A Guide for Beginners
 

march 26, 2018: any time a new release comes out, things can change. this should be good as of now through ootp18. most things will be the same. the new ratings system may or may not cause some adjustments to suggested ratings at various MiL levels. I'll adjust them once i play wiht '19 for a few months unless it's terribly obvious a change is required in the suggestions. make use of stats campare to league baselines to guage competency and verify the ratings suggested in the meantime.

A Guide of NoOne

Foreward:

I will do this in three posts. The first will be a basic yearly cycle of tasks. The second portion will deal with when to promote prospects. Some behaviors are repeated and possibly shortened or paraphrased the second time they are noted.

Assumes AI control of:
-MiL FA Signings and Releases
-MiL Promotions and Demotions
-MiL Depth Charts, Lineups and Pitching Staffs

if, like me, you have the propensity to be absent minded, this yearly outline is even useful to the more experienced. Since I started working on this, I reference it on occasion. Copy/paste and edit it to tailor it to your settings and play style.

If people have dates of certain things that could be added to the yearly cycle, make a post. I don't pay attention to waivers, for example.

A note to beginner's:

Before you begin playing any league review all settings after creation one-by-one and make a backup when you are satisfied. You may want to copy this Backup directory and rename it for long-term storage. When you click backup in the future, it will not touch the renamed directory. If for some reason you find a problem 10, 20 years out you can easily amend that problem and begin again.

Expect to be frustrated a bit at first. There are many moving parts to the game, but once you get it, you'll appreciate the sophistication. You can choose to micromanage or delegate to your wishes. It is only complicated if you want it to be.


Contents: (use your browser's search feature)

1)
Yearly Cycle
-Regular Season
-Playoffs
-Offseason
-Preseason

2)
When to Promote or Demote MiL Players
-Pitchers
-Batters
-International Complex

3)
General Promotion Tips
General Related Tips

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Yearly Cycle
************
* Some things should be timed with your new scouting reports. Anytime they come out, it's a good idea to check-in on important prospects.
**Don't Auto-calculate the League Total Modifiers every year. Clicking it before starting any new leauge is a good idea. After that, use it reactively to a large shift in stats, if at all. Tweak the modifiers individually for any fine tuning. It should ebb and flow a healthy amount. Auto-calculate for the Minors as much as you want. The tighter it is, the better you understand quality relative to baseline per individual player.
*** If you lock important prospects, you can delegate MiL Depth charts and MiL Promotions/Demotions. You don't have to ask AI to setup minor leagues, below. I am leaving that in as a bookmark for assessing your MiL system -- either 100% by hand or automated with select prospects being locked etc. If you make some massive changes to a team before a game is played that day, you may want to ask the AI to set up that depth chart, or possible the entire system. It will safely jostle enough players, but it won't call up reinforcemnts for that 1 game. Simming a day will cause it to adjust on its own given proper delegation from your manager's office settings..

Regular Season:

-Opening Day, Before any games are palyed
....click Auto-calc for full-season MLB / MiLs that start soon, if needed.
....Preseason Predictions with 25-man rosters set league-wide
....Finalize 40-Man Roster, return Spring Training players to AAA, if you have not.
....Finalize MiL Setup (more details below, same each time)


-Day of First Year Amatuer Draft
.....Move 18+ players from International Complex to Minor League System (new scouting values)
.....Apply League-level locks to recently drafted prospects / former International Complex players of note and shortlist them
.....Assess MiL locked prospects - promote/demote/remove/add
.....Release minor Leaguers that are dead weight
.....Ask AI to setup complete Minor League System around your hand-locked players
.....Auto-calc short season minor leagues after the draft is completed but before their seasons start, if needed

-Play until International Amateur FA Signing begins
.....Immediately bid on wanted players
.....If 18, move to Minors. Lock and Shortlist, if needed
.....Assess MiL locked prospects - promote/demote/remove/add (assure rookie placement is good, and any borderlines - 1 month, so be forgiving - my league differs here, so adjust this as necessary -> give enough time after draft)
.....Ask AI to setup complete Minor League System

-Play until 1 month left of A-AAA schedule left
.....Assess MiL locked prospects - promote/demote/remove/add
.....Ask AI to setup complete Minor League System

-Sign personnel as you lose them at the end of each MiL season.



Playoffs:

-Set Roster for Playoffs
.....Set all substitutions to never
.....Set 4-man rotation
.....Set Rotation Strategy to strict

-End of Playoff Run:
.....Set MLB Rotation size and strategy for regular season
.....Set MLB depth chart and lineups for regular season


Offseason: order noted when important

-Set budgets
-Manually pick awards?
-Cull Minors before offering extensions

-Day One of Arbitration
.....1 Assess MiL locked prospects - promote*/demote/remove/add - ***wait on MLB promotions
.....2 Ask AI to setup complete Minor League System
.....3 Offer long-term contracts to arbitration eligible players - if not a "keeper" still look for a bargain
.....4 Trade assets for MLB replacements and/or near future needs
.....5 Salary Arbitration / Qualifying Offers
.....0 Offer no-cost MiL Extensions to MiL players listed on Salary Arbitration screen or Front Office/Upcoming FA

-Free Agency
.....1 Sign FA MLB needs and depth / Trade replaced player etc
.....2 promote any to MLB if way overqualified for AAA after relevant FA signings, otherwise wait until end of Spring Training to add to 40-man Roster, if flexibility is still needed. Don't move to 40-man until absolutely necessary.

-New Year's Day
.....Assess MiL locked prospects - promote/demote/remove/add


Preseason:

-Set Intl Amateur FA Signing Cap after you have spent your FA money.
-Assess MiL locked prospects - promote/demote/remove/add


Spring Training

-Day One
.....Promote locked AAA players and any needed filler for rest to spring training roster
.....Set depth charts and lineups for spring training

-End of Spring Training + April 1 for new scouting report, if not beyond opening day (assumes better scouting budget than minors*)
.....Lock and shortlist any of note
.....Assess MiL locked prospects - promote/demote/remove/add (use ratings while in MLB after scouting report*)
.....Ask AI to setup complete Minor League System
.....Set MLB depth charts and lineups - check rotation size and player strategies!

Go To Beginning of post

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When to Promote or Demote MiL Players
*************************************

Some notes, skip if you want:

Above all other things, focus on development. If their ratings keep increasing, they are fine regardless of their performance. I'd strongly suggest testing the waters of any promotion. a week or two of futility won't ruin anyone's career.

Stats-only is more reactive in nature, but essentially the same thing. It's just as inaccurate at rookie league due to ever small sample sizes and quickly changing player's ratings, albeit unseen. Stats lag behind ratings improvement of current ratings, or a reduction of current ratings for that matter. Simply relate the best stat to the fundamental ratings of the game. Use rates of those closely-tied stats relative to league baselines to guage promotions/demotions. Pitchers are, as always, much more difficult to guage this way than batters. I'd strongly suggest testing the waters of any promotion. a week or two of futility won't ruin anyone's career.

The ~lower-to-middle of values are listed below, but not necessarily the "optimal" values for each level - knock yourself out tweaking. Demote if they perform uniformly badly... because a monrth or 3 is a very small sample, you must consider a very large range of results to be ~normal.

*"-ish" = around, "+" means at least that value or higher.

*relivers/starters - Elevated stuff, movement or control can allow for a weakness relative to any MiL level.

*this is only for locked prospects from above, which are assumed to be better-than-average talent. Low-end prospect promotions, if not delegated, should be handled differently to maximize MiL wins for your better prospects morale and such.

*Remember that stats in each MiL will not necessarily mirror your MLB. If you don't know what average or baseline is for each league you can't do a meaningful evaluation of their stats. Ratings are more reliable than stats for almost all accuracy settings. If stats-only settings, test the waters, but allowing a sample to grow is necessary. If you demote quickly after a promotion, I'd suggest to stick with it. the rest of that season.

*1-100 scale used, not relative to any league or position. Same ratings no matter what league you view the player. Otherwise, your ratings will float due to current talent levels in the respective MiLs changing from year to year. These settings give greater clarity for promotions. You can workaround that, if you prefer different settings. The smaller the scale, the more leeway you must give on the values below and the more important stats become to verifying that they are not overmatched.

*I may need to edit the ratings, but they are close. The Pitchers will never be 'perfect' because of the complexities compared to batters. The editor values are spot on, though. No matter what stats that MiL league results in, it will translate to your game world. It's a common denominator. A rosetta stone, if you will. This is something I knew by rote at one time, but no more. I am in the process of hammering them out again.

*Age - Let their development and statistical results make the decision for you. If player ratings are sky-rocketing, who cares if they are hitting ".100" or have an 8.00era. If you see poor results and little movement on ratings, a young player may need to be at a lower level than his ratings suggest. Some ~18 y.o. can handle AAA/MLB and some cannot. A great thing when it does happen.

********
Pitchers
********

...are complicalted. If a third pitch hasn't developed by AA/AAA, stats may begin to suffer. Either stick with it unti ~24-26 or convert them to an RP and write that third pitch off as a loss.

Control is more important for starters than relievers when it comes to promotions. The ratings given below are for SP. Expect a bit higher stuff/movement for RP.

*All three of the major pitching ratings need to be considered for pitchers. If control is too low, too many walks are a problem, allow stats to dictate relative to leage baseline. If stuff or movement is too low, they get hammered (again, relative to baselines). You get comfortable with what works for you over time.

***
AAA

Age can be a problem, but let it show in the stats before you make that decision. Better yet, allow development to dictate whether they are too young. If it stagnates, demote them. This goes for any level below and batters too.

Average SP Ratings for promotion
50's / 50's / 40+ -- (stu/mov/con)

***
AA

Average Ratings
45ish / 45ish / 35+

***
A

Average player
35ish / 35-40 / 30ish

*********
Short-A

Average player
25ish / 25ish / 25ish

******
Rookie

The rest, obviously.

***********************
Batters -- WAY simpler!
***********************

AAA
Contact - 45+

Power may blossom at AA/AA, or possibly by age ~26. If not by ~26. it's not likely to happen. Age 28-30 = nearly 100% not happening. It is a component of Contact, so true power hitters can see huge boosts to contact late in the development process -- very possibly after they make the MLB.

***

AA
Contact - 40+

***

A
Contact - 35+

***

Short-A
Conctact - 25-30

***

Rookie - the rest

**********************************
International Complex Ppromotions:
**********************************

*More guess than fact in this section

If rated well, i'd move them as soon as they are 18. If they are low-quality, I move them to fill positions of need starting with the oldest. There is an age 20 cap in the complex. They do improve, in the complex, but it is a lower level than Rookie in this regard and whatever that entails.

Same reasons you promote to any other level should be considered here for your better prosepcts. Age is more of a factor. Six years before MiL free agency, so, if you move at 16 they are reaching FA / option years during peak development years. That's not optimal, but again let ratings dictate. Expect even less accurate ratings in complex compared to Rookie League.

I think this is your MiL Scouting Budget, as of OotP 18. I would expect this to remain the same. Without international leagues, you can zero out that scouting budget and redistribute as you wish - development, payroll, the other 3 scouting budgets, etc.

***********************
General Promotion Tips:
***********************

Make sure you don't have multiple high-end prospects fighting each other for playing time at any particular MiL Level. This is where you may need to use a forced role on a position player.

Cull the minors of very poorly rated players before the draft and at the end of the season. This makes offering minor league contracts at the end of the season in bulk very easy with just 1 or 2 filters on the Upcoming FA screen.

Offer Minor league contracts in the offseason to the "Filler" players in your Minors. If you've done a good job culling the minors year-to-year, you will offer almost all of them another year in your system with very little effort involved. This will be the single easiest thing you can do to improve your MiL win/loss records. It takes way less time and effort than sifting through MiL FAs for vialbe filler options.

Don't move them every month! Stick to a schedule as suggested in the outline - which just says to look at them, not that you have to do anything at that time. You will learn nothing useful from 1 month of stats. For those few exceptions, it is because the player is borderline and you are actively choosing to give them a 2-month trial at that level.

2-month Trials: Focus more on their development. That should be your ONLY focus in the minors, if your goal is to maximize MLB wins. Unless stats are wicked bad or good, don't react to them. If you think the ratings are wrong, then act accordingly. If you don't see upward ticks in scouting or development reports he either is a slacker, getting unlucky, or possibly overmatched... so use the info available to make a good decision.

During the offseason things can change significantly. I am not sure if it matters in the offseason which MiL team they are on... nonetheless, I make sure to promote throughout the offseason, just in case. Since being on the Active roster means they stay in game-ready shape, i assume the roster a prospect is on should fit their ability even in the offseason.

Spring Training: I'd move any AAA player and any borderline one. If their contact suggests they can hit .240-.250, i'm okay with it. If you stuck to the suggestions above, any AA/AAA picther should be good enough for RP work. If you use a 6th SP in ST, like me, make sure they are at least a capable AAA SP. I typically stick to AAA'ers, and only use AA'ers if i don't have enough to rest my players 1/2rd-1/5th of the time, depending on position. e.g. My catcher only goes 1/2 the time in ST.

Since positions change and team need play a role, make sure they are play the position in the field that they are listed as. This is probably more important for Morale, but may affect other things too. The ai will switch RP/SP, but won't change the position of a third basemen who plays everyday as the shortstop.


General Related Tips:

Use Service time limits at the lower levels, if you want to do such things. Don't be too strict or you will create a bottle neck. I'd suggest matching # of years you allow at Rookie level to match up with # of rounds in your draft and the most rookie teams any 1 MLB team owns.

e.g. - Let's say one team has 4 rookie leages and we have a 35 round draft. If you only allow 2 years at rookie level, you will be short a large number of players. ~70 plus a few stragglers from July 2nd IAFA or scouting discoveries each year is not going to fill those 4 teams. Discoveries have a hard time making it beyond a-ball. So, you either need to allow ~3years+and extra round or 2, or you need to severely bump up #of rounds to provide ~110-120 players in 2 years of drafting.

Any type of disparity of # of Rookie teams per MLB will cause will cause some teams to inevitably have "too many" players. This is okay. Always make sure the larges system of teams has enough players, or you will have to artificially add some or use ghost players. (any real world MLB league will come with this mathematical behavior)

I'd avoid age limits at Rookie due to the wide range of ages in an amatuer draft. If you want to use age and service time limits at Short-a and beyond, make sure not to create and mathematical bottlenecks. The bulk of players will move based on these rules as opposed to freelying moving upward. Figure only ~5-10 per year, per team will need that sort of freedom. The rest should provide enough numbers to cover for injuries.

At AAA, i'd reverse my suggestion and go with just an Age limit, if any. This should not interfere with rehab assignments. When you use age limits at any level, hopefully no more than 5-10 are anywhere near maxed out at any particular time for that level. Too many would be a bad sign and a very likely bottleneck in your system of MiL service and age limit rules.

Be wary of "Forcing" a player to play a specific position. Mostly you'll only need it to force a SP/RP role, if you have a glut of OF or IF at one particular minor league level, or if you want to gain experience at a new position. Allowing the manager to move them around or you rotating them with forced positions allows for multi-positional experience before they reach the MLB.

As you Draft amatuers or sign int'l amatuer FA, before the draft completes, they will all be in your lowest MiL level. It's way easier to lock the important ones en masse before they scatter throughout your system due to AI delegation. This just saves time and less likely to lose track of them.

Draft as much talent as you can - not based on need. Trade players in positions of value that don't fit your mold. e.g. I hate huge L/R batting ratings splits. If i have a stud that can't hit lefties, or worse righties, I will jump at a chance to use them as part of a trade to a team that values that player highly. You can get a very good return on these types of players.

SP, SP, SP... If you have a steady pipeline of home-grown pitchers, you can save TONS of money!! Plus they trade well in almost any situation. sub-30 is my happy zone for SP. if i have older SP it's because they are a lifer and i enjoy running up career stats of certain deserving players, but it's better to trade them before that point. With normal accuacy, don't expect many all-star calliber SP by the ~3rd round and sometimes before round 2 begins in a weak draft year.

College kids read as you see them most of the time. 18 year-olds are more likely to develop a healthy chunk of velocity by the time they hit ~22. So, their Stuff rating potentially reads lower than it could be. high risk, high reward. If they don't increase velocity, you are stuck with a 4th/5th starter with little to no trade value, at best.

Draft batting prowess, not defense. Some exceptions for SS and C, of course, and to a lesser extent CF, too. Don't base that on their position listed in the Draft, either... base it on what their defensive abilities will likely equate to. Experience is an unseen rating. Look at MLB players with similar ability and that's what the prospects will have with "full" experience at that position.

Can you explain what you mean by auto-calc short season minor leagues?

Some Minor Leagues start in June, or ~1/2 the way through a normal minor league season. usually called Short-A... although i guess the DSL starts early and finishes eary - take care of that one same as A-AAA after MLB opening day.

you can autocalc for these leagues once the MiL seasons start, but their rosters won't be the entire ones used during the year until after the draft. So, if you want to click it for those leagues, then do so on their opening day or likely anytime after the draft completes and AI has set up all their rosters - as well as humans for that matter.

For some reason when i check "auto-calculate automatically" (or similar wording) for my MiL teams, it does not autocalc each year. I don't use it in Majors unless using Real players, and only while transitioning to fictional players.

In general, if i say to do somethign on a specific date, etc... , it's very likely because the AI does somethign important that day or the day before - excluding obvious reasons like first day of "?????"

Thanks! Post set to sticky! :)

Yeah, this is very nice! Thanks for your hard work on it:thumbup:

editor
 

am a real newbie to the game. so could you explain what mean whit the editor on pitchers??

if you have "Comissioner" mode on, when you go into the player's profile, then click "Editor" tab at the top of that profile page, you will see additional information.

the exact ratings on a 0-200 point scale are found here. it also gives rough estimates of production relative to their ratings in a "modern mlb environment."

That's what i am referring to. So, regardless of our league's differences in resulting statistical norms, that will translate well.

you may find you need a little less or a little more in your league?? but if close to default i would expect "Competency" to be the same ratings as listed, but different statistical results in each minor league or major league.

it should stay proportional as long as you don't play around with Player creation modifiers or significantly change # of new players per year your legaue introduces. (unless well-tailored to smaller or larger league than default) any other settings of this nature, too.

this is also why using service time limits to prevent old has-beens from elevating league talent levels is a good idea. without hamstringing your league's development, you want to keep that in check a bit... oldies in places they shouldnt be... age limits cause mroe problems then they solve, imo. i can handle a handful of older mil players per AA team. that won't cause many problems, if at all serious.

Are the editor ratings in the batter section batting average or OBP? Something else?

the ratings i give for batter is just contact.

the # from the editor for batters is batting average.

Those contact ratings should be way more useful than the ratings igave for pitchers... you can likely bypass the editor info from the start on batters... with pitchign you may need to learn a few nuances thorugh the editor (at least it speeds up the process). looking in the editor for batter will give you an idea of scouting inaccuracy, though... so some benefit until you understand that factor.

due to scouting inacuracy, especially at Rookie and lower levels, you definitely need to cross-reference results relative to the average in that leageu (aveage slash can be found in Stats and AI settings page -- must autocalculate modifiers each year for this to be valid each year).

If you don't have a good feel for Runs scored relative to a slash line for a league, take a peek at the end of the year for the league's overall ERA to make sure they aren't getting run over relative to average. as long as you autocalc the LTMs, the resulting ERA's should be an understandible average regardless of what year it is... as with the slash line -- so if it fluctuates aroudn 4.09... use 4.09 not the particular year's result (with autocalc'ed LTM).

allow some give and take in those values due to scouting inaccuracy.

also those are 1-100 scale, make sure you convert to your scale. that will add that much more leeway on a smaller scale (inaccuracy plus effects of rounding).

e.g. if i see a guy with a suposed 20/100 contact batting .350+ in my rookei league, which is ~.318 average i think), i'm confident that my scout has a bad read ont his player and i will promote.

.350 for a month is not the same as what i wrote, lol... since you'll be working with small samples it is never a black and white decision... well it is very very rarely a black and white decision unless you let them simmer on purpose.

update: those ratings for the minors looks good still - maybe a tick higher is better, but it's not meant to be a line in the sand. most play with scouting inaccuracy turned on, anyway.

with inaccuracy set to normal or at least on in some fashion, you want to err a bit on the conservative side... when it's borderline, use those stats as a tie-breaker.

use stats that require a smaller sample size to know with some certainty. most importantly, if you don't know what an ~average baseline is for that league and that stat, then the info cannot tell you much.

never overreact to a ~10ERA after 1 or 2 starts after you bump. trust the ratings for longer than that. use smaller sample size stats (google "baseball sample size" -> fangraph result and i'm sure other sites with more info too.)

Hey, ever thought of putting together a loose guide to putting together batting lineups?

Where do you autocalc for minor league teams as you mentioned in your original post?

Also, do you try to keep approx. 25 players on each minor league team? So you don't have players fighting for playing time? Most teams in my minor league system are at or around 25 except for the lower level which have 40+. Should I get rid of some "dead weight" to get down to 25 for each?

I've got multiple posts in old forums about batting lineup... so many variables. different financial realities of teams.. so many eras to account for... i am only experienced to speak about a more modern-like statistical environment. there are a ton of those threads if you are looking for new ideas.

if you read through my posts about lineups, i bet i even contradict myself at different times, lol.

add "site:www.ootpdevelopments.com" to any google search... limits it to the ootp forums and way better than the forum search.

Auto-Calc is locaced in the same area as MLB -- but at top-right portion there is a drop down box that should say Major League... name of your ML league. simply click and select the minor league you want.

this drop down as well as "Available Actions," located in same area of screen, have some usfefulness and easy to miss / forget about. basically on any settings screen take a peak in that area of the screen.

Couple of questions...

1. What is a league-level lock?

2. When you talk about ratings for promotion (e.g. "Average SP Ratings for promotion 50's / 50's / 40ish" is this for promotion from AA to AAA or from AAA to the Majors?

Answer for one questions:
A league level lock is in the player strategy tab. If the AI is running the minors the choice to lock a player at a minor league level prevents the AI from promoting or demoting the player.

The poster above me answered question 1, but I believe question two is that is the ratings he should have in order to be at that level.

Though I don't know if batters should be like that - for instance, a batter could have contact for AA level, but maybe avoid K for rookie ball. In that instance, you might have to alter the plan of just "focus on contact".

yeah, that looks like ~AAA to me, give or take for a pitcher...

those are ~minimum-to-average to be promoted to that level... although maybe 45/45/~40 is good enough too, for example... so much more goes into it than those three ratings for pitchers (pitch selection, SP vs RP.. RP's need little less control, bit more stuf/move than what i list for SP above, for example)... these ratings will merely speed up the learning curve a slight amount for you... as you dink around you'll have your own ideas of where these demarcation lines are in your own perspective.

while i do consider results/stats when borderline promotion decisions are being made, i mainly am concerned about development... if their ratings are sky-rocketing i could care less if they are hitting .000. my goal is 100% producing MLB talent. everything is geared toward that end with little concern for anything else.

as far as a lagging ratings like pretender mentions, i'll also consider potential of that lagging rating....

for example, if they can only get to ~40/100, i'm not too worried if they are 20's/100 at AAA for eye or avoid k's (ignore power in minors, except its repercussions on ratings -- ie a great player hides while power undeveloped. when it develops contact will increase alot)

this type of player is the one that has a major hole in their game, but still can produce offesnively. e.g. low eye, very high average can work lead-off with no power (ichiro-esque) ... high power/decent average but a SO machine (too many to choose from-esque), lol... you get the idea.

if they can hit for good average, they can be useful in the majors even if 8-9 in lineup and finish developing, that's why i use Contact as the "track" for batting prospects. you can't say that about any of the other ratings when they stand alone to the same extent.

1) i've been not playing for a bit now... it's in the right-click context menu too i think... if not, context menu can lead to player strategy, too. i know it has that for sure. then there's the checkbox as mentioned above.

beware of forcing positions... i'd only use it to control learning other positions and in rare cases where you have 2 decent prospects at the same position and for some reason one is on the bench. i typically let the gm's randomly do the position stuff :p saves effort. plus ST, when that's viable.

Keeping it simple?
 

I am overwhelmed by the sophisticated options available in OOTP. Is there a way in which I can bypass all the peripherals and just draft teams of real players and play games? Perhaps with time I may add other facets of the game, but right now I want to keep it at the simplest level possible. Help?
Cinefan
P.S. If this is the wrong forum for this question, please refer me to the right place. Thanks!

First let me say that the best way to learn the game is to play with it. Use it like a toy. Experiment with the settings. Do you want to play historical or modern? Are you interested in playing a season, career, or just individual games? Do you want to draft historical players to comprise your team? The game is so vast that it is difficult to help without understanding what you want to do.

One more thing, watch the videos, and and read the manual. The game is daunting unless you decide how you want to play it. Once you make that decision then ask specific how do I do this questions. This is not a pick it up and master it game. It is, in some ways, more about the journey than the destination. As a very first step you might want to just use the single game or single series function. That is probably the easiest way to just play a game of baseball.

probably should make a new thread but oyu got a couple replies :p

definitely... even if you are a "GM" you can delegate all sorts of responsibility to the AI. As a gm you may want "GM-Legacy mode" checked in Global Settings, too. if you want to control managing of games and depth charts regardless of a coach's wishes.

e.g. you don't want to deal with minors in any way-- GM Office -> Control Settings [sic] and select Asst. GM or Minor League Managers etc.

That's the screen you want to look over... check manual too if they aren't obvious as to what the effect is.

As a "Coach", you just take jobs and the players given to you. maybe that's the option you want to take when starting a league. can switch after too.

And, you can do as cinefan suggests while you delegate in many instances... slim it down to a bite size and if you enjoy it expand... maybe control 1 or 2 prospects. whatever you enjoy or appreciate the returns of, you can expand upon that and continue to avoid anything that's not entertaining/fun etc without investing much. just a toe in the water

>click Auto-calc for full-season MLB / MiLs that start soon, if needed

What does "Auto-calc for full season" mean? I have in many screens the option to let the AI set up something (pitching, lineups, etc.). But I can't do so for a "full season". The only thing that seems related to this seems to be the Auto-Play Until… feature, but this can't be what the writer means by it, right?

P.S.: I own ootp18.

League Settings -> Stats and AI -> right side of screen contains all league totals and modifiers.

this controls the statistical range of results -- ~around a particular average as defined by the totals and modifiers.

before a season starts a button becomes visible. it will callibrate the modifers and totals *based on current players in your league*. it says something like "Auto-Calculate Modifiers" Oh, i think the preseason must have begun too.. .so between preseason and opening day? check manual.

it's good to click it at least 1 time, preferably on Opening Day, but before any games have been played. after that you can tweak the modifiers, individually.

e.g. if you auto-calc in a low-talent year, you will see a fairly uniform rise in statistics and a higher average for said statistics as defined by the League Totals (on their own). the opposite for auto-calcing in a high-talent year -> can only go down. * a bit, nothing catastrophic or continuous in nature.

lepofsky54
 

hello:
I just have a simple question, I am considering buying the latest version of this game, ootpbaseball18 and wanted to know, would I be able to replay an entire season, make trades during that season. Also, can I create my own leagues, for example, if I'm replaying the 1927 season, if I decide to make my own league of the 27 yankees, 41 reds, 98 yanks, and so on. Would I be able to do that?

Yes to all.

for your own gains, i'd make new posts for such a question -- obviously this question has been answered but for future reference.

you are welcome to post in this thread - especially anythign as a specific response to it, but you will get more eyes on your post as its own thread for more general questions and more likely to thave the answer sooner and possibly a variety of them in many cases, lol.

A few new rookie at this game not sure in what u mean or lingo so ill ask and hopefully doesn't sound like dumb questions

A) ur beginner guide what do u mean by minor league lock players?

B) training camp 40 man? If i invite AAA and AA what's the max amount of players i can have on my main ST roster also do they have to be on 40 man roster to invite aka recall them up?

C) u mention u get a scouting bump? So say u have 3 million on international complex once u promote to minor u saying u go up o say for example 3.5 million?

D) what do u mean by culling the minors

E) about the promote domote thing so when season starts keep them in that league until they have what u said like 20 contact and such what u list on the first page or batting average until they reach the nezt stage that u mention then promote

F) when u mention the year relation? I know u said 3-4 in rookie and then 6-8 in AAA do u mean year 6-8 or so u mean like 4 years in say rookie and then 6-8 full years in triple AAA

G)rookie draft... I plan on having 45 rounds like IRL MLB.. Also plan on having 2 rookie clubs which gives me 20-25 players per rookie draft.. What happens say year 2 and there is still players on rookies on rookie roster when the crop of rookies come in? Do i just cut the horrible ones to make new for the new rookies or cut the crop ones?

A)

Player strategy or right click contaxt menu allows you to "lock player to current level" it's a checkbox in the player strategy screen. think it's an option where you promote/demote in context menu too -- verbage is different, not sure if same - "prevent ai from promoting" or something similar. i've always used the player Strategy screen within Team strategy, so not 100% sure, but based on the words should be the same thing.

if a player is locked, you can "ask ai to setup complete mil system" and those players will remain where they are and the ai works players around them.

b)

default is 40? it's a setting. check manual. and no, spring training roster is completely different. no worries about service time and such.... call up an 18y.o. rookie-leaguer if you want to.

just make sure to remove them before opening day. you wouldn't want someone adding to 40-man before you intend to add them.

c)

i am assuming what you are speaking of...

what i mean is accuracy is better as you promote. a player is more accurately scouted at AAA than at Rookie-league level. Budget still matters... but that dynamic will still exist no matter how much you spend.

i don't know what budget applies to the Complex, but i can tell you international scouting budget is 99% useless if you have no international leagues turned on and running (ficitonal or real etc). so, re-allocate that money to the other 3 scoutign budgets, only if you play with NO int'l leagues.

d)

culling -- chopping the fat... i'll cut the 30+ year olds in AAA that begin to show any aging... after i promote due to age/service time, i then cut the 'worst' options for any position that has too many players at a particular MiL Level.

i do consider the future. e.g. if i have 5 2b at AA, i may keep all of them if 3 are 'forced' to promote the following year.

again, i treat 'filler' players (not good) different than my locked players. anythign ~mlb quality potential or trade value will be treated wtih care. i match those players to level based on their development. they are ignored in the "count" i just mentioned in previous example. so, if i had a locked 2b, it'd by "6" 2b above in reality. but, since they move midseason or as needed, they can't be counted on to be there for the entire season.

e)

the BA you'd only know if you cheat and turn comissioner mode on and go into the profile editor. it does not reference sim-results. it's good to look at while learning, but don't make it a crutch. i'd also suggest playing with 100% accuracy for a season or 2 to get used to how things really work without

yes once ratings warrant a promotion do so, but due to inaccuracy at rookie level / short A, you need to be a bit conservative early on in their careers.

with inaccuracy on, if stats don't show big production but you see a huge contact, make sure to 'check-in' on them after any promotion and wait ~2months before any knee-jerk reaction.

at A-ball and higher, when i see the contact ratings rise to a suitable level, i am 10x more confident about that promotion than early on. the only important thing is that they continue to improve their ratings... if scouting of current ability keeps going up, they are probably fine where they are.

f)

i assume this is about service time?

it's the total amount of time, not the amount of time at that level. the rules you set for each league would make that relevant... if you have no service time limits for MiL leagues it won't matter at all to you. simply put them where they deserve to go and no worries about age/service time.

i set those rules up differently know. they are extremely important for picking # of rounds in draft.

e.g. draftees only have 2 years of eligibility in my rookie leagues. i have 2 rookie teams per MLB team... so i need ~70 drafted players every 2 years, so ~40 rounds is good (figure ~2-5 draftees/year don't go to rookie per team).

i use SA as a buffer... upto 4 years for any stragglers that can't hack it at A-ball plus a handful of first year players that are more advanced.

5 years total before forced to AA, if they cna hack it etc etc... if you don't have these rules enabled, you don't have to worry much about age.

just consider that range of ages, if you do set up these types of rules. these rules can hurt more than help in many situations.

g)

relates to what i said in (F)... depends on your rules for Rookie league. they might be able to stay there until they are 40, if you want them and they don't retire.

becareful of cutting in rookie league... make sure they are really really terrible prospects. i typical cut after i promote and have a new scouting report at the next level. new and better information is key.

e.g. if my Short A team has ~50+ players in februry, i don't care. when i get that first scouting report of the year, i'll look into slimming it down.

i cut AFTER any procedural stuff, not before. ie you want to take care of promotions/demotions so that you know what depth you have at each position and at each level. sometimes next year's 'need' will cause you to keep more players than you expect or want under normal situations.

extra is no problem in the minors.... make sure to use "Start based on Potential" (wrong words, but similar) in the settings for MiL rosters. (check manual for location). if you have a player you like that is poorly rated, "force" them to start at a position to ensure playing time.

who cares of 15 crappy players sit on the bench. it's better to have them then to sift through FA for injury replacements. definitely less effort at the least.

35-40 players is the "right" amount of players for MiL teams. more isn't a problem, but probably better for the entire league if you release what you don't need. (no big deal, the AI isn't doing it either, lol).

more is better than less in the minors. a starved system is far more detrimental to your league than a fat one.

as far as ho wlong you want them in Rookie league? 2years? 3 years? definiteyl reasonable... and an opinion that you;ll have to form based on your own preferences.

i'm going to post a MiL / draft guide sometime soon. (relating to service time and age and how to set one up without bottlenecks and pooling of players at a particular level etc) just math and adding things up... if you only 'give' 2 years at that level, the draft must provide enough in 2 years to sustain it.

("give" - based on rules.. a window where 90% of the palyers will come from. e.g. if you only give 1 year at Aball before "forced" to next level if following requirments, you need enough from 1 draft, even if it's 5 years in future)

This is the most comprehensive guide I’ve seen on any topic in here. Thanks for putting the time in putting this together.

Can you expand a little on your draft methodology? Aside from drafting talent vs need. What do you look for in early, middle and late rounds of the draft?

the biggest thing beyond the obvious quantitative stuff...

i guess i learn when things disappear... pay attention to depth of draft between years... pay attention to when various quality of positions disappear...

certain trends repeat -- for example, after the obvious SP are taken and mostly low potential and 2-pitch pitchers in the guise of 3-pitch repertoires etc, i find the best ones are typically the Position players that show any modicum of pitching skill... as in their control/movement and stuff are viable for the MLB at a much later draft round than it should be. 50/50 on one of these guys vs a 2-pitch SP is worth the risk.

so, don't filter by "SP only" -- "All pitchers" on the other hand is Okay. that includes the 3b or ss that also has experience as a pitcher.

how i draft is a bit odd.. it's part of a much larger system. i stagger ages, control contract lengths in very spicific ways so as to never be painted into a corner. If i replace more than 2 batters in my lineup, it's an odd year. ~4 players a year on both sides is typical max change. when i don't stick to this for various irrational reasons, it tends to hurt my team... but i do so when it's an acceptable loss.

e.g. i recently held on to a knuckleballer until their ratings took a dive.. i very rarely do such a stupid thing, but i was looking to maximize a carreer player with my team. i am irrational when it entertains me enough :p

this effects drafting strategy. i never draft high, so i focus on trade assets. what i draft is rarely for my team. if various rules or settings makes 120-130-140win average impossible, this may or may not be a good strategy - at least not 100% of the time.

after the first 10-20 picks i rely much less on potential rating as a sorting device... i use filters for various roles on a team. that will be the same regardless of strategy.

if there are too many options to hold in my head for 1 particular round, i shortlist and weed out from there.

no matter what... as you gain experience chang and adapt... stick with it until you know for sure it's worse or better .. rinse and repeat... i am still changing how i do things all the time. i like to think it's always for the better, but somtimes we all take a step back... it's worht it in the long run. you can squeeze what no one else can squeeze out of the game :p

I almost exclusively do straight out historical replays although I am really excited about the Tournament Mode. That said, NoOne, your guide is perhaps the most comprehensive of ANY guide for ANY game period.

Who knows, with your guide I just might try some GM stuff sown the road. Regardless, a HUGE thank you for this guide!!!

Best,
Beatles

glad to hear it helps.

i'm sure stuff will need to be updated for ootp19. as of this posting, the should be accurate through ootp18 release at the least.

if any ratins are off, simply relate stats back to baslines of the league. easy to tell if a player is above average for a mil tier and safe to promote, most likely.

When to move rule 5 eligible players
 

Hello,

I am from the UK and completely new to the game and pretty new to baseball also but want to get into the game as it looks amazing.

I have spent the last few days reading posts on the game (OOTP 19) and am getting a better understanding of the rules and stats etc but have been unable to find when on the game I should promote my best rule 5 eligible prospects to the 40 man roster?

Would it be the day before the rule 5 draft or do I need to plan and do this earlier in the season? Any help or advice would be appreciated. Thanks

Rule 5 Draft Eligibility:


A player not on a team's secondary roster is eligible for the Rule 5 draft if the player was age 18 or younger when he first signed a contract and this is the fourth Rule 5 draft since he signed, OR if he was age 19 or older when he first signed a contract and this is the third Rule 5 draft since he signed.


Basically, as long as they are on your 40 man roster the day prior to the rule 5 draft you are okay. I would say wait as long as possible because player's stats change overtime as they develop and someone that you may of though you didn't want in May might turn out to be a good player in September.

Thanks for your help, that’s what I had hoped to hear as I planned to leave it as long as possible because the prospects aren’t ready for mlb yet but too good to risk losing.

unless they have potential, most won't be picked. so, don't stretch too much for a bench-player ceiling or anything.

i treat my 40-man roster at all times with "less is more" concept. i'd rather leave a bunch of openings for injuries for AAA players (that i can let go at end of year if needed) or prospects (to help break in slowly) beyond a few potentially better quality options that i may pay to overcome a small wave of injuries - at least likely better than the aaa call-ups. i'm not mucking up my 40-man with too much depth or borderline players. if i can use and dump to get back to 32-35ish entering a season i am feeling good. flexibility is never a problem.

what

It depends, batboy or batgirl?

Read this.....

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...ad.php?t=64219

Is this guide still generally valid for OOTP 22?
 

Five years, three versions, two US presidents and a pandemic having arrived since this article originally posted...is the advice still generally solid for OOTP 22? I don't see anything that's obviously wrong.

I used it for 16 18 and 20 and in each i was a dominant franchise within the first 5 years in each. In 20 I made the playoffs 18 times and won 5 championships. BTW each time I was the Phillies, using base rosters except for 16

Just finished my 1st year in 22, getting my butt kicked, but the Phils are relatively weak in the tough NL East. I'll let you know how it goes for me after year 5.

I can confirm that it still works pretty well in '22. In my second year I missed the play offs again, but after a few trades, signing Syndergaard, and moving some guys to strengthen my farm system, Using the framework of the strategy in this post, I made an unexpected run in the playoffs in year 3 and won the World Series. Surprisingly with McCutcheon going nuts in the playoffs and getting NLDS MVP, after being by far the worst player on my roster during the season posting a -1.7 WAR.

LOL, does it hold up? of course it does!!

been playing franchise mode in so any different sports games for 30+ years at this point, bwahahaha.

it's probably been further streamlined... but the basics should still work well. all about maximizing that playoff roster... the less money you waste on useless parts, the more you can spend on the parts that contribute the most.... with some consideration for injury risks etc... but everyone gets their fair share of that over time.

if you can afford a large budget, you can perpetually field a team better than the RL NY Yankees who have won 25% of WS for 100+ years or whatever it is.

if you got a smaller budget, you may need to have some ebb and flow.

financial discipline will get you more WS wins. Know what you can afford.. don't stretch and any short-term benefit to win "1" WS is far outweighed by more opportunities by avoiding bad years altogether. Watch that 10/5 rule like a hawk... don't get stuck with a dud. flexibility is an underappreciated asset.

I'm not a patriot fan, but they are probably the only major pro sport team that comes close to my way of running a team... consider all ramifications of decisions, maximize value over time... focus on rates of change and not solely on any 1 year. no stupid decisions that paint your organization into a corner... sounds like common sense, but it is not the status quo. they even get ridiculed for incontrovertibly smart moves. This is the dark ages, still... the cultures lead to GM's grasping to keep a job by mortgaging the future, lol.. why does it keep happening if these people are not retarded? Being a RL GM must be 99% nepotism, Bwahahah.... ffs, the common thought was that weight lifting was bad for baseball players! and, that better stats were just voodoo!

One thing cna be said for sure... there is immense room for improvement when it comes to sophistication of running a pro sports team... As of right now it's a bunch of good ol boys, meatheads, and retards that can't comprehend anything beyond pass/fail frame of reference... binary, and derivative thinkers.

What do you mean by "new scouting values"? Don't the scouting values update every month?



Also, wouldn't you promote them at the beginning of spring training rather than wait until the draft?

I think this was primarily about killing 2 birds with 1 stone relative to the fact that all short 'lowest' leagues started after the draft when this was written. Do it all at once when the complex players are at oldest age possible without a service year accrued and clears up what you want for late round draft picks that focus on mil filler / depth.

I try to clump together anything that stops game-to-game simulation. I even change trade deadline to match the stoppage for a new month.. 1 day, no big change but my sim doesn't stop as often, lol.

If you have rookie level leagues starting in spring, you could move some then, too.. same thing.

This is about filler players, not 'real' prospects

Scouiting values.. you do get more accurate scouting reports at higher levels (among other factors that matter). But, since this comment is about filler players specifically from the int'l complex, you really don't have to care about their development nor accuracy of scouting at this step / date on calendar. So, i probably shouldn't have put that in prantheses.

EDIT: Oh, i think i recall scouting values update upon promotion... so maybe that... maybe that doesn't happen anymore? maybe they didn't back then.. lol must be some reason i put it there

"Real" prospects get a hand-tailored approach. These are on some shortlist you look at more regularly. Think that's is covered in the guide.

Should hve a slightly sandbagged MIL system if you follow this guide. This means more wins, happier prospects, better development, improving reputation mil coaches etc etc.. not one thing is a huge factor but all together adds up quite well.

just have to draft well enough to replace attrition at AAA to do it. You want a little log-jam for the filler to advance and that allows the good propspects to move freely and solely due to ratings/age and avoiding extraordinarily horrid results. It's okay for real prospects to flounder a bit. You want the filler to be killers, relative to level. - who cares if you slightly impede a never-gonna-be..

3k from 100k views and you leave this deprecated in ootp19? LOL it was 99% spot on for at least 3-4 more years :D

ratings are distributed a bit differently now, and some features of 25 are not covered, but the gist of it is still a winning strategy.

100% - subscribed to this feed because I still come back to it now and then! Thank you and wish it was easier for people to find it and keep updating with those slight changes you refer to with 25.

I intend to update this. Just don't expect it anytime soon. Maybe, January is a reasonable guess?

Not sure where i'd post it... there's no place in the current forum setup.

I've gotta "reverse engineer" the new player dev lab... that section will likely need refining even after i post any update. Depends on how difficult it is to map out how it works.