[thehef]

Originally Posted by David Watts

I started this mainly due to the Facebook posts in which the guy finished under .500 managing the 61 Yanks. He was using OOTP21. Cool thing about how OOTP operates when using real lineups is, the AI doesn't immediately insert a stud player into the game if that player sat out in real life. For example, if playing a game and Al Kaline didn't start for the Tigers, it would suck if the AI immediately inserted him into the game. I don't see the AI doing this, and I love it. If we could ever get the actual game day rosters, so the bullpen is full of the actual bullpen guys each day it would be incredible, but I'm guessing that would take way too much work. Heck, I was perusing PC Replay baseball as folks absolutely rave about that game. But, man one would have to be rich to play it and afford the seasons. Guessing they are priced high, because so much work goes into creating them.

Yep, I hear ya. Here's something I posted in the beta group a few months ago that you may find interesting, touching upon exactly what you are saying in the Kaline example:

Originally Posted by thehef

Something I've wanted to test for awhile, that I've just gotten around to... I don't "play" OOTP with historical lineups, but I use it for testing, depending upon the goal of the test... I wanted to see what OOTP - with historical lineups enabled - would do with an unadjusted 1972 Maury Wills, who was simply atrocious from the plate that season (.129 / .190 / .167). Of course OOTP has advance knowledge that Walt Alston didn't: That Maury was washed up, whereas poor Walt just assumed that Wills was off to a slow start...

So IRL Wills started off in his usual leadoff spot. He spent most of April there, but missed almost all of May and the first part of June. By mid-June he returned to the lineup in the leadoff spot for a handful of games, then was benched. He made it back into the lineup sporadically in July, but in the 8 spot. From August on he was relegated to pinch-running and defensive-replacement duties (usually at 3B***), never to see the starting lineup again. (Bill Russell took over at SS, and Lee Lacy was the new leadoff man, having been promoted to handle 2B in place of Jim Lefebvre, who - like Wills - was in his final season and also contributing very little at the plate).

***Of the five other guys to see time at 3B that season, not a single one had a fielding % above .913, so the fact that Wills fielded well at 3B - 1.000 - may have been what kept him on the team after July.)

What I expected was that OOTP - knowing just how terrible a hitter Wills was that season - would pinch-hit for him often and early. What actually happened was that, yes, he was pinch-hit for often, but (IMO to OOTP's credit) never early. He almost always got 3 or 4 AB's before being PH for. In fact, a few times he was pinch-hit for by Claude Osteen - a pitcher (albeit a decent-hitting pitcher that year).

I'll note that I'm not seeing a problem here. I just thought it was an interesting "learn" for me about how OOTP utilizes historical lineups, so I thought I'd share