Managing Games

[bull425]

I find this quite frustrating. I am seeing quite a few anomalies such as infield base hits, bunt hits for singles, things the CP does that the human player could not with the same frequency.

I like this game a lot, but in game I find it very frustrating. I am playing with the Mets in a season. I had an 16 inning game where my team k'd 18 times to the Braves 2, for the game. Eric Young had 4 bunt singles in a two game stretch. I see the opposing team with regular outs, pop ups, fly outs and so on, and maybe it's just me, but I get weak grounders, pops ups to the infield.

So I guess what I am asking is what the heck do I do. Is the in game managing broken? Should I only be simming it and managing my organization? It just feels like in game managing is broken.

Frustrated but wanting to play more.

[MizzouRah]

How many games? Are you holding runners, using shifts? Only thing I see too much of is sacrifice bunts where they throw the runner out at 2nd base.

[bull425]

Maybe it's just me, but the games seem quite off. I don't know how many times I have seen me be up late in games only to get blown, and we are talking 5-6 run leads. Or 8th-9th inning they tie it up or take the lead. I rarely have ever come back.

I do hold runners. Shifting not so much, but I look at the type of hitter they are.

I must admit, I am struggling with the in game play. It's making me want to Sim the whole thing, and if I do that, no point in playing. I hit and run, I bunt, I steal. I pinch hit.

As an aside, maybe it's the Mets. I have SIM'd through two seasons, and one time I had 57 wins, and the other time I had 65. I didn't realize they were that bad. Bad hitting, bad pitching.

I could go on, but I will stop.

[NYY #23]

Don't underestimate the possibility that it's a small sample size. I've found that sometimes whatever you do fails, and other times when whatever you do doesn't work out. That will typically even out over a long season, but I think you notice things more when you are playing out games.

Last time I was playing out games my team was 9-17 in April, and 22-6 in May with the team virtually unchanged. They were neither that bad, nor that good, but that's just how it goes sometimes.

[NateAndStuff]

I felt the same way after a few dozen games a few weeks ago. I hit a really rough patch and eventually decided to just scrap it and sim the rest of the way. Did some reading on the forums and it seemed like there was a chance I was over-reacting to a small sample size. So I started managing games again at the start of the following season and I had no problems at all. As MizzouRah said, the success rate of sac bunts seems way too low, but other than that I'm having no issues. In fact, it's almost too easy to win now. That might be my team though, I've been pretty lucky in my player development.

[Questdog]

If you think something is off, just start keeping track of it. And then you will know whether it is off or whether you are hallucinating.

I, myself, thought that too many of my bunts failed, so I started keeping track of them and found out that I was succeeding around 75% of the time I bunted, which is just about where it should be.

[Pronkytonk]

I experienced the same thing many times before, but only over a certain period of the game before things seemed to go more "normal" again.

IMHO this is the result of the Game trying to simulate a slump for your team. Every team goes through cold streaks from time to time, and OOTP really makes you feel them - something that could be softened a little bit, but the overall results do come close to reality after a while, though not necessarily for the games during the span you mentioned.

[battists]

Originally Posted by Questdog

If you think something is off, just start keeping track of it. And then you will know whether it is off or whether you are hallucinating.

I, myself, thought that too many of my bunts failed, so I started keeping track of them and found out that I was succeeding around 75% of the time I bunted, which is just about where it should be.

Yeah, I did the same thing. Someone else was complaining that too many runs were scored in the first inning of games, and then I started to notice it too. But when I sat down and tracked it, it was totally normal.

[The Game]

What kind of infield hits are they? Bunt Hits? deep in the hole semi fast runner safe? I rarely see too many successful bunt hits by the opposing team in my main league and i suck at getting on that way. The 2nd seems to happen no more/no less then rL.

[Cinnamon J. Scudworth]

Originally Posted by bull425

As an aside, maybe it's the Mets.

This certainly may be part of it. However, in my own "manage out every game" season with the Mets I'm 16-7 after April, so I certainly don't think the in game managing is broken. It's just the luck of the draw in a small sample size.

On bunt hits: you say you don't shift much, but you need to take away the bunt by playing your third baseman in if you think a guy is going to bunt for a hit (look at his bunt for hit ratings), just like real life. Otherwise guy like Eric Young will bunt all over you.

The Mets' pitching is actually pretty good, but also like real life, the Mets' infield defense is terrible up the middle. So you need to consider shifting more or putting in defensive replacements late in games.

As for striking out a ton compared to the Braves in one game...well, as someone who has watched most of the Mets' games this year, that's unfortunately also pretty realistic. In real life, the Mets currently have the 9th most strikeouts with 723, and the Braves have the 25th most with 643.

[rpriske]

I am pretty sure it is a sample size problem.

As for sac bunt %... STOP SAC BUNTING!

Seriously. Sacrifice bunting with anyone other than your pitcher is pretty much always a bad idea.

Infield hits? I get as many as my opponent does.

Managing isn't broken. Just don't over-manage within a game. (This is my opinion about baseball, not just OOTP.)

Let your hitters hit and let your pitchers pitch.

[curt]

I play out all my games pitch by pitch and all the things you see the AI do, my team does. And I've had it done to me too. I have scored 4-5 runs in the 9th and won, thrown a guy out at second on a sac bunt, and the AI has done it too me. It's seems balanced to me. But then, my fictional team has a 5 game first place lead mid July and I am having a blast.

[The Game]

Originally Posted by rpriske

As for sac bunt %... STOP SAC BUNTING!

Seriously. Sacrifices bunting with anyone other than your pitcher is pretty much always a bad idea.
.

Nothing wrong with advancing the runner Billy Beane.

[bull425]

I suppose. I just quit in a game where the Yankees in the 8th got 7 hits, a couple of walks and scored a bunch of runs. I have seen late inning collapses like that on the regular, or at least where a lead is never safe. Like the majors, but even worse I would say. I ctl-alt-deleted and shut the game down, then simmed it. Guess what, score was 2-1.

Again, I this is my 3rd season playing the game, and I see it all the time. I had about 7 2 strike counts, full, 1-2, 0-2, you name it, and they were all strike outs. Other team has the same, and guess what, not the same result. Just saying. It is definitely frustrating to me.

[NYJin2011tm]

I swear the game hates the Mets. My Mets are 15-23 and in last place. I get that the Mets can't hit. But their pitching is better than the game is portraying at the moment. Meanwhile the Phillies and Cubs have the best record in baseball in my league. I'm ok with the Cubs but the Phillies???...worst team in real life baseball.


I'm about to fire my hitting coach. Wright, Grandy, Duda are all hitting low .200s. At no point in real life has Wright ever been that low lol. My catchers are batting a whopping .140 each. At least Nieuwenhuis is right on point... batting .136 lol.

[battists]

Originally Posted by NYJin2011tm

I swear the game hates the Mets. My Mets are 15-23 and in last place. I get that the Mets can't hit. But their pitching is better than the game is portraying at the moment. Meanwhile the Phillies and Cubs have the best record in baseball in my league. I'm ok with the Cubs but the Phillies???...worst team in real life baseball.


I'm about to fire my hitting coach. Wright, Grandy, Duda are all hitting low .200s. At no point in real life has Wright ever been that low lol. My catchers are batting a whopping .140 each. At least Nieuwenhuis is right on point... batting .136 lol.

Just remember, to the game, all of these players are just digital data. The game doesn't know that the Phillies are "supposed" to be the worst team in baseball this year. While the roster-makers have attempted to make the players perform as closely as possible to real-life, there is always going to be variability from play to play. If you replayed your season 100 times, odds are good the Phillies wouldn't be good all 100 times, and that the Mets would do better. In fact, I would guess that they would probably be lousy. If they aren't, then perhaps there is an argument to be made that the Phillies' players are rated too highly, etc.

Keep at it! Good luck!

[The Game]

Originally Posted by bull425

I suppose. I just quit in a game where the Yankees in the 8th got 7 hits, a couple of walks and scored a bunch of runs. I have seen late inning collapses like that on the regular, or at least where a lead is never safe. Like the majors, but even worse I would say. I ctl-alt-deleted and shut the game down, then simmed it. Guess what, score was 2-1.

Again, I this is my 3rd season playing the game, and I see it all the time. I had about 7 2 strike counts, full, 1-2, 0-2, you name it, and they were all strike outs. Other team has the same, and guess what, not the same result. Just saying. It is definitely frustrating to me.

I avg about 92 wins, no matter what team I play, no matter the league, Most blown saves i ever had on any team was 11 on a 2007 White Sox replay. Jenks was down with an injury and i used a Closer by committee. I rarely lose a lead when a head. i have had teams that were great at making a comeback when down in the 7th or later and teams like my current T-Birds that it's over if i am down by more then 3 after the 7th.

[r0nster]

I have seen strange things happen with great frequency one season infield hits on a ground ball to pitcher one season being 30 to 40 times in a season then the following season it be maybe 5 to 10 then the following season back to the 30 to 40. It seems in my case it goes every other season. One would think ground ball to the pitcher be rare on its own and on top of that a infield hit (to pitcher) even rarer. I been playing in my current solo league for over 23 seasons.

Overall game play is still terrific as usual.

[bull425]

Gameplay is good I would say, not terrific. I know it's data based on players, but the ratings then need to be tweaked. I just finished a game where i had a 4-2 lead in the 9th. In the 8th, I had a reliever come in, promptly walk two straight batters, with a control of 12. Ninth inning, closer is in. Wild pitches a guy to third, then home, two straight pitches. It's almost like the game has a built in mechanism for the AI to make things extremely close. This game was 1-0 until the 6th. 7th to the 9th it goes 4-4, with all the scoring going 7-8-9 innings. Not sure if people see this, but happens way to frequently.

Yes, I am the Mets, but I have seen in my last two games 0-2, 1-2 and 3-2 counts, and I would say 7 out of 10 times it's a K. For the CPU player, not the case. Comparable players mind you.

I'm new to the game, and I am commenting on 3 seasons worth of experience. I'm not making this up, I'm watching as I play.

[battists]

Originally Posted by bull425

Gameplay is good I would say, not terrific. I know it's data based on players, but the ratings then need to be tweaked. I just finished a game where i had a 4-2 lead in the 9th. In the 8th, I had a reliever come in, promptly walk two straight batters, with a control of 12. Ninth inning, closer is in. Wild pitches a guy to third, then home, two straight pitches. It's almost like the game has a built in mechanism for the AI to make things extremely close. This game was 1-0 until the 6th. 7th to the 9th it goes 4-4, with all the scoring going 7-8-9 innings. Not sure if people see this, but happens way to frequently.

Yes, I am the Mets, but I have seen in my last two games 0-2, 1-2 and 3-2 counts, and I would say 7 out of 10 times it's a K. For the CPU player, not the case. Comparable players mind you.

I'm new to the game, and I am commenting on 3 seasons worth of experience. I'm not making this up, I'm watching as I play.

The truth is, once we see something that bothers us, we are predisposed to notice it, and conveniently not remember when it happens in a non-bothersome way.

But Markus and crew have always been open to tweaking things, given some compelling evidence. Unfortunately, at the end of the day you are only providing anecdotal experience, and there is little chance that anything will change without some significant evidence that there is actually an issue.

To make a compelling case, you'd need to determine what things you think are problematic (you've mentioned several different things in this thread) and keep careful track of occurrences, both positive and negative, and then probably provide your league files as well.

Not that it should be your onus to fix Markus' product, mind you. But the bottom line is, there is a list as long as both of our arms combined of new features and fixes on Markus' to-do list. They simply don't have the resources to spend researching every "might be an issue," especially when it's not something that is widely being reported as an issue. So the focus during new version development is on features, and then fixes are generally focused on critical issues (crashes, other easily reproducible issues) first. Subjective issues are the least likely to be prioritized. So, if it's important to you, the most likely way to potentially have something done about it would be to provide some data.

Good luck!