Any Way to Fix Horrible Pitching?

[TopeHabFan]

My playing as the modern day Blue Jays and I know their pitching staff isn't the greatest to begin with, but their relievers are fairing pretty well. So I figure that their OOTP counterparts should be somewhat competent but my relievers seem to always end up getting rocked and they're losing me lots of games. I don't play the games, I just set the line-up before hand, so I don't know if this makes a difference or not.

Now most of my pitchers have been fairly abysmal, but I've highlighted the ones who've concerned me the most...

[Déjà Bru]

First, the good news: You are not doing anything wrong and there should be no significant difference in these performances whether you sim games or play them out.

Now, the bad news which you are not going to want to hear: While I just took a look and verified that Delabar and Santos are having good seasons, thereby seeming to put the lie to your simulation results (the other two guys, not so good IRL):

• The way these guys were rated in the MLB game is based on brief careers of somewhat obscure players, and
• The game is going to vary performances in simulation compared to real life to some extent - this often disappoints simulators who expect OOTPB to mirror image actual results . . . and in advance (2013)!

[TopeHabFan]

Thanks for the reply!

I fully expect as this is a simulation that results may vary from season to season, but I just didn't expect that my entire pitching staff would end up mediocre especially with their seemingly high in-game ratings.

I intend on letting Johnson go as a FA though, and I'll probably gonna try to let go of Santos and just retool my pitching and just have to hope for the best next season!

[Fyrestorm3]

It's been said a thousand times: OOTP does not recognize players by name. It sees each player as a bunch of ratings, nothing more. Put your preconceived notions about real-life players aside; a guy is not going to a stud in OOTP just because he's having a good season in real life.

Here's a question: In OOTP, let's say you signed a stud pitcher who was a proven vet with a career ERA of under 4, a former Rookie of the Year and Cy Young winner, and seemingly worth every penny you were paying him. If he then underperformed the first year, and completely blew up the second, posting a 6+ ERA, how would you react? Some people might call the game "broken" or "fixed" or "too hard". What if he then missed the entire next season due to injury, and was still eating up $16M of your money? What if no team wanted him in a trade due to all this, and you were stuck with him for 3 more years? Doesn't seem fair, does it?

But then, what if he came back the next year and turned into one of the best pitchers on the team, with a sub-3 ERA? Not realistic, right? Well, I just described exactly what happened with John Lackey and the Red Sox in real life.

My point is this: in all honesty, OOTP does a fantastic job of mimicking real life, because of its unpredictability. Sometimes guys who were previously good stay good, and sometimes they suck. You can't base what "should" happen on real life, because even real life doesn't usually follow what "should" happen.

[olivertheorem]

What on earth are Sergio Santos' ratings in your game that he has 26 K against 64 BB in only 45 IP?

[RchW]

Originally Posted by olivertheorem

What on earth are Sergio Santos' ratings in your game that he has 26 K against 64 BB in only 45 IP?

That caught my eye too. That's 1.45BB per inning.

[jofos]

I just think the game hates the Blue Jays.

[TopeHabFan]

Originally Posted by olivertheorem

What on earth are Sergio Santos' ratings in your game that he has 26 K against 64 BB in only 45 IP?

I'm going to assume his control is probably the fault of all the walks.

[jofos]

where di you get the player pictures?

[olivertheorem]

I'd say so, but man, 26/64 K/BB ratio is really bad even for that. Especially with 18 stuff. I have similar pitchers on my Astros staff that aren't nearly that bad. In his case, you may be looking at a one-in-a-million outcome.

[VanillaGorilla]

A few thoughts:

Your SP are averaging between 5 and 6 1/3 IP per start.

Your opp BA and BABIP look high across the board.

I think your defense is forcing your SP to throw too many pitches in too few innings, which leads to an overworked BP.

I just took over a new team in a 2013 environment with lowered mounds that have led to a 10% increase in scoring.

The team I took over used 18 pitchers in the previous season. You have used 19.

I had only one pitcher with 60 appearances during the whole season. With 2 weeks to go you have 3.

Janssen is above an inning an appearance. IRL he is below an IP/G.

Since you are not playing the games yourself, the fault is not on you for mismanaging the RPs. I have found that the AI does a much better job of managing the bull pen than I do. When I play I make about half of the RP calls and the other half I let the AI do them.

As you noted, Toronto in 2013 isn't Toronto of 1993. Still, why these results? Is it just random variation? Perhaps.

Or, it could be that you are fielding line-ups are, either by choice (favoring bats at the expense of defense with the thought of subbing later in the game) or by circumstance (all your good fielders are hurt or just really suck at the plate and it would be worse to start them), poor defensively.

This is causing your SPs to rack up higher pitch counts earlier in games.

This is causing the bull pen to be used more often.

This is causing the RPs to pitch more often when less than 100% rested and pitch to more hitters when they have tired in game.

This results in more BBs and more balls getting hit hard at your defense that forced your SPs to throw more pitches than necessary....which is what began this whole cycle.

If Janssen has been in your closer slot all season and the AI has made all in game decisions and he has 65 appearances and only 26 saves and averaging over an IP per outing, that is telling me that the bully is often gassed and Janssen is being thrown into games that are not late inning tie/lead situations way too often.

[RonP]

But really, 64 walks in 46 innings? I've never seen that kind of ratio and no professional manager would put a relief pitcher out there again after, say five innings of that kind of effort let alone forty-six. Best thing to do would be to say his leg is broken. Shoot him.

[Fyrestorm3]

Originally Posted by RonP

But really, 64 walks in 46 innings? I've never seen that kind of ratio and no professional manager would put a relief pitcher out there again after, say five innings of that kind of effort let alone forty-six. Best thing to do would be to say his leg is broken. Shoot him.

TORONTO -- Still no word from Blue Jays management, after eyewitnesses reported GM Alex Anthopoulos and Manager John Gibbons leading pitcher Sergio Santos out behind the back of Rogers Centre yesterday. Anthopoulos was holding a shotgun, and Gibbons a shovel. Santos was placed on the 60-Day DL yesterday with what the team is calling "Old Yeller Syndrome." In a hastily-called press conference, Gibbons, choking back tears, said that it was a decision that had to be made: "It's not easy. I didn't want to do it. But, if you can't play, you can't play."

Santos has so far been unavailable for comment.

[TopeHabFan]

Originally Posted by Fyrestorm3

TORONTO -- Still no word from Blue Jays management, after eyewitnesses reported GM Alex Anthopoulos and Manager John Gibbons leading pitcher Sergio Santos out behind the back of Rogers Centre yesterday. Anthopoulos was holding a shotgun, and Gibbons a shovel. Santos was placed on the 60-Day DL yesterday with what the team is calling "Old Yeller Syndrome." In a hastily-called press conference, Gibbons, choking back tears, said that it was a decision that had to be made: "It's not easy. I didn't want to do it. But, if you can't play, you can't play."

Santos has so far been unavailable for comment.

That's gold Might have to be my reasoning for letting him go

[RchW]

Originally Posted by TopeHabFan

That's gold Might have to be my reasoning for letting him go

In real life about 25 Jays players have been missing all year. That's not counting the injured ones.

[dodger300]

Delabar and Mcgowans BB rates are also very high. Delabar may be a victim of your home ball park. The balls fly out of the park in Toronto.

[dodger300]

Do you have your strategy sliders maxed for pitch around and IBB late in the game. Because your bullpen, with the exception of Janssen, I would guess has one of the worst BB to IP ratio of all time.

[nyy26wc]

Originally Posted by RonP

But really, 64 walks in 46 innings? I've never seen that kind of ratio and no professional manager would put a relief pitcher out there again after, say five innings of that kind of effort let alone forty-six. Best thing to do would be to say his leg is broken. Shoot him.

I have seen a lot of relievers in my league over the past decade (OOTP time) who have walked about a batter an inning and the occassional one with rates as bad that one.

In OOTP, if a reliever's control is bad, it is really BAD!!

[nyy26wc]

You might also want to consider your catcher. Look for a catcher with a high "catcher's ability". This is different from his defensive rating at C.

I never really paid much attention to that, but then again, I had an entrenched starter at that position, in Jorge Posada. But, for my current season, I moved Posada to DH and made a trade for Geovany Soto and his 91 catcher's ability rating. With only minor tickering with my pitching staff from last season to this one, my staff has jumped from 4th in the league in ERA to 1st, I have seen Johan Santana bounce back from a disappointing previous season, I am getting a good year out of an over the hill (based on his ratings) Mike Mussina and my bullpen is living up to its potential better than it had last season.

[soxfan34]

upgrade your defense - C, SS/2B, CF to be well above average, even if offense suffers because of it (for those players) and you'll see a difference.