Teams Collapsing

[acmilan109]

Hello

I am new to the game and am really enjoying the challenge, However one thing is annoying me. I have played 2 seperate games for one season a piece. My first one was with the Red Sox, Jump outta the gate perfectly making only one major trade sending Ortiz to Detroit for Cabrera and got to a record of 83 and 50, I was 5 games ahead of the yankees and had the best record in baseball... The final month of the season went terribly though and i ended up 93 and 69 and missed out on the wildcard by a game to the rays. Which was more then annoying.

Annoyed by that collapse i started a new game with San Fran, Again making a major trade early in the game for Cabrera (love the guy) for Cain/sanchez and others, got some young and some crap pitching with the deal as well. Again my team started out well and continued to do well. I got to 74 and 50 and again thought I was destined for the play offs. This time i thought i would strenghten my team so that i wouldn't collapse, I added Stephen Drew (batting an obscene .371) and Dan uggla (32 Home Runs) without giving up anything major. Only to watch my team AGAIN collapse to a record of 84 and 78 and miss the play offs despite no major injuries.

So my question is how do i stop this from happening?? Or is it the game correcting my good starts by giving me bad finishing. So that I finish with the record my team deserves??

[Kitsune]

Could be Chemistry... although I've had the opposite happen to me the last two seasons in my fictional league - horrible starts, often 5-6 games from 1st come the all star break only to win the division and the league championship.

[bababui]

Or, especially with the Giants, were were the teams as good as their records in the first place? Almost all my teams go through good and bad months.

Another idea, if you have the time, is to manage all your games. You should see more success as you are smarter than the AI controlling your team during simming.

[PhillieFever]

You did finish with the records your teams deserved.They just weren't good enough.The game engine does not look at your team and say oh yeah I'm gonna screw this guy, it just dosen't happen

[Raidergoo]

I notice that you have traded for top hitting. Have you tried adding pitching? How are your bullpens?

[acmilan109]

thank you, i'll try managing more games to get better results : )

haha.. I didn't think the game just screwed me, I was just wondering why it happened twice ... I even went to the steps of improving my team the second time and still got done.

I just wanted to know some suggested adjustments I could make so when I play again tonight it doesn't happen again??

[acmilan109]

The pitching thing... Um the boston game, It wasn't too bad, i didn't really trade away to much top pitching.. Maybe just Masterson/bucholz, but my rotation and my bullpen was still strong.

San Fran, differently story, the cabrera trade I lost cain and sanchez and only really replaced them with porcello (injured) gallaraga and edwin jackson. Then i added brad Penny midseason... My bullpen was probably sh*thouse, didn't really add anything to it : ( and might have lost players with the later trades.

[Gambo]

Here's little explaination and tip you may be overlooking and a very common one.

The 1st game I played that used a fatigue system was APBA Baseball for Windows (Great Game). The way that games fatigue system was set up was it was based on real usage as a stat sim. Essentially, if you used your players too much, by the end of the year they would be "tired" more often than not.

I think too often the same occurs in OOTP. People cruise early in the season as they play their stars way to often without resting them while the computer benches theirs more often. Come August and September, sure your players don't appear tired as their fatigue is about 85-90% (numbers approximated) on a regular basis but your opponents are 90-95%. Over those last 50 games this makes a bigger difference than you think. Baseball is a sport where a 10 game swing over 50 games can make a world of difference.

[Pirate Fan]

My opinion is that the game does designate teams as "on a cold streak" from time to time and when it makes this designation it is very hard to win games. In my experience the cold streaks usually last 10-12 games so I'd guess you experienced one of these during the collapses.

For example in the on-line league in which I participate the team that won it all last season endured a 10-game losing streak during the season. That team played something like .700 ball not counting those 10 games and I have seen numerous examples similar to that one. In the solo league I am now playing, for instance, my team is 52-25 not counting the two cold streaks I endured in which I went 4-19 combined.

Also, I would advise against trading for a player who appears to have been hitting higher than his ratings appear to justify for any significant period of time. My experience has been that these players are good candidates for protracted and excrutiating (if the player is on your team) slumps.

[acmilan109]

thanks for that : )... i'll rest my stars more during the early months of the season... No more blowing out Timmy Lincecum's arm..

Also i won't be trading for the stephen drews of the world : )

[bababui]

This iteration punishes starters who get around 100 pitches and relievers going through the lineup the second time.

[Dogzilla]

Are you sure you're not playing the Mets?

[eriqjaffe]

Maybe you should stop trading for Cabrera, he's clearly the problem.

[GBS]

Originally Posted by Gambo

Here's little explaination and tip you may be overlooking and a very common one.

The 1st game I played that used a fatigue system was APBA Baseball for Windows (Great Game). The way that games fatigue system was set up was it was based on real usage as a stat sim. Essentially, if you used your players too much, by the end of the year they would be "tired" more often than not.

I think too often the same occurs in OOTP. People cruise early in the season as they play their stars way to often without resting them while the computer benches theirs more often. Come August and September, sure your players don't appear tired as their fatigue is about 85-90% (numbers approximated) on a regular basis but your opponents are 90-95%. Over those last 50 games this makes a bigger difference than you think. Baseball is a sport where a 10 game swing over 50 games can make a world of difference.

Is this just Gambo's opinion or is this true? If true, why doesn't the player profiles so them as 80% or so rested on a regular basis at seasons end.....or does it? I never checked.

[bschr682]

Originally Posted by Gambo

Here's little explaination and tip you may be overlooking and a very common one.

The 1st game I played that used a fatigue system was APBA Baseball for Windows (Great Game). The way that games fatigue system was set up was it was based on real usage as a stat sim. Essentially, if you used your players too much, by the end of the year they would be "tired" more often than not.

I think too often the same occurs in OOTP. People cruise early in the season as they play their stars way to often without resting them while the computer benches theirs more often. Come August and September, sure your players don't appear tired as their fatigue is about 85-90% (numbers approximated) on a regular basis but your opponents are 90-95%. Over those last 50 games this makes a bigger difference than you think. Baseball is a sport where a 10 game swing over 50 games can make a world of difference.

Do u mean that (for example) a star player playing the last 7 games of a season in a row without a break will tire at a higher rate than that same player playing the first 7 games of a season in a row without a break?

I guess i mean does OOTP somehow track fatigue across the whole season? I know it gives u the fatigue % when u look at the player pages but does the rate at which a player fatigues per game increase as the player plays more games throughout the season? If so thats amazing i never caught on to that and now i seriously need to tweak my subbing of players.

[Athletics17]

I have been focusing on the depth charts lately and making sure that I have a good rotation with my players. It has been helping so my stars are less fatigued and they haven't been injured as much and also giving my bench players more experience so if I do have to put them in they have more at bats. Seems to work better for me and I haven't had as many huge slumps.

Another thing is that most of my players are pretty good defensively. A few less errors will help in keys games, especially when you miss the playoffs by one or two games.

[jasonn29tn14]

My three word solution to fatigue issues : platoon, platoon, platoon