Art over Science aspects more intriguing and interesting

[jmknpk2]

I find those areas of the game which might be considered more of an Art than Science, as the most appealing to keep my focus upon. Much more intrigue and opportunities to grow and learn, honing skills which might never be directly measurable. Keeps the game fresh and interesting for me.

Examples:

Base running decisions.
We really don't have metrics to even see how we have done as base coaches. I would need to keep track of all my decisions to get a measurable metric. Just as in real life, the best we could ever have is a measurement of what actually happened. There is no real-life way to measure "what ifs". Because they necessarily never will occur. Of course in OOTP, we can run "what if" test scenarios. But it would be grueling to do this for base running decisions.

Relief pitching strategy.
As in real life, we can not accurately factor in all the "what ifs". We have a lot of statistics about what actually happened. No statistics for decisions I could have made differently. And though we can run test scenarios, even for one single game, the results will always vary. Only those with inside information (the game developers for example) know whether there is any internal consideration for a pitcher having a bad day. And even if this was readily available information for all game users, just as in real life, we could never perfectly project or predict how much a player's parent dying last week might affect his performance. Or the significance of gearing up for a close rival with a history of rivalry.

Win Now versus rebuild cycles and phases. This is an area which seems to fall more in the artistic rather than scientific realms regarding available options and choices.

Balancing team performance quality against cost. If we had the ability to pick and choose whichever players we wished without constraint, this aspect would lean more toward a science. But in actual practice, it leans more toward a dog chasing its own tail, where decisions I make now (player trade, draft pick, free agent signing, extension, ticket price, reserve cash, percentage of budget used, etc...) all necessarily affect the very next decision. Even when that second decision occurs on the same day.

Defensive positioning strategies (shifts, infield in, etc.). This is an area I wish I knew more about in both real life and OOTP. Seems to lean toward art over science in actual practice.

All of these things are theoretically based on science. But in the OOTP Baseball game, as in real life, the data available at decision time shifts more toward artistic ability or skill in our decisions than an opportunity to apply pure science (with empirical data).

I love this type of stuff. And there is plenty enough in OOTP Baseball which closely mirrors real life to keep my interest in the game high.

[MrBojangles]

Well stated and I agree wholeheartedly!!