GWJ OOTP League Thread

mitchson wrote:

First of all the women's basketball team is called the Storm. San Diego should be the last one to start trouble because it looks as if all their players are surfing instead of playing baseball. Hey "Dude" what is this stick for?

Lol. Hey, who is this? Remember sign with name, GM and team dude (...gosh, now I know why they were trying to put fins on the bats (slaps head'...:)

Yay, everyone uploaded their team files! We're really chugging along now.

Dallas's Dale Tolbert is currently riding a 20-game hitting streak, while Vancouver's Tom Decker is belting them out of the park at a 50 HR season rate.

The league leader in ERA is Brooklyn's Daisuke Kodo, who somehow is a black person in his team photo (that's been fixed). Some of the week's highlights include Buffalo annihilating Denver 11-0, a ludicrous 16-inning marathon between Seattle and Vancouver, and Pittsburgh's Woody Wallace spinning out this line: 8.1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 8 K's.

Okay, even more tweaking to try and get my MRs some more playing time. They're just not getting on the field enough and they're really, really good pitchers for the most part.

Also, our division is completely up for grabs. While I can't seem to manage to break .500, I'm only a little back as the leader is 1 game over .500.

garion333 wrote:

Okay, even more tweaking to try and get my MRs some more playing time. They're just not getting on the field enough and they're really, really good pitchers for the most part.

Also, our division is completely up for grabs. While I can't seem to manage to break .500, I'm only a little back as the leader is 1 game over .500.

My pen experiment is going well so far. A few more weeks and I'll post some of the FIP vs usage data.

I feel out of the running at last place, but I've got the talent to compete- it just hasn't all come together yet.

Prederick wrote:

Pittsburgh's Woody Wallace spinning out this line: 8.1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 8 K's.

What up, Female Doggoes!!

My Pierogies went 5-1 this week and swept the mighty, division-leading Brooklyn Sandwiches.
I'm feeling pretty good about my starters right now.

New file & reports are up. I just pulled two pretty spiffy dudes off the DL, so my outfield is much more set than it was a little while ago. I think Vancouver's going to stand pat this year. That said, this wasn't a good week, we went 2-4.

How are all of you in the NL East (the all user division) enjoying yourselves? The distance between 1st and last is 7 1/2 games, but 2nd and 3rd are only a half game out.

Also, say hello to your new league leaders for best record, the Buffalo Breakfast Burritos at 31-19!

Highlights of the week include Atlanta's Stephane Besse pitching a semi-masterpiece, giving up one run in a complete game, but walking eight while striking out four on the 23rd (look it up if you don't believe me), Buffalo beating Baltimore 10-9 on the strength of a 8-run 5th inning on the 24th, and Baltimore and Buffalo combining for a ludicrous 15-14 shootout on the 25th that Baltimore won on a single in the bottom of the 10th.

In the case of the 15-14 game, both teams combined to use 11 pitchers, and Buffalo had THREE dudes notch blown saves. There were SEVEN home runs. Sheesh. And that's leaving out some other very, very interesting games.

Feel free to add in your own stuff, highlights/lowlights here. We do need more chatter in this thread, we're almost into June! For instance, i'm peeved that we went 2-4 this week and are now a half-game behind Buffalo, who I swear to god we're going to catch (remember, no wild cards in our league, only division winners make the playoffs).

Meanwhile, taking a quick look at the top prospects, San Diego may be having a sub-par season, but if AAA 3B Brian Burke works out (and he should, considering that he's hitting .347 with 7 HRs in AAA so far), they may have a real all-star on their hands. It's the least fate can do for them after Roberto Rios, a almost-certain All-Star broke his hand badly enough that it ended his career on the 19th.

That said, our backup 3B Karl Kendall is available, but not "on the block". You can find his numbers yourselves, and his paltry contract gets automatically renewed. I'm not looking to make a move now, but if you fancy him, you might want to start figuring out what kind of package you'd like to put together for his services.

Top 5 Power Rankings:

1.) Buffalo
2.) Miami
3.) Vancouver
4.) New Orleans
5.) Los Angeles

The downward trend begins for the Sandwiches. Hopefully we'll hang in there, but we've got more potential than current ability and our best player (outfielder Bobby Doyle) went down for eight months with a leg injury.

My relievers got to pitch?!?!?! Finally. Too bad it was all in the same game.

The view is nice from up here. You guys ought to come up and try it, after I quit the league.

Spoiler:

I'm not quitting the league.

Another week, another mediocre showing from Boston (hey, at least it matches real life).

The good news is a lot of pieces to the puzzle are in place, but young and developing. The bad news is that won't help much this year :). I'm looking to trade some players (there aren't really any "untouchables" on my roster, just some that it would take a lot to pry away from me) for draft picks and prospects. I didn't mark it as such, but anyone you see in my organization that's much over 30 is on the block.

NEED HELP ON THIS PROBLEM!!!!!
The Seattle Rain have many problems.... battling for 1st place in a close race isn't one of them. However, there is a problem with signing free agents and players on waivers. I had signed three free agents over the past two weeks and two of them were assigned to my minor leagues, the third hadn't made a decision on contract. But no notification this week on pending contract. One of the players Davidson had pitched for AAA team last week. This sim week noticed the two players in minors were no longer in organization and found them back in free agency. Also the player on waivers is gone and not on my roster.
So today I went to offer those players a contract (re-sign) players on free agency and offer contract a new player. BUT, message indicated that I had already offered contract and would let me know their decision. Very strange.
I've taken players from waivers and free agency without a problem in the past without a hitch.
Has anyone else had this problem?

Mitchson - Seattle Rain

From OOTP forums:
Quote:
Originally Posted by kingcharlesxii:

Just make a decision and go with it. OOTP has so many options that if you spend too much time debating options, you'll never actually play the game.

Response:
So very true.

...'

I sooo concur.

It's nice about Burke, but what I really need is pitching. But I'll take what I can. Besides Rios, I had bad luck in that I was showing someone the game and manager options and failed to put 'trades' back to me and left them on for the AI. BAM. One of my few good hitters, Tom Price, got trades for some minor league rabble. Live and learn.

My 'apparent' problem is my budget, out of no where, my budget is now projecting red number's for next year. I did some extentions well within the budget, actually saving the club about 20 mil (I was surprised that some of the acceptances, but I had bonus goals all over the place and I think that helped.) So the 'red numbers' are worrisome.

Lastly, I have x amount for the draft. If I go after some hard to get, but very much needed folks, I may have to shoot my wad on two, if not just one to meet demands. It's going to be some tough decisions, especially if I fail to land them and end up with zilch. (and how are we dong the draft?)

All in all, I have no clue how the drafting will work and really am unsure how finicials seem to work. But will just try and deal and hope.

To Pred
Could you read about my problem above as I need the free agent problem solved or have to not utilize that function of ootp.
Thanks
Mitchson

I just promoted one of my middle relievers to be a starting pitching. The Bridgeburners are only one game below .500 and half a game out of first place and the organization is hopeful that this move will solidify their starting rotation for the rest of the season.

Guys can you point me to where i can download the league file? I'm a potential new member and Prederick told me the file is in this link somewhere.

I appreciate your help.

Steve - Breadmanben

Ah yes, I wanted to post about this first, but the cat's out of the bag, as it were.

I figure, since it's our first go-round, unless anybody has some real huge objections, that since we're not even to June yet new players can still jump in. Any objections? If not, welcome to Breadmanben, who will be joining the league shortly. Ben, the league file is at the league website (linked in the OP).

mitchson wrote:

To Pred
Could you read about my problem above as I need the free agent problem solved or have to not utilize that function of ootp.
Thanks
Mitchson

Hey Mitch, I haven't had any issues signing FA's, and noone else has mentioned it. Now, as far as the guy who hadn't made a decision yet, players can take a while to make a decision. Weeks can pass if they're waiting for another offer or what-have-you, so a guy not signing within a week isn't anything to worry about. The player on waivers may have gotten claimed by another team ahead of you on the waiver wire (i'm unsure of what the rankings are, but essentially, if a team ranked #4th on the waiver wire makes a claim on a player, and another team ranked #2nd does, the team ranked 2nd gets the player. I do believe it's based on standings, so there are three teams with worse records who'd get a claim on a player from waivers sooner than you.) The last two players the game lists you as claiming off waivers (Curt Byrd and Richard Crocker) are there in your organization at the moment. My only real guess is that you may have exported your team file before you made these final moves, and that they didn't get recorded by the game.

Otherwise, no, I haven't (and I don't think anyone else has) run into the issues you've mentioned. If a dude was in your organization and had pitched, and now suddenly is a free agent again after you'd signed him, that's something with the game itself, and you might want to hunt around the OOTP forums, and see if anyone else has had a similar issue. For the moment, my advice would be to check your pending offers (under the Free Agents tab, next to "All Free Agents" there's a button called "pending offers" which should list any pending MAJOR LEAGUE contracts you've offered to players, I don't believe it tracks Minor League contract offers. Other than that, if the game's saying you've offered a contract, you've offered a contract, you'll have to wait and let the player decide.

EDIT: Oh, the other potential issue is if you have the AI doing a bit of work for you under "Manager Options" (Click the drop-down menu with your name, and hit "manager options"). On the right hand side you'll see Team Control Settings. I know I have full control over my Major League roster, but my minor league managers have full control over not just lineups and promotions/demotions, but signings/releases as well. If your settings are the same, there's a chance one of your minor league managers may have looked at a player you signed, said "not good enough" and sent him right back out the door. According to your Transactions Log (Team Drop-down menu > Reports > All Transactions) there's been a lot of promotions and demotions in your organization in the last week, and three players have been released, so double-check there as well.

I haven't had any issues with waiver pickups or free agents, but I haven't signed one for many uploads now.

I'm 100% okay with people joining the league right now so the other divisions fill up with humans. I don't know if I'm all that good of a GM, but our division is mostly human, I believe, and we're pretty much the tightest division. Course we could all just suck.

garion333 wrote:

...we're pretty much the tightest division. Course we could all just suck. :P

Looking at the standing, the NL East, with my Fighting Pieorgies leading the way at 26-26, I think we all just suck
We are like the NFC West of the OOTP world.

Also, welcome to BreadmanBen. Which team will you be taking?

I got two outfielders back from the DL this week (can you believe three of them went down at once?). Watch out world!

Do you guys ever check out the injury report? Just for sh*t and giggles?
http://gwjleague.allsimbaseball5.com/game/lgreports/leagues/league_100_injuries.html
There are some funny ones:

Pittsburgh Fighting Pierogies: SP Héctor Martínez was injured while falling out of bed after having a nightmare. The Diagnosis: wrist tendinitis.
Phoenix Henchmen: SS Arlen Harper was injured . The Diagnosis: food poisoning.
Baltimore Bridgeburners: 1B Nate Bradley was injured when he attempted to do a wheelie on his motorcycle. The Diagnosis: back stiffness
San Diego Surfers: SP Edward Carruth was injured when he tripped running down the stairs. The Diagnosis: sore ankle.

What? He wasn't carry scissors?

Novocain wrote:
garion333 wrote:

...we're pretty much the tightest division. Course we could all just suck. :P

Looking at the standing, the NL East, with my Fighting Pieorgies leading the way at 26-26, I think we all just suck
We are like the NFC West of the OOTP world.

Slumberland wrote:

I got two outfielders back from the DL this week (can you believe three of them went down at once?). Watch out world!

Yeah, injuries have been a problem in my outfield, but for me it's mostly been pitching, which is why I'm shuffling things around and I overpaid for that youngster from Puerto Rico I scouted. I really needed him. A lot.

We're not the NFC West, we're the Patriots/Steelers/Ravens/Saints/Green Bay/Colts-with-Manning-division. Okay, we're all the 1927 Yankees.

Pred, thank you for your in depth answer to my two problems. Both are plausible and 1. will have more patience with signings (don't understand why they wouldn't jump at the chance to play on top notch, well managed team like Seattle Rain.) 2. Will have a talk with minor league managers about letting go players I deem a worthwhile risk to solidify minors until prospects develop. Maybe I'm just having a "Moneyball" moment.
Thanks Again - appreciate your taking time to research.
Mitchson - Seattle Rain

I want to fire my scouts. But first, and I looked all thru the 11 manual, I want to know what the rating scale is. It game no linear list. I want to know if 'ok' is better or worse then 'decent', or 'average' etc. When I look at other succcessful teams, there scouts are highly rated. Mine aren't and therefore my farm organization, imo, suck. I need pitchers and I see very little in the pike.

Anyway, if someone can give me a link or list of the ratings mention above I would be most appreciative.

Welcome BreadmanBen!!!

"The Draft"

I haven't seen any conversation regarding upcoming draft after Pred threw it out for suggestions. Here is mine....
I would like to be involved in the 1st through 5th Rounds. After that the A1 can do the rest of the draft. Curious if A1 would use our scout's potential rating to pick players for the subsequent rounds?
Do a live draft for 5 rounds with everyone having one minute to pick. Then if you don't pick, A1 picks for you for that round. That way it would take no more than 80 minutes for five rounds. Could be less if people pick quickly.
Not sure if feasible or how much work this would make for the "Commish."
It is now happy hour on the west coast so now i will enjoy my 1st round of my second favorite draft.

New file, she is up. A 5-1 week has Vancouver atop the GWJBL again.

Congrats to Baltimore, Buffalo and Pittsburgh, the homes of the Batter, Rookie and Pitcher of the Month for May.

Two of the top rated pitching performances of the year so far took place this week, with Vancouver's Miguel Angel Cortez going for a 5-hit complete game, no walks, 11 K's. He was outdone by Charlotte's Boyd Vaughn, who would've had a 10-strikeout perfect game if not for one single in the 7th.

A good question to think about for the postseason, so far this year all the pitching seems to be in the Northern League, with no team in the SL having a team ERA under 4.00, while half of the NL teams have ERAs under 4.00. Meanwhile, if you're talking about the ball leaving the field, then don't play Buffalo or Dallas. Both teams have mashed 74 HRs this season.

Meanwhile, everyone should fear Baltimore's Neal Bradley. Currently on pace to bat .350ish, with 47 HRs and 170+ RBIs. If he keeps up, this man may cost a bit more than the $16M he's already on.

Thanks all for the welcome. I looked at the league website and I can't find the league file. I'm thinking it might be because I need to have a league sign in?

I think it's just that most of us are new (or new-ish) to the game. I also think that using a thread for all things makes it harder to have conversations and whatnot.

That said, first place! Finally over .500 and in first. I may have overpaid for that pitcher, but I'll spend $8 mil/season if it means I can win since my starting pitching was, ah, pretty terrible earlier in the season.

Greetings all. A few observations about this forum:

1) Several of us are new, so we ask things that might be labelled, 'RTFM', but still, it would be nice to have everyone's input for surely not everyone has all aspects memorized of such a complex game. And usuall different viewpoints lead to new understanding.

2) Discussions on the game, the stat's, the financials etc. are minimal. Pred does a good job at keeping this going and it's really should not be up to him to answer or discuss all the questions etc. So again, it's either the
'RTFM' syndrome, or folks are a very competitive here and are keeping things close to the chest to make sure their teams do well regardless of the rest of the leagues.

3) People just don't have the time or energy to discuss. This is understandable considering the working a long day and coming home to play a game of this depth, AND discuss it too, one is just too tired to deal with it. I totally relate.

Deal is, 2 & 3 or so unlike GWJ. Usually there's lot's of talk and chatter. Lot's of help and coaching so all have some idea, especially new folk, of how and why something does or does not work and the where's and why fors.

And 4), I'm totally out of line and should keep quite and just play the game. Hopefully that's not the feeling of everyone, but if it is, then I will do just that (or try to:))

Granted, I'm a casual baseball fan, just like I'm a casual gamer, so maybe I'm just out of my league and will stumble along the best I can. I can definitely do that too (well actually I AM doing that *chuckle*)