Solo League Routines

[endgame]

I'm curious about routines and standard operating procedures for those of you playing solo leagues, fictional or not. I'm running a solo/fictional; used OOTP since v5, but until this season have - in hindsight - virtually blown through the seasons and not gained as full appreciation as I might have; like I'm beginning to experience this season.

I'm considering Cato's database, but nervous about being able to implement it properly and if I have the right programs/tools to do so. Also, I haven't yet taken the time to research all it might offer the solo practioner. As goes the roughly standard routine (about 50 games into the year): I've played through all of my games, check the waiver wire and the league wide trading block at least weekly, also weekly look at the minor league report in the transaction area as well as quickly evaluating the stats myself, have a notepad open so I can make pertinent managerial thoughts during every game, and monthly I am planning to look at the salary report to shop/sign/trade potential free agents.

Beyond that, unless I'm forgetting something (probably am), I'm wondering if there are areas I should be exploring more in depth - player tracker, news, league leaders, or other reports I should monitor more closely or at all, etc..

ctorg's probably got a ten page checklist, but I'm ready for that. I'd like to know how to broaden my horizons best as possible. Anyone lend a thought?

[jmm8356]

Let's see... First of all, I play out every pitch of every game.

Before each game, I go to my team's Roster screen to do two things: (a) scroll through my relievers to remind myself who's "available" and who's not (even if he's not tired, maybe he's pitched the last two days so I want to hold him back if I can, things like that) and (b) check for any tired position players. Plus I have a little pad of paper where I write down guys I want to give "spot starts", and when I remember to look at it , that would probably go here. For example, a guy gets a big pinch-hit so I think "Hey, maybe I should give him a start next game" so I write down "Thomas @ LF" or something, and hopefully that reminds me to actually put him in the lineup for the next game.

After each game, I go to the Waiver Wire, then News Section, then Standings, then my team screen for any new e-mails. I check the Roster Report, mostly to see if there were any new injuries in the minors, the Minors Report (not necessarily to make their suggested moves immediately, but I can see how long they've felt a move was needed and/or whether they keep changing their mind) and Player Development.

Only when I write up the Association report once a month do I take a close look at League News, League Transactions, etc... Oh, and whenever I lose a player (waivers, trade or release), I try to remember to drop them in the Player Tracker.

Guess that's about it... Writing a dynasty thread, even you never post it anywhere and just do it for yourself, is a good way to get deeper into your team. For example, the only time I look in-depth at minor league stats if when I write up each minor league level's progress once a month. Catobase is a big help too, with team records (most wins, most homers) and career leaderboards.

[DaveDingman]

Wow! I've owned OOTP5 and 6 and I was always curious how other people played. I usually play about half to three fourths of my teams game each year. But if I'm out of it then I usually just sim a week at a time for the end of the season and spend time checking on how future free agents are doing.

[Filthy Slider]

I do very much the same as what jmm8356 has detailed.
When I first started playing OOTP...it was version 5 that I first tried it out...I was hesitant to start up an entire season with the goal of playing EVERy game.
Also, I was used to not wanting to focus in on one particular team, but to enjoy the ins and outs of all teams in a league...kindof like being my own league commishoner (don't know now why I enjoyed that so much because playing just one team is something that I've found to be incredibly fun and allows me to really get to know the players and the full experience of having a team).

Anyway, by playing one team and playing every game it really, to me, brings the season to life. Trading for a prospect, watching him progress in the minors' reports on a day to day basis (for a while I even watched his stats in AAA on a day to day basis), then, watching him try to fit into the team with all the anticipations of whether or not he would turn out to be as big of a star as I hoped.

Unfortunately, for that particular prospect, I think I rushed him forward a bit too quickly as his original productivity has really slid off (but, I was trying to keep my team up to .500 ball--trying to save my job in managerial career...lol...and, even as a rookie was better than the other options in RF).
Anyway, I don't really have much to add here since jmm8356 kind of covered it all...

oh yeah, for a while I also enjoyed watching the "TOP minors report" [news section] (since I was, when I took over the team, trying to do a bit of rebuilding over time) and enjoyed seeing my rating grow until I found myself as the number one rated minor league system...and, on that note, I also check the standings report once or twice a week or so in the league news section to check the standings in AAA, AA, and A ball...for two seasons straight now I've taken first place at all three levels. (maybe its not all that challenging to do that...I don't know, but I also haven't allowed myself to go out and get many free agents with the purpose in mind of winning in the minor leagues (although I do sometimes go out and get minors' players in free agency to fill out some of my A and AA and even AAA positions so that those teams are a) competetive and b) since those spots are otherwise unfilled, I figure that maybe there's an outside chance that one of those newly acquired minor leaguers might somehow develop a talent that makes them useful somewhere someday (hasn't happened yet...but maybe someday)
And, I also go through every few days and re-auto-generate my A, AA and AAA lineups and pitching staffs (and, occasionally inspect and make changes to the computer's suggestions--I had a RF coming up in AAA behind a better RF so I've been changing him in the AAA lineup to learn LF...that kind of thing)...I do that so frequently, because I've found that as player development occurs, as minor leaguers become injured, and sometimes there are changes in how the AI estimates the value of a minor leaguer, because sometimes, even in the absence of any major "Player Development" change, the AI will make a lineup or pitching rotation change when I re-generate the lineups/rotation...seeing that gives me more of a feel of how things are progressing there....also, and this is maybe one of the big reasons why I generate those lineups and rotations so much...occasionally (like when I, say, have no 2B in AA) the AI will select a player to be taught a new position...maybe the computer would do that anyway, I don't know...but, I enjoy seeing that this is taking place in my minor league system.
And, because I'm actually doing something with the minor leaguers on a day to day basis (or on most days) it makes it that much more special and interresting to me when my scout finally declares on of the players ready for promotion (not that I, like jmm, necessarily act on that recommendation right away or even at all) but, its fun seeing it take place.
Hope everyone out there's been enjoying their solo leagues.
I'm about to go play to, for the first time in my franchise history, clinch the division title (only five games left in my 132 game/yr. season and my team's magic number is down to "1").
But, anyway, I whole-heartedly recommend to anyone thinking about trying out playing every game of a season to give it a try, because I was very pleasantly surprised at how it took an already wonderful game and turned it into a really amazing one.

[Filthy Slider]

Here's another thing I do every day that I finds adds a touch of realism to my solo leauge:
Since OOTP does not ever have games get rained out (or so I have come to understand that it does not)..
I use a weather chart from a 1990's Pursue the Pennant game (a tabletop cards and dice game--with a lot of extensive and WONDERFUL charts...I've often wondered if perhaps some facet of the OOTP AI (either AI decision making or PbP detail) might somehow benefit from inspirations from those charts--they produced day to day game results that I've never seen any game (sorry, OOTP included) come close to matching for realism, intricacy, and novel--yet still realistic--features...
Anyway, I used a spreadsheet to calculate (based on what month it is, the percetage chance of game being rained out completely--depending, of course, on where it is played)
note: the PTP charts have a percentage chance that its cloudy, then
another percentage chance of each precipitation type (thunderstorms,
showers, snow, fog), and then another percentage chance that
a given precipitation type will result in a postponed game...actually,
there is even a chance of scattered showers in PTP where one
rolls two dice every half inning to see if the rain returns then the game
is postponed as of that point in the game so I did a separate chart
to determine the percentage chance that scattered showers would
produce a rainout before the end of the 5th inning...anyway, the
spreadsheetI did puts all those percentages together (actually,
as per probability laws it multiplies the percentages) and comes up with
a percentage chance of postponement for each of the stadiums with
different percentages depending on the month.
So, before each game I generate a random number for each stadium (which I do in a spreadsheet so it takes only an instant to generate them)...then, if any number is below 9 (on a 1-100 generation) I then check the charts--I think the biggest percentage chance of postponement is...well...ok...so I went and looked, it is the Great Lakes area (Detroit, Chicago, etc.) during April and its 0.086 and, in 2nd place is Miami in June (from a different season's chart but for the same game) at 0.073.
Anyway, I love doing it this way...and, when a game is rained out I immediately make note of it...look at both teams' schedules and plan a make-up date (I choose whatever date is most convenient for both teams considering travel issues, days of rest, etc.) and then I do into the schedule editor and make the adjustments ...occasionally, the best choice is simply to do a double-header the day after the rain-out...and, once, I had a game that turned out to be unnecessary for determining playoff standings and, since it was late in the year they just ended up only playing 131 games that year instead of my usual total of 132.
I've been wanting to mention that I do this rainouts for a while now, but have either forgotten to mention it or never really found the right place to post it...this seemed like a pretty good spot
Anyway, I'm not sure about copyright stuff here or I would be 100% willing to share my spreadsheet table with anyone who wanted it...I dunno...do you think that such a chart is something that PTP would have a problem with its being used considering that, in theory, one could simply go to weather.com and do a study to figure all this out (although, actually, it would be more involved than that since the frequency of rainy days doesn't always match the number of post-poned games...hmm...I do wish there was a way that I could share this info, however, with anyone who wanted it...I just don't want to do anything wrong in terms of copyright in doing so

[Filthy Slider]

Since I use fictional players (which I find to be a lot of fun since then I'm not expecting any one particular result but am free to go with the flow of the game engine and of the dynamics of my league..and, they do take on a sense of real persona to them when playing out the games day to day)...I also sometimes go through and add player photos to some of my minor league players, my opponents (I especially try to find a photo for anyone who manages to get a story posted in the league news)
To get a photo I ...well, I have to admit that I'm relatively unfamiliar with the faces of minor league players for most teams out there..and, unfamiliar with some of the less played players of some MLB teams...so I go out and get photos from either ESPN (modify them in Adobe or whatever) or from ootp downloads, or from HH2k4 downloads site...
actually, I've even found some MLB players that I had seen before...who are somewhat (or actually quite) famous...after a number of games of seeing them in OOTP I've kinda forgotten of their 'past lives' in non-real-computer baseball...most notable is that Corey Koskie is now a closer for Minnesota named Daniel Fritsch (and a pretty darned good one too!) and Adrian Beltre is now named Basil Vidro and is 2nd in total strikeouts (he's a starting pitcher...lol) in his league...then, there's players who, once I downloaded the photo and put them into my OOTP teams I have positively no idea who they are in non-real-computer baseball...but, I enjoy having those photos there to give that much more depth to the playing experience.
Then again, sometimes I go for a month of the season without putting in any new photos at all because I just don't feel like messing with it...but I, at least, like to keep my Active roster and division rivals active rosters mostly filled with photos.

[endgame]

Thanks guys, keep up the feedback. This is exactly the kind of information I was looking for and makes me want even more. I suppose I would add to everyone's checklist reading the latest posts here before, after, and during the game too, eh?

[Tandem]

thanks filthy slider, there were some great tips and ideas in those posts!

[smeyers003]

I used to sim weekly and that was all good and fine until someone on the boards suggested simming to the 6th and playing out the end of close games and now I can never go back to simming weekly again, it gives me such a better knowledge of my team managing them at the end of games, plus I can make most of the manegerial decisions w/o taking the time to play out the whole game.