The OOTP Approach
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This was a relatively quickly played 15 season project with the Colorado Rockies. As I explained in the video, I gave the 1993 Rockies young versions of Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, and Hank Aaron, mostly to see how ridiculous the team could become.
We were able to create quite a bit of ridiculousness. However, even though this wasn’t really a “serious” project, I still learned a few interesting things about baseball in general and OOTP in particular through the process.
For instance, even adding three surefire Hall of Fame players to your roster isn’t going to be enough to get you to the top.
One thing that these baseball replay projects have taught me over the years is just how important the so-called “marginal” players really are. This is particularly true in OOTP.
If you’re playing OOTP seriously, the right way to do it is to largely ignore the star ratings and to focus instead on the so-called five tool ratings, which is really the heart of OOTP’s rating system.
If you look around, you’ll discover that some players are underrated by the game’s internal scouting system. In particular, there are some pitchers with Major League stuff, or something close to Major League stuff, that can pitch quite effectively for you if you give them a chance.
This is extremely important to remember in OOTP, since the financial part of the game largely outweighs the on-field performance of your players. Your goal is largely to be as competitive as possible without destroying your budget, which is a lot different from your standard baseball simulation experience.
The other key lesson I learned is that free agency can be perilous at times.
Most sports management games are a bit more lenient when it comes to free agent signings. Football Manager, for example, will usually give you a way out if you want to get rid of a 30 or 31 year old player with a heavy contract who isn’t performing well at all.
Part of the issue in OOTP comes from the way that American sporting contracts work, of course. Unlike sports in most of the world, contracts in American sports tend to stick with the player as they go from team to team. And so, if you wind up paying $13 million a year for a declining Roberto Alomar in the early 2000s, you’re going to wind up with a player who you simply cannot get off your books.
I guess it’s the Bobby Bonilla effect. And, even if you know all about it, it’s honestly hard to keep the downside in mind when you feel excited about signing a future Hall of Famer who just so happens to be in his prime.
Anyway, I’d love to know what you guys think about all of this. I’ve got more content coming up in the near future about OOTP - some positive, and some somewhat critical. Stay tuned!
I had an OOTP project years ago where I payed through the nose to keep Seaver, Koosman, Matlack and Ryan together on the Mets. It cost and the Mets won through the dark years post M.Donald Grant, but hitters were difficult to cultivate. That’s the beauty of OOTP, Strat and other baseball sims….the What Ifs.
You present a great example of what OOTP can do well, not better, but different than the other baseball sims in the historical sports games hobby. I find it can be a great laboratory for ideas.