playing 2014 MLB season?

[OBSL Commish]

Originally Posted by skywalkr2

You are officially the new OOTP ethics champion... and make me feed sad about my own OOTP ethics.

No kidding! I'd have done that deal in a heartbeat!

[BusterKing]

Originally Posted by adaman77

It's generally pretty easy to trade quantity for quality, which I think is an abuse of the AI. "Hey, St. Louis, I know I don't have anyone to offer you who is nearly as valuable as Oscar Taveras, but I do have three kind-of-alright but aging major leaguers and a AAA starting pitcher... Great! Pleasure doing business with you!" It wouldn't be too much of a problem if the AI actually had a need for those guys, but often they really don't. The AI has a problem recognizing that four decent prospects do not equal one super-prospect. I generally try not to trade with the AI at greater than a 2:1 player ratio. As in, I trade 2 players to the AI for one player. I make exceptions when I'm putting together a realistic package of prospects to trade for a major-leaguer. Sometimes I add another prospect even when the AI is already willing to accept the deal if I don't feel that it's fair.

The other is that I typically try not to trade players to the AI that they really don't need. For example, this happened in my recent Houston game. Oakland is five games out at the deadline. I have a crappy Jason Vargas (it's 2014) signed to a cheap one-year deal. He's still rated okayish, but his ERA is through the roof and he's been worth about 0.5 wins. I also have Yunel Escobar signed to a cheap one-year deal, and while he's been great defensively, he's been so bad offensively (OPS a bit above .500) that he's been worth negative wins. Oakland's starting rotation has actually been alright, but OSA still identifies the rotation as a "slight weakness" because of how the pitchers are rated. Yunel Escobar has basically the same value as Oakland's shortstop. Oakland is set to "Win Now!"

Oakland is willing to trade me Addison Russell, a great prospect knocking on the door to the majors, for Jason Vargas and Yunel Escobar. The deal makes no sense for Oakland. They have needs at shortstop and in their rotation, but neither of the guys I'm offering do anything to address those needs, and they're giving up the guy who actually will address those needs in the very near future. Here, I don't make the trade, because it makes no sense.

And your trading difficulty is set to what?

[adaman77]

I set it to normal (or is it called average?).

I've tried setting it to hard, but it doesn't make the AI smarter, it just makes the AI less willing to trade anything at all. So the AI is reluctant to make lots of deals it really should make. At least in my opinion.

[adaman77]

Originally Posted by OBSL Commish

No kidding! I'd have done that deal in a heartbeat!

Yeah, but when I start making deals like that, within three years I'm one of the best teams in the league AND have one of the best farm systems, and there isn't really all that much challenge. I've turned the Miami Marlins, the Oakland A's, and even, I kid you not, the Chicago White Sox into the new St. Louis Cardinals before 2016, starting from 2013.

Hint about the White Sox: the AI is willing to WAY overpay for Chicago's expensive veterans. I actually flipped Gavin Floyd and Dylan Axelrod (both of whom were having great/very good years) to the Red Sox for Xander Bogaerts. Fast forward to 2015, when Bogaerts is an All-Star, 5-win second baseman for the White Sox, while Axelrod is languishing in a bullpen somewhere and Floyd is jumping between one-year deals.

EDIT: Bogaerts didn't actually hold the starting job for a full season until 2016, actually. Won 101 games that year. Because magic.

[Jeffy25]

I always do the Cardinals.....but it gets to the point of it not being a challenge for several years when it's simply time to pick and choose who to retain, and who to trade away.



So I usually pick a team like the Phillies, a team with no hope, that needs a complete re-stocking to run as well.

[Jeffy25]

Originally Posted by adaman77

It's generally pretty easy to trade quantity for quality, which I think is an abuse of the AI. "Hey, St. Louis, I know I don't have anyone to offer you who is nearly as valuable as Oscar Taveras, but I do have three kind-of-alright but aging major leaguers and a AAA starting pitcher... Great! Pleasure doing business with you!" It wouldn't be too much of a problem if the AI actually had a need for those guys, but often they really don't. The AI has a problem recognizing that four decent prospects do not equal one super-prospect. I generally try not to trade with the AI at greater than a 2:1 player ratio. As in, I trade 2 players to the AI for one player. I make exceptions when I'm putting together a realistic package of prospects to trade for a major-leaguer. Sometimes I add another prospect even when the AI is already willing to accept the deal if I don't feel that it's fair.

The other is that I typically try not to trade players to the AI that they really don't need. For example, this happened in my recent Houston game. Oakland is five games out at the deadline. I have a crappy Jason Vargas (it's 2014) signed to a cheap one-year deal. He's still rated okayish, but his ERA is through the roof and he's been worth about 0.5 wins. I also have Yunel Escobar signed to a cheap one-year deal, and while he's been great defensively, he's been so bad offensively (OPS a bit above .500) that he's been worth negative wins. Oakland's starting rotation has actually been alright, but OSA still identifies the rotation as a "slight weakness" because of how the pitchers are rated. Yunel Escobar has basically the same value as Oakland's shortstop. Oakland is set to "Win Now!"

Oakland is willing to trade me Addison Russell, a great prospect knocking on the door to the majors, for Jason Vargas and Yunel Escobar. The deal makes no sense for Oakland. They have needs at shortstop and in their rotation, but neither of the guys I'm offering do anything to address those needs, and they're giving up the guy who actually will address those needs in the very near future. Here, I don't make the trade, because it makes no sense.

What I used to do, and maybe this should be done again - I think I'll do it again, is create a thread where you explain the situation of a proposed trade in a thread, and you have people pretend to be the opposing GM and they authorize your trade, or decline your trade.


I used to do it for Mogul.

So I would set up a thread, and the scenario would be explained (here is a hypothetical).

I am the Cardinals, 2014, real-time players


I am wanting to trade Jon Jay on July 6th, 2014

The team that wants him is the White Sox

Jay is rated a 60/60 (on the 20/80 scale)

29 years old, currently hitting .284/.359/.402 while playing mostly a slightly sub-average centerfield, and has shown positive defensive numbers in the corners when used there sparingly.

Jay is making 3.25 million this season, and has two full seasons of arbitration control left before being eligible for free agency. He is probably projected for around 5-6 million in his second year of arb, and maybe 7-9 million in his third.


My Cardinals record, team needs, etc, don't matter to the people that I post this to. So I'll discuss the White Sox, the team that I identified, appeared to have the greatest need for Jay.


The White Sox are competing in the AL Central:


Here are the current standings in the AL Central

Tigers - 47-39
White Sox - 46-41
Indians - 42-43
Royals - 39-46
Twins - 33-53

So they are on the bubble of being competitive this season.

Adam Eaton has been the teams starting center fielder all season, but he just tore his ACL.

They also have Asvail Garcia, a 29/69 Right Fielder
And Alejandro DeAza, a 59/59 Center Fielder

Jay can play all three outfield positions, they also have Dylan Viciedo on the bench with Jordan Danks and Blake Tekotte in AAA.


The White Sox can afford Jay's salary.

So what I am asking for in return for Jay is:

19 year old righty, Tyler Danish - 20/23 who is in A Ball
and
16 year old lefty, Josbel Corbora - 20/20 who they just sent to Rookie Ball (but should be in the international complex)


Is this trade worth it for the White Sox?


And then you allow people to reply as if they were running the White Sox. Would they counter-offer, accept the offer, etc. Allow them to ask additional questions. I usually wait until I get three responses if I can wait that long.






This really helps in solo play, because sometimes, it's too easy to abuse the system.

When 2014 comes out, I'll make a thread and do this again.

[SirMichaelJordan]

Originally Posted by adaman77

It's generally pretty easy to trade quantity for quality, which I think is an abuse of the AI. "Hey, St. Louis, I know I don't have anyone to offer you who is nearly as valuable as Oscar Taveras, but I do have three kind-of-alright but aging major leaguers and a AAA starting pitcher... Great! Pleasure doing business with you!" It wouldn't be too much of a problem if the AI actually had a need for those guys, but often they really don't. The AI has a problem recognizing that four decent prospects do not equal one super-prospect. I generally try not to trade with the AI at greater than a 2:1 player ratio. As in, I trade 2 players to the AI for one player. I make exceptions when I'm putting together a realistic package of prospects to trade for a major-leaguer. Sometimes I add another prospect even when the AI is already willing to accept the deal if I don't feel that it's fair.



The other is that I typically try not to trade players to the AI that they really don't need. For example, this happened in my recent Houston game. Oakland is five games out at the deadline. I have a crappy Jason Vargas (it's 2014) signed to a cheap one-year deal. He's still rated okayish, but his ERA is through the roof and he's been worth about 0.5 wins. I also have Yunel Escobar signed to a cheap one-year deal, and while he's been great defensively, he's been so bad offensively (OPS a bit above .500) that he's been worth negative wins. Oakland's starting rotation has actually been alright, but OSA still identifies the rotation as a "slight weakness" because of how the pitchers are rated. Yunel Escobar has basically the same value as Oakland's shortstop. Oakland is set to "Win Now!"



Oakland is willing to trade me Addison Russell, a great prospect knocking on the door to the majors, for Jason Vargas and Yunel Escobar. The deal makes no sense for Oakland. They have needs at shortstop and in their rotation, but neither of the guys I'm offering do anything to address those needs, and they're giving up the guy who actually will address those needs in the very near future. Here, I don't make the trade, because it makes no sense.

It's kind of hard for the AI to have a need when it changes positions of players almost every game. Especially if you play with the AI rating players by positions.

[BostonRS14]

Originally Posted by moneyball

Why "can't" the Phillies trade off Howard? Basically the Sox did trade "Howard" (Gonzalez/Crawford/Beckett) for Webster and De La Rosa. As a Sox fan, it was tough to see Gonzalez go. But wonder boy built us a hell of a farm system and Ben made all the right moves last offseason. There is no reason that Philly can't follow the Boston model. Or at least start to get on that path.

My point was that it's easy in game to pawn off Howard and get decent return without sweeting the deal. Six had to add Gonzalez to get rid of Crawford and beckett's contracts. In ootp, you could do that without having to make it worthwhile for the other team.

I like to be close to realistic in my game, not going to trade Howard without it seeming plausible irl.

House rules.

But, I'll be carrying over my Sox to 2014 after two disappointing years in ootp14.

Also have idea to create mega-universe combining ootp, fhm, & bts once all three are available.

[tward13]

Originally Posted by BostonRS14

Also have idea to create mega-universe combining ootp, fhm, & bts once all three are available.

So who's going to create an add-on that interfaces with all three games. You go through the year day by day and need to go into each game to play scheduled games or interact with players, etc as needed.

[The Wolf]

Bad trades happen in real life. The Tigers recently traded their #3 starter for essentially a bag of Doritos and a jar of magic beans.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by The Wolf

Bad trades happen in real life. The Tigers recently traded their #3 starter for essentially a bag of Doritos and a jar of magic beans.

Hey it was the #4 starter and they did just trade one of those Doritos for a 37 year old Alex Gonzalez. Take a good look folks, Detroit is fast on its way to becoming the next Houston.

[The Wolf]

Originally Posted by David Watts

Hey it was the #4 starter and they did just trade one of those Doritos for a 37 year old Alex Gonzalez. Take a good look folks, Detroit is fast on its way to becoming the next Houston.

Watch his numbers this season: I'll bet you he'd rank #3 if he stayed on the Tigers.

[The Wolf]

And in support of that position:

2014 Positional Power Rankings: Starting Pitchers (#1-#15) | FanGraphs Baseball

Note Fister's projections.

[The Wolf]

Originally Posted by David Watts

Hey it was the #4 starter and they did just trade one of those Doritos for a 37 year old Alex Gonzalez. Take a good look folks, Detroit is fast on its way to becoming the next Houston.

Steamer rates Gonzales just at replacement level. Oliver and ZiPS both rate him below replacement level.

[David Watts]

Sarcasm my friend, it was sarcasm.

[The Wolf]

Sarcasm aside, the Fister trade was the worst of this off-season's trades.

It looked awful at first glance and the more that you look at it the more awful it gets.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by The Wolf

Sarcasm aside, the Fister trade was the worst of this off-season's trades.

It looked awful at first glance and the more that you look at it the more awful it gets.

No arguments from me there. Probably done to free up money for Max. Now that is on hold till after the season.

[ukhotstove]

Originally Posted by BostonRS14

Also have idea to create mega-universe combining ootp, fhm, & bts once all three are available.

Throw in TBCB as well and you could have fight nights in your universe.

[The Wolf]

Detroit Tigers: Why Doug Fister Is More Valuable Than Max Scherzer | Bleacher Report

[clwalcott]

Fister is valuable and underrated, and it was a baffling deal, but I DO think the hardcore SABR crowd goes a bit overboard with Fister - and I certainly don't think he's more valuable than Scherzer. It wasn't a good deal, but the Upton for Prado deal the year before was worse, for instance.

P.S. and yes, I know it was Prado and parts