How to get started?

shinkarom · 10-13-2010, 06:43 AM

I am a total rookie (longhorn, dummy) in baseball. I live in Ukraine, so baseball is not native for me. First time when I discovered baseball it was NES game. Second time it was Baseball Mogul (pretty old, 2007). There was no game theory for complete beginners.
Now I want to stick with OOTP. This is what I need. (You may post it in testimonials). I like its total customization and ability to create realistically look like fictional leagues.
I have some questions.
First: how to use stats? If I measure player's value by AVG, how to consider other stats, like OBP or SLG?
Second: documentation for team and player strategy states that when I manually play games, the strategy is not used; on the contrary, when I auto-play, managers and coaches have their own strategic preferences. I tried to move "Stealing Bases" to position "Frequently"(the right extremum), but stealings have not increased drastically.
Third: how to assemble my lineup(bullpen, depth chart)? May you illustrate this with specific example?

Sincerely yours

risp2out · 10-13-2010, 10:52 AM

First of all, welcome to the greatest game in the world--baseball. (OOTP ain't too bad, either). Your questions are enormous and many books are filled with the answers. I'll give you a few thoughts.

You'll use the stats to help you create your line ups, naturally, so the answer to your first question helps answer your third as well. Many baseball fans feel that OPS (on-base + slugging) is the best single stat to use in rating batters. On-base % (OBP) is probably ultimately a better stat to look at than batting avg. because OBP tells you whether the batter is able to reach base via hitting, base on balls, hit by pitch, etc. High OBP guys are the ones you'd like to have at the top of your batting order. Slugging (which is calculated by dividing total bases by at bats) tells you who gets a greater percentage of extra-base hits (doubles, triples, and home runs). These are the guys you want in the middle of your line up.

One good way for you to assess these stats might be to start a historical game (import complete history) or go to a website like retrosheet.org, where they have all of the historical stats. Take a look at the stats there for some of the great players of all time. You'll see that Barry Bonds or Babe Ruth were extremely high in both OBP and Slugging. They rank among the very best overall players ever. Then, look at someone like Rickey Henderson, who was probably the best lead-off hitter ever. You'll see that he had a very high OBP almost every year and was a great base stealer, too, of course.

On retrosheet, you can even look at box scores from individual games. Go through a few of those for teams that were really good during a certain season. Take a look at who they had at the top, middle, and bottom of their line up. Then compare teams who weren't so good. You'll see that over the course of a full season, the stats for the top teams are almost always better throughout their batting order than for those at the bottom.

Naturally, I could go on and on and on. But, the best way for you to get a feel, I think, is to play out some games. Look at the players that the computer AI places in the line up for the other team. Have fun with it. Try it out with a team built for speed and basestealing. Try it out for a power built team. Find the fun of the different kinds of teams. Baseball is awesome. OOPT is awesome. Have fun.

TribeFanInNC · 10-13-2010, 01:01 PM

Here is a decent article from the Hardball Times about lineup construction: Constructing Lineups

The examples are a few years old, but certainly still relevant. Hope it isn't too nerdy for you.

The generic answer is that the players that bat first and second should be the players that get on base the best (high OBP). It is nice if they are fast, but that is a secondary goal. The number 3 and 4 hitters should be the best hitters. The 5 and 6 hitters should have decent contact and ability to hit extra-base hits (good gap and power ratings). Then fill in the rest from there.

With regards to the strategy sliders - have you noticed that they are score and inning specific? At the top left, it will tell you the game situation you are setting the slider for (for example, innings 1-3 with a tie score). You need to adjust them for all situations for them to apply all the time. Obviously an advanced use of these would be to set them up different in every situation (more aggressive stealing and baserunning when down by 1 run in the 8th inning, less aggressive when up my 4+ runs in the 6th inning).

Anyway, enjoy the best baseball sim ever. We hope to stick with it - once you get past the initial overwhelming stage, it is great.

shinkarom · 10-29-2010, 04:19 AM

I am totally agreed with the words that baseball is the greatest game in the world. It combines slow, pleasant pace of cricket with qualitative tension like in football (European, of course). I'd say that baseball is the only American game with dignity. Hockey? Too cruel. American football? In my opinion no one not born in USA can not understand and accept gridiron as his game. USA is the country of immigration, and if born here Americans have something that only they will understand, assimilation will be hardened. (I'm not going to live in USA in the next 90 years, I am saying this only in general). Baseball is the sport appealing to player (who always knows in what to improve), to fan (who always has more than one idol in the league), to mathematician (with its statistics...).
Thank you very much.
I know about scores and situations. And I still ask: if I move sliders, will it influence the gameplay? Managers and bench coaches have their own strategy preferences. If I set Sacrifice Bunt to the far right position and copy this to all scores and situations, will players sacrifice bunt more frequently? Is team strategy one of the points that can be the only difference between winning and losing? If it is, then please show me some more examples how to use it.
Next: Can you tell me more about logic behind lineups? If I turn off ratings, how to construct lineup only by stats?
Next: MVP Baseball 2005 in Dynasty mode before each game series writes an e-mail that describes "Strategies vs. Opponents". Can you tell me why there are Team Stats page in the Match Preparation? I want to know how to play individually versus specific team, if I am

the best hitting team
the best pithing team
the worst hitting tem
the worst pitching team

against

the best hitting team
the best pithing team
the worst hitting tem
the worst pitching team

Sincerely yours

P. S. what "trackbacks" stands for in the reply to thread?
P. P. S. IDK how to promote my blog Languages Blog, so I post link to it right here. Some offtopic, but you can tell about what baseball topics to write.

TribeFanInNC · 10-29-2010, 08:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shinkarom

I know about scores and situations. And I still ask: if I move sliders, will it influence the gameplay? Managers and bench coaches have their own strategy preferences. If I set Sacrifice Bunt to the far right position and copy this to all scores and situations, will players sacrifice bunt more frequently? Is team strategy one of the points that can be the only difference between winning and losing? If it is, then please show me some more examples how to use it.

Yes, these sliders are important. They are very important if you are only simming games. Some of them are still important even if you are managing each game yourself. For example, the baserunning sliders determines how aggressive your runners are on the bases (like trying to score from second base on a single). This one is important for both managing and simming.

Obviously some of the sliders are not important if you are managing the games yourself. Like the ones at the bottom that control when to pull a pitcher. Obviously if you are managing, then you will decide when to pull a pitcher and the slider really means nothing.

With regards to setting lineups, my generic info a couple posts above still holds true. But don't overthink it. There has been some statistical analysis of lineups that says it really doesn't matter where you bat players. Just put your good hitters near the beginning and your worst hitters at the end, then experiment a little. That's what real managers do.

Good Luck!

thamolas · 11-03-2010, 12:34 PM

If you're new to baeball, I suggest approaching OOTP like a strategy game. Start a league and simulate a few seasons. Pore over the stats. It becomes apparent what constitutes good statistical output and not-so-good. And, of course, the ratings show you how the players "rate" at different positions; however, it's a simulation, so the ratings don't always reflect actual production.

There have been some good mentions of stats to look for in this thread, but I think you should look at the classic "baseball card" stats first, for hitters: batting avg., BB's (walks), doubles, triples, homeruns, rbi, stolen bases, errors and for pitchers: ERA, walks, strikeouts (K's) and opponents' batting average. Then, as you get accustomed to the game, start looking at the more sophisticated measurements for a deeper analysis. I think everyone here started out by looking at the basic stuff first and it's probably a good place for you to start, too.

10-13-2010, 06:43 AM	#1
shinkarom Bat Boy Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Kremenchuk, Ukraine Posts: 4	How to get started? I am a total rookie (longhorn, dummy) in baseball. I live in Ukraine, so baseball is not native for me. First time when I discovered baseball it was NES game. Second time it was Baseball Mogul (pretty old, 2007). There was no game theory for complete beginners. Now I want to stick with OOTP. This is what I need. (You may post it in testimonials). I like its total customization and ability to create realistically look like fictional leagues. I have some questions. First: how to use stats? If I measure player's value by AVG, how to consider other stats, like OBP or SLG? Second: documentation for team and player strategy states that when I manually play games, the strategy is not used; on the contrary, when I auto-play, managers and coaches have their own strategic preferences. I tried to move "Stealing Bases" to position "Frequently"(the right extremum), but stealings have not increased drastically. Third: how to assemble my lineup(bullpen, depth chart)? May you illustrate this with specific example? Sincerely yours

10-13-2010, 01:01 PM	#3
TribeFanInNC Hall Of Famer Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 4,019	Here is a decent article from the Hardball Times about lineup construction: Constructing Lineups The examples are a few years old, but certainly still relevant. Hope it isn't too nerdy for you. The generic answer is that the players that bat first and second should be the players that get on base the best (high OBP). It is nice if they are fast, but that is a secondary goal. The number 3 and 4 hitters should be the best hitters. The 5 and 6 hitters should have decent contact and ability to hit extra-base hits (good gap and power ratings). Then fill in the rest from there. With regards to the strategy sliders - have you noticed that they are score and inning specific? At the top left, it will tell you the game situation you are setting the slider for (for example, innings 1-3 with a tie score). You need to adjust them for all situations for them to apply all the time. Obviously an advanced use of these would be to set them up different in every situation (more aggressive stealing and baserunning when down by 1 run in the 8th inning, less aggressive when up my 4+ runs in the 6th inning). Anyway, enjoy the best baseball sim ever. We hope to stick with it - once you get past the initial overwhelming stage, it is great. Last edited by TribeFanInNC; 10-13-2010 at 01:02 PM.

10-29-2010, 04:19 AM	#4
shinkarom Bat Boy Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Kremenchuk, Ukraine Posts: 4	I am totally agreed with the words that baseball is the greatest game in the world. It combines slow, pleasant pace of cricket with qualitative tension like in football (European, of course). I'd say that baseball is the only American game with dignity. Hockey? Too cruel. American football? In my opinion no one not born in USA can not understand and accept gridiron as his game. USA is the country of immigration, and if born here Americans have something that only they will understand, assimilation will be hardened. (I'm not going to live in USA in the next 90 years, I am saying this only in general). Baseball is the sport appealing to player (who always knows in what to improve), to fan (who always has more than one idol in the league), to mathematician (with its statistics...). Thank you very much. I know about scores and situations. And I still ask: if I move sliders, will it influence the gameplay? Managers and bench coaches have their own strategy preferences. If I set Sacrifice Bunt to the far right position and copy this to all scores and situations, will players sacrifice bunt more frequently? Is team strategy one of the points that can be the only difference between winning and losing? If it is, then please show me some more examples how to use it. Next: Can you tell me more about logic behind lineups? If I turn off ratings, how to construct lineup only by stats? Next: MVP Baseball 2005 in Dynasty mode before each game series writes an e-mail that describes "Strategies vs. Opponents". Can you tell me why there are Team Stats page in the Match Preparation? I want to know how to play individually versus specific team, if I am the best hitting team the best pithing team the worst hitting tem the worst pitching team against the best hitting team the best pithing team the worst hitting tem the worst pitching team Sincerely yours P. S. what "trackbacks" stands for in the reply to thread? P. P. S. IDK how to promote my blog Languages Blog, so I post link to it right here. Some offtopic, but you can tell about what baseball topics to write.

10-13-2010, 10:52 AM	#2
risp2out All Star Reserve Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 648	First of all, welcome to the greatest game in the world--baseball. (OOTP ain't too bad, either). Your questions are enormous and many books are filled with the answers. I'll give you a few thoughts. You'll use the stats to help you create your line ups, naturally, so the answer to your first question helps answer your third as well. Many baseball fans feel that OPS (on-base + slugging) is the best single stat to use in rating batters. On-base % (OBP) is probably ultimately a better stat to look at than batting avg. because OBP tells you whether the batter is able to reach base via hitting, base on balls, hit by pitch, etc. High OBP guys are the ones you'd like to have at the top of your batting order. Slugging (which is calculated by dividing total bases by at bats) tells you who gets a greater percentage of extra-base hits (doubles, triples, and home runs). These are the guys you want in the middle of your line up. One good way for you to assess these stats might be to start a historical game (import complete history) or go to a website like retrosheet.org, where they have all of the historical stats. Take a look at the stats there for some of the great players of all time. You'll see that Barry Bonds or Babe Ruth were extremely high in both OBP and Slugging. They rank among the very best overall players ever. Then, look at someone like Rickey Henderson, who was probably the best lead-off hitter ever. You'll see that he had a very high OBP almost every year and was a great base stealer, too, of course. On retrosheet, you can even look at box scores from individual games. Go through a few of those for teams that were really good during a certain season. Take a look at who they had at the top, middle, and bottom of their line up. Then compare teams who weren't so good. You'll see that over the course of a full season, the stats for the top teams are almost always better throughout their batting order than for those at the bottom. Naturally, I could go on and on and on. But, the best way for you to get a feel, I think, is to play out some games. Look at the players that the computer AI places in the line up for the other team. Have fun with it. Try it out with a team built for speed and basestealing. Try it out for a power built team. Find the fun of the different kinds of teams. Baseball is awesome. OOPT is awesome. Have fun.

11-03-2010, 12:34 PM	#6
thamolas Minors (Single A) Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 91	If you're new to baeball, I suggest approaching OOTP like a strategy game. Start a league and simulate a few seasons. Pore over the stats. It becomes apparent what constitutes good statistical output and not-so-good. And, of course, the ratings show you how the players "rate" at different positions; however, it's a simulation, so the ratings don't always reflect actual production. There have been some good mentions of stats to look for in this thread, but I think you should look at the classic "baseball card" stats first, for hitters: batting avg., BB's (walks), doubles, triples, homeruns, rbi, stolen bases, errors and for pitchers: ERA, walks, strikeouts (K's) and opponents' batting average. Then, as you get accustomed to the game, start looking at the more sophisticated measurements for a deeper analysis. I think everyone here started out by looking at the basic stuff first and it's probably a good place for you to start, too.