Pitching a perfect game ...

[Dennis Taylor]

In my dreams (yes, I lead a lonely life), here is the OOTP game I envision someday:

• Love to have umpires who are known for certain tendencies., including patience or quick triggers in arguments
• What if batters were rated for how well they hit each type of pitch?
• Balls hit right down the line shouldn’t be ID’d as “foul” by the graphic – keep us in suspense.
• Position players need to become fatigued far more often and force us, as managers, to rest them. Almost every position player is an ironman when it comes to fatigue.
• I want to know who’s warming up in my opponent's bullpen.
  I wish the game gave me some indication that my defensive positioning makes any difference … just once in a while, maybe, so I know it actually works.
• What if you could send the pitching coach out to talk to either the pitcher or catcher, maybe with options like chewing ass, heart-to-heart, pep talk, use humor, any of which could have a positive or negative affect, depending on a player’s personality traits. And what if your approach made a positive or negative difference, and the play-by-play implied the result?
• I’d love more diversity in the responses I get from pitchers, and maybe an option for what to ask him (or his catcher) on a mound trip.
• I’d like to know (from the play-by-play) if a manager’s rating has affected the game in some way.
• What if the manager had the option of trying to get ejected from a game? On the plus side, maybe he fires up his team. On the minus side, he’s ejected and the computer takes over. Or maybe he’s allowed to send two messages from the clubhouse to affect game decisions. (The gamer would have to be strategic in choosing when to use.)
• “Pull hitters” hit to the opposite field entirely too often.
• Deliberately throwing at an opposing batter should have some effect.
• Players should have a temper rating that regulates how often they get into arguments with umpires (which is where an umpire’s “temperament/quick trigger” type rating could take effect.) This also would fit well with a manager’s option to hurry out there to intervene – either to take over the argument and possibly save the player, or pull the player away. Maybe he saves the player, maybe he gets ejected, maybe they both get ejected.. If a manager gets ejected, he faces suspension, which means the computer would autoplay those games (maybe with very limited input … like the starting lineup, and a couple of phone-in game decisions.)
• An increased amount of risk should be involved in playing a player with a day-to-day injury or fatigue.
• Players could develop “nagging injuries” (and, late in the year, more than one) of varying degrees of severity. Some injuries could improve with rest, worsen without. Some could be unaffected, but still weigh on performance.
• I’d like to have an indication from the game – perhaps an option to consult a “team leader” -- that a certain player’s mood might be affecting his play, one way or the other. Then I’d like to have the option, as manager, to try to remedy his mood with a choice of actions.
• Love to have the choice of which stats get displayed for batters and pitchers during games. For example, I miss seeing the pitcher’s history against the batter & vice versa.
• The game should warn us that players are at greater risk of injury on cold or wet days or nights – and I assume they are. If wet or cold conditions caused an injury, it would be cool to know.
• Play-by-play: “…sinking fly ball” should be purged from the play-by-play. There’s no such thing.
• What if players nicknames, and (editable?) story lines, could be integrated into the play-by-play?
• What if actual historic current events – whatever really happened in the world that particular day – could be sprinkled into the play-by-play? Or maybe the game could simply feature a running news scroll at the bottom of the page, featuring anything that actually happened on that day in history.
• What if we could choose a third-base coach, based on judgment and levels of aggressiveness. What if we could suggest a level of aggressiveness to the third-base coach, based on game situations.
• I’d love to have more hints from the game that a player’s defense ratings, speed, range, intelligence (smart play or bonehead decision) or whatever, may have affected a play one way or the other. I’d love it if dumb players and younger players clearly made more bonehead plays – forgetting how many outs, silly baserunning mistakes, strategic errors, etc.), while smart players and veteran players tended to make fewer.
• I’d love it if the game gave out stars, or something like that, for the number of “spectacular players” a player makes during the season on defense.
• It would be cool to see statistics on whose home runs fly the farthest.
• Love to have spray charts that show a batter’s tendencies, to be utilized when making decisions on defensive positioning. I’d love to know whether my defensive positioning decisions had an effect.
• Way, way, way too many fictional-game pitchers who throw 95-101 mph. And guys who throw 100, or close to it, should be extremely rare.
• I’d love to have to deal with clubhouse malcontents by making a choice of decisions on how to handle each problem.
• I wish age and injuries had more clearly visible effect on running speed, injuries, arm strength, leadership. I’d love to get inside information via email from coaches and scouts
• I wish fewer players were as slow as snails, and the majority of guys had more average speed. Extremely fast guys also should be very rare.
• Too many players are great defenders. Make great defensive players special, average defenders more plentiful. And there doesn’t seem to be a steep enough price to pay for using a complete stiff at a certain position. Those guys should be like land mines.
• Pitchers should get fatigued a bit quicker during games. Guys with very low or average stamina ratings seem to go way too far into games.
• What if certain players have reputations (and therefore game-affecting ratings) as “clubhouse lawyers,” and therefore are potential threats to morale?
• I’d like to know whether a pitcher’s “hold” rating affects a runner who is attempting to steal third or home.
• I’d love to know more often from the play-by-play that an infielder’s speed (or lack of speed), defensive prowess, and/or positioning has an effect on bunt-for-a-hit attempts.
• I’d love to know that a player’s defensive rating made a difference on a play.
• When negotiating a trade, I wish I could shop a player “for minor leaguers only.”
• It would be cool if making certain players roommates on the road could affect their morale, maturity (one way or the other), work ethic.
• I’d like to have a hint that certain factors are affecting the development of my minor leaguers.
• Way, way, way too many 400-foot homers. Those should be special.
• Wouldn’t it be cool to have the option of sending a young player to “winter league” to possibly improve upon a specific skill or two (bunting, base running, or whatever)? Of course, injuries are always possible, so the decision would be risky.
• What if we could call pitches from the dugout?
• AI needs to make better lefty-righty decisions with both pitching changes and pinch hitters.
• Love to know if the size of a ballpark affected the game – turned a home run into a flyout, for example.
• Catchers whiff on way, way, way too many stolen bases. It almost never happens in real life.
• What if players – especially -- had a “gene” that caused them to generally stay cool, or maybe get rattled, under pressure or duress. In such a case, a manager might have the option of leaving him alone, or sending a “team leader” over to try to calm him down.
• What if certain highlights from out-of-town games were sprinkled occasionally into the play by play?
• Is it my imagination that certain players seem to rise to the occasion against their former teams? If so, don’t tell me … (but I hope it’s real!).
• I’d love it if improving the AI for trading was a high priority with your game builders.
• Wouldn’t it be cool if crowd noise reflected the size of the audience, and the magnitude (or lack thereof) of the event?
• The play-by-play should indicate whether a wild pitch or a passed ball when a pitch eludes the catcher.
• If there’s a bench-clearing brawl, it would be awesome if more than two players (and sometimes an unbalanced number) are ejected.
• It would also be fun if a human manager could be ejected for arguing (at which time the computer manager takes over) … and if the human manager had the option of arguing (with varying results and consequences).
• Never had a player in a rundown … what’s up with that?
• What if, between innings, a human manager could ask his pitcher (or his catcher) how the pitcher is feeling?
• Would sure like to see players be more fatigued, with nagging injuries, as the season drags on.
• Love to have the weather change during a game .. wind strength and direction, maybe, and temperature. Rain seems to happen far too seldom. Love to have rainouts, both before and after a game is official. I’d love to have to wring my hands during a rain delay.
• It would be nice if the play-by-play referred to managers, coaches and umpires by name, and commented on pitchers sitting in the bullpen, players in the dugout … more about fans in the stands, upcoming games
• It would be awesome if intelligent – and even not-so-intelligent – players became managers, pitching coaches, hitting coaches, etc.
• Can we get reports on how the all-star voting is going?
• Runners tag up and advance to third base on fly-outs waaaay too often.
• How about a fatigue gauge for players, so we can see their level of fatigue on a given day?
• I’d love to have a stats line for batters during the game that tells me what a player is hitting against the other team. What a batter hits on a certain count … not that relevant or interesting to me. I’ll look that up if I wanna know.
• Pitchers should become fatigued if you warm them up too long, or too often. Maybe the game could give warnings. Put the bullpens on the field, so we can see who’s warming up for both teams. Change the color of the pitcher to indicate his level of warn ,,.
• …and how about giving the human manager a bullpen phone, where he can get a reading from his bullpen coach on whoever’s throwing.
• Unhappy or angry players should be a bit easier to trade for. More angry players should show up on the trading block.
• How about a player-development page that ranks players by most improved and least improved?
• I wanna know how a guy hits against my team, not just the pitcher. This is more important than some of the other info (Inning 4-6, for example)
• How about an appeal play every once in a while … maybe followed by an argument and an ejection or two.
• I guess that's enough for now. Man, I love this game. You guys are awesome. Now get to work!

[Honorable_Pawn]

[Cole416]

Wow this might be the best list of things that we need I have seen.

[Fyrestorm3]

When I have more time, I'm going to go through this whole list with some feedback - because there's some really good stuff in here - but right now, I've just gotta commend you on the title of the thread. Well freaking done there.

[jpeters1734]

Great list!! Here's my favorites:

• Position players need to become fatigued far more often and force us, as managers, to rest them. Almost every position player is an ironman when it comes to fatigue.

^This

• What if you could send the pitching coach out to talk to either the pitcher or catcher, maybe with options like chewing ass, heart-to-heart, pep talk, use humor, any of which could have a positive or negative affect, depending on a player’s personality traits. And what if your approach made a positive or negative difference, and the play-by-play implied the result?

There definitely needs work done on mound visits

• I’d love more diversity in the responses I get from pitchers, and maybe an option for what to ask him (or his catcher) on a mound trip.

^This

• An increased amount of risk should be involved in playing a player with a day-to-day injury or fatigue.

• Players could develop “nagging injuries” (and, late in the year, more than one) of varying degrees of severity. Some injuries could improve with rest, worsen without. Some could be unaffected, but still weigh on performance.
• What if players nicknames, and (editable?) story lines, could be integrated into the play-by-play?
• What if actual historic current events – whatever really happened in the world that particular day – could be sprinkled into the play-by-play? Or maybe the game could simply feature a running news scroll at the bottom of the page, featuring anything that actually happened on that day in history.

It would require a huge database and research but I'd be willing to help with it

• What if we could choose a third-base coach, based on judgment and levels of aggressiveness. What if we could suggest a level of aggressiveness to the third-base coach, based on game situations.
• I’d love to have more hints from the game that a player’s defense ratings, speed, range, intelligence (smart play or bonehead decision) or whatever, may have affected a play one way or the other. I’d love it if dumb players and younger players clearly made more bonehead plays – forgetting how many outs, silly baserunning mistakes, strategic errors, etc.), while smart players and veteran players tended to make fewer.

Player traits should affect more aspects of the game

• I wish age and injuries had more clearly visible effect on running speed, injuries, arm strength, leadership. I’d love to get inside information via email from coaches and scouts
• I wish fewer players were as slow as snails, and the majority of guys had more average speed. Extremely fast guys also should be very rare.

They are almost a dime in a dozen it seems

• Too many players are great defenders. Make great defensive players special, average defenders more plentiful. And there doesn’t seem to be a steep enough price to pay for using a complete stiff at a certain position. Those guys should be like land mines.
• Wouldn’t it be cool to have the option of sending a young player to “winter league” to possibly improve upon a specific skill or two (bunting, base running, or whatever)? Of course, injuries are always possible, so the decision would be risky.

Love this one!

• What if players – especially -- had a “gene” that caused them to generally stay cool, or maybe get rattled, under pressure or duress. In such a case, a manager might have the option of leaving him alone, or sending a “team leader” over to try to calm him down.
• Would sure like to see players be more fatigued, with nagging injuries, as the season drags on.
• It would be awesome if intelligent – and even not-so-intelligent – players became managers, pitching coaches, hitting coaches, etc.

I don't like how they all only become bench coaches when you turn them into a coach.

[Cole416]

I think also, that when drafting there should be an option to "Draft & Meet Demand" rather than just offering the slot because sometimes I would accidentally click that when their demand is higher and end up losing the chance to sign them since they're pissed at me.

[sdw1000]

-Way, way, way too many 400-foot homers. Those should be special.

Most dimensions for the centerfield walls in today's MLB are about 400 ft. So 400 ft HRs is realistic. 500 ft HRs would be special...not 400 ft.

-Love to know if the size of a ballpark affected the game – turned a home run into a flyout, for example.

As a long time Stratomatic player, dimensions play a role in the game. I don't understand how they don't in this game.. That goes to both of your points there.

[ojoe]

Originally Posted by Dennis Taylor

• Position players need to become fatigued far more often and force us, as managers, to rest them. Almost every position player is an ironman when it comes to fatigue.

I liked a lot of things on this list, but this is one that I was going to bring up myself, especially when it relates to catchers. Would it be possible for the game to recognize when a team is playing a day game after a night game? When you've got a clear No. 1 catcher, that seems to be the main reason for him to get a day off every now and then. What about personal a personal catcher for one of your starting pitchers - like Greg Maddux had Eddie Perez for all those years, or how Tim Lincecum has pitched most of his games to Buster Posey's backup over the last few seasons? It doesn't have to have an effect on performance (though I suppose it could) - it could just be a way to guarantee that your main catcher will stay rested by getting at least one game off per week.

[ojoe]

OK, a few more...

[*]Deliberately throwing at an opposing batter should have some effect.

Also, what about a "brush back" button? If you include a "throw behind" button, that should set off some kind of incident almost every time.

[*]Players should have a temper rating that regulates how often they get into arguments with umpires

Also, many times the ejection doesn't fit the game situation. For example - I'm playing the 2014 Pirates season, and I just got finished with a series against St. Louis. The Cards were in first place, and on a winning streak. Kolten Wong was the leadoff batter and he was hot - and he got ejected for arguing after being called out on strikes leading off the first inning. That seemed like an odd time for him to be that worked up. He's playing well, the team is playing well, there's no real cause for frustration, but he got ejected and then suspended for three games after just one at-bat. Milton Bradley, sure. I see it. But just about everybody else in league history is going to say something discreetly and walk back to the dugout.

[*]What if actual historic current events – whatever really happened in the world that particular day – could be sprinkled into the play-by-play?

I don't know that I really care about that, but I would like to see a return of the ability to edit accomplishments and record books. I'm playing the 2014 season, and it'd be nice to have a list of historical no-hitters in the record book. I'd like to start a new season and not have a pitcher set a new league record when he strikes out 11 guys in a game in April.

[*]I wish fewer players were as slow as snails, and the majority of guys had more average speed. Extremely fast guys also should be very rare.

Agreed. And the pitchers can't always be the 12 slowest guys on the team, can they? At least some of them should be moderately fast. Many of them have single-digit speed ratings - meanwhile, Billy Butler is at 40? Bengie Molina is at 50? He's so slow, he once didn't score on his own home run. Certainly there are a few pitchers on his team who could out-run him.

[*]Pitchers should get fatigued a bit quicker during games. Guys with very low or average stamina ratings seem to go way too far into games.

I notice they'll go deep into a game even when they're not pitching particularly well. It's the 5th inning, he's given up 4 already and there are two men on with nobody out...but he's only at 78 pitches, so I guess he's in until I've delivered the knockout blow. Also, I've seen opposing starters hit in the 7th inning when the team is losing, just because the starter hasn't thrown enough pitches to be fatigued yet.

[*]Catchers whiff on way, way, way too many stolen bases. It almost never happens in real life.

Yes.

[*]Never had a player in a rundown … what’s up with that?

Dunno, but I'd like to see it.

[*]It would be awesome if intelligent – and even not-so-intelligent – players became managers, pitching coaches, hitting coaches, etc.

Agreed. And speaking of managers - why can't we induct them into the Hall of Fame? I know we can induct the players that they were into the Hall, but why not as managers? Besides, what if I want to induct Jim Leyland? He doesn't come up as a retired player.

[*]Runners tag up and advance to third base on fly-outs waaaay too often.

And, often inexplicably, won't tag up from third. I've run into plenty of instances where I've got at least decent speed on third base and I'm trailing by a run and then the runner holds on a fly ball that, at least according to the play-by-play, seems to be of about average depth. With a runner on third, we should always have the option of whether to send the runner or not. Same thing with a ground ball with a runner on third. The defense can bring in the corners and play back up the middle - why not give the offense the option of putting on the contact play?

Also, I'd like to have an option on defense to not throw home (or to any base). Up by 2 in the later stages of the game, runner on 2nd base...sometimes I might want to try and cut down a guy at the plate, but most of the time I'm going to throw into 2nd base to keep the double play in order and the batter out of scoring position. I'd at least like the option. At the very least, if the outfielder throws home in that situation and doesn't get the out, and then the tying run scores later on a single, the player should get chewed out on the field by Jimmy Dugan, and he should start crying.

Anyway, these are all minor things. Whatever changes to get made, I'm sure I'm going to love the next version just as much as the previous ones. ...Though if I had to pick one thing to change, it would be the return of the ability to edit records and accomplishments.

[fintach]

I wonder if game setting are a factor in position player fatigue. The only position player I have who can play more than about 150 games a season is my first baseman, who is something of an iron man (officially only Durable, but he hasn't seen a day of injury or a need to miss a game in years). He's played about 500 consecutive games now.

ETA: Oh, and it'd be nice to have the streaks include consecutive games played and error-less games.

[Cryomaniac]

Originally Posted by ojoe

I liked a lot of things on this list, but this is one that I was going to bring up myself, especially when it relates to catchers. Would it be possible for the game to recognize when a team is playing a day game after a night game?

That's been suggested a lot of times, and it would probably require changing how the fatigue system works, but it would be cool.

[ra7c7er]

The winter league is already coming as I've read on the forum.

I like many of the suggestions here but most of them would require nearly a complete re-write of the database which would more than likely take way more than a single year. Probably 2-3 years.