OOTP Baseball: Winning Fake Baseball the Saber Way

By Sabermetrician

(Ed.-Whoever put that OOTP graphic in the articles thread, bravo. I want a bigger version of that.)

We've covered how to run a pitching staff, specifically, into the ground with workloads that would kill actual men. But now that you have a winning staff, how do you score the runs to support them?

A Useful Bat

I don't need to tell you to have the best batters possible. Unfortunately, that's the hardest part. Player acquisition is a difficult beast to tame, and the subject of another article. But what makes a useful bat? Let's look at each component of offensive ratings.

Batting Average

BA is the driving force in the value of all players, real or simulated. Anywhere from half to most of a players value is in his BA. This applies to the ability to get on base as well as power. Thus, a player who cannot hit for at least some minimal average is of no use at the major league level. Each sim league establishes the minimal rating where a player can hit for a sustainable average. In the Strike 3 Sim League, the minimal BA rating is 6. Case in point:

Tony "Stretch" Rodriguez (Note the huge variance in good and bad years. Tony can swing hard, but can also power a small town with the wind he produces.)

Unfortunately, average is the statistic most prone to fluctuation. Look at Tony again. He's all over the damn place. Fortunately, OOTP allows for BAs to stay high on high-contact players fairly consistently with the right support. If a player can hit for average consistently enough, he has value even with the lack of secondary skills. Case in point:

John Woodmansee

Gap Power

Hitting to the gaps, properly, is simply the ability to hit doubles. OOTP, for some reason, differentiates this ability from homerun power. This means that a player can lace line drives into the gaps all day without poking them out,

Luis Llanes

or touch second base only when he muscles it over the fence.

Tom "Dynamite" Loose

The thing to remember is that gap power can give a player value even when he doesn't hit bombs, as in the case of Llanes, or hurt the value of an otherwise complete hitter, as with Loose. Don't ignore it.

Homerun Power

Homeruns are largely intuitive to you by now. The more, the better.

Discipline/Eye

Now, most of you would probably think that this is most important rating to me. You'd be wrong. Batting average is the most important, with power second. Batting eye, while vital in real life, is almost a tertiary concern in OOTP. Discipline can be extremely valuable to a player when at the highest level. Look at the walk leaders in you league, and they'll always be 9s or 10s. But discipline doesn't guarantee that a player gets on base. Take a look again at Tony Rodriguez and Tom Loose. Both have a 10 eye, but Loose has a career .399 OBP in contrast to Rodriguez's .339 OBP. OBP is in part driven by BA and power. The lack of those things minimizes a player's ability to draw walks. Having walks doesn't make you succeed, but piles on to value created by other means. Conversely, you can succeed without drawing walks, but it's tough.

Avoid Ks

Now here is a rating probably ignored by most, but possessing probably a huge amount of value if utilized correctly. While Contact is the ability to hit, Avoid Ks is the ability to maximize contact. A player with low Avoid Ks doesn't get to make the good contact nearly as often as a player with a higher Avoid Ks rating, even if the Contact rating is the same. Go back to Luis Llanes. Wonder how he hits at all with no discipline or homerun power? It's that Avoid Ks rating that keeps him going. Ever wonder why Tony Rodriguez hits .200 when he has a sustainable Contact, and tons of power and plate disicipline? His Avoid Ks is low enough that the whiffs pile up to ruin him. Do not underestimate the value of not striking out.

Stealing Bases

Done efficiently, stealing bases can add value to a player otherwise regarded as unimportant. The level of efficiency needed to make steals worth the effort varies from league to league, but you should adjust the efficiency needed up as the run-scoring increases in the league. Generally, if a guy can't be at least 66% successful, he shouldn't run. Rarely, you have a basepath commando so good that he takes runs himself into being a great player.

Paul "The Fireman" Galeana (The awesomest nickname ever.)

In closing: You can't hit a homerun without swinging the bat.