play off the team needs this year? I see the Assistant GM does in bringing up players that they think fit the team needs.

If so, that might explain it - I have lefties in my team needs. And, also if so, that's pretty sweet.

[canes21]

In real life the Braves game @ Colorado was postponed. I just played the makeup game in my franchise when Colorado came to town. The makeup game had them as the home team. The SunTrust Park crowd acted as if we were at Coors Field. Not a big deal, but kinda funny. Is that a common issue with the makeup games?

[KBLover]