Total newb at Baseball - struggling with ootp

[mp33]

Originally Posted by nukkxx

Guys, just watched Moneyball with Brad Pitt and yeah, that's a great movie. Exactly what I needed to get in the mood of baseball. And I'm starting to understand the basics of the game. So I'm progressing !!! But back to Moneyball, what a great movie ! Really enjoyed it. Many many thanks to those who recommended it to me !

That's a great start to learn the mechanics aside from the game. US baseball (and sports) work very differently compared to football in Europe. We don't have drafts, teams in our leagues can relegate, trading players is very different.

I'd say watch a few games on YouTube to understand the game. You will find full games on there, and you will face a lot of statistics that the broadcasters display during the games. Write them down, understand what they mean, maybe even when a particular statistic is good or bad.

I'm not sure if baseball is broadcasted in France, but I remember when I watched baseball on German television years ago, I couldn't stand it because the commentators explained baseball EVERY SINGLE GAME. Maybe they do something similar in France which would help you even more.

[nukkxx]

Geeeee what just happen to me ?!!! I'm playing La Rochelle (French championship).
Reminds me the movie Moneyball !! hahahhaha


*EDIT wanted to post an image of the score board but won't work ??

* EDIT2 ok, then not embedded
https://photos.app.goo.gl/R5Yrira5vhFiBKoa8

[nukkxx]

re statistics: It's a pity that there's not a popup each time we hover the mouse over an abbreviation. Makes it very difficult to know and remember what's what. Hope the devs read this one day ...

For example in this screen:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/aifjZRHE139j15iV6

[nukkxx]

One more question ... As you know I'm totally new at baseball and ootp and there are plenty of obscur things in the game so I'm posting my questions here, in case someone can answer.

The question is why are my players' statistics not updating ? We already played 3 games in the season and "G" is still at zero, as well as the other stats. Hope it's not stupid or obvious but can't figure out why ... See pic in the link>
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pa89ffmneu...indow.jpg?dl=0

Any idea ?
Thx

[jimmysthebestcop]

Are you in spring training? Or you have the Scope drop down set to something it shouldnt be

[nukkxx]

Originally Posted by jimmysthebestcop

Are you in spring training? Or you have the Scope drop down set to something it shouldnt be

Well, not sure how I check this.
It's March in the "Championnat de France"

[nukkxx]

it doesnt look like training to me ...
https://www.dropbox.com/s/s30vuidp7q...%2021.jpg?dl=0
*edit: and Scope dropdown is on all level. And nothing changes when i try other "scope" filters.

[GBL]

Originally Posted by nukkxx

it doesnt look like training to me ...
https://www.dropbox.com/s/s30vuidp7q...%2021.jpg?dl=0
*edit: and Scope dropdown is on all level. And nothing changes when i try other "scope" filters.

Hi Nukkxx,


i started a game in france. You can see the league events (when is Spring training, opening day,...) under the league (CDF) -> Reports & Info -> League Events List.


In France Spring Training begin at 21 March 2020, the opening day is at 28 March 2020.


In the screenshot is the 25 March 2020, your are in the spring training. To see the statistic about this time, you have to choose at the statistic
double split -> Game Type -> Spring Training


I hope u can see the games.

[nukkxx]

Aaahhh ! Cool ! Thank you !!

[GBL]

Originally Posted by nukkxx

Aaahhh ! Cool ! Thank you !!

GogogogOOO La Rochelle.


Have fun

[nukkxx]

Originally Posted by jpeters1734

now read the book! It's really good

Processing ... :-)

[nukkxx]

Originally Posted by GBL

GogogogOOO La Rochelle.


Have fun

Sure !!! Thanks!

[actionjackson]

Originally Posted by nukkxx

Hello everybody. I'm a French and I know absolutely ZERO at baseball.

Well, I know it's about a bat and a ball, but that's it. and I watched a video or two about the basic rules. But it's definitely not enough.

I just purchased the game yesterday because I like sport management sims and this one looks very complex (and I love complex games). It also seems that statistics play an important role in baseball and in the game, and yes, I love numbers too.

My question: been a total newb at baseball, what should I do to understand this game and all the surrounding culture (incl statistics, spirit, teams, etc) ? Books ? videos ? which ones ? watching BB games ? other ? What is the fastest way to understand what's going on ?

Because so far the game seems impressive but I hardly understand what all this is about and the learning curve, staring with baseball itself. All this is intimidating !

Thanks for giving me advises on how to get started with ootp21.

Welcome to OOTP nukkxx! Once you've done your reading and watching, I suggest you play with absolutely bare bones rules and settings. The settings for the game are under League > League Settings

There are lots, and lots, and lots of different settings here. It's probably a better idea for you to ask me what the simplest (both for you and the AI) settings are under each heading, than for me to go over all of them. As you figure out which settings are right for what you want to see in your game, your experience will improve.

You're not wrong about it being intimidating, and having a huge learning curve. I'd been a baseball fan for a little more than 30 years when I purchased my first version (OOTPX), and I was completely bewildered and intimidated by the learning curve. It was overwhelming, but I gradually chipped away at it, and things got better.

I spent the entire OOTPX development cycle starting games, stopping them, and re-starting another game with different settings, until I'd found the ones I wanted to use, and have basically used them since, with a few tweaks here and there. In addition to asking lots of questions here, this is also a very good way to determine the settings you want to use. Boring, and frustrating? Yes, but worth it in the end. There were times when I thought I'd wasted my money, and would never figure out how to play it, but eventually I got there, and so will you if you keep at it. Once I got OOTP11, I was off and running, and you'll get there too in time.

Use this forum to ask questions. Ask some more questions, and then ask more, because you're going to need to. There's also a subsection of the forum entitled "New to the Game?". You'll probably get more eyeballs and faster answers in this subsection of the forum, but that is another place you can go for answers. The people who answer your questions will mostly be players of the game who were once where you are now. They know how difficult it can be, and between all of us, I think you can find an answer to whatever question you might have about the game.

Your questions may not be answered right away, but if you're patient and persistent, someone will get to you eventually. If nobody does, and you see your thread starting to disappear from page one, give it another shot by bumping the thread.

Remember the old saw that "You can attract more flies with honey than vinegar" (it appears you're in the first category, so you'll be fine). If you come on here and stamp your feet, and demand answers, people won't be as willing to help as they will be if you're patient and polite, but it already appears that you are, so you should be good on that front. Learning this game is definitely a marathon, not a sprint, so be patient with yourself, and you'll be rewarded in the end. Questions, questions, questions will help you as well. Good luck, and have fun, even if it can get frustrating at times.

[actionjackson]

Originally Posted by GBL

Hello nukkxx,

i totaly agree with Cynical and the strategy guide. Its very old and the tactics explained are overhauled today. But as a beginners standpoint, what is Cynical talking about? "sabermetric wisdom" ?
Is this a new baseball rule?
No, the rules in baseball 2000 were the same as today. 9 innings, 3 outs ends an inning, pitchers throw the ball, batters try to hit em.

But at some point the view how we look at games/strategy and how we look at players changed. A good film about this is "Moneyball with Brad Pit". Spoiler Alert: Pre Moneyball area: "How to choose a player: How does a player look like or his girlfriend", after Moneyball "What is the on base percentage (OBP) of a player". The baseball rules are the same, but suddenly GM´s choose other baseball players as before.

The same thing happend with baseball strategies. There were unwritten rules how to play. But with statistics and computers these unwritten rules were falsified (like the lineup in the article Cynical talked about).
The sentence "with statistis and computers" is very mystic and without explaination the same as "unwritten rules". If u wanne dive deeper in the sabermetric stuff (make decisions on statistics) i would recommend the book "The book, playing the percentages in baseball" from Tango, Lichtman and Dolphin. Another book in this direction (not as detailed or documented with statistics as "the book") is "Ahead of the Curve: Inside the Baseball Revolution" from Brian Kenny. If u just wanne read one book, i would recommend "The book" from Tango, Lichtman and Dolphin

Excellent book recommendations for nukkxx once he has a handle on the bare bones basics of baseball.

[actionjackson]

Originally Posted by mp33

That's a great start to learn the mechanics aside from the game. US baseball (and sports) work very differently compared to football in Europe. We don't have drafts, teams in our leagues can relegate, trading players is very different.

I'd say watch a few games on YouTube to understand the game. You will find full games on there, and you will face a lot of statistics that the broadcasters display during the games. Write them down, understand what they mean, maybe even when a particular statistic is good or bad.

I'm not sure if baseball is broadcasted in France, but I remember when I watched baseball on German television years ago, I couldn't stand it because the commentators explained baseball EVERY SINGLE GAME. Maybe they do something similar in France which would help you even more.

Excellent idea about the YouTube games! Link to lots of games here:

https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...ssic+mlb+games

One of the cool things is you can watch the progression of baseball from the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and up to today's game. The basic game is the same, and yet so much has changed.

[actionjackson]

Nukkxx: You're gonna do fine at this game. Your enthusiasm is infectious, and you're showing a great desire to learn, both about baseball and OOTP. You may get to where you want to be faster than you might think. Keep it up!

[nukkxx]

Originally Posted by GBL

Hello nukkxx,

If u wanne dive deeper in the sabermetric stuff (make decisions on statistics) i would recommend the book "The book, playing the percentages in baseball" from Tango, Lichtman and Dolphin. Another book in this direction (not as detailed or documented with statistics as "the book") is "Ahead of the Curve: Inside the Baseball Revolution" from Brian Kenny. If u just wanne read one book, i would recommend "The book" from Tango, Lichtman and Dolphin

Well, I already mentioned that I know (knew) absolutely nothing about baseball, and I didn't know that quantitative analysis is used in baseball. But what I didn't mention is that in real life I'm very well versed into probability theory, statistics, data mining and time series analysis. My field was finance but numbers are numbers :-) So you can imagine my joy to learn that the word "Sabermetric" exists :-) I will definitely have a look at all these :-)

[jimmysthebestcop]

If you take it as a game and not concentrate on the real world stuff it will be easier to digest.

I just took up football manager the last month not knowing anything of American soccer or European football at all. I started with an English level 10 team in the process of moving up through the levels. So I just concentrate on game mechanics. A lot easier then understanding the real world mechanics.

Except as you pointed out stats are equally useful in game worlds or the real worlds.

[actionjackson]

Originally Posted by nukkxx

Well, I already mentioned that I know (knew) absolutely nothing about baseball, and I didn't know that quantitative analysis is used in baseball. But what I didn't mention is that in real life I'm very well versed into probability theory, statistics, data mining and time series analysis. My field was finance but numbers are numbers :-) So you can imagine my joy to learn that the word "Sabermetric" exists :-) I will definitely have a look at all these :-)

These two books would be great for you because they are both very informative about baseball, and really fun reads. The writers are both very enthusiastic about the subject. Michael Lewis, author of "Moneyball", comes at things from a Wall Street perspective, wanting to find undervalued players on the cheap. Brian Kenny, author of "Ahead of the Curve", comes at things from the Sabermetric or data driven/statistical perspective. He has a great glossary of the stats he uses, and does a good job of keeping it simple for those that aren't into/don't yet understand the numbers as much. I know this because a friend of mine, who hates everything to do with numbers, read it, and was able to ignore the numbers, but still absorb the concepts that Kenny was trying to get across.

Lewis and Kenny are coming at it from different perspectives, but they are both searching for the answer to the question "What is the value of a player on the open market?". Pre-sabermetrics, we used different statistics, which gave us less of a view of the players entire contributions (batting, fielding, and baserunning for position players - pitching, fielding, batting, and baserunning for pitchers) to helping his team win games. Sabermetrics are not perfect. They still have a long way to go in terms of measuring fielding, and could probably tighten it up on the baserunning as well. They are far better than the numbers we used to use to evaluate players though, and in the future they will get even better with technology's ability to better measure the fielding and baserunning components of the equation.

Your background in finance will serve you very well because as you say numbers are numbers, but also, value is value. I know I said before that you'd do well both with baseball and OOTP, but your background should help you even more. A lot of baseball general managers now come from Ivy League schools, and have financial backgrounds, so you'll get there in no time. Watching the Ken Burns documentary, as well as YouTube games from the 1950s right up to present day (at the link I gave you above), is also a fun way to immerse yourself in the game, learning about it as you go. I think you'll really enjoy this journey, and you should definitely keep this thread going for any further questions you may have. Enjoy et bon chance!