Help for an amateur!

[Scott83]

Hi guys!

Sorry for these questions which may appear a bit stupid!

First of all I'm from the UK and have only recently started getting into baseball with football being my main sport. I just fancied watching something other than football all the time and it just so happened that spring training was coming up so I looked into baseball, read up some stuff and have been watching a lot of MLB games. I'm really enjoying it and so with being a big Football Manager fan looked to see what was out there for baseball and so purchased OOTP 17.

I think the game is fantastic and really in depth but obviously it is a bit overwhelming with just having a basic knowledge of baseball.

First off I'm the San Francisco Giants (which I picked as my team to follow at the start of spring training) and have made a poor start of 2-6. In terms of your team, outwith the pitching rotation, should I be looking to do any rotation based on form, opponents etc? At the moment I'm just basically picking my best players but obviously with football these can be changed due to player form, opposition weakness etc.

In terms of your bullpen what should I be looking to do? I have set a five man pitching rotation and have set up a bullpen but there's quite a few options within it and I'm not sure if I'm choosing the correct ones.

The trade/waiver system is something that I will really need to read into as I'm lost with that. In terms of the disabled list I got Buster Posey injured so dropped him down to the list for 15 days and promoted a player from the minors to take his place. What would normally be best in this scenario? Is there a definitive guide to read up on this type of stuff as I've just been reading from bits and pieces on line.

Finally, in terms of playing an actual game I'm just using the 'pitch' and 'swing away' options - are there instances when I should be using one of the other options. This is where I feel I have to get a more in depth knowledge of a baseball game in order to be using these.

Thanks in advance for any tips you may have and apologies once again for the very basic questions.

[kq76]

Welcome to the community, Scott!

You said you watch a lot of baseball games. Is it through MLB.tv or does some UK station broadcast them? I'm continuously surprised by how many UKers become fans of OOTP.

What do you mean by "player form"?

As for looking what to do with respect to your team, you can be a micro-manager, making lots of changes trying to take advantage of any little opportunity or you can be a more macro-manager. Personally, I tell myself not to worry too much if my team isn't doing so well in their last week or so. Baseball is a long season and it's only natural that you'll have ups and downs. I also believe in the notion that some of one's best moves are the moves you don't make. So, if you want to try to trade players, pick them off waivers, or promote guys from the minors, go for it, but keep in mind that your current guys might just be in a down swing, but over the long season might do better than any new guys you bring in.

As for the bullpen, are you wanting definitions of the different roles? In the current era managers usually put their best reliever as the closer who usually only pitches the 9th inning. The setup guy is usually the next best reliever and pitches the 8th. For long relief you want a guy with higher stamina, maybe a would-be (if he was better) starter. The middle relief roles you can just place there whoever is left. I'm not sure what the specialist role does, maybe something like a LOOGY, a guy who only comes in to face left-handed hitters. This all can change somewhat if you're not playing in the modern era though.

To learn about trades/waivers and the like, you can google "mlb transactions primer". There are some pretty good sites on that stuff, but they can go into a lot more detail than you really need so just read the sections you want to know about and skip the others until you want to know about them.

I'm not comfortable enough with the in-game play to give you info on it. I'm sure others will though.

Good luck and have fun!

[Scott83]

Thanks for the advice kq76!

I was watching some games on BT Sport ESPN over here but have since bought an MLB.tv subscription.

Sorry, with player form I was meaning if a player has had a couple of poor games. Normally in football they may be dropped to the bench for a game or two but I just wondered if it's similar with baseball? Like you say though with the baseball season being so long then the players are bound to go through hot and cold streaks.

Thanks for the advice on the bullpen - a few tips there that I am going to look to setup when I next play. I'm also reading up a bit more on the trades/waivers side of things like you suggested.

Have to say though I'm really enjoying OOTP - I think playing the game along with watching/reading real life baseball will increase my limited knowledge. Hopefully by the time OOTP 18 comes out I will be flying!

[kq76]

re: player form, ah! Well, that happens in baseball and it doesn't. First of all, as a batter, there's the old saying that you're a future hall of famer if you only fail 7 out of every 10 times (a .300 batting average is pretty good). But then again, a player could go 0 for 4 or 5 in a game and some might still say, well, he hit the ball hard, he just got unlucky by hitting them right at the fielders. You could do that for a few games in a row and still not many might be on your case. Some fans of course would be screaming for the manager to play someone else. Eventually, no matter how hard a player may be hitting the ball, a manager will probably change guys up if they're just not hitting over several games.

They might just want to "shake things up" too, as it is often the case (or at least it may seem that way) that when a manager moves people in the lineup or replaces 1 or 2 guys, the offense will come alive. Some managers will also "platoon" guys at a position which means 2 or more guys might split time starting at a certain position. All that said, it's really rather variable. Some people have the philosophy that you stick with your guys as much as possible, whereas some managers really do like to make a lot of moves. I'm the former type, but if you're the latter, that's perfectly legit too.

Pitchers, however, are a bit of a different story. They, of course, need to succeed at a much higher rate than batters (>7 times out of 10) and if a pitcher is at all looking like he's struggling over more than 2 batters, he'll probably be pulled for a reliever. That, of course, depends on a number of factors: how early in the game is it, how big of a lead do you have if you have one at all, how rested is your bullpen (you'll often need more than 1 reliever in a game, obviously more the earlier it is, and maybe even more than you think as the game might go to extra innings), how good are your available relievers, etc, but managers do typically have a much faster hook on pitchers than batters. It's not just in one game either. If a pitcher has 2 or 3 really bad outings in a row, if the team has "options" on him, there's a good chance they'll send him down to the minors and bring up a guy from down there who's hot.

Lastly, from year to year, how good any one reliever will be tends to be a lot more variable than any one starter. Starters, you see, tend to have 3 or more kinds of pitches and so they have more ways to get a guy out so if one way isn't working they usually have other ways to use. Relievers, however, if their only 1 or 2 pitches just aren't working for them, they're in a lot of trouble as they don't have anything else to fall back on while they figure out what's wrong with them. It could be an overall problem, of course, too, but that's my theory at least on why relievers, in general, are less reliable than starters.

I'm glad you found it and like it, the game and the sport. The more fans the better!

[Number4]

I wrote a bit explaining about bullpens and starters in the "Another UK newbie" thread, you might want to take a look there as well.

[NoOne]

do some googlle searches on lineups and such... rotation should be straightforward.

The biggest thing is understading the limits of your budget. what you can afford, where you should invest more reserources etc. not many budgets can afford a 800-run lineup and lead the league in important pitching statistics on a consistent basis. most will require the aid of cheap, young and talented players under club control.

always accept reality and plan ahead for those that you cannot afford... make sure to get something for them before you lose them. try to leave a 2-3 year window for such decisiosns, so you are not forced to take the only option available... you can defer to next year and see if the return improves - assuming they aren't old players already.

if a prospect doesn't develop, use short-term FA bandaids or keep that guy another year etc. try to have multiple options ahead of time. overpaying for a couple years is a valid option, if it doesn't hamstring you in any way it's all good. it's important not to always spend your entire budget... save that for when you have a core that's going to get expensive as you go, but you are virtually certain you have a large window of opportunity and will not be needing the extra funds for anythign important.

i may have 1-2 guys developing to replace that aging/expensive guy i cannot afford, but they cannot be your only option or you will get burned often.

rarely do i lose 3-4+ regulars in a given year. i am very aware of the mix of ages on my team. i will stagger them even if it means taking the weaker of 2 options (assuming both are at least decent). if you have to replace 3 hitters and a sp or more you are likely screwed for a year or two.

***
whatever you read, try to translate to a video game.

e.g. humans are creatures of habit and that affects how real-world managers run a pitching staff... this is not coded into ootp, so don't worry about it.

If you need to maximize a low-talent starting rotation, you should defintieyl start your top pitchers as soon as they have recovered from their last start. with modern settings (default), it will be 4 days, not 5. furthermore, controlling pitch counts can assure that they get to 97-100% by day 4, if you really need to maximize # of starts.

travel is not a factor in ootp.

just try to think of that as you read things about baseball strategies/commonly held beliefs from the real world. is it in the game? is it pertinent?

****

the regular season is a different animal than the post-season. do you want to maximize regular season success or post season success? how much can you sacrifice one for the other etc etc?

I know i can run a 3-man rotation in the playoffs, if necessary. spending on the 4th and 5th starter is mostly a boon to the regular season and very little help in the postseason. resources ar emost likely better invested elsewhere. a fourth starter isn't so bad in the playoffs... you won't have a guy pitching at 90% stamina recovered nor have to worry about pitch counts. but, you just added 20-25million to your player costs (less what a cheap 4th starter would cost).

you can only play 9 batters in a game.. so a really solid bench doesn't help as much in the postseason as it does in the regular season - excluding platoon situations. 2 platoon players should be looked at as if it's one player. you can get all-star quality results and a much lower cost from 2 players in a platoon situation. if they cost more, you should have just paid the 1 expensive guy and saved a couple bucks.

*****

i set lineups based on opportunities for that spot in the lineup. E.G. it's not about rbi production, but rather it's about rbi opportunities when i place my power-hitters.

you can google a wealth of knowledge on this subject. some college kid in CA wrote a pretty cool thesis that i found once comparing the various methods and analysis of lineups. he made some good inferences, imo. pretty poorly written, though...maybe english was a 2nd language?

[Scott83]

Thanks a lot for the advice given in here.

Have started to put it into action in my save and am really enjoying it.

Still got a lot to learn about the game and baseball in general but will continue watching matches and reading up on things.

[jncca1215]

In regards to playing, a couple other things to know are stolen bases, sacrifice bunts, squeeze plays, and hit-and-run.

General rule is that these types of plays increase your chance at scoring 1 extra run while sacrificing your chances at having a big inning (3+ runs).

Stolen Bases: A fast runner can often steal second base. This puts them in position to score if the batter hits a single. But there's the risk they get caught stealing and are called out.

Sacrifices + Squeezes: There's a bug in OOTP 16 where squeezes never work. Sacrifices should be used when a weak hitter (often the pitcher) is up. They sacrifice their own at-bat but the runner(s) will move up a base.

Hit-and-run is where the runner starts running before the batter swings. The downside is that if the batter misses it turns into a potential caught stealing. It also means the batter swings even if it's not a great pitch, so the potential for an out is higher. But if it goes well it can get a batter from first-to-third on a single or first-to-home on a double.