a few suggestions for OOTP17

jaa36 · 06-07-2015, 04:40 PM

I've posted some of these in past seasons, but I'm posting again to keep the pressure on.

I'd emphasize, as usual, that this is a terrific game and that these changes would just be icing on the cake.

1. Ability to enter or change award winners retroactively. I hate it when I screw these up and there's no turning back.

2. Better support for amateur baseball. I'd love to have a more true-to-life high school and college system. For colleges, they should have a "prestige" rating that would determine the quality of players that go there. There should be a weekly ranking system, and a College World Series at the end of the year. High school could be more abstracted- perhaps just generating a few hundred players with stats to simulate each class, but then having a recruiting model for the college level based on the college's prestige, and a rating for the player as far as how likely they were to sign with a major league team rather than going to college.

3. A few changes to stats. wRC and wRC+ should be in season and career leaderboards. RA9 and RA9-wins (or baseball reference WAR) should be added for pitchers and included in these leaderboards. Also, K%, BB%, K-BB%, shutdowns, meltdowns, and won-lost record while starting (in addition to the traditional definition of won-lost record) should be tracked for pitchers. wRAA and times reached on error should be included for hitters. The number of games a player has played at each position should also be viewable as a stat within a custom view- this really comes in handy for selecting all-stars.

4. Ability to loan players to other teams or leagues, such as for the World Baseball Classic, or for the Arizona Fall League.

5. Promotion-relegation, with the AI monitoring when a team is likely to get promoted or relegated and acting accordingly.

6. Selecting all-stars (or all-pro team) after the season and for leagues with only a single subleague and single division. All-pro awards could be added similar to how Silver Slugger was added this year. Seeing games played per position (as in #3) would really help with this.

7. Awards. Option to only have starting pitchers win the Pitcher of the Year award, and option to only have a player from the winning team with the Series MVP award. Also, allowing the player to select or edit the Player of the Game or Series MVP awards. And finally, more than one Custom award. Though obviously, adding all the other awards has helped with this.

8. A more dynamic injury system. I'd like the injury severity to get gradually better and worse- so that you really have to decide whether it's something the player can play through or needs to go on the DL. Then as the player rests, his readiness would gradually improve (80%, 85%, etc) and you'd have the option of bringing the player back, sending him to a rehab assignment, leaving him on the DL longer, etc. Bringing the player back to soon would risk further injury. This could be something that's very granular, as it's not realistic for the GM/manager to know that a player is truly 85% back to full health.

9. Control over what stats are displayed on the Standings, Statistics, and Leaderboards pages. I don't really care what the top OPS or hitting streaks are in the league, but I'd love to see wOBA and runs scored on the standings page instead, for example.

10. Better interface in the League Totals section. I should be able to see from this section very easily what the estimated statistical output will be for the league, including how (very approximately) the leaderboard will look. I'm sure that many people can relate to this, but I often spend hours trying to get the statistical output for a league just right, and the game should let me know what the estimated output will be without having to run the sim.

11. Calculation of projected park factors. The game should determine, based on the league totals modifiers and the parks that are in the game, what the estimated effect of the park will be on average, doubles, triples, home runs, and (most importantly) runs scored. As it stands, it's very hard to tell (except in very obvious cases) whether a park will function as a pitcher's or hitter's park.

12. Better roster rules for managing minor-league call-ups. In most cases in MLB, if a player is sent to AAA, he can't come back for 10 days. But in OOTP, you can rig the system to just send guys to and from AAA every few days.

13. More flexibility in pitching role management. I should be able to tell the AI that I want to limit the number of batters a pitcher faces- rather than have him on a strict pitch limit. (The rationale for this is the data demonstrating that pitchers get worse each time they go through the batting order.) I'd also like to be able to rank pitchers by how good they are and have the AI manager deploy the best in high-leverage situations and the worst in low-leverage situations. You can sort of do this with the "stopper" designation, but that's only available for "medium" or lower frequency of closer or reliever usage in OOTP 16.

14. An easier way to rotate the DH among players that would otherwise start. A lot of teams do this now rather than have a full-time DH. I guess you can do this with seven-day lineups, but that's a lot of work. Perhaps just having a selection in the DH slot within the lineups page where you can just check "rotate among starters." Or perhaps allowing you on the player page to click a box for "start at DH when tired."

15. Better way to learn and unlearn positions. It's not realistic that a guy who is an excellent shortstop would take a million years to get up to speed at second base. Players shifting down on the defensive spectrum should pick up the new position very quickly. Some of the underlying ratings should translate a bit more easily, also- like perhaps there should be just one rating for arm, rather than a separate one for catching arm, infield arm, and outfield arm. Generally speaking, a player with good range and a good arm in the infield should translate into a very good corner outfielder with practice (since it's lower on the defensive spectrum), though that isn't always the case in OOTP16- there are quite a few players with great range and arm ratings in the infield, but poor ratings in the outfield.

I suppose none of these are easy, but I think all of them would make the game better.

Mgomz · 06-09-2015, 07:59 AM

I like 4.
Custom Date so let's say we want to start a 2015 League on 6-10 meaning no 2015 Draft.

bigmonk · 06-09-2015, 08:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaa36

15. Better way to learn and unlearn positions. It's not realistic that a guy who is an excellent shortstop would take a million years to get up to speed at second base. Players shifting down on the defensive spectrum should pick up the new position very quickly. Some of the underlying ratings should translate a bit more easily, also- like perhaps there should be just one rating for arm, rather than a separate one for catching arm, infield arm, and outfield arm. Generally speaking, a player with good range and a good arm in the infield should translate into a very good corner outfielder with practice (since it's lower on the defensive spectrum), though that isn't always the case in OOTP16- there are quite a few players with great range and arm ratings in the infield, but poor ratings in the outfield.

This. This. This! THIS!

voxpoptart · 06-09-2015, 06:59 PM

Nice! I particularly like 6, 8, and 15. That said, I use the "Silver Slugger" right now as my year-end All-Star team (and call it "All-Star" instead of "Silver Slugger"), and that's a good temporary fix. I also do backup All-Stars on the year-end team, but I don't mind editing those into the Player History pages, unless there's a demand for that feature.

In terms of Park Factors, one caution: Matt Arnold says the game tries to factor park effects into the WAR calculations, but I can tell you from experience that it doesn't -- or does it poorly. I worked out all the park factors in my game doing the math myself (I teach math, I'm a nerd), including the fact that each player only plays half his games at home. And whenever I calculate WAR myself, using the Runs Created data the game supplies, all the batters from the hitters' parks have been overrated by the game, and all the batters from the pitchers' parks have been underrated, sometimes by 20 runs.

metsguy234 · 06-09-2015, 07:41 PM

These are all great suggestions, but number 8 really sticks out in particular for me. I feel like injury timetables should be much more unclear than they currently are (or, at least, there should be an option to make them more unclear). For severe injuries, I'd love to see players sent for a second opinion, and then to receive a recommendation from the team trainer as to whether the player should go under the knife or just undergo a rehab program. I'd also love an opportunity to see more regular updates from the team trainer regarding our injured players - how is their recovery progressing, if they're on a rehab assignment to the minors how is it going, etc.

06-07-2015, 04:40 PM	#1
jaa36 Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2011 Posts: 3,122	a few suggestions for OOTP17 I've posted some of these in past seasons, but I'm posting again to keep the pressure on. I'd emphasize, as usual, that this is a terrific game and that these changes would just be icing on the cake. 1. Ability to enter or change award winners retroactively. I hate it when I screw these up and there's no turning back. 2. Better support for amateur baseball. I'd love to have a more true-to-life high school and college system. For colleges, they should have a "prestige" rating that would determine the quality of players that go there. There should be a weekly ranking system, and a College World Series at the end of the year. High school could be more abstracted- perhaps just generating a few hundred players with stats to simulate each class, but then having a recruiting model for the college level based on the college's prestige, and a rating for the player as far as how likely they were to sign with a major league team rather than going to college. 3. A few changes to stats. wRC and wRC+ should be in season and career leaderboards. RA9 and RA9-wins (or baseball reference WAR) should be added for pitchers and included in these leaderboards. Also, K%, BB%, K-BB%, shutdowns, meltdowns, and won-lost record while starting (in addition to the traditional definition of won-lost record) should be tracked for pitchers. wRAA and times reached on error should be included for hitters. The number of games a player has played at each position should also be viewable as a stat within a custom view- this really comes in handy for selecting all-stars. 4. Ability to loan players to other teams or leagues, such as for the World Baseball Classic, or for the Arizona Fall League. 5. Promotion-relegation, with the AI monitoring when a team is likely to get promoted or relegated and acting accordingly. 6. Selecting all-stars (or all-pro team) after the season and for leagues with only a single subleague and single division. All-pro awards could be added similar to how Silver Slugger was added this year. Seeing games played per position (as in #3) would really help with this. 7. Awards. Option to only have starting pitchers win the Pitcher of the Year award, and option to only have a player from the winning team with the Series MVP award. Also, allowing the player to select or edit the Player of the Game or Series MVP awards. And finally, more than one Custom award. Though obviously, adding all the other awards has helped with this. 8. A more dynamic injury system. I'd like the injury severity to get gradually better and worse- so that you really have to decide whether it's something the player can play through or needs to go on the DL. Then as the player rests, his readiness would gradually improve (80%, 85%, etc) and you'd have the option of bringing the player back, sending him to a rehab assignment, leaving him on the DL longer, etc. Bringing the player back to soon would risk further injury. This could be something that's very granular, as it's not realistic for the GM/manager to know that a player is truly 85% back to full health. 9. Control over what stats are displayed on the Standings, Statistics, and Leaderboards pages. I don't really care what the top OPS or hitting streaks are in the league, but I'd love to see wOBA and runs scored on the standings page instead, for example. 10. Better interface in the League Totals section. I should be able to see from this section very easily what the estimated statistical output will be for the league, including how (very approximately) the leaderboard will look. I'm sure that many people can relate to this, but I often spend hours trying to get the statistical output for a league just right, and the game should let me know what the estimated output will be without having to run the sim. 11. Calculation of projected park factors. The game should determine, based on the league totals modifiers and the parks that are in the game, what the estimated effect of the park will be on average, doubles, triples, home runs, and (most importantly) runs scored. As it stands, it's very hard to tell (except in very obvious cases) whether a park will function as a pitcher's or hitter's park. 12. Better roster rules for managing minor-league call-ups. In most cases in MLB, if a player is sent to AAA, he can't come back for 10 days. But in OOTP, you can rig the system to just send guys to and from AAA every few days. 13. More flexibility in pitching role management. I should be able to tell the AI that I want to limit the number of batters a pitcher faces- rather than have him on a strict pitch limit. (The rationale for this is the data demonstrating that pitchers get worse each time they go through the batting order.) I'd also like to be able to rank pitchers by how good they are and have the AI manager deploy the best in high-leverage situations and the worst in low-leverage situations. You can sort of do this with the "stopper" designation, but that's only available for "medium" or lower frequency of closer or reliever usage in OOTP 16. 14. An easier way to rotate the DH among players that would otherwise start. A lot of teams do this now rather than have a full-time DH. I guess you can do this with seven-day lineups, but that's a lot of work. Perhaps just having a selection in the DH slot within the lineups page where you can just check "rotate among starters." Or perhaps allowing you on the player page to click a box for "start at DH when tired." 15. Better way to learn and unlearn positions. It's not realistic that a guy who is an excellent shortstop would take a million years to get up to speed at second base. Players shifting down on the defensive spectrum should pick up the new position very quickly. Some of the underlying ratings should translate a bit more easily, also- like perhaps there should be just one rating for arm, rather than a separate one for catching arm, infield arm, and outfield arm. Generally speaking, a player with good range and a good arm in the infield should translate into a very good corner outfielder with practice (since it's lower on the defensive spectrum), though that isn't always the case in OOTP16- there are quite a few players with great range and arm ratings in the infield, but poor ratings in the outfield. I suppose none of these are easy, but I think all of them would make the game better.

06-09-2015, 07:59 AM	#2
Mgomz Minors (Double A) Join Date: Jan 2015 Posts: 132	I like 4. Custom Date so let's say we want to start a 2015 League on 6-10 meaning no 2015 Draft.

06-09-2015, 06:59 PM	#4
voxpoptart Major Leagues Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 387	Nice! I particularly like 6, 8, and 15. That said, I use the "Silver Slugger" right now as my year-end All-Star team (and call it "All-Star" instead of "Silver Slugger"), and that's a good temporary fix. I also do backup All-Stars on the year-end team, but I don't mind editing those into the Player History pages, unless there's a demand for that feature. In terms of Park Factors, one caution: Matt Arnold says the game tries to factor park effects into the WAR calculations, but I can tell you from experience that it doesn't -- or does it poorly. I worked out all the park factors in my game doing the math myself (I teach math, I'm a nerd), including the fact that each player only plays half his games at home. And whenever I calculate WAR myself, using the Runs Created data the game supplies, all the batters from the hitters' parks have been overrated by the game, and all the batters from the pitchers' parks have been underrated, sometimes by 20 runs.

06-09-2015, 07:41 PM	#5
metsguy234 Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Washington, D.C. Posts: 298	These are all great suggestions, but number 8 really sticks out in particular for me. I feel like injury timetables should be much more unclear than they currently are (or, at least, there should be an option to make them more unclear). For severe injuries, I'd love to see players sent for a second opinion, and then to receive a recommendation from the team trainer as to whether the player should go under the knife or just undergo a rehab program. I'd also love an opportunity to see more regular updates from the team trainer regarding our injured players - how is their recovery progressing, if they're on a rehab assignment to the minors how is it going, etc.