Out of the Park Baseball 20 - Make your team Perfecter!

That is not strange. It is awesome. I have always felt that OOTP is one of the greatest role playing games ever, because it allows you to get incredibly caught up in the fiction of the simulated games, on the field and off.

Conversely, by fast simming as they do in Perfect Game, the games are a blur and it feels less immersive. Played that way, OOTP is simply a strategy game (not that there’s anything wrong with that).

Everyone’s in the playoffs this year:

  • Washington (homers, homers, and more homers) started hot in Perfect but tailed off badly starting in June. Barely got a Wild Card spot. I suspect it’ll be one and out for this team. We led all teams in homers and Yelich led the league in homers. I’m starting to collect cards with this account so I don’t foresee having any PP left to upgrade like… ever again! Edit to add: I’m playing @KWhit’s Cigar City Lagers in the WC game!

  • Leesburg (packs only) did pretty well in Gold, won their division, and are playing pretty solid ball heading into the playoffs. Did I mention I pulled a 98 OVR Frank Robinson Peak card with this team from a collection mission pack reward? Yeah, he’s awesome. Cliff Lee led the league in wins, going 19-9 with a 3.79 ERA.

  • Annandale (defense): Played great in Gold all year until the final month, where they had a terrible slump. We had a simultaneous batting AND pitching slump. Nevertheless, we won our division by 2 games. I purchased the 94 OVR Willie Mays to replace one of my weaker hitters in the outfield. Mays hit .230 in 34 games. Let’s hope he does a little better from here on out!

  • Texas (MLB theme) crushed their Iron league, winning 101 games. I should hope so, since about 25% of my roster is Diamond players! We just can’t get out of Iron. Darvish won the most games in the league with 17, and the 92 OVR Nolan Ryan won the ERA crown, going 15-8 with a 2.65 ERA.

  • Motown (60s-80s theme) started slowly but finished strong in Silver, easily winning their division with 98 wins. Ken Boyer edged out his teammate Rod Carew for the batting title, .33803 to .33797. Len Barker led the league in wins, going 19-6. Hank Aaron was a 20/20 player.

  • Venusville (contact hitters) won 96 games in Diamond and easily won their division. The team came in 1st in BA and Runs. We had four of the top batting averages in the league: Stan Musial won the batting title, hitting .352. Boggs finished third at .333, and Richie Ashburn came in fourth at .331. Jim Bunning led the league in wins, going 21-10.

I could see that. It’s funny How much I wanted Ron Guidry to have a great year in my simulation, for Greg Nettles to have more HRs than Reggie Jackson, Goose to come in the 9th and strike out the sides.

I wish there was a game like OOTP, but have more attributes or characteristics to differentiate players - to make them feel like unique individuals - like bad vs curve balls, or great at placing the ball for a hit and run. Things that may not be supported by real life data but may make a better game - like performing under pressure.

I think they have added some things that I’ve had in my head if I were to try and make a game, like certain players who don’t get along and coaches who work better with a particular type of player. I haven’t played with those features yet though so I don’t know how well they work. I’ve never been that impressed with their morale system, or a player demanding to bat lead off. I may try and embrace those things more in my next league to make it feel more unique.

Excuse me Charlatan, but Cliff Lee shared the league lead in wins with Claude Passeau of the Sandwich Heroes! And also Max Scherzer of the boston borts, but that’s less important.

The Heroes had our best season yet, winning 100 games and our division. Currently up 2-0 in the Division Series, having just roughed up the aforementioned Max Scherzer in a 5-4 win. In addition to Passeau sharing the lead in wins, Gavvy Cravath led the league in homers, and Willie Mays finished third in batter WAR.

I saw a live Mookie Betts auction about to end with a low starting price and zero bids last night, so I pulled the trigger. It meant I finally had to move Aaron Hicks off the active roster, which hurt a bit. Amazing how attached one gets to a facsimile.

Well, I went 106-56 in my silver league this year, while no other team won more than 94. In the first two games of the playoffs, we went up 8-0 and 9-0, and lost both - with complete bullpen collapses for the first time all year.

After all the excitement of the playoffs, only Texas won the World Series in Iron. Motown lost 4-2 in the WS and Venusville I think lost 4-1. But that’s all in the past, and a new season dawns!

Half price during the steam sale and/or All-Star Game break.

First season in Diamond went pretty well. We came out of the gates like gangbusters, playing .600+ ball and maintaining an 8-game lead through the All-Star break. Tony Gwynn was hitting in the .380s through June. The second half was not as kind, and we ended up 2 games back in the division after losing 2 of 3 to the division winner to close out the regular season. Won the WC game, then lost the DS in 5 games to the same team that beat us for the division.

I was sick of seeing all the same unhelpful players on the auction house, so I decided to take a flyer and buy 5 packs. Pulled a George Springer, who is definitely not worth playing, but who can easily be sold for nearly the entire cost of five packs, so I decided to double down and buy another five.

And then this happened.

Looks like I could get 500K+, so the smart play would be to sell it and use the profits to upgrade multiple positions. I think I might hang on to it for a season or two, though. Feels nice to have an ace.

I haven’t checked yet, but I’m pretty sure my team made the silver playoffs. In 19 my team almost certainly was relegated from perfect, and my good team had a mediocre season.

Grats on the awesome pull. I’ve gotten some gold recently but nothing better out of a pack for a while.

My teams all did… meh. Motown lost a tiebreaker game 163 so we won the wild card instead of the division. They lost the sub-league series though so I don’t think that loss made a difference. Annandale slumped badly the last month and went from leading the division all year to not making the playoffs. The only team that’s still doing well this season is my packs-only team, who is winning their divison-series - so they’ll definitely going to be promoted from Gold to Diamond next week. Should be interesting.

A few of my teams made big purchases and none of them have really born out; that’s been frustrating me. I know, small sample size, level of play is higher than what they faced in real life, etc, etc but it’s still frustrating me. Also, my Venusville team got roughed around their first year in Perfect, and though they won 80 games, we earned less than 5k PP for the season. I sure hope that’s an abberation.

I’m happy to let this season go and start over tomorrow!

Congrats on Walters, @Sammich!

Which brings to mind the best song ever written about Walter Johnson (perhaps the only one, but whatever).

Now the other team mates they simply didn’t get it,
They said “Walter how come you let him hit it?”
Now Walter just told them with his gentle smile,
“Boys, This game isn’t any fun if you don’t get a hit once in a
while.”
And all through baseball he was loved and respected.
Was there bitterness in Walter Johnson?
Well it was never detected.

Did a bit more tinkering this season after continuing to watch supposedly good players struggle to put up even average stats. A couple of AH purchases paid off initially (Craig Biggio primarily) and a couple of starting pitchers actually pitched like strong starters. But even with better than normal stats, my W/L records was under .500 thru 2/3s of the season. But in the last part I ended up passing into the first WC position and winning the WC game against my rival. During the next round I came back from down 0-2 to force a game 5 but ended up losing by a run. Biggio, of course, had 1 hit in the entire 6 games of my playoffs and left 4 runners stranded in the final game. Womp womp.

I won my division, and had the league leaders in wins (Walter Johnson with 20), batting average (Tony Gwynn at .348), and HR (Gavvy Cravath with 37). Won the first two games of the division series, then dropped the next three and was eliminated.

On one hand, it’s yet another postseason disappointment. At this point I feel like the '90s Braves.

On the other hand, I’m perfectly happy not being promoted into a Perfect league.

Yup! I’d like my team to play more consistently but it was perfect to jump up into the WC, win the WC game, and then lose in the next round after a fun and tight series. And then stay in Gold where I’m more likely to do well.

Just finished up a very quiet season - Annandale won a division but got clobbered in the division series by the wild card team (that went on to win the league series). Leesburg got into the wild card game but I’ve never won a wild card game I don’t think, so of course they lost.

Aside from that, I dismantled my Texas Rangers MLB-themed team and restructured it as the Washingtoon Senators, where I am using any player who ever wore a Washington Senators jersey. Though most of the players you think of from the Senators weren’t terribly good (excepting in the 1920s and 1930s), as it turns out, the Senators had some pretty decent guys come by and play a year or two. As a result, I have the potential to have a good team… it’s not there yet, for sure, but it’s something to work towards.

I assembled the team yesterday and last night and since I’m home, I am able to check on them. They started the season 1-4 (or was it 1-5?). Last in batting, last in pitching. Oh yeah, they’re an authentic Washington Senators team, that’s for sure!!

Charlatan, I recommend the 85 OVR Cecil Travis card, if you haven’t picked him up already. Kind of a poor man’s Wade Boggs. Lefty who hits for a good average with a lot of doubles and very few homers or walks. Defensively, he’s perfectly fine at 2B, and can fill in at 3B or SS when needed.

Thanks for the rec - I have him on one of my Annandale team but I picked up another copy (for 8k!) for the Senators. On both teams I’m using him at 2B - Annandale has Appling and Boggs at SS/3B and the Senators are going with Joe Cronin/Toby Harrah.

Anyone else having issues with OOTP20 this morning? I keep getting a strange result on my team page that tells me I’m 21 and 5 and leading my division by 8 games and the entire league by 5. I think it’s busted cuz there is no way in hell that’s true.

Sounds to me like you’re livin’ the dream!

There was a message today when I opened OOTP20 about a Diamond Pack special. What does that even mean? I opened Perfect Team and it shows them for 20k. Is that a special price? Or is the special that they’re being offered at all today? They seem like a pretty lousy deal.