OOTP Strategy: Winning Fake Baseball the Saber Way

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.