Alright boyz, here we go!!! OOTP2006 First Impressions Thread!

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by dangarion

You can set in leagues if they are able to trade.

It's under Rules
Trade with other Major Leagues.

But if it is turned off than won't that mean no players from other countries come in from Japan, Korea, Cuba, Columbia,Venezuela, PR, Dom. Rep etc. In other words if we have to turn off trading with leagues than how can we get the players from those other countries? And if we turn off the leagues entirely few if any player s will be generated from those countries. Also agree with waivers not being turned on is a problem since it is part of MLB and the game.

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by Galaril

But if it is turned off than won't that mean no players from other countries come in from Japan, Korea, Cuba, Columbia,Venezuela, PR, Dom. Rep etc. In other words if we have to turn off trading with leagues than how can we get the players from those other countries? And if we turn off the leagues entirely few if any player s will be generated from those countries. Also agree with waivers not being turned on is a problem since it is part of MLB and the game.

You can selectively turn on trades for Cuba, thus you could then only get Cubans when they are Free Agents. Just like you could do the same with Japan. This would fit into the way baseball now works (more or less).

The comment about few players from other countries being generated is false. You can also choose what the percentage of non country players are in the league. So if you want 30% of the players to not be from the US, then my understanding is you will find those players in the draft as prospects, they will be from various countries, but they will be in a ratio that they should be in real life, so lots of Dominicans, less Japanese, fewer Dutch.

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

if waivers are included in the game they should be on. ditto with foreign leagues. they should work in the way that they work in the real world, otherwise why bother to include them. it's like i'm paying for features i'm not using then. If you were deaf would you want to pay extra for a 6-disc CD changer in your car? I think not! Same thing here. Why pay for a feature if it's not going to be useable. If waivers and foreign countries are broken then the game should cost less or the features ought to be removed. Otherwise I'm paying for a feature I'm not using, which as a consumer I am opposed to.

I'll be honest here. . . I don't have an interest at all in the Japanese League. I've never once woken up and said "gee, I really wonder how #$!@%^@ @%#@ in the Japanese league did yesterday"

So it's a feature I wouldn't use anyway. I want an U.S. type league setup to work with the minor leagues. Give me that, and it's well worth my 35 bucks.

Now, I know it'll surprise my friends to hear this, but I am not the center of the universe. If it's critical the South African League and waivers are important to your enjoyment of the game, I'd strongly advise against a purchase at this point.

Those looking for the perfect game need not apply either. It isn't close. I've never been an OOTP fan boy and despite drooling at the stat pages everytime they open, I think the PureSim/OOTP battle is still a toss up with PureSim getting a slight nod from me at this point.

Thing is, I'm that way with everygame. I don't care if the create your own player works in NCAA or Madden because I never use them. there are things in every title I don't use because it's just not enjoyable.

[kcchief19]

Originally Posted by dangarion

The comment about few players from other countries being generated is false. You can also choose what the percentage of non country players are in the league. So if you want 30% of the players to not be from the US, then my understanding is you will find those players in the draft as prospects, they will be from various countries, but they will be in a ratio that they should be in real life, so lots of Dominicans, less Japanese, fewer Dutch.

I'm going to start another league and test some of these settings. At first glance, I'm certain that the ratio of foreign players is not right. I left the percentage at 30 percent, but my league is full of way too many Chinese, Korean, South American and other nations. I don't know if that is a result of the fictional rosters that were created a start up not using a real-life ratio or attrition.

I do know that the draft is messed up -- if modeling real life, the draft should be almost exclusively American players. But worldwide players are included in the draft in large numbers.

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by kcchief19

I'm going to start another league and test some of these settings. At first glance, I'm certain that the ratio of foreign players is not right. I left the percentage at 30 percent, but my league is full of way too many Chinese, Korean, South American and other nations. I don't know if that is a result of the fictional rosters that were created a start up not using a real-life ratio or attrition.

I do know that the draft is messed up -- if modeling real life, the draft should be almost exclusively American players. But worldwide players are included in the draft in large numbers.

Ok then answer me this. If you only run the MLB, and none of the other leagues, how do you expect the players from other counties to entre the leauge? They have to come from somewhere which is why they are from the draft. The game doens't have built in instructional leagues in far off countries like real baseball, so this is the way it adds players from other countries. Now why you would be getting a noticable amount of Chinese that may be a problem with the player creation files. I'm not sure, since I haven't gone deep into how it does them, I'm going off of how I understand the game.

[ice4277]

Originally Posted by dangarion

Ok then answer me this. If you only run the MLB, and none of the other leagues, how do you expect the players from other counties to entre the leauge? They have to come from somewhere which is why they are from the draft. The game doens't have built in instructional leagues in far off countries like real baseball, so this is the way it adds players from other countries. Now why you would be getting a noticable amount of Chinese that may be a problem with the player creation files. I'm not sure, since I haven't gone deep into how it does them, I'm going off of how I understand the game.

Well, to compare this with FM, I don't have to select, say, the French soccer league to have French players. I won't have as many, sure, but I will have a reasonably appropriate number of top-level players that a league like theirs would produce. Should be the same way in OOTP.

[Buccaneer]

Ok then answer me this. If you only run the MLB, and none of the other leagues, how do you expect the players from other counties to entre the leauge?

The Lahman database?

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by dangarion

Ok then answer me this. If you only run the MLB, and none of the other leagues, how do you expect the players from other counties to entre the leauge? They have to come from somewhere which is why they are from the draft. The game doens't have built in instructional leagues in far off countries like real baseball, so this is the way it adds players from other countries. Now why you would be getting a noticable amount of Chinese that may be a problem with the player creation files. I'm not sure, since I haven't gone deep into how it does them, I'm going off of how I understand the game.

I can just imagine some funny scenarios with a Yankee infield all made Nepalese players from the Himalyas.LOL

[kcchief19]

Originally Posted by dangarion

Ok then answer me this. If you only run the MLB, and none of the other leagues, how do you expect the players from other counties to entre the leauge? They have to come from somewhere which is why they are from the draft. The game doens't have built in instructional leagues in far off countries like real baseball, so this is the way it adds players from other countries. Now why you would be getting a noticable amount of Chinese that may be a problem with the player creation files. I'm not sure, since I haven't gone deep into how it does them, I'm going off of how I understand the game.

Well, since the worldwide scouting seems to be separate from running the other leagues, I would have assumed that the way the game was built that it would allow you the option of scouting for worldwide free agents but not necessarily run those leagues. If you're going to go to the trouble of mimicking worldwide baseball, that is how I would do it. Then the draft could be exclusively North American as it is in real life.

If you are running foreign leagues in your universe, there are essentially now three ways foreign players can enter the game: free agents from worldwide scouting, free agents or trading (if turned on) with foreign leagues, and the draft.

I'm just starting my second shakedown league. This time I'm leaving the foreign leagues out so I can see how foreign players enter the league without the leagues turned on and how and if worldwide scouting works.

One difference I see immediately is that when you have foreign leagues turned on, the game creates enough players in foreign countries to fill those leauges -- i.e., Japan has 1190 players in its foreign league, in an MLB only league there are 201. In my MLB-only universe, there are 6,500 + players to fill the entire MLB and minors. That means about 5,200 will be on MLB teams with 1,300 extra players.

I'll admit that I don't know the demographic makeup of real-life MLB and its minor leagues. Are there 29 South Africans in the system? 38 guys from Aruba? 194 from Cuba? Some of those seem high to me. My understanding is that representation in the player file is tied to baseball quality, politics aside (there's no Castro in OOTP BM). But I think there are two problems:

- the representation ratio is a bit off -- average rated countries like South Africa may get more representation than they deserve while excellent rated countries like the Dominican may get less than they deserve

- there is not an accurate correlation between baseball quality and the quality of players created. OK, I'm fine with the game creating three guys from Bulgaria. But immediately I see that one of these guys is a young pitcher rated 9/10/10 who looks like the next Roger Clemens. To me, instances of countries with few professional players should create few if any superstars, but in both my first two leagues I've seen studs from odd and remote locations.

[kcchief19]

Before I get labeled as the anti-fanboy, let me say there is something about this game that I absolutely love -- scouting. I think the way scouting is implemented in this game is absolutely terrific. I'm not familiar enough with FM to know if this format originated there, but I love the fact that I have a bunch of scouts and they can come to different conclusions for the same player -- to the point where you'll have one scout fall in love with a guy and everybody else thinks his average, or you'll have a scout who thinks some supposed can't-miss prospect sucks. That's realistic to me.

That said, there is one change I would like to see in scouting -- an option to have an average of your all scouts' ratings for players displayed on screen. That would definitely make things easier when say you're in the draft and you're trying to find a consensus from your scouts on who is the best player on the board. I don't like having to flip from scout to scout and see how the ratings compare.

[Barkeep49]

Without owning the game I would agree with what kcchief has said, though I think a median score might be more useful in this case as it's less suseptable to extremes.

[kcchief19]

I do love some of the names ... Cuban Jeremias Bastardo is my star right fielder. I want to give him the nickname "El Bastard."

[Cringer]

Originally Posted by kcchief19

Before I get labeled as the anti-fanboy, let me say there is something about this game that I absolutely love -- scouting. I think the way scouting is implemented in this game is absolutely terrific. I'm not familiar enough with FM to know if this format originated there, but I love the fact that I have a bunch of scouts and they can come to different conclusions for the same player -- to the point where you'll have one scout fall in love with a guy and everybody else thinks his average, or you'll have a scout who thinks some supposed can't-miss prospect sucks. That's realistic to me.

That is very cool. Almost sounds like a first in text-sims. Usually scouts vary very little from my experience in the games I have played. I don't think I have seen that much variation in scouts in FM, but there is some. That is the best I have experienced, scout wise.

[lynchjm24]

Originally Posted by kcchief19

Before I get labeled as the anti-fanboy, let me say there is something about this game that I absolutely love -- scouting. I think the way scouting is implemented in this game is absolutely terrific. I'm not familiar enough with FM to know if this format originated there, but I love the fact that I have a bunch of scouts and they can come to different conclusions for the same player -- to the point where you'll have one scout fall in love with a guy and everybody else thinks his average, or you'll have a scout who thinks some supposed can't-miss prospect sucks. That's realistic to me.

That said, there is one change I would like to see in scouting -- an option to have an average of your all scouts' ratings for players displayed on screen. That would definitely make things easier when say you're in the draft and you're trying to find a consensus from your scouts on who is the best player on the board. I don't like having to flip from scout to scout and see how the ratings compare.

The scouting information is great. The work you have to do to get it is a royal pain in the ass.

[GrantDawg]

I'm so lost. I haven't had a chance to play at all, and so far I'm completely puzzled. I can't seem to get much to work (like I downloaded logos, put them in the logo folder, but they still aren't being used). I thought about starting early and letting the game sim through a bunch of seasons, but I can't seem to find if you can more than just one season at a time. Even with only the American leagues with minors on, it is not simming very fast.

Anyway, I'm sort of over-whelmed and under-whelmed so far.

[ScottVib]

The Scouts average is an excellent suggestion (and was one that the development team is already aware of).

With respect to the foreign invasion, one thing you can do upon league creation is use the Foreign Player Percent Modifier (Options tab on the League Setup). This will impact the number of foreigners created for the draft pools and the leagues initial setup.

[MizzouRah]

I think Markus is working on a "median" of sorts scout wise, could be wrong though as I've taken in a bunch of information lately.

If not for the fun in 6.5, I would write this game off completely, but I would love to see my universe in 2006 if not for the massive amount of stats alone. ie- I would love to play a game and see how X reliever did against X player in his career.

[kcchief19]

Ugh ... where's the auto save? Just got my first crash. I went to have my manager auto-set lineups and accidentally chose to autoset vs. RHP+DH and it went kablooey. D'oh!

I have noticed that even when I have lineup and pitching decisions set to be handled by my manager, while lineups seem to work fine my pitching depth chart doesn't always get set automatically.

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by lynchjm24

The scouting information is great. The work you have to do to get it is a royal pain in the ass.

What he said.

[GabeRivers]

A scouting average and/or median would be nice. You can, however, see what each of your scouts says about a given player all at one time (assuming the given scout has scouted that player). Open the player's card, and on the Player Profile sheet there is a tab for Scouting Reports. This lines up the scouting for each of your scouts plus the SISA report in a form that allows you to easily compare.

Another great thing about the scouting is the "Quick-Scout" option. Even when your scout is off on a scouting assignment, he can still perform up to 8 quick-scouts per day. This is very helpful when evaluating trade proposals, etc.

Regarding the foreign players, I started a league that is MLB plus 4 levels of minors. No foreign leagues. I set my foreign players option to 10%. Under the Manager menu there is a sheet called "Explore World" listing every country with detailed information about the quality of baseball there. I've got a pretty decent scout from Mexico, and he is on assignment there to find me some attractive young prospects. It really works quite well. I think Marcus provided the ability to create foreign leagues in order to make the game more attractive to a world market. If you want (like me) to play a more realistic American framed version of major league ball, don't create foreign leagues. Works well.

After about 20 hours of play, I'm really starting to like this game. There is a lot to be fixed and cleaned up, but overall it is shaping up to be an awesome piece of work.

[kcchief19]

Originally Posted by Swaggs

After the buttons, old players retire and new players get their recycled player IDs. The game erases the history's of the retired players at the button, but if you just unzip the new season file into your existing (previous season) file, the history text just seems to be compiled on top. When you see it in the RWBL, it is because one of the comissioners took over the file w/o completely deleting their existing file before unzipping the new season. I know we have done it a few times throughout our history, before we realized what was going on.

It looks like the player histories may indeed be stored the same way in this version. When I just had my crash, I re-opened the game and it went back to Jan. 2 with my last save, but all the player histories had their news from the season -- I had simmed through April when I hit crash.

[kcchief19]

Originally Posted by lynchjm24

The scouting information is great. The work you have to do to get it is a royal pain in the ass.

True dat. One annoyance -- on some screens, like the roster screen, you can arrow forward and back from one player to the next so you can look at players ratings and scouting report for making roster decisions. Unfortunately, you can't do this when you open the player profile from the Transaction screen when this type of comparison would be most helpful.

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by GabeRivers

A scouting average and/or median would be nice. You can, however, see what each of your scouts says about a given player all at one time (assuming the given scout has scouted that player). Open the player's card, and on the Player Profile sheet there is a tab for Scouting Reports. This lines up the scouting for each of your scouts plus the SISA report in a form that allows you to easily compare.

Another great thing about the scouting is the "Quick-Scout" option. Even when your scout is off on a scouting assignment, he can still perform up to 8 quick-scouts per day. This is very helpful when evaluating trade proposals, etc.

Regarding the foreign players, I started a league that is MLB plus 4 levels of minors. No foreign leagues. I set my foreign players option to 10%. Under the Manager menu there is a sheet called "Explore World" listing every country with detailed information about the quality of baseball there. I've got a pretty decent scout from Mexico, and he is on assignment there to find me some attractive young prospects. It really works quite well. I think Marcus provided the ability to create foreign leagues in order to make the game more attractive to a world market. If you want (like me) to play a more realistic American framed version of major league ball, don't create foreign leagues. Works well.

After about 20 hours of play, I'm really starting to like this game. There is a lot to be fixed and cleaned up, but overall it is shaping up to be an awesome piece of work.

This is great news now just if the releasing players and trading can be fixed if not the waivers this would be one to check out.

[Drake]

With regards to running foreign leagues, but not wanting to see MLB stars going overseas to play, here's how I solved the problem:

For each of the MLB level foreign leagues, cut the financials to 1/3 (or less) of the MLB level. Just like in real life, the star players follow the money, both in the US and elsewhere. What gets tricky is when you stagger schedules. I've got a Scottish league that runs mostly in the MLB off-season -- we'll assume they're playing in domes, okay . The FA's from the Scottish league hit the FA pool in late January/early February. If I'm not monitoring the SBL's schedule, the other MLB teams have scouted the FA pool and gotten all the decent FA's before I even place a bid.

My favorite concurrent league is a June - September 100 game schedule independent Indiana Rookie League. Since we're unaffiliated, it's like a constant semi-pro league where the players grow up and get old without their ratings ever topping 4's or 5's. I set the average player salary to $30K and adjusted the other financials accordingly. Every once in a while, a 38 or 40 y.o. borderline major leaguer will play with one of the teams for a season, then retire, and when one of our players (by "our", I mean the league's) gets offered a contract from or a trade to an MLB farm system, the whole league throws a BBQ. ( )

There's something pure and fun about my Indiana Rookie League running in the background of the greater baseball universe. I dig it.

And yes, if you want to keep your sanity, turn off waivers. Hell, turn off the 40 man roster, too, but I've been doing that since v6.

[Drake]

dola...

The one thing I really miss in this game (well, not miss, since it's never been there in the first place) is the opportunity for a choaching progression. If I kick ass in an unaffiliated rookie, minor or independent league, I'd like to get job offers from the bigger fish, ala FBCB, instead of having to scour the job openings and automatically getting any open job I apply for. Heck, I'd even take the job board approach if the game would turn me down sometimes.

[aran]

Originally Posted by Drake

With regards to running foreign leagues, but not wanting to see MLB stars going overseas to play, here's how I solved the problem:

For each of the MLB level foreign leagues, cut the financials to 1/3 (or less) of the MLB level. Just like in real life, the star players follow the money, both in the US and elsewhere. What gets tricky is when you stagger schedules. I've got a Scottish league that runs mostly in the MLB off-season -- we'll assume they're playing in domes, okay . The FA's from the Scottish league hit the FA pool in late January/early February. If I'm not monitoring the SBL's schedule, the other MLB teams have scouted the FA pool and gotten all the decent FA's before I even place a bid.

My favorite concurrent league is a June - September 100 game schedule independent Indiana Rookie League. Since we're unaffiliated, it's like a constant semi-pro league where the players grow up and get old without their ratings ever topping 4's or 5's. I set the average player salary to $30K and adjusted the other financials accordingly. Every once in a while, a 38 or 40 y.o. borderline major leaguer will play with one of the teams for a season, then retire, and when one of our players (by "our", I mean the league's) gets offered a contract from or a trade to an MLB farm system, the whole league throws a BBQ. ( )

There's something pure and fun about my Indiana Rookie League running in the background of the greater baseball universe. I dig it.

And yes, if you want to keep your sanity, turn off waivers. Hell, turn off the 40 man roster, too, but I've been doing that since v6.

This sounds awesome. This is the kind of depth that's missing from Puresim. This is the kind of depth that will make you come back for more over and over again. If they can fix the game up a bit and straighten out UI and AI quirks, we have ourselves a keeper.

[kcchief19]

Originally Posted by Galaril

This is great news now just if the releasing players and trading can be fixed if not the waivers this would be one to check out.

My initial experience in creating leagues doesn't really make what Gabe is saying sound that great. You can definitely tone down the foreign percentage, but that also tones down the size of the world. He makes it sound like that if you set foreign players at 10 percent you can have your scouts go find more foreign players than that -- you can't. No more or less than 10 percent of all created players will be foreign regardless of whether they are foreign free agents or in the draft.

My VERY preliminary investigation of the impact of running foreign leagues is this:

- If you want a "real life" experience, turn off trading with other major leagues. Leaving this on allows a soccer-like flow of players from one league to another that is just staggering and will end with the Yankees trading an in-his-prime Johnny Damon to some team in Veneuela.

- If you don't want trading with foreign leagues, I see no real reason to have them turned on at all. The only thing it would seem to do is add a past and history to foreign free agents who decide to come and play in America.

- Playing without foreign leagues seems to reduce the quality of foreign free agents. It won't be like real-life where you're the Braves and you're signing 16-year-olds in the Domincan. The talented foreign rookies will be in the draft. Finding substantial foreign free agents by souting the world looks to be like finding a needle in a haystack. Most will be duds. This probably overall a good thing.

Like I've said, none of this is necessarily a deal breaker -- but I think people should know what to expect.

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by kcchief19

It looks like the player histories may indeed be stored the same way in this version. When I just had my crash, I re-opened the game and it went back to Jan. 2 with my last save, but all the player histories had their news from the season -- I had simmed through April when I hit crash.

Yeah this happens, I've reported it as a bug.

[MizzouRah]

Keep the information coming fellas. It's actually been great waiting on this one as I've learned a TON since release.

Has anyone begun to look at stats yet? I listed a link a page or so back that had some settings which make the stats very MLB like. Just wondered if anyone has used them yet?

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

The Lahman database?

Well yeah, if you are doing historic.

[SirFozzie]

I'd love someone to do a quickstart for the major nations, and combine them (that way America/Japan etcetera will have the real names).. but quickstarts can't be combined can they?

[SackAttack]

First thought: Wow, poor bastard. I love that the Dodgers beat the shit out of the Giants' pitching, but 171 pitches? Talk about taking one for the team.

I clicked the player.



Second thought: Ooooooh. That wasn't such a great idea.



So let me get this straight, are they TRYING to kill the guy? Recoup the $12,980,000 still owed the dude because he's 36?

[aran]

Holy crap. he essentially pitched two full starts worth of baseball!

Well, I think you have something to fill in that nickname field with, now... "Dead Man Throwing"

EDIT: WOW... he threw almost more balls than strikes. 52% of his pitches were strikes. Abysmal.

[DaddyTorgo]

blah. that's not good AI right there.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by aran

Holy crap. he essentially pitched two full starts worth of baseball!

Well, I think you have something to fill in that nickname field with, now... "Dead Man Throwing"

I was thinking "Dravecky," but I'm not that cruel.

Even to the Giants.

And how impressive is it that he threw nearly as many strikes despite a noodle arm than the starter and first reliever threw pitches?

I'm not surprised he walked 9 guys. That's true grit.

[SackAttack]

Just for the hell of it:

[cuervo72]

Sack, that looks like what happens in FOBL (v5) every now and then when all the other pitchers are tired. The game just doesn't know what else to do but to leave that guy in.

Case in point:
http://www.thefobl.com/fobl/box2396.html

or:
http://www.thefobl.com/fobl/box1425.html

Happens a few times each season. No Jose Canseco relief appearances in OOTP. So this is far from a new issue.

[DaddyTorgo]

jeezus, till the poor AI like that is fixed this game won't see my money. i hope it does get fixed and gets to see my money though.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

Sack, that looks like what happens in FOBL (v5) every now and then when all the other pitchers are tired. The game just doesn't know what else to do but to leave that guy in.

Case in point:
http://www.thefobl.com/fobl/box2396.html

or:
http://www.thefobl.com/fobl/box1425.html

Happens a few times each season. No Jose Canseco relief appearances in OOTP. So this is far from a new issue.

True. But I have to think most managers would rather use several tired guys for an inning each than throw a tired closer out there for 6 innings. Still, it isn't something I'd ever seen in previous versions of OOTP.

[cuervo72]

We see it fairly often.

What the AI might need to do is to recognize this as a possibility and just keep the *starter* in there longer to take one for the team.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

We see it fairly often.

What the AI might need to do is to recognize this as a possibility and just keep the *starter* in there longer to take one for the team.

Yeah, they probably should have left him out there for at least another inning or two. He only threw 73 pitches.

And really, my biggest beef here is pulling the 2nd reliever after just 21 pitches. That's just flat out irresponsible AI. Better that he throws 40 or 50 and then the closer comes in if he's all that's left than for him to throw one 21 pitch inning and then the closer throws 171.

[SirFozzie]

yeah, throw a starter in there, and bite the bulet and bring someone up the next day to fill in

[SackAttack]

Oh, and if ANYBODY should be throwing 170 pitches, it's the middle reliever, not the closer.

[Stevebsfan]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

First thought: Wow, poor bastard. I love that the Dodgers beat the shit out of the Giants' pitching, but 171 pitches? Talk about taking one for the team.

Wow, playing the games out, i've noticed very long hooks with the AI in the game, it almost makes me not want to play right now. I'm managing a short seasoned league with a bunch of guys straight from the draft, and the opposing managers are leaving them out there for 120-135 pitches on avg it seems.

That pitch count is high for a major league pitcher, let alone a guy making his first minor league start.

I wish they had instructions from the 'big club' on how to handle certain prospects. You know in real life a GM tells minor league managers to get certain highly touted prospects in the game as much as possible, and tells them what limits they set on certain pitchers, how often they'd like them to go, etc. I know this because i'm pretty sure Theo Epstein does this with the Sox minor league system. Jon Lester was on a very strict pitch count early in the season per order from above. Craig Hansen is now starting minor league games in order to develop his pitches as quick as possible, opposed to just throwing an inning or two every few games. Another order from above.

Teams usually have a development type of system for the minor leagues, not one e-mail at the start of the season expecting them to at least play .500 ball. I'm sure my GM would rather me play his prized young prospect who has a ton of potential over a 28 year old with high ratings rotting away in A ball instead of playing the best guys and winning every day.

[Stevebsfan]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

Oh, and if ANYBODY should be throwing 170 pitches, it's the middle reliever, not the closer.

If anybody throws 170 pitches in a game with arms available on the bullpen, i'd expect that manager to be fired the next day.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

yeah, throw a starter in there, and bite the bulet and bring someone up the next day to fill in

Incidentally, it turns out that that's what happened with Bobby Salter. They signed him to a contract after the game, put him on the active roster, and DFA'd a couple dudes and demoted a couple others.

One of the demotees? A SP who hadn't pitched in the majors yet this season.

[SackAttack]

No, I'm sorry. I stand corrected. They made that move BEFORE the game. I'll be watching their post-game transactions.

[SackAttack]

They signed two outfielders to minor league contracts and didn't sign or call up any pitchers.

[Terps]

I had something like that happen to my closer. Pitched 4 or 5 innings in a blowout, well over 100 pitches. Only problem is, I had him on a 40 or 50 pitch count.

[SackAttack]

OOTP crashed, and I hadn't saved since the day before the 171 pitch game, so I had to reload.

Same thing happened - we beat the starter around (knocked him out in the 2nd instead of the 3rd this time), the same reliever pitched 'til the end of the 3rd, then the closer pitched the final six innings.

Much better control this time, though. He only threw 102 pitches and walked 2 guys instead of 9.