Rainouts

[Rick_Hamel]

My only other pet peeve with the game other than the substitution thing is that there are no rainouts, just rain delays. Just think it would add something, having makeup games force you to manipulate your staff just like the real thing. Could be an option that's enabled or disabled...and games could be rained out before they start or after.

[elfsutton]

I think that the scheduling quirks is again the reason for no rain outs. The problems for the weak schedule generator would be too many for this to be added. It would be great but unless someone comes up with a way to make the scheduler more capable, it isnt gonna happen.

[Scruff]

Is it that hard to just play a DH the next time the two teams are in the same city?

And if not find a mutual off day, and if not go to a manual reschedule?

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by Scruff

Is it that hard to just play a DH the next time the two teams are in the same city?

And if not find a mutual off day, and if not go to a manual reschedule?

Nne must note that the majors and minors approach rescheduling differently, so that would have to be accounted for. In the majors, games are most commonly made up as separate admission day-night doubleheaders, then as a single game on a common off day, and lastly as a standard single admission doubleheader. In real life there are constraints on how many days in a row a club can play which impact on which date a rescheduled game can be played.

There's also the fact that, in the past, postponement rates were considerably higher in MLB. These days it's about 1-2%, but in the 1940s it averaged close to 10% (that's one game in ten being postponed).

See this thread in the OOTP 13 forum for a discussion of postponements.

[jmolony3]

I would even settle that rain delays turn into shortened games when the game is long enough to be official.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by jmolony3

I would even settle that rain delays turn into shortened games when the game is long enough to be official.

That would be a nice touch to see, though as I recall the data such occurrences are fairly rare in the majors.

[BigCity]

Maybe the "solution" to this rainout/scheduling concern is to simply "cancel" a random number of games during the season in keeping with history. We know most games are made up - thus the only thing we're missing is seeing the game canceled and rescheduled... but if the average number of games NOT made up (no playoff implications) is like 2-3 games a season, then simply have that many games randomly chosen throughout the season which represents those not rescheduled.

IF, at the end of the season, it turns out one or more of those games DOES have a playoff implication, schedule it(them) before the playoffs start.

In this way we simulate the concept and actually might have final standings that show half-games.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by BigCity

Maybe the "solution" to this rainout/scheduling concern is to simply "cancel" a random number of games during the season in keeping with history. We know most games are made up - thus the only thing we're missing is seeing the game canceled and rescheduled... but if the average number of games NOT made up (no playoff implications) is like 2-3 games a season, then simply have that many games randomly chosen throughout the season which represents those not rescheduled.

This misses the fact that, especially in earlier years, the replaying of postponed games had a significant effect on the schedule, e.g. lots of doubleheaders, and that obviously affects pitcher usage, fatigue, etc. And that's the real challenge postponements offer to users, having to adapt to the changed conditions.

In terms of using real-world figures, keep in mind that for earlier seasons the numbers can be deceptive. In 1913, for example, the Phillies had an 88-63 record. That's 151 games. But the club actually played 159 games that season. How? It had 8 games end as a tie. While those ties don't count in the standings they do count for player statistics and attendance. So if you count by the number of games actually played, the Phillies had more than a complete season and thus need no games removed. But if you count only the wins and losses, then it had three missing games.

[TribeFanInNC]

My general suggestion to features that aren't done in the game is to make a house rule. In this instance, roll two dice before every game (or roll one die once a week, or whatever). When a 2 comes up, manually reschedule that game and pretend it was rained out. Come up with whatever system you want that is easy.

These kinda things really make the game feel like my own to me. I know not everybody wants to go through that trouble, but it increases the immersion for me.

Just a suggestion...

[sjam613]

While it would be a wonderful idea, I can see how crazy it would be to program in. My complaint with the current system is after a lengthy rain delay, the AI tends to leave the pitcher in for a little bit even though he is "exhausted". Great that a rain delay has an effect on the starting pitchers but the AI needs to be tweaked here.