Spring training stuff

[Syd Thrift]

After a bit of a discussion in the main OOTP22 board I think there are a few places where spring training can be improved in terms of versatility, even if these are mostly cosmetic:

- Are there actual historical ST schedules out there that could be used? That would be neat, anyway.

- Aside from that, just having a Grapefruit League and a Cactus League, where different teams go off to the different locations not based on their league, etc. GL teams would not play CL teams owing to them being on different sides of the country.

- Having separate ballparks for spring training vs the regular season. Yeah, you don't get to really experience a player in your park until the regular season. That's real life though.

- Split-squad games. They aren't double-headers; the teams are physically playing in two different places so you'll have completely different rosters for both. This feels like it could get unwieldy but hey, it is part of the game.

- Someone raised the idea of "starters don't have to travel" so maybe bake in the AI resting position players more aggressively in road games in ST but TBH there's so little actual travel in either of the ST leagues that this really doesn't matter to me. Just thought I'd bring it up.

- Ways to train guys at positions or stretch out arms or work on hitting/whatever that goes beyond physically putting them in games. There's a lot of training going on in March and frankly the games themselves are the tip of the iceberg.

- The Mariners winning all games in the preseason and also winning 100+ in the regular season. You should hardcode this.

[Rain King]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

- Ways to train guys at positions or stretch out arms or work on hitting/whatever that goes beyond physically putting them in games. There's a lot of training going on in March and frankly the games themselves are the tip of the iceberg.

This is the part I'd definitely like to see improved, particularly when it comes to pitchers. I would love to see pitchers possibly have the ability to "work on a new pitch" or even "change their approach" which may be a way to try (not necessarily successfully) to work on one of their main skills (Stuff, Control Movement) with possible consequences for one of the others (i.e. working on stuff could potentially negatively affect Control, etc.) with your coaches playing a crucial role in that stuff.

Lots of things you could think about here, but the cosmetic/scheduling stuff isn't all that interesting to me...particularly when it comes to MLB's real world limitations when it comes to Spring Training (location, etc.). But I would love to see some stuff that impacts player development/growth.

[Pelican]

And please add the ability to suspend ST games that are tied after nine innings. Teams don’t want to over-extend their pitchers in the Spring, and typically plan for a number of guys to pitch, with nobody left for extra innings. I had the worst-case scenario, a sixteen inning game the day before the regular season started. You know those teams would have packed it in after nine.

[Syd Thrift]

Originally Posted by Pelican

And please add the ability to suspend ST games that are tied after nine innings. Teams don’t want to over-extend their pitchers in the Spring, and typically plan for a number of guys to pitch, with nobody left for extra innings. I had the worst-case scenario, a sixteen inning game the day before the regular season started. You know those teams would have packed it in after nine.

Oh yeah, that’s a good one. Some people say that a tie is like kissing your sister; well, every March we like to smooch our siblings then.

[Sweed]

Originally Posted by Pelican

And please add the ability to suspend ST games that are tied after nine innings. Teams don’t want to over-extend their pitchers in the Spring, and typically plan for a number of guys to pitch, with nobody left for extra innings. I had the worst-case scenario, a sixteen inning game the day before the regular season started. You know those teams would have packed it in after nine.

Without the ability to end the game the next best option IMHO is...

Put any position player in to pitch, 4 intentional walks, game over They are ST stats and are not going to stick, effect anyone's mood, and if it's a ST invite or a low MiL that is up for a look, well, who cares? Actually now if you have ST extra innings start with man on second it's only 3 IBB

[itsmb8]

Originally Posted by Sweed

Without the ability to end the game the next best option IMHO is...

Put any position player in to pitch, 4 intentional walks, game over They are ST stats and are not going to stick, effect anyone's mood, and if it's a ST invite or a low MiL that is up for a look, well, who cares? Actually now if you have ST extra innings start with man on second it's only 3 IBB

Sorta agreed. The issue becomes that this can only be done if you play out your games, which becomes a human advantage over the CPU. I doubt people are just playing out each CPU team vs CPU team Spring game, so the CPU never has this luxury of just walking 4 players to end the game.

[Syd Thrift]

Yeah but to that point, too, I want to be able to sim out a spring training game and not be worried that it'll go 16 innings and kill my bullpen for the next 3 days.

[Pelican]

Originally Posted by Sweed

Without the ability to end the game the next best option IMHO is...

Put any position player in to pitch, 4 intentional walks, game over They are ST stats and are not going to stick, effect anyone's mood, and if it's a ST invite or a low MiL that is up for a look, well, who cares? Actually now if you have ST extra innings start with man on second it's only 3 IBB

I had position players pitching for both teams; but I didn’t think of the four intentional walk idea. That’s genius. But I wonder if the AI would let me intentionally walk a guy with the bases loaded and the game on the line?? I know you can’t take a pitch with two strikes (I have tried with pitchers hitting, for fear of a double play ball, preferring a KO). At least that way the (Spring) stats would be preserved, and, as you say, the four walks don’t really matter.

[Sweed]

Originally Posted by Pelican

I had position players pitching for both teams; but I didn’t think of the four intentional walk idea. That’s genius. But I wonder if the AI would let me intentionally walk a guy with the bases loaded and the game on the line?? I know you can’t take a pitch with two strikes (I have tried with pitchers hitting, for fear of a double play ball, preferring a KO). At least that way the (Spring) stats would be preserved, and, as you say, the four walks don’t really matter.

Pretty sure you can just walk the guy. I do know I never thought of doing this either until a season or two ago and think I did it once. Though it's such a rare occurrence I'm not sure, it could be it just crossed my mind. If not? Well, there's always the option to just hit the batter If you happen to injure the player go into commish and edit out the injury.

[Sweed]

Originally Posted by itsmb8

Sorta agreed. The issue becomes that this can only be done if you play out your games, which becomes a human advantage over the CPU. I doubt people are just playing out each CPU team vs CPU team Spring game, so the CPU never has this luxury of just walking 4 players to end the game.

First FWIW I think the inning limit being added would be the way to go.

If they can implement the new 10 inning\baserunner on second rule this should also be easy to do. I think Except right now I don't think OOTP has a way to handle ties so, some extra work would need to be done. This could end up helping some leagues around the world that allow ties as a bonus. At least I think I've seen some request this as it does happen?

With regard to the AI being at a disadvantage I would offer this solution..

Pick the inning max you want. Lets say you go with 12.
Check boxscore of any game going 12 or more.
Edit out any injuries that occur from the 12th inning on.
The AI is now on the same level as the human. Well almost. Their pitchers will throw more pitches in games that go on but... the AI tends to load their roster up to the 60 allowed (at least in my game) so they should have plenty of arms to cover.

There aren't many 12 inning games so not many to check. Each takes seconds as injuries are listed at the bottom and the inning the injury happened is easily seen. For the P in the pitcher stat box and the position player in the "sub notes" below the batter part of the box score.

Not ideal and as I said hopefully a limit is added but until then if one wants a limit to prevent injury this would work for those that play at a slower pace. For those that don't the playing field is still level between human and AI.