awesome Posted January 4, 2006 Share Posted January 4, 2006 i play in owner mode, and have had the cubs (wanted to play w/o DH rule, and the original lineup for the dodgers is kinda brutal compared with the inflated numbers of the opening day 2005 cubs lineup) for about 20 seasons now. the past five or six seasons i've simmed through completely, and i have done the following to aid in my GM moves: - when signing rookies / free agent positional players, the first attribute i look at is "plate discipline." this is usually a deal-maker or breaker in trades, too. - OPS is the only hitting stat that matters. high ops = scoring runs. i don't think anyone on my team has an ops below .850, and that's through entire seasons of simming on all-star level. - never trade money for money. cut smart deals and keep your costs down (even if it means taking a hit on "sponsorships / media revenue" when building your stadium. - sign heartless contracts. 5 years at 500K? sure. if the player doesn't pan out, he'll at least be serviceable for a trade somewhere down the line. til then he can ride the pine. always re-negotiate contracts after making trades, too. - that said, pay for pitching. if you can have a stable of two or three aces for only 3 or 4 years, and you have to pay them each 5mil+, fine. you can trade them late in the last year of their contract and avoid messy negotiations / declining abilities afterward. i have more on this, but it's late and i have to get to sleep, haha. just wanted to toss some of this out there and see if anyone plays the same game i do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UncleMo Posted January 4, 2006 Share Posted January 4, 2006 Similarly, I've been doing this lately in my Dynasty (non owner mode). Although I'm not sure why you say OPS is the only important stat. What if you have guys with no power. My important stat is the OBP. If the dude ain't getting on base, then what do I need him for. I don't care if he hits a double or homer or walks, so long as he "avoids outs". I then make sure the guy batting behind him has a high OBP so that the runner gets moved along the base path. And since I had to make some trades last night, I found the same thing to be true-if their plate discipline is low, he ain't playing for my MLB team. One gem out there that someone may not know about is Frank Thomas. He is rated poorly because he stinks but his plate discipline was high so his OBP was high (as well as his SLUG. %) so even though his contact ratings stink he was like a superstar still. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awesome Posted January 4, 2006 Author Share Posted January 4, 2006 hahah those are the exact arguments (outside of pure stats) i make for big frank as a future HOFer i guess you're right about OBP, but since the players tend to be way jacked up the further you get into the game (i.e. the pittsburgh pirates pitching staff who all throw over 100mph, the twins with their lineup of mashers), i just figure on my estimated OPS being a good indication of who's going to generate the most runs with their AI-eye and bat. your way probably works just as well, though. i've been working on figuring out what sabermetric stats can be readily and effectively applied to position players and pitchers, while also being somewhat worthwhile. i'll post an .nfo file or something once i collaborate with my fellow tragically nerdy friends and we can compile something definitive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UncleMo Posted January 4, 2006 Share Posted January 4, 2006 Anything right now you can give me to help me review pitchers, sabermetrically speaking? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UncleMo Posted January 4, 2006 Share Posted January 4, 2006 Um, I have a question. When drafting, do you ever see players with high batting disclipline rating? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterbernard Posted January 5, 2006 Share Posted January 5, 2006 I noticed Babe Ruth seems to play better when he's angry about his contract. If you give him the raise he's whining about, he gets complacent and stops trying as hard. Unless I was imagining that. He's never led the league in homers when I've had him, either. I thought you had to pay them fairly or it would affect team spirit or whatever it's called, but you can win a pennant in this game with every player angry at you over their contract. So I would have to agree about the "heartless contract" part, even if I'm pro-union when it comes to human (real-life, non-digital) players. I also look at on-base percentage, especially since I don't even know what OPS stands for, ha. But the guys in the middle of the lineup I also hope have a good slugging percentage, and guys at the top and bottom I hope are intelligent and speedy baserunners. If I'm playing out the season myself, I'll often sign pitching staffs that get me rated #25-30 in pitching to save money, if they're guys I know how to work with or good rookies I'm taking a chance on. (EDIT: I call this "Aaron Small Ball.") If I'm simulating the games instead of playing them, then I pay the big bucks for the pitchers that the computer thinks are the best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awesome Posted January 5, 2006 Author Share Posted January 5, 2006 Mo -- to answer your first question, EA comes just short of supplying every stat you'd need to calculate certain formulas (DIPS comes to mind, where either BK or WP is missing from the following ((4*HR)+BB+HBP+WP+BK)/K), though WHIP (BB x H / IP) is provided, which is a serviceable analog for the former equation. as such, i tend to keep an eye on pitchers (esp. the weird no-name ones that 'spawn' out of nowhere, since i didn't have any of the ultimate rosters installed when i first started this owner mode back in june) for a complete season, look at their K/9, whip, and OBPA, and make a decision based on those stats. I will definitely update you on any progress we make with more detailed and intense statistical analysis, though. I just have to put it to guys who know the math better than I, and who can figure out substitutions for certain missing stats. Re: your second question, some rookies out of the draft do have decent plate discipline -- I've seen as high as 70. I tend to take nothing lower than 80 for my AAA / MLB team and no lower than 60 for the rookie draft. That usually means I'll end up with a handful of rookies I don't sign, but I make so many moves in the off-season it doesn't really matter, as long as I can push those 'takers' through the farm system and see how they pan out. Peter -- that's a good observation. I, too, am all for unions and, you know, treating people with a little common decency, but when it comes to this game I am, as stated, heartless, though I do try to keep team chemistry up as it tends to mean more success with simmed games, as far as I've been able to tell. It's true, though, that you could play through any amount of games you want with your team's chemistry in the pits and you could still make the playoffs based on the raw 'talent' (i.e. ratings) of your overworked and underpaid players. OBP is, as I said, very important in figuring out how a player will do when simmed. OPS is simply OBP + SLG% -- above 1.000 is fantastic, while anything between (conservatively) 800+1000 is pretty good. What most people look for in "real life" batting figures is a line that reads .300+ / .400+ / .500+, where .300+ is batting average, .400+ is OBP, and .500+ is your slugging percentage. Some linkage: http://espn.go.com/mlb/statistics/glossary.html - pretty self-explanatory glossary of terms for more intensive stats you'll find on ESPN's site and also in MVP. http://baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=2562 - "measuring offense," by dayn perry from the baseball prospectus site, a good introduction to sabermetric offensive stats http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=878 - voros mccracken, who first calculated / published DiPS, talks about pitching and defense stats on baseball prospectus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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