Tricks to Being a Sim Contender - Page 2

BeancheBlanco · 04-25-2014, 08:51 PM

That's the beauty of sports. There's no way to guarantee success. You could've just got unlucky with your free agent signings. In my experience, my franchises always end up going the same way. I start out with a very bad team with a good minor league system (something like the Astros currently). I hire a top-notch scout and put a lot of money into scouting. Focus scouting budget on draft and minor league. I usually end up doing poorly my first couple years and as I gather a couple draft picks and my prospects graduate, I'll have enough to build a solid team that just becomes unstoppable. There are also a lot of solid, young prospects that other teams release for no reason which sometimes end up skyrocketing into top prospects. Makes it very easy to build a sustainable farm system. After around 6 seasons, I have more young players and prospects than I can use. My AAA system becomes full of top prospects who are blocked by major league great players. That's what happens when a human faces AI.

majesty95 · 04-25-2014, 08:56 PM

I wonder if player dev played a role. It was usually baseline or below (didn't notice this until S4)

majesty95 · 04-25-2014, 08:58 PM

I don't mind taking awhile to build. I just don't want to get fired lol

olivertheorem · 04-25-2014, 09:43 PM

I play much the same way with the Astros. I'll use force-start at the MLB level if I have a guy that I think should be starting but the manager just won't. Of course, the manager then wants to sub the guy out every other game so I tweak that too.

Personally, I think you signed too many FA's and tried to spend your way to wins too much. I would have tried to fill MLB roster holes with fringe FA's until you had enough young talent of your own ready to call up (or in the bigs already, also only to fill holes) that you just need a few FA's to make a push.

Not really relevant, but in my minors I manually set all my relievers to middle relief-use normally. Spreads the innings around better, in my experience, and the better ones still get more innings. You can tweak the usage up or down to influence who gets relief innings.

majesty95 · 04-25-2014, 09:51 PM

Ya Liriano blew up. $22M a year for a losing record and a 4.50 ERA. Everybody else was cheap sabremetric players tho. The trades for SP didn't work out either. I'll post screen caps of the guys I acquired and how they performed before and after shortly

majesty95 · 04-25-2014, 10:26 PM

OK, so these were my key pickups. Outside of Salazar (who got injured) all severely under performed in at least one if not all seasons.

majesty95 · 04-25-2014, 10:28 PM

Salazar and Corbin were cheap when I got them but had to pay for them in arbitration.

stevens84 · 04-25-2014, 11:29 PM

Only guys I like there are SP Taylor Jordan, 1B Matt Snyder, and CL Brian Wilson. The rest just seem too inconsistent to me.

The default Player Development budget it $9M I believe, and from my experience, if you put that up to $27M-$35M, you'll start churning out prospect left and right. 30th round picks will become viable big leaguers for you. But, those "extra" guys you develop, you don't use, you deal them to acquire a superstar, it's basically a cycle this way.

adaman77 · 04-25-2014, 11:48 PM

You should use WAR as a general way to view player performance. A pitcher's win-loss record is completely irrelevant, both in real life and in OOTP. ERA is also not a great indicator, actually. If a pitcher had 200 innings last year and a sub-3.00 ERA, but was only worth about 3.0 WAR in OOTP, he's not a stud, he's a good pitcher who got lucky and got the same results as a stud. He might do it again, but don't bank on it. BABIP is also useful for pitchers.

WAR (in OOTP at least) also helps you identify guys who are valuable due to their defense and in spite of their offense.

For hitters, wOBA is nice too to get beyond stupid stats like batting average and RBI's, although I do often use OPS as an at-a-glance offensive indicator.

Basically, if you want to have a better idea of how a guy you're interesting in acquiring is going to do, you should be looking at more advanced stats for his previous seasons. Batting average and ERA and such are results-based stats – you need to know HOW he got those results to know how likely he is to repeat them, to improve or get worse.

RchW · 04-25-2014, 11:53 PM

The key to simming is use 7-day lineups with no subs and to make sure you fit in bench players and the backup catcher as needed each week. Relief pitching is much harder to control because the AI does not always agree with the roles set, so it will overuse some pitchers and never use others. I use the bench player for X days to replicate the real life concept that "Joe Blow" is not available today.

After that you just let 'em play and deal with injuries.

NateAndStuff · 04-25-2014, 11:56 PM

lol Jordan went from throwing 75 innings to 226 in one season. Snyder looks like he had a pretty similar season to the year before except for his SLG%, which could be attributed to his move from Yankee Stadium to Target Field. Konerko is less of a mystery because he's 41 years old. I wouldn't recommend signing guys anywhere near that age. As for an answer to your 2016 pitching nightmare, I'm going to assume your defense took a hit somewhere in there and it effected your whole staff.

majesty95 · 04-26-2014, 12:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NateAndStuff

lol Jordan went from throwing 75 innings to 226 in one season. Snyder looks like he had a pretty similar season to the year before except for his SLG%, which could be attributed to his move from Yankee Stadium to Target Field. Konerko is less of a mystery because he's 41 years old. I wouldn't recommend signing guys anywhere near that age. As for an answer to your 2016 pitching nightmare, I'm going to assume your defense took a hit somewhere in there and it effected your whole staff.

You might be on to something. My Def EFF dropped to 11th, mostly because of SS. The two guys that I had playing there had -ZR and below .970 EFF ratings. Also, Skipworth had a horrible CERA and ZR.We also couldn't throw out runners to save our lives. My SS the year before had 0 errors in 60 games so I figured he was a def whiz. Him and my new C, who also under performed at the plate, appeared to do me in. It probably didn't help that neither my bench coach nor manager could teach fielding.

Thanks for all of the input! I've got a better idea of how to fix what I did, lol. Now I just need to decide if I want to restart 2014, continue my current game with a new team or fire up a historic league...

gRaider2001 · 04-26-2014, 01:14 AM

Can you please post a screen shot of your team's home screen page?

gRaider2001 · 04-26-2014, 01:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by adaman77

. A pitcher's win-loss record is completely irrelevant, both in real life and in OOTP.

I agree with this 100%. I was just ranting about this on a Let's Play OOTP 15 the other day lol. I do not understand how a pitcher can get charged with a loss when his team does not produce any runs and/or he has terrible defense behind him. I compared it to how in football a QB is charged with an interception when his receiver clearly drop the ball into the defenders hands.

stevens84 · 04-26-2014, 01:34 AM

This is how my pitching staff is built, but it's still a work in progress.

Notice the premium placed on the high "stuff" guys, the other guys probably don't have a future with my team, but will eat innings for the time being.

stevens84 · 04-26-2014, 01:35 AM

Forgot this on the post above

gRaider2001 · 04-26-2014, 01:39 AM

Can you click on the "home" button of the screen shot in the post above. I would really like to see the button but where it shows your team ranking in runs scored, bullpen ERA, etc. Thanks:-)

majesty95 · 04-26-2014, 01:41 AM

That's funny. Strasburg signed with Philly in my game too. Lol

Here is my home screen. Keep in mind I was fired about 1/3 of the way into the season.

gRaider2001 · 04-26-2014, 01:47 AM

Thanks for posting:-) Starters ERA and Defensive Eff are what I would focus on first. I have played leagues where I had terrible offense, but was able to be really competitive because I had top three pitching staff and top three defense. If you are not going to score a lot of runs, you have to be able to keep your opponents from scoring.

I saw that you might start a historical league. I am going to start my historical random debut league tomorrow. I wish you look and keep up posted:-)

Tycobbler · 04-26-2014, 02:01 AM

I put a premium on control pitchers for my rotation with a high GB%, and High stuff rating for my relievers. It helps to have a good defense behind you especially at 2B and SS to support a rotation such as this. (2B/SS high rating in range and error). A solid catcher is a huge bonus to keep would be thieves true. Lastly a very good CF with outstanding range and error rating. The corner guys 1B/3B can be pedestrian on D as long as they can hit with power. The corner OFers only need avg. range with good arms and a decent stick.

The bullpen should have 2 good relievers, and a solid closer.

CHAMPIONSHIP!

04-25-2014, 08:56 PM	#22
majesty95 All Star Starter Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: San Antonio, TX Posts: 1,755	I wonder if player dev played a role. It was usually baseline or below (didn't notice this until S4) __________________ College Football Sim League \| '95 Problems Online League

04-25-2014, 08:58 PM	#23
majesty95 All Star Starter Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: San Antonio, TX Posts: 1,755	I don't mind taking awhile to build. I just don't want to get fired lol __________________ College Football Sim League \| '95 Problems Online League

04-25-2014, 09:51 PM	#25
majesty95 All Star Starter Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: San Antonio, TX Posts: 1,755	Ya Liriano blew up. $22M a year for a losing record and a 4.50 ERA. Everybody else was cheap sabremetric players tho. The trades for SP didn't work out either. I'll post screen caps of the guys I acquired and how they performed before and after shortly __________________ College Football Sim League \| '95 Problems Online League

04-25-2014, 10:26 PM	#26
majesty95 All Star Starter Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: San Antonio, TX Posts: 1,755	OK, so these were my key pickups. Outside of Salazar (who got injured) all severely under performed in at least one if not all seasons. __________________ College Football Sim League \| '95 Problems Online League

04-25-2014, 10:28 PM	#27
majesty95 All Star Starter Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: San Antonio, TX Posts: 1,755	Salazar and Corbin were cheap when I got them but had to pay for them in arbitration. __________________ College Football Sim League \| '95 Problems Online League

04-25-2014, 08:51 PM	#21
BeancheBlanco Minors (Double A) Join Date: Aug 2011 Posts: 146	That's the beauty of sports. There's no way to guarantee success. You could've just got unlucky with your free agent signings. In my experience, my franchises always end up going the same way. I start out with a very bad team with a good minor league system (something like the Astros currently). I hire a top-notch scout and put a lot of money into scouting. Focus scouting budget on draft and minor league. I usually end up doing poorly my first couple years and as I gather a couple draft picks and my prospects graduate, I'll have enough to build a solid team that just becomes unstoppable. There are also a lot of solid, young prospects that other teams release for no reason which sometimes end up skyrocketing into top prospects. Makes it very easy to build a sustainable farm system. After around 6 seasons, I have more young players and prospects than I can use. My AAA system becomes full of top prospects who are blocked by major league great players. That's what happens when a human faces AI.

04-25-2014, 09:43 PM	#24
olivertheorem All Star Starter Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 1,919	I play much the same way with the Astros. I'll use force-start at the MLB level if I have a guy that I think should be starting but the manager just won't. Of course, the manager then wants to sub the guy out every other game so I tweak that too. Personally, I think you signed too many FA's and tried to spend your way to wins too much. I would have tried to fill MLB roster holes with fringe FA's until you had enough young talent of your own ready to call up (or in the bigs already, also only to fill holes) that you just need a few FA's to make a push. Not really relevant, but in my minors I manually set all my relievers to middle relief-use normally. Spreads the innings around better, in my experience, and the better ones still get more innings. You can tweak the usage up or down to influence who gets relief innings.

04-25-2014, 11:29 PM	#28
stevens84 Minors (Double A) Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: Virginia Posts: 160	Only guys I like there are SP Taylor Jordan, 1B Matt Snyder, and CL Brian Wilson. The rest just seem too inconsistent to me. The default Player Development budget it $9M I believe, and from my experience, if you put that up to $27M-$35M, you'll start churning out prospect left and right. 30th round picks will become viable big leaguers for you. But, those "extra" guys you develop, you don't use, you deal them to acquire a superstar, it's basically a cycle this way.

04-25-2014, 11:48 PM	#29
adaman77 Minors (Single A) Join Date: May 2013 Location: Chicago Posts: 57	You should use WAR as a general way to view player performance. A pitcher's win-loss record is completely irrelevant, both in real life and in OOTP. ERA is also not a great indicator, actually. If a pitcher had 200 innings last year and a sub-3.00 ERA, but was only worth about 3.0 WAR in OOTP, he's not a stud, he's a good pitcher who got lucky and got the same results as a stud. He might do it again, but don't bank on it. BABIP is also useful for pitchers. WAR (in OOTP at least) also helps you identify guys who are valuable due to their defense and in spite of their offense. For hitters, wOBA is nice too to get beyond stupid stats like batting average and RBI's, although I do often use OPS as an at-a-glance offensive indicator. Basically, if you want to have a better idea of how a guy you're interesting in acquiring is going to do, you should be looking at more advanced stats for his previous seasons. Batting average and ERA and such are results-based stats – you need to know HOW he got those results to know how likely he is to repeat them, to improve or get worse.

04-25-2014, 11:53 PM	#30
RchW Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: The big smoke Posts: 15,628	The key to simming is use 7-day lineups with no subs and to make sure you fit in bench players and the backup catcher as needed each week. Relief pitching is much harder to control because the AI does not always agree with the roles set, so it will overuse some pitchers and never use others. I use the bench player for X days to replicate the real life concept that "Joe Blow" is not available today. After that you just let 'em play and deal with injuries. __________________ Cheers RichW If you’re looking for a good cause to donate money to please consider a Donation to Parkinson’s Canada. It may help me have a better future and if not me, someone else. Thanks. “Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition …There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.” Frank Wilhoit

04-25-2014, 11:56 PM	#31
NateAndStuff Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Feb 2012 Posts: 231	lol Jordan went from throwing 75 innings to 226 in one season. Snyder looks like he had a pretty similar season to the year before except for his SLG%, which could be attributed to his move from Yankee Stadium to Target Field. Konerko is less of a mystery because he's 41 years old. I wouldn't recommend signing guys anywhere near that age. As for an answer to your 2016 pitching nightmare, I'm going to assume your defense took a hit somewhere in there and it effected your whole staff.

04-26-2014, 01:14 AM	#33
gRaider2001 Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: Ohio Posts: 224	Can you please post a screen shot of your team's home screen page?

04-26-2014, 01:34 AM	#35
stevens84 Minors (Double A) Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: Virginia Posts: 160	This is how my pitching staff is built, but it's still a work in progress. Notice the premium placed on the high "stuff" guys, the other guys probably don't have a future with my team, but will eat innings for the time being.

04-26-2014, 01:35 AM	#36
stevens84 Minors (Double A) Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: Virginia Posts: 160	Forgot this on the post above Attached Images

04-26-2014, 01:39 AM	#37
gRaider2001 Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: Ohio Posts: 224	Can you click on the "home" button of the screen shot in the post above. I would really like to see the button but where it shows your team ranking in runs scored, bullpen ERA, etc. Thanks:-)

04-26-2014, 01:41 AM	#38
majesty95 All Star Starter Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: San Antonio, TX Posts: 1,755	That's funny. Strasburg signed with Philly in my game too. Lol Here is my home screen. Keep in mind I was fired about 1/3 of the way into the season. __________________ College Football Sim League \| '95 Problems Online League

04-26-2014, 01:47 AM	#39
gRaider2001 Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: Ohio Posts: 224	Thanks for posting:-) Starters ERA and Defensive Eff are what I would focus on first. I have played leagues where I had terrible offense, but was able to be really competitive because I had top three pitching staff and top three defense. If you are not going to score a lot of runs, you have to be able to keep your opponents from scoring. I saw that you might start a historical league. I am going to start my historical random debut league tomorrow. I wish you look and keep up posted:-)

04-26-2014, 02:01 AM	#40
Tycobbler All Star Starter Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: 20 minutes from Comerica Park Posts: 1,955	I put a premium on control pitchers for my rotation with a high GB%, and High stuff rating for my relievers. It helps to have a good defense behind you especially at 2B and SS to support a rotation such as this. (2B/SS high rating in range and error). A solid catcher is a huge bonus to keep would be thieves true. Lastly a very good CF with outstanding range and error rating. The corner guys 1B/3B can be pedestrian on D as long as they can hit with power. The corner OFers only need avg. range with good arms and a decent stick. The bullpen should have 2 good relievers, and a solid closer. CHAMPIONSHIP!