OOTP Strategy: Winning Fake Baseball the Saber Way

[Saber]

How the hell do I win as many games as I do with less talent than most? Simple. I have an awful division. Also, I exploit OOTP. Here’s how:

Step 1: Know What a Good Pitcher Looks Like

OOTP, like real life, operates on peripheral statistics. A pitcher’s key numbers are his strikeouts, walks, homeruns, and hits allowed. The average pitcher will give up something along the lines of 7 hits, 6 strikeouts, 3 walks, and 1 homerun per 9 innings. Better than this equals a better pitcher, obviously. Judge players along these baselines. In my rotation, a starter with less than 7 endurance has no place. A 6 endurance starter may have value in a full 5-man rotation.

KEY NOTE: A pitcher is probably not viable with a stuff of under 6 in Mission’s league. Find your league’s minimum stuff rating, and don’t go below it. Low stuff means fewer Ks and many more hits. That’s not good.

Steps 2-5: Building a 4-Man Rotation

I don’t expect a team to have four great pitchers. Hell, I only have one who's above average (very above average). Michael Countryman happens to be fantastic, but take a good look at the other three who take the ball. William Moye, Robert Youngs, and Carlo Rodriguez don’t exactly make for 4 Aces. None of them have great peripherals, but all manage to do something well enough to not get shelled all of the time. What do they have in common then? They all eat innings. Where a starter in a 5-man can pitch up to 210 innings in a full healthy season, a starter in the 4-man will be in up to 250 frames (sometimes more). In a season that lasts just under 1500 innings, that means you get almost 2/3 of every game from your rotation. Four pitchers do most of the work.

SP Michael Countryman

SP William Moye

SP Robert Youngs

SP Carlo "Overpaid" Rodriguez

Steps 6-8: Find 3 (Three) Good Relievers

With 1000 innings taken by your starters, the pen has to soak up the other 500. Your top three relievers should take 300 innings of that. I believe that the best pitchers should get the most innings, almost regardless of tightly defined roles. I align these pitchers to get the most out of them, like so:

Mopup Reliever
1) 5th Starter Adam Loewen
2) Innings Sponge Robert "Used to be a Prospect" Lingenfelter

Middle Reliever
1) #3 Reliever Orestes "Unexplicably Good" Santiago
2) #2 Reliever Bobby Moors
3) #4 Reliever Augustine "K or HR" Jose
4) Innings Sponge Robert "Used to be a Prospect" Lingenfelter

Setup Reliever
1) #2 Reliever Bobby Moors
2) Ace Reliever Jeffrey Tackitt

Closer
1) Ace Reliever Jeffrey Tackitt

Step 9: The Best Place for Your 5th Starter is in the Bullpen

To account for injury or just someone sucking, I keep my presumable 5th starter doing mop-up work in the bullpen. That way, he gets major league innings while keeping the good relievers from getting tired in low-leverage junk. You should usually expect something on the order of 100-150 innings here.

Step 10: Get a Rubber-Armed Warm Body to do the Rest

Your 6th starter or some otherwise most useful pitcher will get 50+ innings at the bottom of the pen, soaking up innings in lost causes and blowouts. Frankly, I prefer endurance over quality. It doesn’t matter all that much, as long he takes the ball and doesn’t tire the other guys out with his suckitide.

[realmofotalk]

I could be nuts with my following comment on deciding between 4-man or 5-man rotation, but since any quality response is encouraged, I don't care.

I've resigned myself to the theory that at least one of your starting pitchers will be the weak link at a given point of the season, or worse, throughout the season. While a 4-man rotation is ideal and necessary if you don't have a competent 5th option (as in Anaheim's case with Adam Loewen), if I have that 5th starter I'm putting him in the rotation. By going with a 5-man rotation instead of a 4-man, you minimize losses with whichever starting pitcher is slumping so that he loses a 1/5 of your games instead of 1/4 of your games. Likewise, 2 slumping starters cost you 2 out of 5 games instead of half of your games, and so on.

But of course, if one's rotation resembles something like Chad Gaudin, Buddy Arnold, Freddy Almeda, Louis Wagner, and Richard Tucker, then it's hopeless. Not even Fishercat's deities Bill Belichick and Scott Pioli could've found a quick fix to that.

[Halladay_is_God]

On Endurance I avoid starters with 6; they don't deserve to be in a rotation unless your bullpen is lights out from top to bottom, because they will need to eat 3-4 innings per start. I usually try to get 8 or above, I don't like 7 at all but if I have a pitcher with the ratings I'll use him.

What about number of pitches? Anyone find a factor in anything or is it there to look pretty?
It’s not really a factor for me since I had success with all numbers (2 to 6?). Only case I try to avoid since I call it the Beerer Effect, relievers with 6 pitches, never like the idea of it, way too many pitches for my liking.


5-man or 4-man rotations, I side with the 5-man theory, since I agree with realmofotalk that it causes more losses than wins with the weak link pitcher, I find very risky to go with. I tried the 4-man for a couple of seasons, never worked for me even with starters with high endurance and a good enough bullpen at the time.

Playoffs are completely different in my mind; you ride the hell out of your 3-4 top pitchers (depending on the quality of the pitchers). I think going with 5 pitchers is pretty insane way to go, with the off days in the playoffs.

Bullpen I don't pay enough attention to, it’s always last on my build list, so I won't talk about it.


When you going to do the line-up side of things of Saber?


P.S. since I finally got my championship (with some help from Fisher ) I can talk big now, and I plan to add more to my list.

[bernie132000]

Can someone help me with playoffs. I have never won a series, even after consistantly winning 95+ games. My rotation and bullpen when I am LAD are very good, especially the top. I had a 4.5, 4.0 and a 3.5 in rotation, and a 4.5 and a 4.5 as set up and closer. My offense was okay, not great, but we gave up a lot of runs. In another league, I have the pitching, with a dominant 1, and average 2 and 3. I always go with a 3 man rotation. Is that bad? I am just at a loss, since I have lost 4 playoff series in a row, and I think I got swept in them all.

[realmofotalk]

I am just at a loss, since I have lost 4 playoff series in a row, and I think I got swept in them all.

The leagues prevent members who never post outside of the sim league forums from winning.

[browntown653]

I've actually become quite a fan of the 4-man rotation...there was just no need with Texas this year because of our immortal suckiness.

[McKain]

The leagues prevent members who never post outside of the sim league forums from winning.

That's a lie because I made the World Series once with Pittsburgh.

[browntown653]

Did you win?

[Porter]

I prefer the 4 man rotation over the 5 normally. Having 4 solid guys will beat having 4 solid guys and a scrub.

[Kingdom]

I've won two of the three leagues using 5 man rotations for the regular season, and then dropping it to a 3 man rotation (for the most part).

And the 6 endurance guys.. I've had good luck with them thus far (Carmona, Ennis, Tiano).

As for Anaheim in S3SL, consider they also have a pretty good offense (2nd in avg, 8th in walks, 7th in runs, 3rd in steals), so they manufacture a good deal of offense without top notch power.

[Saber]

That's something for another article. After all, aside from 2 great bats, my offense is not exactly hitting walls and working the middle.

[jpants10]

that's ok saber...i mean, with your payroll, seems all you do is pay guys just enough to buy their slumpbusters shrimp from the long john silvers...who expects power with that kind of pull?

[Kingdom]

You efficiently play small ball, which has been proven to work in real life as well.

[Saber]

that's ok saber...i mean, with your payroll, seems all you do is pay guys just enough to buy their slumpbusters shrimp from the long john silvers...who expects power with that kind of pull?

And just who the hell are you? Just some loser lurker? Don't waste my time.

[jpants10]

ass. i know where you sleep. check your pillow, i left a real lurker for you.