Batting Issue

[Charlie32]

Hi guys, new player here. I'm a big Football Manager fan, and I'm getting into baseball at the moment so thought I'd give this game a go, and I'm enjoying the deep statistical side of it.

My big issue at the moment, however, is that I suck at playing out the matches itself. My biggest issue is that my batters just don't gets hits and runs when I'm controlling them, but do when I simulate. I notice this when I play 2/3 games (And get frustrated at being behind the majority of the time) scoring at best 5 runs, normally fewer. Then I sim a week or two, and see that my team has scored for fun: In one 2 week stretch they scored: 14, 8 and 11 (As well as some low scores too).

So I just don't understand what I'm doing wrong here: Surely there isn't all that much strategy in the batting part of gameplay? I only ever use a bunt if I've got a man on base and it's the pitcher at the plate, and only steal with my athletic players, but I have never gotten close to scoring 14 in a game.

Another thing that made it clear to me that I suck is that in the half of the season playing as the Braves I played the majority of the games myself and struggled to stick around.500. About mid way through I started just simming games, and the team managed to get itself to the world series (but did get swept).

So basically, I'm really struggling in matches, and don't know why. Does anybody have any tips or advice for how to play the games? The batting side in particular, but pitching tips would be appreciated too!
And if anyone's feeling even more helpful, general noob tips would be great: I'm still having fun at the moment, but I want to get fun from winning too, eventually.

[Déjà Bru]

Theoretically, whether you sim or play out your games does not affect batter, pitcher, or fielder performance. The same paradigms and dynamics apply whether you are playing the game or simming the game and the chances are the same for a certain batter to get a hit against a certain pitcher in a certain game, regardless. The game developer has said this in the past.

What you as a game player can affect in playing out a game is strategy; things like hit and run, defensive alignments, player substitutions. It is here that the AI will be better than you at managing things until you learn more about the game of baseball.

Also, consider this: If you are speaking only of a short time of gameplay, whether you are playing out games or simming, there is the concept of "small sample size." This means although you have seen mostly low-scoring games in the ones which you have managed so far, you are likely to see more high-scoring games over time. And you will win more games on average over time to balance out your current losses, but again, it's in the strategy and player handling where consistent winning comes from once you have assembled a good team.

This is all vague, I know. It's hard to be more specific with such advice; you simply need to learn baseball strategy and good team management. Research the game of baseball, view the online videos available on the OOTPD web site, read through the online manual.

Then do this: Play out your games but let your AI manager do everything. Observe what "he" does by analyzing each pitch, each swing, each play (set PbP for full detail). Watch what "he" does in selecting plays, setting up defenses, and substituting players.

You can learn a lot that way.