My attempt at Moneyball

[TheEquinox]

Hi there,



I recently saw the Moneyball film for the first time, and as I'm from Germany and not that deep into baseball, I had never heard about it. However, I wanted to try and see if this works in OOTP, so I started a game with the Diamondbacks and tried it.


After all, it took me three seasons of getting slaughtered before I came to this point (see pics in attachment).


The only three "expensive" trades I made, were those three starting pitchers, of course Bieber and Urias both got injured for 5-8 months immediately, but it didn't hurt too much. Probably could have been about as good in the standings now without them, so they probably weren't really necessary.


I think it's definately possible to lead a 50 million $ payroll team deep into the playoffs. I just kept trading away everything that went over 8mil salary for prospects I thought I could develop into something. I think almost all of the younger guys in the roster came through my minors this way, either they were there from the start or I picked them up in trades for regulars and let them develop for 1-2 seasons in the minors. It's important to fire all personell and hire the best possible ones though and of course spend maximum development money every season.


Before this I had always just played with the Red Sox or in historical games, so this basically was my first take on rebuilding a weak team and I learned quite a few things in the process. Always make sure you have a strong focus on tools scout and scout every player to the max before you make a trade. I found so many players who either looked very good or looked very bad initially and turned out completely different once the scout level had reached very high. That's especially important for drafts. And the second most interesting find was that players, who are only good in one part, like for example good defenders with absolutely no batting skill (or the other way round), can still develop their potentials quite a lot in a properly set up development system. I had players with 20-30 battings skills (0-100 scale) move up into the 50s in 2-3 seasons of development. So it's definately worth going for top defenders and let their others skills grow over time.

[TheEquinox]

Got a little bit close at the end, but the best PCT of all teams was enough to win the division at least.


For the next season, I've got like 20 more players ready in AAA to move up, so I guess it's time to cut that payroll a bit further

[Brad K]

I am glad you've decided to try the limited money approach. Its a fun way to play.

[TheEquinox]

Let's say it was while it lasted, but I guess like in all management games, once you understand the meta and how the AI works, it's getting too easy. I'm in 2030 now and finished in the top 4 of the playoffs four times in a row now, losing the final series twice - , even though I'm still 20th in money with around 100M. I just keep playing to at least win it once

[Brad K]

Originally Posted by TheEquinox

Let's say it was while it lasted, but I guess like in all management games, once you understand the meta and how the AI works, it's getting too easy. I'm in 2030 now and finished in the top 4 of the playoffs four times in a row now, losing the final series twice - , even though I'm still 20th in money with around 100M. I just keep playing to at least win it once

There should be a "help AI" switch in the game.

I'm trying to think of ways to make my next Moneyball game more difficult. I'm playing with historical rookies which prevents cherry picking the draft. I'm considering next time using the draft but letting the assistant GM make all the draft picks.

I was also helped by several players wanting long term contracts that started near market but quickly became below market due to salary inflation. I kept more mid/late 20s players than I expected.