OOTP XX

[Schlitzbrille]

I bet that McGwire kid on the Angels won't amount to more than a footnote in the sport.

[Meacon Keaton]

Anybody have a fun game going? I had a fun Oakland game going for a while but ended up resigning after a couple of average seasons, after four straight playoff appearances.

I quit thinking I’d take a season off and then see what opened up, but I watched the AI GM in Oakland dismantle the farm system I worked so hard to build and haven’t gone back to the game since. I may start one this weekend with the Pirates or Rockies, though the thought of trying to put together a playoff worthy rotation in Colorado is already giving me ulcers.

[Lowerdeck]

On 12/03/2021 at 13:57, Meacon Keaton said:

I may start one this weekend with the Pirates or Rockies, though the thought of trying to put together a playoff worthy rotation in Colorado is already giving me ulcers.

 

I'd lean heavily towards obtaining and using pitchers with a high ground ball percentage. 

The Rockies in the league I'm in won 103 games and the NL West in 2039.  No pitcher has a GB% under 50%, and over half are over 60%.  They also managed to have a run differential of 277 though. 

My D'backs team won 90 games, but was only 6-13 against them

[The Buscher]

Resumed my Mets game after I fell down the rabbit hole of re-doing the entire league history.

The 1962 Mets were predictably terrible at 63-99, although it's not even in the same stratosphere of how bad they were in real life.  My pitching was atrocious and terrible infield defense likely didn't help.  I ended up shoring that up by dumping a veteran for Roberto Pena who is a good fielding 3B and, as I tried to shop around a couple of veterans I didn't want anymore, the White Sox to my surprise wanted both and were willing to unload Luis Aparicio to me.  He wasn't hitting very well but damn, the defensive ratings are the through the roof.

I wasn't the worst team in baseball, fellow expansion Houston Colt .45s were still worse.  They took Joe Morgan in the Amateur Draft and I took SS Reggie Smith who had a 5 star potential.  Only 17 so I can let him develop in the minors for a couple years and decide what to do with Aparicio when he's ready.

Pitching was much improved in 1963 thanks to the defense.  I was actually at .500 at the All Star Break, not any threat to make the playoffs in the era of one playoff team per league, but I wasn't disgracing myself.  Unfortunately in late August/early September I faced a murderers row of the Giants, Dodgers, and eventual NL champion Reds and went on a 13-game losing streak.  That torpedoed my record and I finished 74-88 and the owner is pissed off at me.  It was one bad streak!  Come on!

Looking at my roster, morale seems to be down throughout the organization with the main reasons being team performance and role on team.  I delegated a lot of the minor league stuff to my assistant GM and realized with horror that he'd signed dozens and dozens of guys, I have like 140 players in my lowest level minor league team.  Dammit.

[Meacon Keaton]

Oh yeah, I don’t delegate any minor league stuff to my Assistant GM. They’re terrible. I let my minor league managers set line up and rotation though I do force start my better prospects. But my Assistant GM is basically relegated to setting ticket prices.  

[The Buscher]

Live in and learn I suppose, I just figured handling the minor league signings etc would get overwhelming after a while but I wasn't expecting the dude to go overboard.  Most of these guys he signed have like a half star potential but with only four minor league teams how does he expect me to develop 200 minor leaguers?  Big dummy.

[Meacon Keaton]

23 hours ago, Buschie Kay said:

Live in and learn I suppose, I just figured handling the minor league signings etc would get overwhelming after a while but I wasn't expecting the dude to go overboard.  Most of these guys he signed have like a half star potential but with only four minor league teams how does he expect me to develop 200 minor leaguers?  Big dummy.

Also check your International Complex if you had your Asst GM running things. They’ll let prospects stay there until they’re too old (20) and they may still have like 20 potential. My rule of thumb is to move any prospect from the Int’l Complex to the DSL when they reach 18. If they don’t show some improvement after a year or two there, they’re gone.

But Im also super anal about my system. I try to keep it as neat and tidy as I possibly can. I spend about four hours going through and re-working things after taking over a team. Which is why I usually spend my whole career with one team.  

[Draevyn]

1 minute ago, Meacon Keaton said:

Also check your International Complex if you had your Asst GM running things. They’ll let prospects stay there until they’re too old (20) and they may still have like 20 potential. My rule of thumb is to move any prospect from the Int’l Complex to the DSL when they reach 18. If they don’t show some improvement after a year or two there, they’re gone.

But Im also super anal about my system. I try to keep it as neat and tidy as I possibly can. I spend about four hours going through and re-working things after taking over a team. Which is why I usually spend my whole career with one team.  

What do you do when guys start getting into their late 20s and you don't see any real potential in them when it comes to a major league spot. Do you just go on a firing/releasing spree? I never know when the best time to release a guy is.

[Meacon Keaton]

If they’re in their late-20’s and they don’t have at least two skills Major League worthy, you can either try to shop them for a younger prospect or just cut them. Some other team may see some value in him and give you someone for him. Take a flier on an 18 or 19 year old prospect. Maybe they’ll turn into something. Probably not. But the odds are better than your almost 30-year old finally figuring it out.

99% of baseball players aren’t going to get better after 27/28, and if they’ve not shown any real development, it’ll never come. Trade or release them because all they’re doing is taking up space and most likely stunting the development of younger prospects.

[Meacon Keaton]

27 minutes ago, Forky said:

What do you do when guys start getting into their late 20s and you don't see any real potential in them when it comes to a major league spot. Do you just go on a firing/releasing spree? I never know when the best time to release a guy is.

To add more: even 24, 25, and 26 year olds, if they can’t do really well in Double-A, they’re likely not worth holding on to. If they’re crushing Double-A, but struggle in Triple-A, keep them around a little longer to see if they can figure it out. But if they’re in their mid-20’s and not succeeding in at least Double-A, that’s good trade fodder to toss in as an extra piece when you’re close to reaching a deal.

Obviously, none of this is written in stone, and someone like @Lowerdeckmay have a totally different take on how he looks at prospects, that’s how I generally approach my farm. 

[The Buscher]

1 hour ago, Meacon Keaton said:

Also check your International Complex if you had your Asst GM running things. They’ll let prospects stay there until they’re too old (20) and they may still have like 20 potential. My rule of thumb is to move any prospect from the Int’l Complex to the DSL when they reach 18. If they don’t show some improvement after a year or two there, they’re gone.

I can only imagine what a mess it would be letting the Assistant GM run a modern era game.  Thankfully we just have the four minor league teams at this stage, so realizing my lowest minor league team which has no roster limit was comically overloaded stood out like a sore thumb.

I went through and cleared out anyone from that team that either my scout or OSA saw had no potential.  Released like 150 guys in one go.  Checked the calendar and saw it was December 25, 1963.  Uhh, Merry Christmas.

[Lowerdeck]

1 hour ago, Meacon Keaton said:

To add more: even 24, 25, and 26 year olds, if they can’t do really well in Double-A, they’re likely not worth holding on to. If they’re crushing Double-A, but struggle in Triple-A, keep them around a little longer to see if they can figure it out. But if they’re in their mid-20’s and not succeeding in at least Double-A, that’s good trade fodder to toss in as an extra piece when you’re close to reaching a deal.

Obviously, none of this is written in stone, and someone like @Lowerdeckmay have a totally different take on how he looks at prospects, that’s how I generally approach my farm. 

 

I have one of the best scouts in my league, so I tend to favor ratings more than just purely stats.

 

I do like to trim the fat, particularly at the upper levels.  If they don't have a potential contact of 45 or higher, I tend to cut them.  Same with potential stuff of 50+.  Anything sub 40 on either is likely getting released even if they're 18 years old.  (20-80 scale)

 

Sometimes I'll trim the minors mid-season.  Others I'll just let them go when they're minor league FAs.

 

[Lowerdeck]

My current 1B dilemma:

Starting 1B - Jim Gray: Gold Glover, third on team in HR, hitting around .200 with negative WAR.

Other options -

Mitch Battle: often injured 2B/DH, can't hit lefties

Mike Holder: best described as a AAAA player, has some power

Dan Lawson: currently my starting CF.  Can move to 1B and call up a CF prospect close to ready

[Lowerdeck]

Update: Gray had another poor sim.  He's in the final year of his contract, so I DFA'ed him.  Battle is now platooning with Holder.

 

My fourth OF is also slumping, so I DFA'ed him as well and called up the prospect to full his role.

[RazorsEdge]

I picked this up and I have no idea what I'm doing but I'm having fun. I started with the Red Sox and we were predicted to go 74-88 and finish 4th in the AL East but we managed to finish 3rd with 81-81 so that was pleasing. I'd like to think we could've done better if my pitchers didn't keep getting injured. I think I had 10 long term injuries to pitchers with the most notable being Garrett Richards who was ruled out of the season after being my best pitcher to start.

After injuries piled up I traded prospects for Dylan Bundy and Marcus Stroman. Neither had a great impact so I let both walk to free agency.

Nathan Eovaldi was crap going 7-15 at an ERA of 6.08. In the offseason I managed to trade him to St Louis for Carlos Martinez who had a good year with an ERA of 3.21. Both were on $17M but Carlos is under contract for one year longer than Eovaldi was so hopefully he works out.

I didn't really make any big moves in the offseason as I didn't have a heap of money but I needed 2 new outfielders and ended up with a Cuban slugger on $11M per season who can hopefully provide some HRs and Jake Marisnick as backup.

On opening day I ended up accepting a trade that sent C Christian Vazquez + $5.13M to Atlanta in return for C Shea Langeliers, RHP Roddery Munoz, RHP Kasey Kalich and RHP Bryce Elder. Kevin Plawecki batted better than Vazquez last year so I was comfortable promoting him to starting catcher with Langeliers being his backup for now.

Pre-season predictions for 2022 has us at 81-81 but hopefully we can stay healthier and finish better than that.

[Mick]

 

KEITH: ARE YOU CRAZY?! WHY THE HELL ARE YOU TRADING ME?!
ME: You'll figure it out in about 35 years.

[Mick]

Cool, Sandy Koufax didn't retire until 1974 in my current game:

Spoiler

(Current game started in 1961, and I simulated until 1980 before taking a team)
 

[Krabby]

On 23/10/2021 at 21:52, Mick said:

Cool, Sandy Koufax didn't retire until 1974 in my current game:

  Reveal hidden contents

(Current game started in 1961, and I simulated until 1980 before taking a team)
 

I came across this in my email this morning:

Quote

What made Sandy Koufax so hard to hit?

Pete Rose answered this question during an interview in which he graphically described Koufax’s curve ball and how precipitously it dropped. Rose found a melon in a basket of fruit and threw it straight down on the floor, hard. “How the hell you gonna hit that curve ball?” Rose asked the interviewer.

And it wasn’t just Rose.

"Hitting against him is like eating soup with a fork," Pittsburgh Pirates slugger Willie Stargell said.

"It drops like a chair whose legs collapse," Koufax’s catcher John Roseboro said.

As Darrell Pierce pointed out in the comments, Willie Mays said Koufax always tipped his pitches but it didn't matter because he couldn't hit him anyway. I found the original quote:

"Sandy would strike me out two or three times a game. And I knew every pitch he was going to throw: fastball, breaking ball or whatever. Actually, he would let you look at it. And you still couldn't hit it!" — Willie Mays on ESPN Classic's SportsCentury series

When Yogi Berra watched Koufax pitch during the 1963 World Series after having gone 25–5 in the regular season, Berra said, "I can see how he won 25 games. What I don't understand is how he lost five." Fortunately, Dodgers shortstop Maury Wills solved the mystery when he responded, “He didn't lose 5 games, we did.”

Matt Gaffney provided the next quote:

“He was truly magnificent.” — Hammerin’ Hank Aaron

In an interview, Bud Selig said the only pitcher he ever heard Hank Aaron complain about verbally was Sandy Koufax. After Koufax had out-dueled the great Warren Spahn, beating the Braves 2–1, on the departing plane trip an unhappy Aaron told Selig, “Boy, I’m glad I don’t have to face him again!” And Aaron was one of the few batters to have any success against Koufax. When asked in interviews to name the most dominant pitchers he faced, Aaron would immediately name Bob Gibson and Koufax, followed by Don Drysdale and Tom Seaver. Amusingly, Aaron said, “If you didn’t hit Drsydale, he was going to hit you!” The great home run hitter and baseball ambassador had a great sense of humor as well.

Superior hitters like Mays, Aaron, Rose, Stargell and Berra found Koufax baffling, so just imagine what it must have been like for ordinary hitters to face him.

Paul Reidl in the comments confirmed what great hitters have said about Koufax’s curve and its precipitous break: “I watched him pitch several times from behind home plate at old Forbes Field. His curveball, quite literally, fell off a table. Never seen anything like it. Batters would just flail at it. Clemente could hit him, but then he could hit anyone. Someone once asked Sandy how to get Clemente out. He quipped: ‘I have no idea; roll the ball to the plate?’” [BTW, I am a huge Roberto Clemente fan — such a great player, with so much talent, class, elegance and pride. One of my favorite quotes was Clemente’s, when someone asked him to name the best outfielder, with competition like Mays, Aaron and Mantle. Clemente had the perfect answer, “For me, I am the best.”]

Pete Rose said Koufax had a “great fastball” and pointed out that he struck out over 1,000 batters in his (Rose’s) first three seasons in the NL. That’s averaging 333 strikeouts per year, back when it had never been done before. In fact, Koufax had set the NL record with 269 strikeouts in 1961, breaking a 58-year-old record set by the great Christy Mathewson. It’s easy to forget that, before Koufax, no NL pitcher had really challenged 300 strikeouts in a season. But Koufax would go on to destroy his just-set strikeout record with 306 in 1963, when he became the first unanimous winner of the Cy Young Award back when it was for both leagues, then an otherworldly 382 in 1965 when he won his second of three Cy Youngs.

“You pitch outside, you throw inside,” he liked to say.
― Jane Leavy, Sandy Koufax biographer

“Show me a guy who can’t pitch inside, and I’ll show you a loser.”
— Sandy Koufax

“Pitching is the art of instilling fear.”
— Sandy Koufax

More at: https://www.quora.com/What-made-Sandy-Koufax-so-hard-to-hit

 

[Mick]

Here's my favorite: 

 

Quote

 Dodgers catcher John Roseboro signaled for another heater but Koufax shook him off. He wanted to try his curveball on Mantle, despite the warning. Koufax threw the curve and at the last second the bottom came out of the pitch. Mantle flinched and the umpire called “strike three.” Mantle hesitated, turned to Roseboro and said, “How the fuck is anybody supposed to hit that shit?”

 

[Mick]

Well, there was a fucking waste of a night. 

 

Simulated from 1871 to January 1, 1945, with the idea that free agency would begin following that season. The entire idea being "Hey, WWII is over, let's make some money " . 

 

So, take over the White Sox since they seem to be one of the shittier teams since the war started. I'm excited, I have Stan Musial, I do my typical GM shit to get everything set up, cause we're playing Moneyball decades before it's invented, and I finish 2nd in the AL behind the Browns. But everything's cool, right? We have free agency coming up, and look who's on the list, Ted fucking Williams. 

 

AAAAAnd since I have minor leagues on....I just got swamped with about six  fucking new minor league teams, all needing managers and coaches and enough micro to kill any interest I had in this endeavor. 

Yeah, no  .