Just a few things for a new guy

[Bigkizen]

So im fairly new to OOTP baseball but already loving OOTP 16 notching up 24hrs in a few days but theres a few things im not 100% on so figured id come here and ask and hope people can help out.

1. So firstly regarding OSA vs Scouting Director who is the best person to listen to? If my Scout is highly rated in all the categories is he the best option?

2. Regarding prospects im not sure when is the best time to move them through the minor leagues. Should i just leave this part to my minor league managers using the team control settings or would it be better to do it myself if i knew the best way to do so?

3. I just finished 2017 with the Seattle Mariners and it started off slow but then my team picked up and then went on a crazy 15 game win streak to get the season back on track and i thought that would be where we finished strong but the later half of the season went downhill after I suffered a series of long term injuries to my starters mainly pitching and ballpen but a couple of outfield aswel. Are these sort of injury crisis fairly frequent? or did i just get unlucky?

4. If a star player is drastically underperforming what sort of steps can I take to try and improve that? Would it be worth dropping them down to AAA team until they start performing again?

5. Finally is there any good advice i can get on handling contracts? so far I have been tentative to sign people up long term and I thought the best way was while still in arbitration to keep them on a year by year contract basis but would it be better put in long term offers?

Thanks in advanced for any help, there were a few more things but these were the main things and did not want it to turn into an essay of questions.

[TGH-Adfabre]

1) Scouting Director
2) There are a bunch of answers to this question. I use a combination of age and current talent. For batters I use contact and eye and indicators of progress and pitchers I use control. I assume that players over age 26 are done improving.
3) Both, injuries are a huge part of managing a team. Luck definitely plays a roll.
4) For how long, baseball is a game of the long term. A bad week or two is common amongst the best players. You can move them around in the batting order, sit them for a few games, promote them or demote them. Sometimes it helps sometimes it does not.
5) I think any professional GM is tentative to sign long term deals. I always try to buy out arbitration years if the player is talented. I do not always succeed. I do my best to avoid long term deals but if Kershaw is a FA I am going to float him a huge contract. I also try to front or back load contracts. I usually try to front load and take a short term budget space hit. Try to pay 40-50 million of a 100 million contract in the first year. I also will look at possible free agents for the following year to see what I may be spending down the road.

[Bigkizen]

Originally Posted by TGH-Adfabre

1) Scouting Director
2) There are a bunch of answers to this question. I use a combination of age and current talent. For batters I use contact and eye and indicators of progress and pitchers I use control. I assume that players over age 26 are done improving.
3) Both, injuries are a huge part of managing a team. Luck definitely plays a roll.
4) For how long, baseball is a game of the long term. A bad week or two is common amongst the best players. You can move them around in the batting order, sit them for a few games, promote them or demote them. Sometimes it helps sometimes it does not.
5) I think any professional GM is tentative to sign long term deals. I always try to buy out arbitration years if the player is talented. I do not always succeed. I do my best to avoid long term deals but if Kershaw is a FA I am going to float him a huge contract. I also try to front or back load contracts. I usually try to front load and take a short term budget space hit. Try to pay 40-50 million of a 100 million contract in the first year. I also will look at possible free agents for the following year to see what I may be spending down the road.

Thanks for the quick reply ill try some of the things you suggested, the front loading contract thing I never thought of doing something like that at least not to the degree you implied.

There was one more thing, trading im struggling to do any decent trades teams seem to expect alot of value over what their player is worth is there some sort of secret method to trading?

[Greenbay]

Originally Posted by TGH-Adfabre

1) Scouting Director
2) There are a bunch of answers to this question. I use a combination of age and current talent. For batters I use contact and eye and indicators of progress and pitchers I use control. I assume that players over age 26 are done improving.
3) Both, injuries are a huge part of managing a team. Luck definitely plays a roll.
4) For how long, baseball is a game of the long term. A bad week or two is common amongst the best players. You can move them around in the batting order, sit them for a few games, promote them or demote them. Sometimes it helps sometimes it does not.
5) I think any professional GM is tentative to sign long term deals. I always try to buy out arbitration years if the player is talented. I do not always succeed. I do my best to avoid long term deals but if Kershaw is a FA I am going to float him a huge contract. I also try to front or back load contracts. I usually try to front load and take a short term budget space hit. Try to pay 40-50 million of a 100 million contract in the first year. I also will look at possible free agents for the following year to see what I may be spending down the road.

What is the advantage of front loading the contract?

[RchW]

Originally Posted by Greenbay

What is the advantage of front loading the contract?

Your cost for performance hit is reduced vs a backloaded contract.

[Peregrine]

I have to agree about being careful with long term deals. I tend to avoid them, especially if a player is getting older - you really don't want to be stuck with some aging guy who is now a backup but is getting $18 mil a year. Now if it's a young free agent with a great track record, maybe but again (especially with pitchers) they could be one injury away from disaster.

[eriqjaffe]

IIRC players who go to arbitration tend to be less likely to negotiate with you when they are eliglble for free agency, and/or are less charitable when they are willing to negotiate.

Personally, I prefer to avoid going to arbitration when possible.

[SwedishChef]

front loading a contract in that manner feels like cheating to me, so i don't do it. but, everyone can play the game they want to.

a word of warning on buying out arb years in OOTP... just as in real life some players personalities are affected by their contract status. i've found that some players perform and develop better when they're not guaranteed to be fat and happy for the next ten years.

[SwedishChef]

Originally Posted by Bigkizen

So im fairly new to OOTP baseball but already loving OOTP 16 notching up 24hrs in a few days but theres a few things im not 100% on so figured id come here and ask and hope people can help out.

1. So firstly regarding OSA vs Scouting Director who is the best person to listen to? If my Scout is highly rated in all the categories is he the best option?

2. Regarding prospects im not sure when is the best time to move them through the minor leagues. Should i just leave this part to my minor league managers using the team control settings or would it be better to do it myself if i knew the best way to do so?

3. I just finished 2017 with the Seattle Mariners and it started off slow but then my team picked up and then went on a crazy 15 game win streak to get the season back on track and i thought that would be where we finished strong but the later half of the season went downhill after I suffered a series of long term injuries to my starters mainly pitching and ballpen but a couple of outfield aswel. Are these sort of injury crisis fairly frequent? or did i just get unlucky?

4. If a star player is drastically underperforming what sort of steps can I take to try and improve that? Would it be worth dropping them down to AAA team until they start performing again?

5. Finally is there any good advice i can get on handling contracts? so far I have been tentative to sign people up long term and I thought the best way was while still in arbitration to keep them on a year by year contract basis but would it be better put in long term offers?

Thanks in advanced for any help, there were a few more things but these were the main things and did not want it to turn into an essay of questions.

1. I listen to both. A lot of scouts will have a hard time rating pitching prospects (in particular those that value ability over tools). So, you have to look at their numbers for promotion and valuation purposes. But, that's difficult/impossible during the draft so OSA needs to be considered. Also, OSA value is going to likely be more in line with what the baseball universe will value the player. So, if considering trading your prospects, look at the OSA value as the value the other time likely places on that fella.

2. I leave it up to the AI because I like to speed through many simulations and it would just be too damn time consuming to worry about DSL, A ball, etc. That said, again, the AI doesn't do well with pitching prospects. The AI also does not cull as well as I would like. So, at the end of the year I make sure to cull those in the minors that are aging out and not progressing. No sense in keeping 25 year olds in A ball, but the AI will do it.

3. Injuries are fairly realistic on the normal settings. That can be unfortunate because injuries suck. You can turn it down, but again, I don't find that to be realistic.

4. Depends, but dropping them down will probably not work unless they are still young. Some players will underperform certain seasons and bounce back just like in real life. Some players will underperform for certain managers or because the clubhouse chemistry is off. Some players peak before you want them to and there's nothing that can be done to rescue their careers.

5. See my other comment about long term deals. I try not to do them unless I'm hoping that Player X sets such and such record for my team. Otherwise, 9 times out of 10 you're better off just letting them go and finding replacements.