does playing OOTP hurt your fantasy baseball team

Giants44 · 02-01-2023, 04:26 PM

Lets start here – I enjoyed fantasy sports in the 80s when I had to do it all by hand on graph paper out of the newspaper.

I despise them now, but I have one long running baseball one I am in with friends I have known 40 years. With most of these guys it keeps me connected – so despite hating it, I still stay in that one.

Being of a mathematical analytical background I have usually done extremely well – with one exception. Because of OOTP I am almost always the first one to pickup hot up and coming prospects. 90% of the top players in MLB have been on my fantasy team, about 2 years before they should have. If we had a keeper league I would have dominated for 20 years. But my friends don’t want to change (probably realizing I am always the first one in my group to be aware of these guys)

Anyone else notice OOTP influencing your fantasy teams in a negative, or even a positive way?

Matt Arnold · 02-01-2023, 04:49 PM

I have learned that I can't trust our ratings system completely when picking my fantasy teams. Otherwise I'd pay a lot of money to trade for 700-HR SS Brendan Rodgers on every fantasy team.

I've also learned to double-check players' actual ratings, to remember if Chase Vallot was an awesome late 1st round pick in real life or just on my OOTP team, and if he's actually worth that much IRL relative to what he was worth to me for my team those years ago.

Pelican · 02-01-2023, 05:03 PM

I’ve had the same problem as the OP. My prospect knowledge from OOTP is worthless, or of little value, since my fantasy league is also not a keeper league. And like the OP I stay with fantasy only because the league includes many of my old APBA and Strat buddies from the 1960’s and 1970’s playing with cards and dice. We’ve had the fantasy league for over twenty years.

OOTP ratings don’t reliably translate to fantasy, because any fantasy league has a points system that is unavoidably arbitrary. For example, ours has no penalty for strikeouts, so “three true outcomes” sluggers become “two true outcome” studs who are more valuable than IRL or in OOTP. Defense is reflected only negatively through errors. SB are overvalued. Saves count as much as wins do.

One of these years, I’m going to create a league in OOTP based on our fantasy rosters (21 players per team), using our weekly rotations and lineups. I don’t expect any correlation between the “artificial” fantasy points and the actual performance of teams in OOTP. OOTP is much more of a challenge, especially if (like me) you play out games as manager. Fantasy is more like being an owner who meddles by setting lineups and rotations, but does not manage games. Boring.

I wish I could persuade those guys - many of whom are now retired and have time on their hands - to play OOTP in challenge mode. They would love it. We have two Pirates fans, one Cardinal fan, one Yankee fan, one Mutts fan, one Tiger fan, and a bunch of Phillies fans. It would be great.

Giants44 · 02-01-2023, 05:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pelican

I wish I could persuade those guys - many of whom are now retired and have time on their hands - to play OOTP in challenge mode. They would love it. We have two Pirates fans, one Cardinal fan, one Yankee fan, one Mutts fan, one Tiger fan, and a bunch of Phillies fans. It would be great.

I got 3 of them to do it during covid and we have a league that is now in like year 60 and they are hooked - but is mixed historical \ fiction with very few modern players. still they are all hooked

02-01-2023, 04:26 PM	#1
Giants44 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: San Francisco Bay Area Posts: 2,408	does playing OOTP hurt your fantasy baseball team Lets start here – I enjoyed fantasy sports in the 80s when I had to do it all by hand on graph paper out of the newspaper. I despise them now, but I have one long running baseball one I am in with friends I have known 40 years. With most of these guys it keeps me connected – so despite hating it, I still stay in that one. Being of a mathematical analytical background I have usually done extremely well – with one exception. Because of OOTP I am almost always the first one to pickup hot up and coming prospects. 90% of the top players in MLB have been on my fantasy team, about 2 years before they should have. If we had a keeper league I would have dominated for 20 years. But my friends don’t want to change (probably realizing I am always the first one in my group to be aware of these guys) Anyone else notice OOTP influencing your fantasy teams in a negative, or even a positive way? __________________ "In a text sim - Immersion is everything" -Me "Judge a man not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character" -Martin Luther King "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." -Einstein "The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life." -Muhammad Ali "Baseball statistics are like a girl in a bikini. They show a lot, but not everything." -Toby Harrah

02-01-2023, 05:03 PM	#3
Pelican Hall Of Famer Join Date: Mar 2021 Location: Wilmington, Delaware Posts: 2,848	I’ve had the same problem as the OP. My prospect knowledge from OOTP is worthless, or of little value, since my fantasy league is also not a keeper league. And like the OP I stay with fantasy only because the league includes many of my old APBA and Strat buddies from the 1960’s and 1970’s playing with cards and dice. We’ve had the fantasy league for over twenty years. OOTP ratings don’t reliably translate to fantasy, because any fantasy league has a points system that is unavoidably arbitrary. For example, ours has no penalty for strikeouts, so “three true outcomes” sluggers become “two true outcome” studs who are more valuable than IRL or in OOTP. Defense is reflected only negatively through errors. SB are overvalued. Saves count as much as wins do. One of these years, I’m going to create a league in OOTP based on our fantasy rosters (21 players per team), using our weekly rotations and lineups. I don’t expect any correlation between the “artificial” fantasy points and the actual performance of teams in OOTP. OOTP is much more of a challenge, especially if (like me) you play out games as manager. Fantasy is more like being an owner who meddles by setting lineups and rotations, but does not manage games. Boring. I wish I could persuade those guys - many of whom are now retired and have time on their hands - to play OOTP in challenge mode. They would love it. We have two Pirates fans, one Cardinal fan, one Yankee fan, one Mutts fan, one Tiger fan, and a bunch of Phillies fans. It would be great. __________________ Pelican OOTP 2020-? ”Hard to believe, Harry.” Last edited by Pelican; 02-01-2023 at 05:04 PM.

02-01-2023, 04:49 PM	#2
Matt Arnold OOTP Developer Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Here and there Posts: 15,609	I have learned that I can't trust our ratings system completely when picking my fantasy teams. Otherwise I'd pay a lot of money to trade for 700-HR SS Brendan Rodgers on every fantasy team. I've also learned to double-check players' actual ratings, to remember if Chase Vallot was an awesome late 1st round pick in real life or just on my OOTP team, and if he's actually worth that much IRL relative to what he was worth to me for my team those years ago.