Need Basic Explanation of AI Roster Control and Player Ratings

[Eugene Church]

I have played OOTP since OOTP 3... it is a marvelous game... I dearly love Markus Heinsohn and his wonderful, superb game.

But sad to say I have never really tried to understand AI roster control and pitcher ratings... I have always played without minor leagues (stats in the early years were not realistic... they may be realistic now, but I never checked to see)... fictional leagues... I just let the game play out basically and observe the results produced by the AI... I just use active rosters and reserve rosters... I let the AI totally take care of contracts and financials... I am not into the business of baseball.

Therefore I need to know just the bare and simple basics of the game as far as player ratings and AI roster control... I realize OOTP is very complicated with a zillions settings and choices... I hoping you can just give me a very general overall answer to my 2 basic questions.

I apologize if I am asking too much to get simple, basic answers... it may not be possible to answer them in a simple way.

Question #! - AI Roster Control:
Will the AI fill the reserve roster when it falls below the number allowed by the league?
Will the AI sign free agents and fill up the reserve roster?
Does the AI purge non-productive players from the reserve roster?
Does the AI retire aging non-productive players from the active rosters?

I found that I reached a point where rookies were not being produced that would be contributors to the active roster... players would sit on the reserve rosters and rarely make the active rosters... younger players were not coming into my league... I now have to purge these players who come on at 18-25 years of age... when they have done nothing for 5-10 years, I delete them... I now create my own rookies and don't use the Annual Draft... the player talent level just doesn't produce impact players... I create my own free agents on the Free Agents screen... I think I give them ratings good enough to compete in my league.
This has worked pretty well, but it require an hour a team to update each year... I have 64 teams in my league... way too much work.
I love my league, but the workload is getting to the point I may end the Dynasty League after 73 seasons and 12 years of real time covering it in the Dynasty League Forum... it is no longer a labor of love... I'm the aging veteran that still loves baseball, but I can perform anymore.

Come on guys... give me some OOTP Viagra help.

Why doesn't the AI purge these players when their ratings reach a certain Point.... I see too many players with poor ratings on the reserve rosters.

Why doesn't the AI promote players with excellent ratings?... I see talented players that get skipped year-after-year in the reserve roster for lesser talented players on the active roster.

I see over-the-hill and past-their-prime veterans lingering 3-4 years past retirement... Why?

Question #2 -- Player Ratings:
Will a player ALWAYS perform according to his ratings?... does the game have "hidden" ratings that effect the career of the players?

Please explain Pitcher Ratings.
This pitcher is a star in my league and will make the Hall of Fame... he is still very productive at age 37... 16-9 last year with a 3.35 ERA.

What does the Fastball Rating (minus velocity) mean?... all pitchers do not have this rating... Why?
Which pitcher ratings are the most important to success?


Thanks for your help... much appreciate it.

Sorry, the manual is only good for general generic questions... it is no help to me for these questions.

[BirdWatcher]

Okay, I'll take a stab at answering just a couple of your questions here (for now, at least).

I believe that the fastball (minus velocity) simply is a measure of how effective/good this pitcher's 4-seam fastball is and how that plays out in games will also be influenced by things like velocity. The reason not all pitchers have this is because another pitcher's repertoire might include another variation of fastball (cutter or sinker, for instance) or in rarer cases might not include a fastball at all. The tricky part is that ratings act in concert with each other. So having a highly rated fastball is a good thing, but to what extent that leads to success depends upon so many other factors.
Which is why, also, in OOTP, like in real-life, there is a measure of guesswork involved.

Similarly with the question of which pitcher ratings are most important to success. I'm sure that some here might offer an answer to that, and they won't necessarily be wrong. But they won't necessarily be right either. Because it is a complex matter of interrelationships.
For instance, in a high home run environment and with a home park that favors power hitters, one might want to focus pretty strongly on pitchers with high movement and/or who induce groundballs at higher rates. That might not be as important though if the statistical climate you play in de-emphasizes the long ball. Another example- if you have a poor fielding middle infield, having pitchers who specialize in getting groundballs might not be ideal and maybe you want guys with high stuff who get more strikeouts and allow fewer balls in play. Me, I love to have extreme groundball pitchers but it also forces me to make sure I keep that infield defense, especially up the middle, as strong as possible.
I also love guys with great stuff and control and will live with a pitcher giving up a few too many solo homers, provided they are getting good strikeout to walk ratios.

In my experience, starting pitchers with 3 terrific pitches but no other pitches can be very dominant but sometimes also inconsistent, whereas starters with 5-6 pitches, even if most of them aren't out pitches, can give you consistent moderate success for many years. But perhaps only rarely will deliver dominant performances.

But with all of this, there are multiple factors that can affect outcomes. Part of the fun is not knowing but making your best judgements based upon the evidence at hand.

EDIT: And as for the guy you have shown us here, well, I'm not surprised he is still quite good. He has tremendous movement, good stuff, and decent control. That curveball is nasty, good changeup and sinker, and average-ish 4-seam fastball. There are things I can't know about him from what you have shown, but this all looks like a premium pitcher, even if a bit past his prime.

[luckymann]

EC, with regard to the creation of new players, have you ever tried bumping up the creation modifiers? I've used them and the difference in the overall quality of players coming through the draft becomes quite noticeable after a couple years.

Don't go crazy with how far you increase the modifiers - they obviously work as a percentage, so if you set them at 1.1000 player quality improves by 10% - and you will likely find you need to move them about both in general and with regard to specific positions, but it should greatly reduce the time you need to spend on getting the player mix right.

Oh and BirdWatcher fairly nailed it about pitcher ratings.

[Eugene Church]

Thanks to Birdwatcher and luckyman for the help.

Both of you helped me and increased my knowledge of a very complex game.

I may try what luckyman advised and up the creation modifiers and see if that helps give me a better class of free agents each year.

[luckymann]

Originally Posted by Eugene Church

Thanks to Birdwatcher and luckyman for the help.

Both of you helped me and increased my knowledge of a very complex game.

I may try what luckyman advised and up the creation modifiers and see if that helps give me a better class of free agents each year.

Always a pleasure for you EC. I'd maybe set it at 1.100 for a couple years and see if that moves you toward where you want things to be. Then maybe pull it back to 1.075 and then 1.050. It can tend to increase things exponentially so be watchful of that.