Did I hit the pinnacle of OOTP management?

[Argonaut]

I feel like I've hit the pinnacle of OOTP management, and wanted to share my exploits with the forum. Let me know if you believe there's a tougher challenge out there!

What I did: Won the World Series in a competitive online league with the dead last payroll.

It's easy enough to beat up on the AI in single player, especially if you place no restrictions on yourself. And Perfect Team can be "beat" with some combination of time and/or money. So I believe the biggest OOTP testing ground is in online leagues, which pits all us human-brains against each other. Online leagues are very competitive, although some teams get abandoned or mismanaged, you can bet the playoff teams will be well-run machines.

I took the Kansas City Royals to the top of the league with the #30 payroll, and a near bottom budget due to the penny-pinching owner David Glass (who has since died in real life).

We were tops in the AL in wins, runs scored, and runs against, so it wasn't a playoff fluke. We almost blew a 3-1 lead in the World Series against the Braves, but won in Game 7. ATL had about $100 million more in player payroll.

There's a fine line between boasting and something of value, so apologies if I'm on the wrong side of that. Just wanted to share my achievements with the crowd.

How I did it: I didn't trade much, maybe once or twice per season. Just maxed scouting and development, had all players at min. salary, in arbitration, or on 1 year deals.

I also tailored my major league roster to my ballpark... KC has a lefty-friendly park in OOTP21 that shuns home runs. 8/9 of my starting lineup were LHB. I was 13th in home runs, and 4th in wOBA, but 1st in runs. Really worked on optimizing my lineup construction to score runs... had my leadoff hitter as a speedster with license to steal. Old-school smallball approach can work in the right ballpark!

On the run prevention side, I focused on everything you can -- good pitching, defense at key positions, and Catcher Ability. The hero was waiver wire pickup Jon Duplantier, who despite being only 46 OVR pitched a 2.17 ERA with us in the season, and 6.0 innings of shutout ball in Game 7. He had high STU and MOV with poor CON, the perfect candidate to pair with a defensive catcher. My closer/stopper Jim Jeske also pitched a perfect postseason.

Attached the playoffs, along with stats for the season.

[pgjocki]

That's awesome, I love seeing stories like this! Did you spend a lot of time tweaking strategy for both the team and individual players?

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[Chidi29]

Great job man!

[Argonaut]

Originally Posted by pgjocki

That's awesome, I love seeing stories like this! Did you spend a lot of time tweaking strategy for both the team and individual players?

Everybody on the MLB roster has individual slider settings. No sac bunt for anybody but pitchers, no stealing for anyone who can't hit 75% success, and baserunning usually pretty conservative.

There's lots of little micromanagement tweaks available in OOTP. Sliders, lineup construction, bullpen roles, etc. I think any given one of them won't add up to a lot of extra wins. But add them all together and run it logically, and I believe there's a lot of value that can be derived there.

Run prevention is probably the go-to first step in Moneyball for me. Catcher Ability, SS/CF/2B defense, and a bullpen with good Stuff isn't too hard to obtain, and will be guaranteed to prevent runs.

Scoring runs is much harder because elite batters are at such a premium. A franchise can only really take that next step when they get good quality in the 1-5 lineup spots. Admittedly it's a bit easier in the AL, because you can find some real hidden gems for the DH spot.

My DH was Aldrem Corredor, who looks like he won't amount to much in real life. But in our online league TCR or something turned him into a real slugger.

[mrbadguy]

I love OOTPB because anything can happen. Not long ago I started a Rockies expansion, starting in 1993. MInd you the NL West was awful but I won the World Series my second or third year. I wish I saved franchise, think I was like 83-79, and basically the team I drafted through expansion.
With my recent Jays franchise, starting in 2020, I won the WS even though I was trying to rebuild all year. Traded most vets (kept Ryu) and at trade deadline I was over 10 games out. Used bullpen my committee, filled with AAA guys. Went on a 25-5 summer run while Yankees floundered. Went 88-84 with lowest payroll in AL.

[JaBurns]

Well done Argonaut, in most of my one line leagues I have a cheap sob owner with a low budget. Tough to win given those factors but it makes any success sweeter.

[eldur00]

That is a pretty impressive feat.
To answer your question of what could be a bigger challenge than this, I would say probably playing as Manager only and winning it all for a very low budget team would be an interesting challenge.
You relinquish all control and can only focus on the players that are given to you. That's the only way I play anymore as it offers great challenge, but I understand it's not for everybody.

[pgjocki]

Originally Posted by Argonaut

Everybody on the MLB roster has individual slider settings. No sac bunt for anybody but pitchers, no stealing for anyone who can't hit 75% success, and baserunning usually pretty conservative.



There's lots of little micromanagement tweaks available in OOTP. Sliders, lineup construction, bullpen roles, etc. I think any given one of them won't add up to a lot of extra wins. But add them all together and run it logically, and I believe there's a lot of value that can be derived there.



Run prevention is probably the go-to first step in Moneyball for me. Catcher Ability, SS/CF/2B defense, and a bullpen with good Stuff isn't too hard to obtain, and will be guaranteed to prevent runs.



Scoring runs is much harder because elite batters are at such a premium. A franchise can only really take that next step when they get good quality in the 1-5 lineup spots. Admittedly it's a bit easier in the AL, because you can find some real hidden gems for the DH spot.



My DH was Aldrem Corredor, who looks like he won't amount to much in real life. But in our online league TCR or something turned him into a real slugger.

Thanks, that is really helpful

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[fuzzy_patters]

Did you micromanage your minor leaguers as well?

[ThePretender]

Congrats for doing this.

[HumanRainDelay]

Kudos on your success, Argonaut. I try to resist the temptation to trade frequently as well.

I am fairly new to OOTP, so I don't have success stories to share yet, but with fantasy sports, most people just love wheeling and dealing. With fantasy, I can most always be competitive by following a strategy like what you identified (roster construction that maximizes your home field), rarely trading ever, and then pouncing if that one excellent swap opportunity presents itself.

Any one strategy that you use in rookie drafts that you want to share?

[Bobbyraz49]

I usually pick a team that has terrible prospects . I try to build up the minors and get decent contracts. But since 22 is on the way, I'm going for it this season with the Brewers.

[OzzieFan]

I was able to win with the Marlins in OOTP20 and 21, so I consider that the top tier of GMing.