Moneyball - in iOOTP 2012

[Disco Dog 13]

Just thoroughly enjoyed the film having last year read the book.

Which team in this years iOOTP has the smallest budget as I would like to challenge myself

[magicspeedo]

Originally Posted by Disco Dog 13

Just thoroughly enjoyed the film having last year read the book.

Which team in this years iOOTP has the smallest budget as I would like to challenge myself

Houston, Pittsburg, Oakland, and San Diego start with $80M budget. Of those, I would say Pit has the best young prospects that you can work with, followed by Oakland, San Diego and last and definitely least, Houston.

Pits got 4 future starting pitcher prospects. If you develop them little, you could probably work some trades for 8 field players...but the have a couple solid field players already.

Oakland has a bunch of decent prospects and a solid staring line up. They probably have a better team than Pit, but Pit has better prospects, although Oak has more prospects.

San Diego doesn't really have any starting pitcher prospects unless a couple of their guys develop a 3rd pitch or some stamina. They do have the best field player prospects, but you know me, your rotation trumps your line up.

Houston has a couple of good prospects and some decent ones, but they have an absolutely horrible team. Their prospects are hitters to boot, so that's probably the hardest team to "fix".

If you want to be true to moneyball, the A's are there. Of course it may be the easiest road to take Pit to glory, but if you did you would be the first in a long long long time, like since Bonds was a spring chicken.

[Disco Dog 13]

Originally Posted by magicspeedo

Houston, Pittsburg, Oakland, and San Diego start with $80M budget. Of those, I would say Pit has the best young prospects that you can work with, followed by Oakland, San Diego and last and definitely least, Houston.

Pits got 4 future starting pitcher prospects. If you develop them little, you could probably work some trades for 8 field players...but the have a couple solid field players already.

Oakland has a bunch of decent prospects and a solid staring line up. They probably have a better team than Pit, but Pit has better prospects, although Oak has more prospects.

San Diego doesn't really have any starting pitcher prospects unless a couple of their guys develop a 3rd pitch or some stamina. They do have the best field player prospects, but you know me, your rotation trumps your line up.

Houston has a couple of good prospects and some decent ones, but they have an absolutely horrible team. Their prospects are hitters to boot, so that's probably the hardest team to "fix".

If you want to be true to moneyball, the A's are there. Of course it may be the easiest road to take Pit to glory, but if you did you would be the first in a long long long time, like since Bonds was a spring chicken.

Cheers

Have done a bit of trading and this is the look of the Team for the first game





Still missing a 5th SP (Burnett still injured for 4 weeks) but glad to still have Taillon and Cole in the Minors

[magicspeedo]

Originally Posted by Disco Dog 13

Cheers

Have done a bit of trading and this is the look of the Team for the first game

Attachment 266179

Attachment 266180

Still missing a 5th SP (Burnett still injured for 4 weeks) but glad to still have Taillon and Cole in the Minors

Solid. Though taillon isn't as good in this years game as he was in lat years game. He could still develop into a solid 5. But I'd trade him in a season or two whenever you can find a super stud regen or someone like Strasberg.

For example, my current ace:

[magicspeedo]

You inspired me to start a new game with the Astros. Had a two hour plane ride to get through my first season. Man they are bad. I have worked a few trades for some good prospects, but I'm destroying them by playing them early...oh well. I had the first overall pick and there just happened to be no SP to take...awesome...but there did happen to be a 4 star with 5 star potential SS waiting for me. Since my teams weakness was 2B I figured he could just learn a new trade.

I also worked a deal for Matt Moore at the draft so I at least have an Ace, just no one to back him up.

[Disco Dog 13]

Made some trades after I lost about 6 of my active roster to free agency



Happy with these guys

Replacing the likes of Bedard and Oswalt is a bit more difficult though .....

My Bullpen and Rotation has gone from being 55-75 to 25 - 70
... A shocking drop in quality

Plus I'm $12M over budget so am trying to get rid of the deadwood ... That nobody else wants !!!!!

[magicspeedo]

Welp, things aren't lookin good. Hurt in the last game of the season. I get this right before the start of the next season. Yay.

[Disco Dog 13]

Originally Posted by magicspeedo

Welp, things aren't lookin good. Hurt in the last game of the season. I get this right before the start of the next season. Yay.

That's shocking luck !!

Guess you get the money back but still bad luck nevertheless

Traded Swisher once I realised Harper would be wasted at DH - but got 2 SPs for him, one 63 the other 46 .. But both have potential

Also traded Cespedes as he was on $9m which brought me back under the wagecap - got another SP - 63, and one of my success stories from my Yankees game - Trevor Story

Now whether he goes from this ...



.... To this



Is debatable so will have to wait and see ...

Also very happy to have replaced Cespedes with a 66 CF whose team was happy with a load of sub 25 minor league guys.

Sadly I also sacrificed my 72 2B as he was on $11m but happy to have got a 64 2B and also a potential future star at SS in Francisco Lindor

Now what to do with this spare cash

[magicspeedo]

I present to you the 2015 World Series Champion Houston Astros:



Starting Rotation:






Starting Lineup:











Kershaw was an absolute lucky day for me, but it more than makes up for my terrible luck with Matt Moore. He was a free agent that I picked up the day after the draft who had 2 more months of injury. He came off the DL the day after the trading deadline and went straight my #1 SP role. Unfortunately he's only on a 1 year contract because arbitration is going to slam me in the offseason and I couldn't get him multiyear...but it worked out for this season in the end

I also traded Jason Heyward for Peavy and Ledezma just before the trading deadline. Heyward is a stud but this is moneyball and I needed a 5th starter without much of a drop off in RF while saving cash. Ledezma is only 2 years into his career and peavey only cost 9M a year, saving me 3M for those two instead of Heyward.

Hopefully Profar can recover from me playing him too early. Being a rangers fan, I love the guy, but he's got 1 or 2 more seasons to improve before he gets the axe.

Total team budget: $77,664,000

[Disco Dog 13]

Originally Posted by magicspeedo

I present to you the 2015 World Series Champion Houston Astros:



Starting Rotation:






Starting Lineup:











Kershaw was an absolute lucky day for me, but it more than makes up for my terrible luck with Matt Moore. He was a free agent that I picked up the day after the draft who had 2 more months of injury. He came off the DL the day after the trading deadline and went straight my #1 SP role. Unfortunately he's only on a 1 year contract because arbitration is going to slam me in the offseason and I couldn't get him multiyear...but it worked out for this season in the end

I also traded Jason Heyward for Peavy and Ledezma just before the trading deadline. Heyward is a stud but this is moneyball and I needed a 5th starter without much of a drop off in RF while saving cash. Ledezma is only 2 years into his career and peavey only cost 9M a year, saving me 3M for those two instead of Heyward.

Hopefully Profar can recover from me playing him too early. Being a rangers fan, I love the guy, but he's got 1 or 2 more seasons to improve before he gets the axe.

Total team budget: $77,664,000

Wow - do you sim all the games of just the majority ?

Just wondered how you managed to do 4 seasons in a few days

[magicspeedo]

Originally Posted by Disco Dog 13

Wow - do you sim all the games of just the majority ?

Just wondered how you managed to do 4 seasons in a few days

I simulated everything. I wasn't planning on it, but I won 3 straight WS with that (or some similar variation) of that team.

[Disco Dog 13]

Originally Posted by magicspeedo

I simulated everything. I wasn't planning on it, but I won 3 straight WS with that (or some similar variation) of that team.

I end up "playing" each game so that I can sort out any lineup issues (a terrible player who is inserted at 5 rather than 9 etc due to your first choice needing a rest etc) ... then change the settings so that the Computer controls the team then choose end of game

Haven't got the patience for a ball-by-ball game ... I'd never finish a season !!!!

[magicspeedo]

Originally Posted by Disco Dog 13

I end up "playing" each game so that I can sort out any lineup issues (a terrible player who is inserted at 5 rather than 9 etc due to your first choice needing a rest etc) ... then change the settings so that the Computer controls the team then choose end of game

Haven't got the patience for a ball-by-ball game ... I'd never finish a season !!!!

I occasionally play every pitch of the world series game 7, but that's rare even for game 7s!

I set up my line up and only change it for injuries. It takes a little luck at first, but once you develop your farm system it becomes "plug and play" with the players. I usually have my backup SS as a backup for all infield spots and my backup CF as my backup for all outfield spots. This way those guys who are supposed to be my best defenders will learn all the positions to increase flexibility among the fielders.

TBH I prefer SS caliber defending for ALL my infielders. Even my 1B is a 70+ SS at his best. Tough to find though, and especially tough until the game starts generating better players than those available at the start.

[Disco Dog 13]

Quite surprised I won the WS with the Pirates in 2013 !



Only just came across this thread again so wanted to see if anyone had won with a small team this quickly