OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post - GTOAT

tavo2311 · 06-06-2020, 09:49 PM

Introducing - The GTOAT Tourney!

After March Madness was cancelled and quarantine began, I decided to create a Greatest Team of All Time tournament. Yes, I dragged my heels so long during the research and prep that MLB.com stole my thunder with their Dream Bracket 2. I will still go through with this though as there are key differences in the setup.

Format: A 64-team bracket, with four regions seeded 1-16, with teams picked from 1902 through 2019. Each round will be a best of 7 series.

Selection Process: There were a few guidelines here. But the main thing to keep in mind is that it is not meant to be a tournament involving a strict ranking or list.
1. Every franchise / team must have at least one representative. To clarify, I did not follow the lineage of franchises when doing this. The Twins must have a representative as well as the Senators. The Expos and the Nationals both must appear, etc… In almost all instances, the best team ever for that team was chosen. An exception or two exists, and is detailed as to why in due time.
2. I did not allow back-to-back seasons, and even seasons a few years apart I tried to space out. If the 1906 and 1907 Cubs both are ranked in the top 10, or the 1939 and 1937 Yankees, only one of those instances will be admitted. We wanted some diversity.
3. A very unscientific approach was used to select the teams. An initial pass was using various online sources and books I have, and where teams continuously showed up on lists of the best ever they were automatically in. Then an article from 2016 from 538.com publishing their rankings of all teams ever using ELO was used. Finally, some “wild-cards” were given out, for teams that neither ranked high enough on ELO to justify an entry, and also didn’t have the reputational clout, but that had a great storyline or a key player that just had to be in the tournament (1924 Washington Senators and Walter Johnson I’m looking at you).

Link to ELO article: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...ording-to-elo/

Seeding: Once teams were picked, seeding was simply the committee (me) using a combo of rankings and reputation to somewhat seed them in order, followed by adjustments to create some interesting first round matchups (1919 Reds vs. 1917 White Sox – close to a Black Sox rematch) and potential matchups (Ted Williams vs. Joe DiMaggio in round 2, or Murderer’s Row vs ’95 Braves pitching in a round of 16).

Gameplay: Staffs and lineups will be set-up realistically for that team. If a dead-ball team used a 2-man rotation they may, and if a modern team used 4 in the real-world playoffs they will, but with some flexibility for short rest as we see in today’s game. I will not be managing in-games but setting lineups and pitching ahead of time.

DH and year-specific settings to use: I struggled with these questions for a while, on what settings to use for this tournament to determine the most level playing field for all teams when spanning 120 years. In the end I decided not to try and pigeonhole the entire tourney into one setting. The settings used will be determined on a series by series basis. For the DH, if both teams were from 1972 or earlier they won’t use a DH for the series. If 1973 or after, the DH will be used in an AL team’s ballpark and not in the NL’s, as it is with the World Series currently. For the settings on which era to use, I wanted to use “splitting the difference.” If a team from 1950 is playing a team from 2000, we would use 1975 settings. This will work fine when teams from the same era play each other. But I admit, there’s a real sense of randomness in an example such as the above. That being said, there’s no great way to judge teams across such different eras, and I wanted to avoid giving too much advantage to any single team, but my desired use of settings isn't available (I previously thought it was, but it must only be in leagues, not historical exhibitions), so we will do this: If the two teams are within 25 years of each other, we will use the higher seed's specific year settings. If they are more than 25 years apart, we will use default modern settings. Nothing will be perfect, but oh well.

Schedule: I will be trying to sim a series or two a night, maybe with a break between rounds. I will randomly choose the order and rotate the regions that games are played from also.

Next posts I will unveil the seeds and bracket.

06-06-2020, 09:49 PM	#1
tavo2311 Minors (Double A) Join Date: Nov 2014 Location: New Jersey Posts: 157	GTOAT - Greatest Team of All Time Tournament Introducing - The GTOAT Tourney! After March Madness was cancelled and quarantine began, I decided to create a Greatest Team of All Time tournament. Yes, I dragged my heels so long during the research and prep that MLB.com stole my thunder with their Dream Bracket 2. I will still go through with this though as there are key differences in the setup. Format: A 64-team bracket, with four regions seeded 1-16, with teams picked from 1902 through 2019. Each round will be a best of 7 series. Selection Process: There were a few guidelines here. But the main thing to keep in mind is that it is not meant to be a tournament involving a strict ranking or list. 1. Every franchise / team must have at least one representative. To clarify, I did not follow the lineage of franchises when doing this. The Twins must have a representative as well as the Senators. The Expos and the Nationals both must appear, etc… In almost all instances, the best team ever for that team was chosen. An exception or two exists, and is detailed as to why in due time. 2. I did not allow back-to-back seasons, and even seasons a few years apart I tried to space out. If the 1906 and 1907 Cubs both are ranked in the top 10, or the 1939 and 1937 Yankees, only one of those instances will be admitted. We wanted some diversity. 3. A very unscientific approach was used to select the teams. An initial pass was using various online sources and books I have, and where teams continuously showed up on lists of the best ever they were automatically in. Then an article from 2016 from 538.com publishing their rankings of all teams ever using ELO was used. Finally, some “wild-cards” were given out, for teams that neither ranked high enough on ELO to justify an entry, and also didn’t have the reputational clout, but that had a great storyline or a key player that just had to be in the tournament (1924 Washington Senators and Walter Johnson I’m looking at you). Link to ELO article: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...ording-to-elo/ Seeding: Once teams were picked, seeding was simply the committee (me) using a combo of rankings and reputation to somewhat seed them in order, followed by adjustments to create some interesting first round matchups (1919 Reds vs. 1917 White Sox – close to a Black Sox rematch) and potential matchups (Ted Williams vs. Joe DiMaggio in round 2, or Murderer’s Row vs ’95 Braves pitching in a round of 16). Gameplay: Staffs and lineups will be set-up realistically for that team. If a dead-ball team used a 2-man rotation they may, and if a modern team used 4 in the real-world playoffs they will, but with some flexibility for short rest as we see in today’s game. I will not be managing in-games but setting lineups and pitching ahead of time. DH and year-specific settings to use: I struggled with these questions for a while, on what settings to use for this tournament to determine the most level playing field for all teams when spanning 120 years. In the end I decided not to try and pigeonhole the entire tourney into one setting. The settings used will be determined on a series by series basis. For the DH, if both teams were from 1972 or earlier they won’t use a DH for the series. If 1973 or after, the DH will be used in an AL team’s ballpark and not in the NL’s, as it is with the World Series currently. For the settings on which era to use, I wanted to use “splitting the difference.” If a team from 1950 is playing a team from 2000, we would use 1975 settings. This will work fine when teams from the same era play each other. But I admit, there’s a real sense of randomness in an example such as the above. That being said, there’s no great way to judge teams across such different eras, and I wanted to avoid giving too much advantage to any single team, but my desired use of settings isn't available (I previously thought it was, but it must only be in leagues, not historical exhibitions), so we will do this: If the two teams are within 25 years of each other, we will use the higher seed's specific year settings. If they are more than 25 years apart, we will use default modern settings. Nothing will be perfect, but oh well. Schedule: I will be trying to sim a series or two a night, maybe with a break between rounds. I will randomly choose the order and rotate the regions that games are played from also. Next posts I will unveil the seeds and bracket. Last edited by tavo2311; 06-07-2020 at 11:47 AM.