Best ways to break a slump

[pgjocki]

So the OOTP Gods hate me because all of a sudden my team forgot how to play baseball. In the first 50 games I was absolutely smoking the league with a record of 31-19 and was loving my roster. In the last 6 games I have lost 3 straight Starting Pitchers to injury as well as my stud 2B who was hitting .363 with 9HR and 17SB. I have also lost 6 in a row with a combined run total of 3 and a whopping 8 hits. It's like the team literally has no idea what to do and hits ground ball after ground ball in the infield.

So, not knowing what else to do I am going to fire my legendary manager and trainer and cut one of my relievers because he has a crappy attitude anyway.

But, is there anything you like to do when your team forgets how to play baseball? Have you ever just hit sim instead of playing out a game because I swear I'm about ready to uninstall the game or at least just blow up this save because losing like this takes all the fun out of the game and honestly I have real life issues that depress me I don't need to play a video game to put me in a bad mood.

[Westheim]

I find yelling at the players and threatening them with violence particularly effective.

Although sometimes I just consign myself to fate, mumble "it is what it is" for an entire summer, and re-sign the worst offenders to new 5-year deals.

[BBGiovanni]

Somehow I knew Westheim would be the first to answer!

Originally Posted by pgjocki

So, not knowing what else to do I am going to fire my legendary manager and trainer and cut one of my relievers because he has a crappy attitude anyway.


But, is there anything you like to do when your team forgets how to play baseball? Have you ever just hit sim instead of playing out a game because I swear I'm about ready to uninstall the game or at least just blow up this save because losing like this takes all the fun out of the game and honestly I have real life issues that depress me I don't need to play a video game to put me in a bad mood.

Well, bad players and clubhouse curmudgeons should not be tolerated anyway. Relievers are a dime a dozen, go find another team's salary dump.


It's not clear from your post if the team is bad or just regressing to the mean. In other words, if they play over their heads for two months, you'll probably see two really bad months later in the season as they sink back to .500.


Now, assuming you aren't burning your team down, first get some of the bench guys some extra playing time. I don't think it's substantive, but when someone shows up with the dreaded icecube next to their name I sit them for a day or two. If you have some guys with minor league option years available, consider swapping some of them up to the majors. IRL Billy Martin and Casey Stengel used to draw lineups out of a hat when their teams were slumping badly.



It's all really window-dressing to keep you interested, again unless your team really is bad.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by BBGiovanni

Somehow I knew Westheim would be the first to answer!

...and no help, to neither man nor beast.

[mytreds]

So you played 50 games, torched the league, then after losing a few games you wanna leave your save?

My advice is stick with it. Yeah injuries suck, but that’s the time for backups and prospects to shine. Your complaint is kind of silly because of how few games you’ve played. The season is a marathon not a sprint.

[BBGiovanni]

Originally Posted by Westheim

...and no help, to neither man nor beast.

Well, you root for the Mets in real life and the Raccoons virtually, you are the undeniable go-to source!

[Mat]

Originally Posted by pgjocki

I swear I'm about ready to uninstall the game or at least just blow up this save because losing like this takes all the fun out of the game and honestly I have real life issues that depress me I don't need to play a video game to put me in a bad mood.

If you feel that way, just go into commissioner mode and remove the injuries. It is just a game.

[Lucas718]

The game at times seems to decide you're losing and there's nothing you can do about it. Since I play out all my games, I know when the nonsense is about to start.

Latest example:
We're up 5-3 going into the bottom of the 9th. I bring in the closer who promptly mows down the first 2 batters. Then I think OK, here it comes. A walk, a hit batter, an error, a wild pitch, and then the game winning hit.

Really?

Sure it happens in real life sometimes too, but not game after game.

I start sensing patterns to it. My teams scores 2 runs in the top of the inning, the other team gets them right back in the bottom of the inning. Then my team fields a grounder and holds it or does the slow motion throw to first that arrives just a hair to late to get the runner. The other team doesn't seem to have these problems. Their guys can score from second on a base hit to the OF. Mine either stop at 3rd or get thrown out at home by a mile.

I don't have bad players. The team won 84 games last season and was only eliminated from playoff contention on the last day of the season. But for some reason it's been determined that they are going to be horrible this year (currently sitting at 20-46) and it feels scripted.

[Mat]

Originally Posted by lucas718

i start sensing patterns to it.

[BIG17EASY]

Originally Posted by Lucas718

The game at times seems to decide you're losing and there's nothing you can do about it. Since I play out all my games, I know when the nonsense is about to start.

Latest example:
We're up 5-3 going into the bottom of the 9th. I bring in the closer who promptly mows down the first 2 batters. Then I think OK, here it comes. A walk, a hit batter, an error, a wild pitch, and then the game winning hit.

Really?

Sure it happens in real life sometimes too, but not game after game.

I start sensing patterns to it. My teams scores 2 runs in the top of the inning, the other team gets them right back in the bottom of the inning. Then my team fields a grounder and holds it or does the slow motion throw to first that arrives just a hair to late to get the runner. The other team doesn't seem to have these problems. Their guys can score from second on a base hit to the OF. Mine either stop at 3rd or get thrown out at home by a mile.

I don't have bad players. The team won 84 games last season and was only eliminated from playoff contention on the last day of the season. But for some reason it's been determined that they are going to be horrible this year (currently sitting at 20-46) and it feels scripted.

[Bobbyraz49]

I always visit the mound in the first 6 innings or so. It "seems" to settle the pitcher down. Like when there are 2 on and 2 out.

[CBeisbol]

One of the most important functions of the human brain is to recognise patterns.

It's so good at it that it sees patterns when there are none.
https://mobile.twitter.com/faceinthings

OOTP is not the most important place to recognise this flaw within us


And, it's not limited to human brains
https://youtu.be/8uPmeWiFTIw

[McBruce]

By no means am I an expert but a few responses to this thread:

--let's remember that the plays are all decided first and the 3-D animation follows. That's why the shortstop won't reach out a millimetre to tag the passing runner before throwing the ball to first, that's why the ball speed across the infield and the runner speed varies so much: the animations are, I presume, generalizations that can be tweaked either way. Sometimes a play that looks close is described in the text as "out by a country mile."

--one technique to discover if your players' slumps are permanent is to check the report of your head scout against the OSA scouts. Your head guy may be excellent in all respects and still have a blind spot for some players that the OSA doesn't quite see.

--watch instead of managing for a while. If the AI manager is less aggressive on the basepaths, maybe you're assuming too much risk. If the AI manager moves the fielders around more than you do and has a better success rate, maybe delegate that to the AI when you step back into the dugout.

--based on the original post, this really seems to be an injury problem rather than a players-on-the-field problem: no team can lose five or six star players and continue at the same output level. Expecting this requires the best of the remaining to play way above their levels. If you get whacked by injuries often, maybe you are assuming too much risk in acquiring players who are injury prone.

We've all been through the tough times playing this game. I try to keep in mind something I heard a minor league manager say on the local radio, back when we had a triple-A team in my area: a manager is powerless to affect at least 100 games a season, and you just try to lose fewer than you win in the ones where you have some influence on the strategy, and hope that your team is competitive enough to be on the right side of the majority of the other hundred.

[TheBrewCrew]

This thread is wild.

[Will_L]

There's always the old standby. Toss a virgin into a volcano.
Ya never know.

[luckymann]

I just try to give slumping players as many non-critical ABs as possible until hopefully they melt the snowflake. It doesn't always work but it seems to get them headed in the right direction without costing you games.

[BusterKing]

Originally Posted by Lucas718

The game at times seems to decide you're losing and there's nothing you can do about it. Since I play out all my games, I know when the nonsense is about to start.

My real life Blue Jays.

[Reed]

Just go back to a previous save. Works very time.

[CBeisbol]

Originally Posted by Reed

Just go back to a previous save. Works very time.

And should also disprove the "it's rigged" theories

[CBeisbol]

Originally Posted by Lucas718

The game at times seems to decide you're losing and there's nothing you can do about it. Since I play out all my games, I know when the nonsense is about to start.

Latest example:
We're up 5-3 going into the bottom of the 9th. I bring in the closer who promptly mows down the first 2 batters. Then I think OK, here it comes. A walk, a hit batter, an error, a wild pitch, and then the game winning hit.

Really?

Sure it happens in real life sometimes too, but not game after game.

I start sensing patterns to it. My teams scores 2 runs in the top of the inning, the other team gets them right back in the bottom of the inning. Then my team fields a grounder and holds it or does the slow motion throw to first that arrives just a hair to late to get the runner. The other team doesn't seem to have these problems. Their guys can score from second on a base hit to the OF. Mine either stop at 3rd or get thrown out at home by a mile.

I don't have bad players. The team won 84 games last season and was only eliminated from playoff contention on the last day of the season. But for some reason it's been determined that they are going to be horrible this year (currently sitting at 20-46) and it feels scripted.

You lose some, you win some