Injuries!

[turkeybird86]

Life as the Red's GM can be frustrating. Preseason predictions have us winning 100 games, but within the first 21 games, we lose Chapman for 2 months, Broxton for 3-4 months, and then Cueto breaks a bone in his elbow, on a play at the plate, while he was running the bases, and is out for the year! This is going to be a tough season.

Anyone else have any stories of some bad luck injuries?

[Raidergoo]

During beta, I ran the 2013 Reds over and over. I regularly won 100 plus games.

It's my personal belief that Billy Hamilton has too high current ratings, but, dang, it's fun playing him everyday at the big league level. Sometimes, he even gets his OBP above .320...

[GMLoophole]

In almost every game I've ever played I've found injuries to be a total irritant. I want to see the good guys play, not the AAAA fill ins.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by GMLoophole

In almost every game I've ever played I've found injuries to be a total irritant. I want to see the good guys play, not the AAAA fill ins.

I'm sure a lot of real-life major league clubs would agree. Checking the MLB injury reports, as of Friday there are 84 players on the 15-day DL and 35 on the 60-day DL, a grand total of 119. That's an average of nearly 4 players per club on the DL. And it's not even two weeks into the season.

[SodoMojo]

Originally Posted by turkeybird86

Anyone else have any stories of some bad luck injuries?

One frustrating season in OOTP 13 went something like this:

Team Mariners:

1st week:
Ackley out for 3 months (replacement) Seager

3rd week:
Seager out for 8-9 months (replacement) Nick Franklin from Minor Leagues

1 month or so in:
Nick Franklin out 2-3 weeks (replacement) trade for Eric Young Jr.

1 GAME IN!
Eric Young Jr. out for 3 months or so (replacement) some minor league guy as I figure in 2-3 weeks I get Franklin back.

Throw in forgotten Minor league guy to fill the gap for 2 weeks.

1 month 3 weeks:
Nick Franklin back at least

3 months:
Dustin Ackley back...

3 months 2 weeks:
Ackley injures something for a 8-9 months...(eventually retiring because he can't recover)

Slightly bitter about 2B at this point.

[Fenway]

I'm managing this year's Red Sox, and in his second start, John Lester tore something; he's out for the year. I scrambled together a trade for Roy Oswalt, but I miss Lester.

Then there's Mike Napoli. He's out every other day with some new ache and pain. And Ortiz too. Sorta like the real Red Sox. :P

[mgom27]

I got my Drafted by Teams League to get people on the DL by the Computer and get pasted Draft.

[phightin]

I remember back in version 7 I think when I first started playing the game I thought injuries were far too often in OOTP, but after really taking a closer look at real life they are actually a little less. Just look at the blue jays last night. I'm sure they would love to turn things down so Reyes would be there for them but he's gone for now. I've actually grown to like injuries because they make the game more challenging, and allow myself to give some chances to younger guys in my organization. Sure I can remember a season where I was literally destroyed by them, but such is life.

[JMDurron]

Originally Posted by GMLoophole

In almost every game I've ever played I've found injuries to be a total irritant. I want to see the good guys play, not the AAAA fill ins.

Well, you can lower the injury frequency easily enough to get that effect. That is how I play, since if I felt inclined to watch a bunch of 9th-string OFers limp through the last two months of a hopelessly lost season, I'd just turn on the real life Red Sox game.

[Pineywoods OOTPer]

Originally Posted by Fenway

Then there's Mike Napoli. He's out every other day with some new ache and pain.

So that is why the Rangers didn't re-sign him...LOL. He has more aches and pains then a full house of John Hopkins hospital patients.

[turkeybird86]

I was concerned the injury my slow him down, but not the case so far in the new season.

[mva5580]

The injuries can get pretty annoying. I'm barely 2 weeks into the season and the following people have already been injured. This is not the full list either:

Robinson Cano
Tyler Flowers
Tim Hudson
Adrian Beltre
Freddie Freeman
Denard Span
Joey Votto
Bartolo Colon
Alfonso Soriano
Jose Molina
Alexei Ramirez
CC Sabathia
Jose Bautista
Joe Saunders
Brandon Phillips
Rick Ankiel
Cody Ransom
Clint Barnes
David Freese
Josh Hamilton
Adam Wainwright
Cody Ross

I mean....come on.

[Lukas Berger]

Originally Posted by mva5580

The injuries can get pretty annoying. I'm barely 2 weeks into the season and the following people have already been injured. This is not the full list either:

Robinson Cano
Tyler Flowers
Tim Hudson
Adrian Beltre
Freddie Freeman
Denard Span
Joey Votto
Bartolo Colon
Alfonso Soriano
Jose Molina
Alexei Ramirez
CC Sabathia
Jose Bautista
Joe Saunders
Brandon Phillips
Rick Ankiel
Cody Ransom
Clint Barnes
David Freese
Josh Hamilton
Adam Wainwright
Cody Ross

I mean....come on.

Umm, check out the list of players on the real DL's right now:

Sports Stats and Scores| Sports News | Sports Results

As mentioned above, OOTP actually has a bit too few injuries.

[old timer]

Originally Posted by mva5580

The injuries can get pretty annoying. I'm barely 2 weeks into the season and the following people have already been injured. This is not the full list either:

...

I mean....come on.

As JMDurron mentioned, you can lower the injury frequency. I don't care too much for reality so I turned mine down too and I'm having more fun playing like this. Options are great!

[polydamas]

It the number of career ending injuries that worries me.


EDIT: Tulowitzi, John Jay, Corey Hart, and Coco Crisp all out with career-enders in the first 113 games.

[rworth88]

Was worried about the lack of injuries so far in this version then I lost 3 guys out of my rotation and 2 main position players, went from 22-5 to 30-26 so I guess it all evens out...

[olivertheorem]

In my Astros game, I traded Ronny Cedeno for a SP since he was getting cranky and wasn't playing well at all, with part of my thinking being that Marwin Gonzalez would take up his playing time.


Then Gonzalez suffers a CEI not more than a week later. Many four-letter words flowed through my brain.

[beorn]

Everybody should play the game they way he wants, so if you want to turn the injuries way down, go for it.

However, I'd like to put in a plug for why you might want to keep them turned up to realistic levels, which will feel high even though they match reality.

A lack of injuries changes the odds for various team strategies. Why not spend almost your whole team budget on a couple superstars? Because of the chance one will get hurt and leave you up the creek. The lower the injury setting, the less the risk is... In a solo league, this makes the game easier, because you will understand these changed odds better than the AI teams. In an online league, this will lead to the salaries of the top FAs getting bid sky high, because they really are worth it -- and fewer top free agents as human GMs are more willing to pay exortionary salaries to extend contracts for top players.

Why not tank to get a higher draft pick? The lower the injury setting, the higher the odds that top draft picks will pan out, since the "harm by injury" risk is lessened. Again, knowing this makes the solo game easier. But it's death to an online league, to have a whole bunch of teams figuring if they can't win a championship, they might as well finish as close to the bottom as possible.

Lower injury settings also dumb the game down. A GM's job includes acquiring bench players and AAAA types, and that requires strategy. Finding a quality bench with minimum salaries requires astute assessment of talent. And seeing to it that you have players with options remaining (or signed to minor league contracts) who wouldn't kill you if you had to play them in a pennant race -- can require more GM skill than signing the stars. When the injury setting is low, some teams simply have no important injuries, so the winner is likely to be the team that got lucky. When the injury setting is realistic, most every team gets hit, and the GM who planned ahead and made the right personnel decisions has a big advantage.

Just my two cents.

[Caporegime]

As already stated above by several different posters, OOTP's % of injured players doesn't really seem out of proportion with what we see IRL. As far as career-ending injuries are concerned, well, just ask Johan Santana if they actually occur IRL.

[Ts-Rock]

Originally Posted by Caporegime

As already stated above by several different posters, OOTP's % of injured players doesn't really seem out of proportion with what we see IRL. As far as career-ending injuries are concerned, well, just ask Johan Santana if they actually occur IRL.

and Carpenter in StL, while not official it's not likely he's coming back