Constructing a Closer

[JCarter93]

Hi all. I was reading "Moneyball" the other day and came upon a passage where Billy Beane admits to essentially manufacturing a closer and then selling him off when he gets good. Beane says that he finds a slightly above-average pitcher and makes him a closer, then when that pitcher earns a reputation he sells him and starts the process all over again.

As an experiment, I'm attempting to do the same in OOTP. I'm currently attempting to do this by picking some of my low-level prospects, especially those with two good pitches, and setting/force using them into Closers. Has anyone else tried this?

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PS. How can anyone hit two walk-off home runs in the World Series and not be named MVP? (MLB 2k12 frustration).

[Padreman]

I tried that I found a MR with 2 star ratin had a decent fastball picked him mainly because he was the first Peruvian in the league and stood out. It was on a good team he saved 30+ 3 times and 40+2 more times
So 5 decent years I say decent and not good because he did blow a lot of saves and usually had several losses in his record

[JCarter93]

Update: I had some interesting successes in that some of the minor league guys I did this with became legitimate contenders for the majors. The most interesting experiment was with an aging starter that I picked up for a 1.5 mil contract. He had a 104 mph fastball so I turned him into a closer, and he went from three stars to 5 stars and pretty much shut down the opposition the whole season. The one problem was that I signed him up for only 1 year, and when it came to re-sign he jacked up his price to 6 million.

D'oh.

[Padreman]

It's easier to turn to a
Starting Pitcher into a closer i once by mistake signed to many SP to my team so I turned one into a Closer. He went from having 3 straight 15+ win seasons to when it was all said it done 7 straight 35+ save seasons after that he signed else where and became a SP again.

[Carlton]

Here is what I do in my The Show league as the pitiful Padres

I grab a guy with two good pitches, and good to great movement and slightly above average stuff...many of these guys are 1 star SP, you need to scour the FA depths

[JCarter93]

Originally Posted by Carlton

Here is what I do in my The Show league as the pitiful Padres

I grab a guy with two good pitches, and good to great movement and slightly above average stuff...many of these guys are 1 star SP, you need to scour the FA depths

That's the method I've found that works, although I prefer to pick a guy with a really good (16 or so) fastball as one of his two pitches.