Sim 4 (May II): Who uploaded?

Cleveland
Hickory
Houston
Los Angeles
Maui
New York
River Cities
Seattle

I also made the following minor rules changes:

I increased the DFA and waiver periods to 18 days. This will allow teams to make claims for players. I also reinstated the DH at the AAA level (since that's how we had it back in 6.5).

In addition, I also reset the passwords of the owners who requested it.

Next sim on Thursday night.

Zev

We'll try for Monday Night

I was all set to run the sim tonight. However, there was a trade made (which was not put up on the blog -- hint, hint) which I cannot process since it involves an injured player. Therefore, I've notified the two owners and asked them to please advise on what they want done.



I'll wait to hear from them by tomorrow and then run the sim.



Zev

Password problems

Apparently, a few owners have told me that they are having password problems. Please check to see if you are having a problem and, if so, let Michael and I know via email or by posting here. I'll reset your passwords on Sunday night.

Thanks,

Zev

Sunday Night Sim

I'm sorry, folks, but I'm going to have to delay the sim until Sunday night.

Zev

Sim 3 (May I): Who uploaded?

Cleveland
Hickory
Houston
Los Angeles
New York
River Cities
Walla Walla

Next sim on Thursday night. Please make sure to upgrade to 9.2.11.

Zev

Please upgrade to 9.2.11

Thanks to Frank, I found out that there is a new patch available (described at "definitely the final patch for OOTP9"). The new patch upgrades the game to 9.2.11. However, there's a catch... the in-game upgrade tool doesn't recognize the new patch. To get the new patch (which was released on 12/12) you have to download it from the site. The page with the announcement and download instructions is here.

The sim is still in progress. I'll advise when it's done.

Zev

Sim Delayed

There was a problem with a team's import. I'm going to put off the sim until Saturday night so that the team import can be done correctly.

Zev

DH in the minors?

I am just looking for clarification, because it looks like I was burned with my lineups in some of the Minor League teams.

It looks like we use the DH in AA and A but not in AAA. Was this by design?

I am just wondering which lineups I need to set up in the minors. I thought because there was no DH in AAA that it was not used at all in the minors.

I personally like having the DH in the minors in that it gives you one more slot to place a batter that needs development.

What does everyone else think?

New Guy Checking In

Hello, all - 

My name is Frank; I use the screen name "storyteller0910" at the Straight Dope. It looks like I will be the new owner of the Hickory franchise in your league. Zev has asked me to post to this blog introducing myself and generally saying hello. So, uh, hello!

I'm going to download the OOTP 9.0 software tonight (I have a previous edition of the game), and get started orienting myself to the league's rules and SOPs. In the meanwhile, though, Zev has said that I should engage in trash talking, and so:

Your mama. All of you. My hordes of no-doubt elite talent will soon descend upon this league, as soon as I learn who, precisely, is in those hordes. Fear me.

And thanks for letting me join!

Cash Cap

Please consider this post as an invitation for dialogue, as I'm not sure that (a) I've identified a real problem; or (b) my proposed change will have any impact on the problem if one exists.

Here is my concern: I think it will be more difficult for rebuilding teams to become competitive in version 9.0 compared to version 6.5, particularly if a cash cap is in place. Is the $10 million cash cap still in effect in this league? I am wondering if we should consider eliminating it as a way to improve the competitive balance of the league.

According to the manual for 9.0, the primary way to increase a team's fan interest is by "winning." If other methods exist, the manual does not disclose them. Right now, the talent gap between the competitive teams and the rebuilding teams in this league is so great that "winning" is simply not realistic for many teams. This is compounded by the fact that promotional days are a thing of the past in 9.0. In 6.5, even a bad team could find at least a few games where it had a good chance of winning (against other bad teams), and hold promotional days during those games. For a rebuilding team, adding even a few fan interest points over the course of a season can be valuable.

Another difference between 9.0 and 6.5 appears to be the importance of player morale. From what I can tell, players on bad teams (like mine) tend to have low player morale, while players on good teams are markedly happier. This makes sense. But when you consider that the manual says unhappy players actually perform more poorly than they otherwise might, this presents another challenge for rebuilding teams. Furthermore, it will probably be more difficult for low morale teams to sign coveted free agents.

If the cash cap is removed, a rebuilding team could help to offset these obstacles by stockpiling cash. Then, at an appropriate time, the team could use that cash to acquire more talented players, either via trades or via free agency, to jumpstart its competitiveness. I play in another OOTP league without a cash cap, and it appears as though this strategy is being employed by at least one rebuilding team in that league, perhaps more.

Obviously there is some unavoidable bias here because I run one of the rebuilding teams. But if I am right that eliminating the cash cap might improve the competitive balance of the league, I think it is something worth considering for the league's long term survival. Greater competitiveness makes it more interesting, I think, regardless of where your team stands on the scale.

It is possible that eliminating the cash cap would have no effect on competitive balance, or perhaps even the opposite effect. But assuming that greater competitive balance is a goal we can all agree upon, perhaps there are other ways to get there even if the cash cap isn't the solution.

Any thoughts about any of this?

New Recruitment Thread Is Up

Here's the thread to recruit for a new owner for Hickroy. Please feel free to respond and answer any questions* that people may have.

Thanks,

Zev




* In case you weren't aware, the SDMB went back to free posting, so anyone can answer questions that prospective new owners may have.

A little light numbers crunching

There are all sorts of fun SABRmetric things available in OOTP9 of which I approve. I figure I'll occasionally riff on some of them.

Here's a means of calculating cost-effectiveness of players. That uses (VORP/salary*league minimum) as the metric. In effective, it penalizes you for paying too much, even for an effective player.

Here's the top 10 players in cost effectiveness:

New York	Mohammed Stelly	17
Brooklyn	James Banks	15.1
Seattle	Duane Gerhardt	14.1
Maui	Octavio Cabrales	13.9
Los Angeles	Thomas Cohen	13.3
River Cities	Frank Wooster	13.1
New York	Joshua Giddings	10.1
Walla Walla	Fernando Estrada	10.1
Hickory	Donald Hunnicutt	9.9
Hickory	Allen Reuter	9.8
Cleveland	Monte Gross	9.1
Danville	Fermin Perez	9.1
Cleveland	Christopher Pearsall	8.2
Los Angeles	Roger Painter	8.1

And here's the least cost effective:

Maui	Donald Goris	-7.8
Houston	Harry Johnson	-6.8
Cleveland	Nelson Garcia	-6.7
Houston	Coy Hendon	-5.6
Walla Walla	Joseph Bendel	-5.6
Hickory	George Labarre	-5.3
Houston	Basil Napoles	-5.3
Hickory	Jesus Morales	-5
Maui	Juan Henriquez	-4.8
Cleveland	Oscar Avendano	-4.4

Ain't numbers grand? There's a LOT of noise in these numbers over the first month. It'll be interesting to see how things develop as the sample size gets larger.

More fun: Win and run cost effectiveness. This is nothing more than the cost each team has racked up for these stats (how much salary spent/win or run). Yay!

Cost per win
Walla Walla	1,223,363
River Cities	1,066,824
Brooklyn	1,031,020
Los Angeles	952,473
Seattle	865,737
Saskatoon	749,628
Houston	714,535
Hickory	699,608
New York	626,860
Danville	521,381
Maui	480,347
Cleveland	354,912

Cost per Run
River Cities	128,019
Los Angeles	102,332
Walla Walla	97,869
Brooklyn	95,909
Seattle	93,090
Hickory	81,621
New York	81,414
Saskatoon	72,080
Houston	64,425
Danville	51,116
Maui	48,574
Cleveland	38,718

Thank God for deep pockets, that's all I have to say.

Sim 2 - April II: Who Uploaded?

Cleveland
Los Angeles
Houston
Maui
New York
River Cities
Saskatoon
Seattle

It's still Seattle and New York in front with identical 20-7 records.

The league file is ready for download. Reports will be uploading through the night.

In other news, I'm going to start recruiting on the boards for a new owner for Hickory.

Next sim on Thursday night.

Zev

REAL TRADE: River Cities and Maui make blockbuster!

Date: Putnam Street, Marietta!

Just two weeks into the season and the first huge trade of the year is confirmed! Maui has sent long time River Cities second sacker Timothy Palacio back to the Ohio River in exchange for a package of current and future talent! In return for the world class middle infielder Maui is receiving star prospects Robert Estill, Hugh Fortner, and current River Cities 2b Francis Armandariz.

Palacio, who was traded to the then Saskatoon franchise for Ronald Quijada at the beginning of last season, released this statement through his agent: "I'm glad to have this resolved. The rumors surrounding my trade from Maui have been unnerving. Given the respective state of the two franchises I'm thrilled to be going back to River Cities. I'm just a little frustrated that the year I'm not there they win the ring I've been hoping for. With luck I'll pick one up this year."

Reached for comment at his cabana retreat in Costa Rica, River Cities owner Nate Wooley says "C'mon, I did it as a favor to the guy. Saskatoon to Maui? What's up with that franchise? That sort of climate swing that they could all get the pneumonia or something? Plus, think of that infield now? Marzano, Palacio, Hukill, and Quijada? That's a murderers row around the basepaths."

Sources close to the team HQ informed this reporter that finances were also a large part of the deal. Palacio, locked in for this year and three more at less than $9 million per year, provides security at performance at a reasonable price. Locked in until he's 32 River Cities has a reliable 2B with great offense through his peak years.

Carrying his own bags at Canton-Akron airport prospect Estill said "Well, I was sort of hoping for a promotion. Izzy, my agent, told me I was RIGHT on the cusp of being called up. Now this happens. I hope I get a chance to contribute to the Mashers quickly. Of course, the bikini action in Mauii isn't going to hurt my morale."

Hugh Fortner, living above the Levee House Cafe in Marietta, only commented, "Huh, I'm surprise they remembered I was here. I've been patentiently performing in A-ball for a couple of years now."

Trade: Marietta and Seattle

Yet another Marietta-Seattle deal as Marietta acquires pitcher Juan Mandeville in return outfield prospect Rudolph Fu.

Los Angeles/Cleveland trade

Three second basemen were traded today in a deal between the Los Angeles Scorpions and Cleveland Steamers. Heading to California is 2B James Grimes, in exchange for 2B Nathanael Burton and hot 2B prospect Leon Cardoso. Also heading to Cleveland is MR prospect Richard Kane, who is rumored to be wondering if he's being converted to the infield, too, as well as Los Angeles's 5th round pick in 2014, which this reporter assumes will be used by Cleveland to draft another 2B.

"We knew going into the season that we needed another bat in the infield," Los Angeles GM Michael Weintraub announced from his seaside office at the Scorpion Pit, the team's oceanside stadium in Redondo Beach, CA. "We've inquired about the big names at the keystone position, but we either got no response, or the other GMs wanted too much. Jeremy was an easy sell."

Cardoso, one of the top prospects in the meagre Los Angeles farm system, was a recent first round pick (#12 overall) in the amateur draft.

Wondering Where The News Stories and Player Pages Are?

Yep, I know that there are a bunch of broken links... I messed up last night while uploading the files. They are on the site, but you just have to know where to look. I ended up uploading some of them into the wrong directory on the site.



If you find a broken link in a URL, try eliminating the /html portion of it. For example, the story about Bill Turek's injury should be here:



http://ootp9.izev.com/reports/html/leagues/league_100_news_158.html



But in reality, it's here:



http://ootp9.izev.com/reports/leagues/league_100_news_158.html



I'll try to fix it over the weekend.



Zev

Sim 1: Who Uploaded?

Cleveland
Houston
Los Angeles
Maui
New York
River Cities
Seattle
Walla Walla

So, what's happened?

Well, Seattle (11-3) and New York (12-2) are off to fast starts.

Good news for New York: Bradford McGreevey threw a shutout against Danville.
Bad news for New York: 2B Bill Turek is gone until next spring with a ruptured back.

Next sim is next Thursday.

First OOTP9 Trade

Seattle and Maui today agreed on the first trade under OOTP9 rules. Seattle is sending the wildly popular reliever Wesley Elton and minor league starter David Milam to Maui for reliever Dalton Davis and minor league starter Kevin Stephens.

"We're excited to have Kevin rejoin the organization," said GM Mack Shultz. "He's been a big help in the past and will be a great insurance policy in case of injury. We also welcome Dalton to the bullpen. We think he's been misused in the past in the Maui franchise and hope he'll take a big step forward for us."

The trade was somewhat puzzling to the rest of the baseball community, as Elton has been outstanding the last two years with a career ERA of just 2.83, is making the league minimum, and is very popular among Seattle fans. But, scouts have often claimed that Davis's ceiling is very high, and that may have been worth the expected backlash from fans. Plus, the sentimental value of bringing Stephens back into the Seattle fold was significant for the softie Shultz.

Meanwhile, the Seattle fans did not feel the same. Sharon Love, co-founder of Wesley's Women, protested outside the Seattle front office. "We still love the Monarchs. But this is just intolerable. Wesley was hot. Really, really hot. I loved watching his muscles ripple underneath that uniform." The rest of Ms. Love's account is, unfortunately, unsuitable for printing in a family blog.