Drool Time: The (almost) Perfect Player

[Déjà Bru]

I should do this type of thing more often (oh, stop groaning already! ).

Seriously, you can learn new things by focusing on a player and doing some snapshots once in a while in his career.

Remember this guy (Posts #12 and 16)? See now how he has acquired the dreaded "Fragile" injury rating (only thing worse: "Wrecked")? He was "Normal" before.

This demonstrates that an injury rating can change over time. Knew that already? Well, answer this: Does it change as a result of injury history or random changes in injury proneness ratings, or both?

Because, he was still "Normal" when he had his major injury (Post #16). Now he's "Fragile" because he was out a week last month with forearm stiffness?

Anyway, Bill "Wonder Boy" Johnston is damaged goods to me now (no pun intended). In a trade or the free agent market, I would shy away from him despite his ratings and successes. A "Fragile" (or "Wrecked") starting pitcher tends to be sitting on the DL when crunch time arrives.

[Déjà Bru]

Aaarghhh! The son of a gun must have heard me!

I can just hear him: "In your face, Mr. Steinbrenner-you-ain't! I may be fragile, but I can still shut your bozos down real good, can't I?"

[The Wolf]

Every team should always shut out the Yankees.

[OakDragon]

The injury thing has changed in the past version or two. It used to be an injury proneness rating, whereas now, as it says, it's a label for the outcome of his injury history, i.e., the injuries produce the label, rather than a proneness rating being shown.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by OakDragon

The injury thing has changed in the past version or two. It used to be an injury proneness rating, whereas now, as it says, it's a label for the outcome of his injury history, i.e., the injuries produce the label, rather than a proneness rating being shown.

Thanks. Which being the case, by the way, perhaps the label should be taken with a grain of salt. A glance at the actual injury history might be in order for some otherwise enticing prospects.

[Déjà Bru]

*WHINE* 9 and 0 with 100 k's before the end of May!?!

[NateAndStuff]

I had the second pick in my draft and I passed on this SP because he was fragile, but two years later and he's probably the best pitcher in the league and maybe the best I've ever seen in OOTP...I mean the guy's ERA is barely above 1 and his WHIP is like .85 through 15 starts this year.

I'd post a screen of him but I don't know how. I printed screen and pasted it to paint but when I upload it to photobucket, it's hella blurry.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

*WHINE* 9 and 0 with 100 k's before the end of May!?!

Then again, he's "Fragile" all right. What a shame. Looks like he's going to be compromised in this way. Perversely, it makes me feel better.

[hopeful1212]

Originally Posted by NateAndStuff

I had the second pick in my draft and I passed on this SP because he was fragile, but two years later and he's probably the best pitcher in the league and maybe the best I've ever seen in OOTP...I mean the guy's ERA is barely above 1 and his WHIP is like .85 through 15 starts this year.

I'd post a screen of him but I don't know how. I printed screen and pasted it to paint but when I upload it to photobucket, it's hella blurry.

You could try using a better image editing program like Paint.net or GIMP. Paste your image in there and save as a jpg or png and then upload. Should be better. The most likely reason your photobucket image was blurry was that they were reducing the size of your file. Your paint program saves as bitmaps which are HUGE. So photobucket did their own compression (probably to a jpg).

[Déjà Bru]

Update on the subject of this thread; according to OSA, he has achieved the batting and fielding perfection that he was projected for in my original post!

[Déjà Bru]

I got him! Legitimately, too! Had to pay a bundle for him and needed to conduct a fire sale to clear payroll room for him, but I think he'll be worth it.

[WSoxfan86]

Speaking of perfect players-in a sim I was doing starting in 1994, I had Tony Gwynn Sr. hit freaking .433, breaking the record for most hits while he was at it with 304 hits. However, to toy with my emotions, the game assigned the Most Valuable player to Barry Bonds.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by WSoxfan86

Speaking of perfect players-in a sim I was doing starting in 1994, I had Tony Gwynn Sr. hit freaking .433, breaking the record for most hits while he was at it with 304 hits. However, to toy with my emotions, the game assigned the Most Valuable player to Barry Bonds.

THAT would be enough for me to don my commissioner togs, for sure! Although in this case there is not much to do after the fact, I guess, unless you can tear apart a .dat file or two. I would be a fan of Manual Award Voting from now on, though!

[Déjà Bru]

Well, he's done. Did he live up to the hype (see OP)? He had some good years, was a darned good player, but the answer is: no.

He was exciting for a while, though. Farewell, "Earthquake."

[Baseballman2K5]

lol "one of the worst injuries they'd ever seen" and its a broken hand...

[sc_superstar]

What a letdown with that kind of ratings (and the contracts that came with it) you would think he would end up a sure thing first ballot hall of famer, and he was not, I wouldnt even put him in the Hall

[JMDurron]

Well, there's living up to the hype, and then there's being a HOFer. They are two distinctly different things, IMO, with different requirements.

As I define "Living Up To The Hype", there are two requirements

1) Hitting the awesome potential ratings
2) Translating those ratings to on-the-field performance.

We saw the screenshot earlier where condition #1 was fulfilled, and for #2, I would argue that his 2036-2045 peak period, assuming that he was not randomly bad at fielding his position, he did translate all of his ratings to the appropriate on-the-field performance. For a RHH stud playing in Atlanta, and then NY, assuming that the ballpark factors did not change significantly, please take a moment to consider these, pulled from my own MLB Quickstart League:

Turner Field
Home Runs RHB - 0.880

Yankee Stadium
Home Runs RHB - 1.150

So, while Yankee Stadium would not have harmed him, having those awesome peak years of 2036-2040 in Atlanta just murdered his HR totals during his mid-20s. Yankee Stadium would have helped him later, but still. Look at those OPS+ numbers, which consider ballpark factors. This was a dominant player in the league for 9 consecutive years.

Then, we run into the requirements for this kind of player to "Become a HOFer"

1) Hit the max ratings early enough to start accumulating stats at an early age
2) Stay healthy late enough in his career to pile up the numbers

It took him 4 seasons to apparently either max his ratings, or to turn those ratings into peak performance. His ballpark may also not have been helping him there.

To add injury to insult, his career was then aborted by injury before he could wrap up some handy milestones, like 400 HRs (easily), 500 HRs (maybe), or 3000 hits (maybe).

I'd say that his ratings and performance measured up to his promise, but that his career failed to measure up to the HOF expectations due to slow development and injury. He ended up producing season numbers more like a Miguel Cabrera than a Barry Bonds, but that's still pretty excellent.

[philliesphan26]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

Well, he's done. Did he live up to the hype (see OP)? He had some good years, was a darned good player, but the answer is: no.

He was exciting for a while, though. Farewell, "Earthquake."

Always love seeing this kind of stuff, thanks for the follow-up! I always love getting deep into leagues and seeing what the player creation/sim engine spits out. This is really one of the only games on the market (if not THE only game) where you can do that with your own personally created league (baseball or otherwise).

Slightly off topic, but how do you play Bru? Seeing as how you are close to 2050, I'm assuming you play similar to myself and sim most/all your games instead of managing them all?

[PsychoBulk]

Bru, the man is a beast.

My question is slightly random, how did you get the little icon next to his morale?



I play with the dark skin as well but have never seen anything such as that, only the smiley/sad faces etc.

Mod?

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by JMDurron

I'd say that his ratings and performance measured up to his promise, but that his career failed to measure up to the HOF expectations due to slow development and injury. He ended up producing season numbers more like a Miguel Cabrera than a Barry Bonds, but that's still pretty excellent.

Very good analysis, JMD. Are you a baseball scout? 'Cause you just talked like one!

By the way, the other guy mentioned in this thread, Bill "Wonderboy" Johnston, is about washed up at this time, too, ending his career in AAA. He was ruined ("wrecked" as the game would say) by injuries but that I knew from the beginning about him.

Originally Posted by philliesphan26

Always love seeing this kind of stuff, thanks for the follow-up! I always love getting deep into leagues and seeing what the player creation/sim engine spits out. This is really one of the only games on the market (if not THE only game) where you can do that with your own personally created league (baseball or otherwise).

Slightly off topic, but how do you play Bru? Seeing as how you are close to 2050, I'm assuming you play similar to myself and sim most/all your games instead of managing them all?

Same with me. This is the type of thing that I love doing, following career arcs like this. I had this guy shortlisted after he left me just to see what happened to him. He didn't last long.

As far as how I play, I usually play all my games out, believe it or not. I only sim when my teams stink and I've given up hope for the season. I crank out games at a rapid rate by playing one-pitch, short and instantaneous PbP, and that wonderful play until RISP button (although sometimes it makes me laugh when 4 runs goes up on the board - two two-run home runs in the same inning, but nobody was ever in scoring position! ).

Originally Posted by PsychoBulk

Bru, the man is a beast.

My question is slightly random, how did you get the little icon next to his morale?



I play with the dark skin as well but have never seen anything such as that, only the smiley/sad faces etc.

Mod?

Yes, thanks to Mr. Bobble, who I see visited this thread today. I don't think he will mind if you go to post #31 (and #34) in this thread:

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...-new-skin.html

I'm surprised not to see these mods on OOTPmods.com. They were on PadreFans web site previously; I'll PM Bobble. These are too good to be lost in virtual space and time.