Historical Minors

[David Watts]

Willie Mays has seen his once above .300 average fall all the way to the .240's, but Mays is still getting on base at a .400 clip.

Ugh! I played a few games this morning and closed out a day. Forgot to check if Al Kaline hit a home run. Kaline sits at 399. How neat is it that in my replay Kaline is chasing both 400 and 3000 at the same time Miggy is chasing 500/3000 in real life Tiger land.

One thing that I always enjoy about this period is watching the relief pitchers that end up with win/loss records that look like they were toiling at the heart of their teams rotation all season. For example, Bill Champion has appeared in 62 games this season and sports a 15-10 record. I probably need to see how many of those are of the vulture variety

When I get home I really need to check and see how George Brett is doing so far. I'm really surprised I haven't seen him as of yet. Of course, September is right around the corner and he may show his face then. Paul Schaal has been pretty solid at 3B for the Royals all season. so maybe the Royals have simply decided to let Brett get more seasoning in the minors for the time being.


One thing I'm already preparing myself for is the AI's dismantling of the Detroit Tigers. I'm really interested to see how long Lolich and Coleman stay in Detroit. Stanley, Northrup, Horton may be out the door soon as well. I'm hoping beyond hope that the OOTP gods allow Kaline to retire a Tiger. Same for Freehan. Cash is an interesting case as well. In real life the Tigers released Cash on August 7th 1974. Dick McAuliffe left the team in real life at the end of 73. The Tigers have already introduced Ron Leflore to the 25 man roster. Leflore has played sparingly, but I have to figure he may see starting duties once 74 rolls around. Another guy that was recently called up to the bigs, was Leon Roberts. The Tigers have lost Lagrow, Timmerman, Hiller and Slayback to injuries during the 73 season. Their rotation is now Lolich, Coleman, Fritz Peterson, Blue Moon Odom and Fred Holdsworth. I have to think Larry Gura will make a return to the staff at some point.

[David Watts]

I love finding things like this in a OOTP game. The Indians promoted Dennis Eckersly and stuck him in their 1973 rotation. Eckersly struggled to say the least. But, what I found interesting is, when they demoted Dennis from the rotation, they inserted him as the the teams stopper/closer. OOTP foreseeing the future.

[Orcin]

I adopted your "force retire" rule for my second try. I retired Joe Nobody from the Reds rotation and he was replaced by Jay Hook. I immediately decided that I like the rule and it will stay. I haven't found anyone else so far, so the second try looks better.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by Orcin

I adopted your "force retire" rule for my second try. I retired Joe Nobody from the Reds rotation and he was replaced by Jay Hook. I immediately decided that I like the rule and it will stay. I haven't found anyone else so far, so the second try looks better.

That was what was so strange in regards to the guy I retired for the Atlanta Braves. He played all of 72, hitting below .200 and once again the Braves had him starting at SS in 73. Thing is, once I did the force retire the Braves called up Marty Perez and inserted him in the lineup. Now Perez isn't the greatest, but he's managed to keep his average around .240 or thereabouts.

[David Watts]

Have you ever been playing a season using OOTP and have it dawn on you just how long the baseball season really is? I don't mean that in a bad way. Not saying it's too long and drawn out, or that it's boring. It's just such a journey from start to finish. So much happens along the way.

[Orcin]

Because I know you love these things, I would like to share the result of my 1961 season.

This Detroit Tigers team won 95 games, including 12 straight in August to run down the Twins and Yankees.




They weren't done there...





I don't have the awards yet, because I am stopping to take over the Colt 45s and do a lot of things including the expansion draft. I doubt that any Tigers player will win the MVP, because Mantle hit 54 HRs to go with 121 RBIs. Mantle (.319) finished second in the batting race to KC's Jerry Lumpe (.326). Bunning led in pitching WAR but 17 wins might not be enough for the AI to give him the Cy Young award.

I am pretty sure you will enjoy this Tigers post. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by Orcin

Because I know you love these things, I would like to share the result of my 1961 season.

This Detroit Tigers team won 95 games, including 12 straight in August to run down the Twins and Yankees.

Attachment 804270


They weren't done there...


Attachment 804271


I don't have the awards yet, because I am stopping to take over the Colt 45s and do a lot of things including the expansion draft. I doubt that any Tigers player will win the MVP, because Mantle hit 54 HRs to go with 121 RBIs. Mantle (.319) finished second in the batting race to KC's Jerry Lumpe (.326). Bunning led in pitching WAR but 17 wins might not be enough for the AI to give him the Cy Young award.

I am pretty sure you will enjoy this Tigers post. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

That's pretty cool. That Tiger team won 101 games that year, but the Yankees won 109. Love it.

[Orcin]

The historical minors experiment is working quite well for me too. It's a big improvement over previous versions so far. The Colt 45's got four minor league teams, exactly as real life and in the correct levels. I did not see any teams that lost prospects to league/affiliate changes.

One thing that always bothered me about historical leagues in the reserve clause era was the huge amount of available budget on some teams and some teams with no available budget. I tinkered with the financials while setting up this league and learned the appropriate way to manage that aspect. After initially starting the league, do this... Step 1: make sure that owner controls budget as opposed to "all revenue available". Step 2: use the function to "make fictional player contracts" (this resets the contracts to match the ratings... as opposed to random?). Step 3: use the function to "assign fictional financials to teams" (this gives each team enough budget to cover their expenses and leaves room to make trades). After a year or two, you can change the setting to allow all revenue to be available, especially if you have some cheap owners constricting the big teams and/or you want to simulate the Yankees/A's nonsense in early free agency.

Finally, in case you are curious, here is the result of my expansion draft. I felt like I covered all positions pretty well with a competent major league player plus grabbing a few prospects. Cookie Rojas was probably the best of those, and I will have a conflict as soon as Joe Morgan is available (I am assigning rookies to their historical debut team until the draft starts in 1965). I might try to grab a few more players off the waiver wire at cutdown next spring, but this is probably the roster that I will play in 1962. I think this could be a near-500 team if we are lucky with injuries (I use normal-ootp classic).

[David Watts]

Oh man, make sure you don't pinch hit for Earl Wilson :_ Aparicio is a cool get in an expansion draft.

[Orcin]

Starting the 1962 season, I noticed a dozen or so never-played scrubs in the opening day lineups. One of them was a player that I force retired last season. He "unretired" and was signed by his former team and yes... he is right back in their lineup. So be it. I give up. I am just going to let the AI do what it wants and see what happens. After all, I played a lot of fictional in my day and I am used to the AI making screwball decisions.

I am still having a lot of fun with this and, now that I have a team to manage, I will be enjoying some games in Silvam14's excellent historical 3d stadiums. Colt Stadium looks great. I can almost feel the mosquito bites.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by Orcin

Starting the 1962 season, I noticed a dozen or so never-played scrubs in the opening day lineups. One of them was a player that I force retired last season. He "unretired" and was signed by his former team and yes... he is right back in their lineup. So be it. I give up. I am just going to let the AI do what it wants and see what happens. After all, I played a lot of fictional in my day and I am used to the AI making screwball decisions.

I am still having a lot of fun with this and, now that I have a team to manage, I will be enjoying some games in Silvam14's excellent historical 3d stadiums. Colt Stadium looks great. I can almost feel the mosquito bites.

That has me worried, I haven't seen the two guys I deleted, but I haven't went looking for them either. The thing I don't understand is why when the AI puts one of these guys in the starting lineup it seems to be such a final decision. The guy can stink at a massive level and the AI will simply stick with him no matter what.

I think next season will be a huge do or die season for me. I have things set so rookies go to their original teams(no draft), so I worry at some point some teams will be forced to play guys that never played in the bigs. Just don't want to fire up the game and see 7 out of 8 guys for the Padres hitting below .150.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by Orcin

Starting the 1962 season, I noticed a dozen or so never-played scrubs in the opening day lineups. One of them was a player that I force retired last season. He "unretired" and was signed by his former team and yes... he is right back in their lineup. So be it. I give up. I am just going to let the AI do what it wants and see what happens. After all, I played a lot of fictional in my day and I am used to the AI making screwball decisions.

I am still having a lot of fun with this and, now that I have a team to manage, I will be enjoying some games in Silvam14's excellent historical 3d stadiums. Colt Stadium looks great. I can almost feel the mosquito bites.

By the way, it's good to see you back to the regular game. I know you dove deep into Perfect Team the past few years. I think all of us missed your dynasty reports.

[thehef]

Originally Posted by David Watts

That has me worried, I haven't seen the two guys I deleted, but I haven't went looking for them either. The thing I don't understand is why when the AI puts one of these guys in the starting lineup it seems to be such a final decision. The guy can stink at a massive level and the AI will simply stick with him no matter what.

I think next season will be a huge do or die season for me. I have things set so rookies go to their original teams(no draft), so I worry at some point some teams will be forced to play guys that never played in the bigs. Just don't want to fire up the game and see 7 out of 8 guys for the Padres hitting below .150.

One thing I'd like to see OOTP incorporate - which would help with the issue you describe - would be, say, a slider setting that controls how much weight OOTP AI would give to the player's real-life level for a particular season.

For example, with this setting at high or max, if a player spent all of his time at single-A in 1972, AI would put considerable weight on that reality when determining at what level the player should play. The way I envision it, this wouldn't prevent AI from bringing up a catcher from the minors who didn't see the majors in real life - because if you have a rash of injuries at that position, bringing up your triple-A catcher (who didn't see the majors in real life) would be a reasonable thing for AI to do... But it would - theoretically - accomplish the following, that AI doesn't do well currently:

a) Leave a top performing prospect in the minors, even though he rates out better than one of the vets. I often see that really good young players get promoted to the bigs in OOTP a year earlier than they did in real life, simply because they crushed it in the minors. I reality, the big league team chose to keep them in the minors to get experience, rather than take a bench role in the majors.

b) Keep past-their-prime vets on the big league roster near the end of their careers. I often see OOTP demote long-time (real life) big-leaguers after they have passed their prime. In conjunction with a) above, OOTP favors younger players' over fading vets. While this may make sense from a ratings perspective, it doesn't make sense from a historical accuracy perspective, as few guys who have had a long & productive big-league careers will spend several years in the minors afterwards. (But those who actually did spend years in the minors after their big-league career wouldn't be adversely affected by this suggested feature since their historical record would indicate that they played in the minors at the tail end of their career.)

c) Generally prevent lousy real-life minor-leaguers from un-historically taking up big-league roster spots (the issue David has highlighted).

And of course, with this setting at low or minimum, OOTP would handle big-league/minor-league roster placement as it does now, using ratings rather than history as the primary determiner.

[Orcin]

Originally Posted by David Watts

By the way, it's good to see you back to the regular game. I know you dove deep into Perfect Team the past few years. I think all of us missed your dynasty reports.

Thanks!

I am still down the rabbit hole that is Perfect Team, but I recently got the urge to play a real baseball simulation again. It sure is a different world over here. There, I am trying to decide whether to use Johan Santana, Vida Blue, or Tom Glavine as my fifth starter. Here, I am trying to find a warm arm with some stamina to be the fifth starter.

The expansion Colt 45's have started 4-10. My owner told me "don't suck completely". I hope I don't get fired!

[David Watts]

September 6th, 1973 Al Kaline hits Home Run #400. Al now needs 26 hits to reach 3000.

[David Watts]

The season is winding down and we now have two very interesting races to follow. The Boston Red Sox have lowered Baltimore's lead to just 2 games in the AL East. Baltimore has to be wondering when the real Jerry Koosman will make an appearance in Baltimore. Koosman is 2-6 with a 5+ ERA for the Orioles. Meanwhile, the Pirates have the Phillies lead down to just a 1/2 game in the NL East. Tom Seaver continues to dominate for the Pirates and Zisk, Oliver and Stargell are leading the charge on offense.

In the AL West the Royals have the A's lead down to 6 1/2, but I just don't think the A's are in any danger. Catfish Hunter is leading the AL with 22 wins, Holtzman has 17 and Vida Blue, probably the hottest pitcher in the game down the stretch has 18. The A's offense in strong from top to bottom with catcher the only wink link.

The Reds are 13 games up in the NL West. Their magic number is down to 6.

[David Watts]

We've reached the second to last weekend of the season. Cincinnati and Oakland have both clinched their divisions. Oakland just won their 100th game yesterday and Cincinnati sits at 99 wins.

Baltimore is 83-70, 3 games up on the 80-73 Boston Red Sox. Meanwhile in the NL East, Pittsburgh(79-73) now lead the 77-76 Phillies by 2 1/2 games. The Phillies and the Pirates meet for a 3 game series in Pittsburgh starting September 25th. Philadelphia suffered a huge blow on the 14th of September,. losing Mike Schmidt for the remainder of regular season.

Hank Aaron now has 28 home runs on the season, giving him 696 career bombs.

Al Kaline sits at 2983 hits

[David Watts]

Just wrapped up Monday's games September 24th. The Orioles are up 3 1/2 with a magic number of 3. The Pirates are up 2 games on the Phillies with a magic number of 5. The Phillies/Pirates series starts on Tuesday.

Holy cow! The National League batting race is a barn burner. Steve Garvey is hitting .325, 205-630. Ralph Garr is hitting .325, 211-650. Cesar Cedeno is hitting .324, 193-595.

The Reds Tony Perez and the Astros Lee May are also in a heated battle for the NL RBI title. Both players have driven in 119 runs this season.

Frank Howard has 37 home runs for the Texas Rangers. Will he get 40?

Ken Holtzman of the Oakland A's is 19-7 on the season. If he grabs another win, the A's will have 3 20 game winners this season. Too make that even more amazing, the A's 4th starter Ray Sadecki is 14-7, 3.16.

[David Watts]

Tuesday September 25, 1973

Boston defeats the Cleveland Indians 3-2. Making only his 6th start of the season, Rick Jones(2-4, 4.75) throws a complete game for the Sox, defeating Gaylord Perry(10-17, 4.19). Carlton Fisk drilled a 2 run bomb for the Red Sox.

In Baltimore the Orioles ran fell to the 71-86 Detroit Tigers. Joe Coleman(17-12, 3.01) picked up the win for the Tigers. Pat Dobson(13-12, 3.58) took the loss for the O's. Mickey Stanley hit his 17th home run and Leon Roberts his 2nd for the Tigers.

The Orioles now sit 2 1/2 games up on the Sox. Their magic number remains at 3.

In Pittsburgh the Pirates beat the Phillies 3-0. Yup, another great game from Tom Seaver. Seaver is now 7-2 as a Pirate and 15-13 overall on the season. Pretty amazing when you realize Seaver was 1-8 at one point this season. Seaver now has 225 strike outs. The Pirates got a 2 run home run from Richie Hebner, the ditch diggers 25th bomb on the season.

The Pirates are now 3 game up and have a magic number of 3.

Oh and remember the post above about the NL race for the batting title? It got even more amazing as now the leader is Dave Cash at .325. Cash is 204-627 for the Pirates. Cedeno, Garr and Garvey are all at .324.

[David Watts]

Wednesday September 26, 1973

Boston defeats Cleveland 8-4. Marty Pattin(14-15, 3.98) picks up the win. Eric Raich(1-4, 4.60) took the loss for Cleveland. Carl Yastrzemski hit a 2 run home run, his 19th and MVP candidate Reggie Smith hit his 32nd of the year. Smith's was also a 2 run shot.

Baltimore beat Detroit 7-6. Mike Flanagan picked up the win for Baltimore in relief. Flanagan threw 4.1 innings to pick up his 2nd win of the season. Grant Jackson earned his 26th save tossing 2 scoreless innings. The only home run in the game was hit by Bill Freehan(15).

The Orioles magic number is now 2.

The Phillies picked up a come from behind extra inning victory, winning the game 5-3 in 13. The Pirates were up 3-2 heading into the top of the 9th. John Canelaria pitched a really nice game, but the Pirate fans have to wondering why their manager stuck with the rookie so long, especially with Dave Guisti in the pen. It proved costly as Candelaria surrendered the run that knotted the game at 3. In the end Ramon Hernandez(5-7, 2.89) surrendered 2 runs in the 13th and took the loss. Don Money went 4-6 in the game, nailing 2 home runs driving in 3.

The Pirates magic number remains at 3.


In other news, both Oakland and Cincinnati now have 105 wins. Ken Holtzman beat the Twins today to pick up his 20th win. Holtzman defeated Bert Blyleven who is now 19-8, 2.77 on the season.