A couple newbie questions

[niles08]

I purchased the game on Friday and boy have I had a good time playing it so far. I've restarted twice as I did a couple games where I was just messing around. Now I am looking at starting a serious game that I can play for the next few months.

I selected the Cubs as I am a huge Cubs fan and am looking at helping us compete in 2015. The first season, unless we are shocking the world, I look to trade away a couple of our veteran players. I plan to resign Samardjia & lock up Travis Wood but that's in the future.

A couple questions that I have are:

1. In the test versions I played, I had problems around the all-star break, when I was under .500 of getting offered decent players for one of my top prospects. I noticed that I can change the status to "Rebuilding" and was wondering if that would help to begin getting offers of prospects for my veteran's rather than the opposite.

2. I am feeling a little lost still and was wondering what everybody's ritual is as far as their order of operations for each day. Do you sim day by day and then check the waiver wire and minor leagues or weekly? How often do you watch your minor league players to see if they are ready to be moved up or down a league?

3.With that in mind, is a players progression based on their stats? If Kris Bryant for some reason isn't in the linup for a month at AA, then will he progress slower than if he was in the lineup with 8 home runs over that month? I'm curious on the dynamic's of progression.

4. Obviously we are rebuilding and I will be looking at some pitchers and batters that may provide a small spark for us. What stats matter the most for starting pitchers? ground ball%? Or Stuff? Or Control?

5.Theo is my scouting director and I am working on setting my scouting budget for the year. Why does it matter how much money I put into each area if he is has ratings in those areas? For instance he is legendary in amateur scouting, so why does it matter how much money I put into that?

Thank you for all your help.

[HawkyTom]

Hello and welcome! I'm a new player myself, but I'll try to help you on a couple of your points the best I can.

Here is a link to the OOTP 14 Manual that I use frequently to help me with various questions I have. Using the 'search' in the top-right of the manual can help you find what your looking for.

Out of the Park Baseball Manual


Regarding #1:


You can also adjust player's 'trade status' in the Transactions section. By default every player in your organization is considered 'Available' for trade. From this screen you can them to either 'Untouchable' or 'Trade Block'. If you have some prospects that you have no interest in trading you can shift them to 'untouchable'. You can also use the 'Shop A Player' up to 3 times a day for the players you want to trade off.


Alternatively you could try to shop them yourself. To accomplish that I'd check the 'positional strength' reports and try to figure out which teams in 'Win Now' mode have a weakness at the position your trying to shop and see if you can make a deal with them.


Regarding #2:


For day to day actions for a new player I would recommend using the 'bookmarks' feature. It makes the F2, F3, F4, F5, etc...keys on your keyboard bring up specific screens with the press of a button. It can be overwhelming trying to take in all the different menus at first and trying to keep up with all the things you need to do in a day can be forgotten in menus.


I personally play PBP mode for all my MLB games so my seasons progress a lot slower than people who sim chunks at a time or even simming day to day.


I check 'waiver wire', 'trade block' daily and also make sure their is no new injuries within my whole organization that need to be addressed. I check the stats on my minor leaguers at various times during the season to see whether I might need to promote/demote some guys. How often you do that depends from person to person and I might be forgetting some things, but that's all I can think of right now.

Regarding #3:

Originally Posted by OOTP Manual

Coaching / management

The coaching / managing ratings of the general manager, manager, bench coach, hitting coach, and pitching coach can all affect a player's development. See Personnel Ratings for more information.


Playing time

Minor league players who get little playing time might not develop as quickly as others. However, major league players and players on a reserve roster develop normally even without playing time.


Potential / individual qualities

Very talented players often (but not always) develop more quickly. In addition, some players simply develop more quickly than others. You might be baffled by the high-potential player who fails to live up to expectations, or be pleasantly surprised by the late-round draft pick who quickly advances.


Age

Players in OOTP age as seasons go by. Younger players might mature with age. Older players' skills might begin to diminish. Not all players will lose their skills at the same time-some could remain productive into their 40s, while others might fall apart much sooner than that. All these factors can directly affect a player's current ratings or even his potential ratings. Players age in a model that is relatively consistent with modern-day baseball players. You can adjust this by tweaking the player aging modifier. During game creation, this can be found in the Player Options section of the Game Options page. After game creation, navigate to OOTP Menu >> Game Setup >> Player and Picture Options.


Challenge

Players respond differently to challenges. Often, a player who is tearing up Double A hitting might not be developing very quickly, because he isn't being challenged. Similarly, putting an overmatched rookie into your major league starting lineup could actually hurt his development.


Injuries

Injuries often cause a player's development to slow, or could even cause his skills to regress. Injuries can immediately affect a player's current ratings and his potential ratings. The more severe an injury is, the more likely that the player's ratings will suffer. See Injuries and Fatigue for more information.


Spring Training

Players have an opportunity to play during spring training, and this often gives them an opportunity to improve outside the regular season. See Spring Training for more information.


Chance

Chance also plays a hand in rating changes. Sometimes, the light bulb inside a player's head will just go on, and he will jump to a new level of play. Players can experience significant changes in their ratings and potential in a short time. Of course, the same is true in reverse. Some players will never live up to their potential.


Player Development Modifiers

The speed with which players develop can also be adjusted by the player development modifiers that can be set during game creation on the Player Options section of the Game Options page. After game creation, navigate to OOTP Menu >> Game Setup >> Player and Picture Options.

Hopefully somebody else can fill in the blanks or correct me if I'm mistaking on something.

[niles08]

Thank you for the response.

As far as #1 goes, I have tried putting some players "on the block" & "Available" but haven't tried the untouchable suggestion. When I try to shop a player, it seems like all I ever get in return are offers for major leaguers? How do I get offers for minor league players?

I really appreciate the information posted on #3. That was very helpful for me.

[El Muneco]

I still have the OOTP equivalent of new car smell clinging to me as well, but here's my couple of cents:

1) If you can find a way of getting the AI to give you useful trade proposals, much less the specific kind you're interested in, you're a better player than me... I keep getting "32-yo #3 starter plus AAA washout for cost-controlled 25-yo 5-win outfielder".

2) This won't do wonders for my cred, but I find I just don't have enough actions to sim day-to-day. I sim a full week or more, having it stop on injuries/trades/etc. and find that it works fine for me.

3) Prospect progression in general is more magic than science. But playing regularly is a Good Thing(tm). Bringing a kid up to pinch-run once a week will slow down his development a bit.

4) I look more for the full package than any specific component. I like starters to have three 55+ pitches on 20-80, not two and an afterthought. Same with stuff, control, movement - plus on all if possible since weaknesses will be discovered at the top level. In some cases you can get perfectly serviceable #2-#3 starters with an overall rating in the 50s while others who are rated in the 70s and so theoretically far superior can't get below a 4.00 ERA for the life of them.

5) I think of it this way - the scouting director determines how efficient your scouting apparatus is, your funding determines how effective it is. If you don't give your director enough feet on the ground (bird dogs, cross-checkers, etc.), you're tying his hands. While if you put a mediocrity in charge, he won't be able to use even a solid organization to its full potential. The director and funding levels heterodyne.

[El Muneco]

Originally Posted by niles08

When I try to shop a player, it seems like all I ever get in return are offers for major leaguers? How do I get offers for minor league players?

This kind of irks me as well... If you shop a player, the AI will respond with the players that it values - by its scouting, not yours - to be close enough in "value" to your player to be worth a one-for-one deal. This definitely takes salary and available funds into account - if a team has $1.5M available, they won't offer a player that would be a net loss of $2M. This means that teams in the red will almost never offer to trade a player on a minor league contract for a ML veteran.

If it doesn't have any prospects that are worth a one-for-one deal, they won't show up - there's no option for "if you threw in X, you could get this 19-yo 35/75" or, conversely, "I know that this 22-yo 28/58 isn't quite what you're looking for, but take a look at my prospects and make an offer".

For that, you have to go to "Trade Player" and pick through teams.

[eriqjaffe]

Originally Posted by niles08

\When I try to shop a player, it seems like all I ever get in return are offers for major leaguers? How do I get offers for minor league players?

IIRC, OOTP will only ever offer you players on the 40-man roster when you shop a player around.

The only way I've found to get prospects for veterans is to manually comb through the trading screen like El Muneco suggests.

What I have found, though, is that when you find a team that has a lot of players they'd be willing to trade when you shop a player, it tends to be indicative of how much they value the player you're shopping, and you can probably use those 1-for-1 offers as a starting point to negotiate a trade.

Setting your team to "rebuilding" generally won't do much to affect the out-of-the-blue offers, but teams that are set to "Win Now" by the AI will generally be more receptive to acquiring veterans.

Additionally, there are difficulty settings for trading, as well as settings to determine whether the AI values prospects or veterans more. Changing those settings will definitely alter what the AI will offer you when you shop a player, as well, as what they'll be willing to give you when you manually initiate a trade.

Personally, I value control and movement higher than stuff, but it kind of depends on the defense behind him. A strong defense (especially up the middle) can turn a guy with 5 stuff (on a 1-10 scale) into an All-Star. I'm also a big fan of guys with high GB% for the same reason.