OOTP2009 SkyDog Fictional League Settings

[Ben E Lou]

NOTE: If you have questions about these, please post them here and don't PM them. I can't always be available to answer questions immediately, and someone else might be able to help you out before I can.

EDIT: New settings with RonCo's development/aging modifiers put in on 7/3/2008.

Back again with these for the latest and greatest version of OOTP9. The settings I used for the last version still hold up quite well in this one, but I like this approach a bit better. Give these puppies a try if you want a fictional league and don't want to tinker with the settings year after year.

For those who are unfamiliar, I like setting up fictional leagues with settings that don't necessarily mirror the last 5-10 years of baseball, but more the last 25ish years. I want my league to have better pitching, rarer 50-HR seasons, a little more base-stealing prowess, etc. In my ideal world, I'd love to have my league churn out stats where a guy might just lead the league in homers with 40 or so, but where 60 is a possibility once every 100 or so years, and someone might even chase Aaron, where pitchers finish what they start more than they do these days, but a great closer has a shot at saving 50, where 55-65 SBs usually leads the league, but where every now and then a guy comes along and flirts with 100, where once every hundred years someone might hit .400, but where the league ERA without the DH is usually not much above 4.00. And, I want all of this without having to change my settings every year or import predetermined settings every year that change what defines a "good" or "great" season.

The GREAT news is that ALL of the above are possible with <s>OOTP2007.</s> OOTP9.

I started by running 50 seasons with default 2008 settings to determine an OOTP9 norm for stat categories. I then grabbed all NL stat totals from 1980 through 2007 to create these settings (no AL...screw the DH).

First, most of the settings I use can all be found in the League Setup-->Strategy Tab.

GENERAL STRATEGIC TENDENCIES
USE OF RELIEVERS: Very Often
USE OF CLOSERS: Very Often
PITCHER ENDURANCE: Low
TYPICAL STARTING ROTATION SIZE: 5 Man Rotation
PINCH HIT FOR PITCHERS: Often
PINCH HIT FOR POSITION PLAYERS: Rarely
DEFENSIVE SUBSTITUTIONS: Normal
STEALING BASES: Normal
HIT & RUN: Rarely
BUNTING: Rarely

All of the "Traditional OOTP Creation Modifiers" are set to 1.000.

All of the "Sabermetric Player Creation Modifiers" are set to 1.000.

LEAGUE TOTALS (and modifiers)
NOTE: The totals are the 2008 season defaults, so if you start by using 2008 settings, all you have to edit are the modifiers.

AT BATS: 167353
HITS: 44522, 1.010
DOUBLES: 8919, .949
TRIPLES: 898, 1.456
HOME RUNS: 5451, .913
BASES ON BALLS: 16222, 1.162
HIT BY PITCHES: 1850, .679
STRIKEOUTS: 31828, .943
BABIP: .296

Then, under the last modifier section...
SP Endurance: 1.052
Stolen Base Attempts: .899
Stolen Base Success %: .969

I recommended the following AI options:

Ratings: 65
Stats: 33
Current Year: 1
2 Years Ago: 1

These AI options will help AI teams make better decisions

Per RonCo, I also recommend the following aging/dev settings to be used with these settings.

Batter Aging: 2.000
Batter Development: .500
Pitcher Aging: 1.750
Pitcher Development: .500

These numbers will cause career peaks to happen much more appropriately, and will reduce (but not eliminate) the very high number of over-40 players sticking around in the default settings.


More details can be found here:

OOTP9 QuickStart Fictional League With Logos, RonCo Dev, SkyDog Stats. - Front Office Football Central

[Ben E Lou]

Here's how the current single-season leaderboard looks in the most recent season:

AVG: .344, .341, .339, .338, .333
HR: 46, 42, 39, 39, 39
RBI: 131, 131, 131, 129, 121
SB: 73, 65, 62, 59, 53, 48
ERA: 2.28, 2.77, 2.85, 2.95, 3.00
IP: 258.2, 254.0, 246.1, 245.0, 244.0
K: 254, 251, 250, 239, 234

[Ben E Lou]

The marquee single-season and career records are looking great in a 100-year sim. Here are a few...

SINGLE-SEASON
Average: .391
Hits: 255
Homers: 58
SBs: 109
ERA: 1.51
W: 27
CG: 12
IP: 278
K: 304

CAREER
Average: .355
Hits: 4349 (25 guys broke 3,000. One broke 4,000.)
Homers: 739 (1 broke 700, 4 broke 600, 18 broke 500.)
SBs: 1346 (Big outlier. Top five were 1346, 1169, 997, 914, 879)
ERA: 2.13
W: 344 (6 broke 300)
K: 5377 (32 broke 3000, 6 broke 4000, 1 broke 5000)


As far as the 100-year variance from the MLB period in question, it's miniscule.

AVG: .2601 (MLB .2596)
OBP: .3304 (MLB .3299)
SLG: .3983 (MLB .4000)
OPS: .7287 (MLB .7299)

[rasnell]

Refresh my memory, SkyDog. Once you get your perfect settings, are you able to post a new era or stats file or do we have to manually enter the settings? Or do you post as a quickstart that locks all your settings.

I can't remember, but I'm glad you've jumped right in with the new version. I always read your reports with interest.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by rasnell

Refresh my memory, SkyDog. Once you get your perfect settings, are you able to post a new era or stats file or do we have to manually enter the settings? Or do you post as a quickstart that locks all your settings.

I can't remember, but I'm glad you've jumped right in with the new version. I always read your reports with interest.

I'm planning on posting a 24-team template with all the settings.

[akw4572]

Looking forward to it skydog, your work is great, and appreciated.

[Markus Heinsohn]

Thanks a lot Ben!!

[chimanbj]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

Thanks a lot Ben!!

Ben? Ben Kenobi? Where is he???

[The Wolf]

Ben Kenobi >> Ben Dover

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

Thanks a lot Ben!!

No prob. The stat modifiers work GREAT, by the way. Combined with the csv exports, it's ridiculously easy to use them to get the desired numbers on things that aren't heavily dependent on other factors. I got walks, hbp, and strikeouts to within less than one percent variance from real life on my first try by just comparing the ratio per 600 AB of the totals produced in a baseline sim versus the totals produced per 600 AB in MLB. No need at all to touch the league totals, from where I'm sittin'.

[pappyzan]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

All of the "Traditional OOTP Creation Modifiers" are set to 1.000, with one exception.

skydog, could you post what the one exception is? love your set of modifiers, i used them in ootp2007 and liked the results. thanks for taking the time and posting these modifiers.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by pappyzan

skydog, could you post what the one exception is? love your set of modifiers, i used them in ootp2007 and liked the results. thanks for taking the time and posting these modifiers.

Oops! Honestly, I think that's leftover text from the OOTP2007 version. I don't think I used any traditional creation modifiers this year. I'll check when I get home (working from home a good bit today, so that won't be long from now).

[jbmagic]

But will the final results get the same stats with people that use park factors and real stadiums for fictional play?

and will it hold up if someone uses a 18 or 32 fictional league setup with park factors and real stadiums?

[Ben E Lou]

Just discovered a typo in the first post. Fixed.

[bababui]

Can I use your settings in an existing game? How would using a DH alter the resulting numbers? And would they work on a 2X28 team universe?

[OldFatGuy]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

For those who are unfamiliar, I like setting up fictional leagues with settings that don't necessarily mirror the last 5-10 years of baseball, but more the last 25ish years. I want my league to have better pitching, rarer 50-HR seasons, a little more base-stealing prowess, etc. In my ideal world, I'd love to have my league churn out stats where a guy might just lead the league in homers with 40 or so, but where 60 is a possibility once every 100 or so years, and someone might even chase Aaron, where pitchers finish what they start more than they do these days, but a great closer has a shot at saving 50, where 55-65 SBs usually leads the league, but where every now and then a guy comes along and flirts with 100, where once every hundred years someone might hit .400, but where the league ERA without the DH is usually not much above 4.00. And, I want all of this without having to change my settings every year or import predetermined settings every year that change what defines a "good" or "great" season.

WOW, that is EXACTLY the kind of settings I'm looking for. Only I want them at "default". Meaning all PCM's and LTM's are at 1.00. I've tinkered with the league totals (Not the league totals modifiers, the actual numbers on the left), and I can't seem to get there. I want this as "default" because THEN I want to take it a step further.

Each year I then want to have small adjustments to LTM's (random, I've already set up my system) to sim ebbs and flows in offense. But it only really works well if LTM's start off at 1.00. (And the random changes tend toward the middle). I'm STILL trying to find this nervanna.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by bababui

Can I use your settings in an existing game?

If you're using the default 2008 league settings, then they should work fine since I'm not using Creation Modifiers. (That's why I'm doing it that way now.)

How would using a DH alter the resulting numbers?

More offense.

I don't know how much more, and I will not be spending any time testing out how that accursed abomination works. If someone wants to do so and post results, feel free.

And would they work on a 2X28 team universe?

The more teams you use, the larger the sample size of the data, and therefore the less wobble will be present in the system. Your overall league stats will stay closer to the norms with more teams, and will deviate more with fewer teams. But over time, the big-picture results will be pretty much the same.

[bababui]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

If you're using the default 2008 league settings, then they should work fine since I'm not using Creation Modifiers. (That's why I'm doing it that way now.)

More offense.

I don't know how much more, and I will not be spending any time testing out how that accursed abomination works. If someone wants to do so and post results, feel free.

The more teams you use, the larger the sample size of the data, and therefore the less wobble will be present in the system. Your overall league stats will stay closer to the norms with more teams, and will deviate more with fewer teams. But over time, the big-picture results will be pretty much the same.

Loved your work last year and undoubtedly will love it this year as well. Thanks for doing the hard work.

[OldFatGuy]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

I don't know how much more, and I will not be spending any time testing out how that accursed abomination works. If someone wants to do so and post results, feel free.

Boy, we really do think alike.

[rogmax11]

Ben, do you use minors in your league? And if so, any guidelines you can suggest to help create realistic stats at the minor league levels?