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Michael "Air" Jordan 1x Gold Glove 1x World Series 7x All Star Hall of Fame: 16% Career Earnings: $442,820,000   One of baseball's most prominent two-way players, Michael "Air" Jordan began his career as the rawest of raw prospects, peaked early, and was more or less cooked by age 30. At his peak he was one of the game's most popular -- and controversial -- players: his relentless competitive drive and willingness to vocalize his thoughts made him a polarizing figure both in and out of the clubhouse. His insane work ethic and natural athleticism (and a weak Tigers roster) propelled him through the minors faster than anyone had anticipated. He was a contributing major leaguer at 20 and really peaked at 23, with his 2029 season the best two-way effort in modern baseball history. Injuries began to pile up early on for Jordan, however; that coupled with his natural draw to controversy and complete inability to handle losing made for some crazy press conferences. Jordan did turn his early peak into baseball's first $50m AAV contract, but didn't find much success at the plate or on the mound once he moved on from Detroit. No one really knew why his nickname was "Air," and, for some reason, Jordan was often asked if he thought he might've been better at some other sport. I guess we'll never know.
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Jun 15, 2021 22:13
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Usaburo "Sinner" Konishi 3x Rolaids Reliever of the Year 2x World Series Champion 5x All Star Career earnings: $90,460,000  For those who saw him play, Usaburo "Sinner" Konishi remains one of the most entertaining and memorable pitchers in baseball history. His approach to the game was simple: "throw it by 'em," said in Japanese. He relied almost exclusively on a simple 4-seam fastball, which he could throw well past 100 mph and hit any part of the strike zone any time he wanted. He had a curveball, technically speaking, but only threw it when he was offended or angered by a batter's disrespectful behavior. A notorious playboy, Konishi threw himself into the celebrity lifestyle in Seattle and back home in Japan, building a legendary public reputation as a playboy and womanizer. He was regularly seen with many of Japan's most beautiful and eligible women, and was a frequent and popular talk show and podcast guest in both Japanese and American media. His legendary fastball held up well into his mid-30s, and it wasn't until 2034 that its triple digit heat began to wane. He remained an effective -- if somewhat less enthralling -- reliever until age 38, which he finally announced he was leaving the game for good. It wasn't after his retirement -- upon his rejoining the monastic lifestyle -- that the public became aware of the truth: Konishi was actually a practicing Buddhist monk and had been completely celibate nearly all of his adult life. This revelation only seemed to add to his celebrity in Japan, resulting in a renaissance of interest in the Buddhist lifestyle as young Japanese people sought to capture a bit of Sinner's baseball magic in their own lives.
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Jun 15, 2021 22:29
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bewbies posted:[b]Usaburo "Sinner" Konishi ...okay this is fantastic
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Jun 16, 2021 00:04
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Ichiro "Bitter Melon" Suzuki 7x Silver Slugger 12x All Star Career Earnings: $861,680,000 Hall of Fame: 1st Ballot, 96.4%  One would think that Ichiro starting his career in MLB at age 20 would easily bust through Pete Rose's Great Compiler hits record. 21 seasons later, it was injuries -- not a lack of ability -- that kept Ichiro from the top of that pedestal. The Bitter Melon came over to the US on his own as a teenager and found work with an indy ballclub in...Indy. After a month or so there, he was spotted by a Cleveland Indians/Spiders scout and immediately signed to a nice prospect deal (I'm not sure if this is even legal IRL but that's how this went). The Bitter Melon worked his way through minor league ball quickly, and made his debut as a 20 year old September callup. Almost immediately, he flashed the elite contact hitting, outfield arm, and speed on the basepaths that would define his career. Over the next decade it became a summer ritual for the baseball world to see if Ichiro could hit the legendary .400. Four times he hit .390 or better. Twice he DID hit over .400, but didn't have the PA's to qualify. His age 30 season was his annus mirabilis, when he put up 10.1 WAR...but lost the MVP vote to some guy named Wrona. He'd lead the league in WAR twice...in his 30s...but was never awarded an MVP. His 116.1 WAR is good for 14th all-time, his 3566 hits good enough for 7th. Ichiro only had 4 seasons in 21 where he didn't spend significant time on the IL, and two of his best years were nearly cut in half by serious injury. Still, he was an easy first-ballot hall-of-famer and a clear inner circle guy, and is far more popular and well-liked than Pete Rose ever was. His .372 career average stands alone as the best of all time. bewbies fucked around with this message at 15:34 on Jun 16, 2021 |
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Jun 16, 2021 15:31
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Ichiro was less than 40 PA from hitting .400 for a season. 
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Jun 16, 2021 15:58
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Ayami "Heartthrob" Sato 1x Rookie of the Year Career Earnings: $5,790,000 Ayami Sato was a trailblazer in two respects. First -- and most important -- she was the first female to play high-level professional baseball in both the United States and Japan. She also showed the baseball world that there was still a place for pitchers that relied on wicked movement, guile, and deception. Sato tossed an absolutely wicked curve-slider combo that induced a ton of lousy contact and struck out a fair share of batters. Sato herself noted how her gender even helped her in this regard: beefy male batters were overeager to club the little lady's pitches over the fence, and so regularly overswung curveballs in the dirt or sliders far off the plate...which then had the effect of enraging them...when then led to more wild swings against 60 mph pitches. Sato did very well in American AA ball in particular, working as a starter for a couple of seasons where she was clearly above average, even against the top male prospects in the land. She never really got her shot at AAA, and frustrations with the slow movement of her career in the US prompted her to jump on a lucrative deal with the Yomiyuri Giants of the NPB. Her first season back in Japan was excellent -- not only did she excel on the field (winning the JCL Rookie of the Year) -- she was also a sensation off of it. Her no-nonsense attitude and obvious talent made her an instant favorite in the clubhouse, and her staunch refusal to be drawn into bad exchanges with sexist fans, commentators, and opponents gave her a saint-like quality she'd never relenquish. The public message she settled on became her catch phrase: "you can play too!" It became a rallying cry for girls in Japan and elsewhere that wanted to play baseball, and sure enough, a whole new generation of female ballplayers began to grow where once there were so few. Sato's NPB career was good-not-great by the numbers, and she was eventually released after a series of injuries. The Cleveland Spiders decided to offer her one last shot in the US, which she jumped on...even at age 35, and with an increasingly bad arm. After a couple of rough appearances in AA and AAA, her UCL gave way, and thus ended the pioneering career of the Heartthrob. Upon retirement, she established a girl's baseball academy with locations in both the US and Japan; this quickly turned into a series of semi-pro leagues that proved wildly popular with local fans and players alike. 
bewbies fucked around with this message at 14:55 on Jun 17, 2021 |
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Jun 17, 2021 14:52
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Daemon "Demon Crow" Wrona 6x MVP 1x Rookie of the Year 6x Gold Glove 8x Silver Slugger 3x Playoff MVP 1x World Series Champion 12x All-Star Career Earnings: $703,600,000 Hall of Fame: 1st Ballot, 99.1%  For all-too-brief a period, the Demon Crow was probably the best baseball player who ever lived. He didn't just do everything well -- he was elite. At Everything. He hit for power. He hit for average. He was impossible to strike out. He walked constantly. He was brilliant on the bases. He showed both range and arm in the outfield. And he put up the best seasons of baseball anyone ever did. The excellence of his 2035 season is unlikely to ever be surpassed; the fans who saw him play still talk about how he dominated the best baseball players in the land like no one before. And then, somewhat infamously, did NOT come through in the playoff clutch. The injury bug started to show up more regularly in 2039, and he'd only play one full season in the 12 after that. Nonetheless, he remained a relentless OBP monster and quality all-around ballplayer even into his late 30s. His 2049 season in particular stands out for Mets fans: they'd been so jealous of their cross-town rival's superstar the decade prior, and embraced the Demon Crow as one of their own. He responded with a brilliant age-39 season...not quite so brilliant as Ted Williams, but close. After retirement, Wrona returned to a cabin the hills above Louisville, Kentucky, and virtually disappeared from private life. He did have one brief foray back into the spotlight: a Little League team he coached made it to the LLWS one year, and the Demon Crow -- not wanting to be recognized -- used a pseudonym and wore fake glasses and a fake mustache the entirety of the tournament. It wasn't until the final game that someone figured it out, and once word reached the internet, memes of the legendary Demon Crow sitting in a little league dugout with fake glasses and a fake mustache became the viral event of the year.
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Jun 17, 2021 15:10
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bewbies posted:Hall of Fame: 1st Ballot, 99.1%
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Jun 17, 2021 15:15
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oh man those injuries suck, that's a shame
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Jun 17, 2021 15:19
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:oh man those injuries suck, that's a shame Can we get a re-run of his career in hopes of getting one where he didn't get hurt?
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Jun 17, 2021 15:48
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frankenfreak posted:I wonder what the argument for not voting for him would look like. There’s always those few guys who don’t vote for the obvious hall of famer so they can give their pet project that never had a chance the extra vote. Like everyone knows they’re going in, and those people don’t care about unanimity.
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Jun 17, 2021 17:41
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habeasdorkus posted:Can we get a re-run of his career in hopes of getting one where he didn't get hurt? yeah, I will reload him as an 18-year-old with the same potential and everything but super low injury probability. watch the old talent change randomness thing turn him into a career minor leaguer
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Jun 17, 2021 17:44
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wasn't he already durable to begin with?
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Jun 17, 2021 17:57
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honestly that feels way too accurate to real life. a few years of absolute sublime performance only to succumb to continuing injuries to prevent being one of (if not the best) that ever was.
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Jun 18, 2021 04:22
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Trust me to arrive just as the thread ends. I hate to criticise the OP, but he did also set the injury frequency to High. I presume that that affects every aspect of the simulation. I realise that it's there for the challenge, but it's rather regrettable when a RL athlete has his career ruined by injury and it's presumably even more frequent here.
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Jun 18, 2021 04:48
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IcePhoenix posted:wasn't he already durable to begin with? I think he was...which makes it all the more tragic. it's having the injury setting on high is definitely the most realistic setting, but it does suck when fantastic players get run down by age 30. as in this case happened with both Josh Gibson and wrona. that said, hard charging base stealing center fielders just tend to have a short shelf life in this sport. that being said the variability works pretty well and there are definite outliers for durability as well, as we shall see.
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Jun 18, 2021 11:33
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bewbies posted:I think he was...which makes it all the more tragic. I can't remember the name of the series, but there is at least one sport game where one can turn down/off major injuries but keep minor & moderate ones. I take it that OoTP is just High/Medium/Low/Off?
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Jun 18, 2021 16:51
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I'd be surprised if OOTP had something it simulated less in depth than average, but I've also been surprised before. What I want to know, is does the game model players being suspended at all? I don't think I've ever seen a sports game where having a sufficiently big enough poo poo head on your team can lead to ejections and suspensions. EDIT: Except for a couple of baseball ones where you, the player, could deliberately start playing Bean Ball.
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Jun 18, 2021 17:01
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Veryslightlymad posted:I'd be surprised if OOTP had something it simulated less in depth than average, but I've also been surprised before. OOTP has suspensions pop up occasionally for in game fights, but I haven't noticed players with bad personal traits get those events more often than guys with good traits. What you will get with bad character guys are more clubhouse issues. Guys who are outspoken can call out their teammates and then you have the option to do nothing about it, suspend them for X number of games, or just straight up release them. I've also seen an event where's a dude will open a nightclub during the off-season and then get suspended when things go wrong on opening night.
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Jun 18, 2021 17:38
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JustJeff88 posted:I can't remember the name of the series, but there is at least one sport game where one can turn down/off major injuries but keep minor & moderate ones. I take it that OoTP is just High/Medium/Low/Off? I think it has five or six different settings? ranging from no injuries to bloodbath. something like that and it does indeed has suspensions, they actually happen pretty frequently. our own team legend Bobby Witt Jr was suspended multiple times early on in his career for brawling with pitchers.
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Jun 18, 2021 18:11
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Veryslightlymad posted:I'd be surprised if OOTP had something it simulated less in depth than average, but I've also been surprised before.     e: this is also the only instance I can think of where I felt like OOTP actually has the code to blackball someone IcePhoenix fucked around with this message at 18:27 on Jun 18, 2021 |
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Jun 18, 2021 18:25
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there's a wonderful fumble dimension where they hit something like 3,000 batters in a single season
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Jun 19, 2021 17:32
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Schnorkles posted:there's a wonderful fumble dimension where they hit something like 3,000 batters in a single season https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHmnWc2sysc (although I would assume most people following this thread have seen all Jon Bois videos)
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Jun 19, 2021 17:48
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Benny "the Jet" Rodriguez 7x Gold Glove 1x Playoff MVP 4x World Series Champion 3x All-Star Career Earnings: $162,420,000 Hall of Fame: 16.0%, second ballot  Benny the Jet was as throwback a ballplayer as one could throw back. Brilliant with the gloves and on the basepaths, a rock solid contact hitter and leadoff man (early in his career), a passionate competitor and one of the most popular Mariners of all time. Benny got his callup at the ripe old age of 21, and absolutely lit the league on fire that first year. Benny's old-school approach to baseball electrified the long-suffering Mariners fan base, inspired his teammates, and helped bring 3 titles to Seattle. Benny never again would hit like he did that rookie year, but his elite glove and speed kept him at or near the top of the WAR leader charts for most of the 2020s. In fact, he led the league in WAR three different seasons...but never really came close to winning and MVP. Benny wasn't bitter about it, but baseball purists were universally annoyed. Benny suffered a massive knee injury in 2030, but in truth, his bat was in decline years before that. He'd never again steal huge base numbers, but the elite glove and clubhouse presence were largely unchanged. We brought him over to Oakland on a nothing deal, and he excelled in a part-time role for a loaded Athletics team for 3 years. He enjoyed one more outstanding season in Cincinnati as a 34-year old (parlaying a minor league deal into a big-league extension), but couldn't make a go of it the next season, and hung them up after 2037. After retirement, Benny fulfilled another lifelong dream, joining the fire department in his hometown of Los Angeles. He bought a house adjacent to an abandoned lot, and within a week, had fashioned the empty space into the finest sandlot baseball field in America.
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Jun 19, 2021 18:14
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Bo "Bo Knows" Jackson 5x Gold Glove 2x World Series Champion 3x All Star Career Earnings: $325,760,000 Hall of Fame: 22.7%, first ballot  Bo Jackson was one of the most exciting "tools" prospects in baseball history: no one had ever really seen that combination of raw power, speed, arm, and sheer athleticism in the game before. The Texas Rangers drafted him first overall in 2022...and set about completely rebuilding the player. They changed his swing from one of pure power to a reliable contact swing, keeping his strikeout numbers down and creating tons of hard-hit balls into the gaps (he'd lead the league in doubles 5 times and finish with the 9th-most doubles in MLB history). His blazing speed on the basepaths was always limited a bit by a tendency to get picked off, or not get a great jump: his CS% of over 33% for his career (including one year where he was nabbed 26 times in 51 attempts) tarnished his eye-popping speed a bit. He was one of the best defensive outfielders of his generation, mating tremendous range with one of the strongest OF arms in baseball history: his 182 OF assists is behind only the great Clemente in the modern era for a RF. People always wondered what Bo might've done on a football field: his physique and athleticism seemed superhuman, and seemed a natural fit for the gridiron. Once when asked about it, Bo replied "what kind of crazy man plays two sports professionally?" Bo retired at age 38 and got down and dirty with his favorite activity: hunting. He didn't know it at the time, but his skills as a hunter would come to help mankind far more than any of his crazy baseball skills ever could: Bo became a national hero as a soldier and general during the Great Feral Hog War of the 2040s.
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Jun 19, 2021 18:57
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bewbies posted:Bo became a national hero as a soldier and general during the Great Feral Hog War of the 2040s. *desire to learn more intensifies*
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Jun 20, 2021 04:18
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Bobby "Bats" Witt Jr. 7x Gold Glove 4x Silver Slugger 1x Playoff MVP 4x World Series Champion 10x All-Star Hall of Fame: 85.7%, first ballot Career Earnings: $562,971,000  Bobby Bats' career always stirred a lot of spirited debate in baseball circles. Some folks pointed to his joining only Barry Bonds in the 500/500 club, his 3300+ hits, his defensive brilliance and versatility, his astonishing longevity and durability, and his multiple World Series rings as clear proof he was in baseball's inner circle of greatness. Detractors point out he never won an MVP, never had a WAR higher than 7.4 in a single season, and many of his incredible counting stats are due simply to the sheer size and scale of his career: he's 2nd behind only the Greatest Compiler in both games played and plate appearances. Bobby Bats does hold one record outright: his 4135 strikeouts are unlikely to ever be challenged (note: thanks to the era of the K, current career leader Reggie Jackson dropped to 24th overall on the all time K list). So what if he had 3300+ hits if his career average was only .257? So what if he hit 500 home runs if his career OPS is barely above average? Bobby was never troubled by any of this. He remained one of baseball's most popular players for 25 seasons, becoming a sort of demi-god in the Seattle baseball world and becoming a generational scouting archetype for a true 5-tool player. Bats ranks right along with Junior as the most popular Seattle ballplayers of all time; his surprisingly productive comeback season in Seattle as a 42 year old cemented his legacy. After retiring, he and his best buddy -- Jack Leiter -- started a baseball talk show called "Generations." These two former superstars and their aging fathers just sat around telling baseball stories to no one in particular, drinking beer on the air and usually not leaving Bobby's garage. It became MLB Network's most popular show by miles.
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Jun 21, 2021 14:30
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"Wacky" Jack Leiter 5x Cy Young 4x World Series Champion 9x All Star Hall of Fame: 97.1%, first ballot Career Earnings: $264,750,000  Jack Leiter basically had two careers. The first was as an intense fireball-throwing superstar for the great Mariners teams of the 2020s. In an era of extreme offense and specialized pitching, Wacky Jack was baseball's most prominent workhorse. He seemed to always be good for 200+ innings, running away with the pitcher WAR title (and Cy Young voting) every year for half a decade. He was a centerpiece of 3 World Series teams and the most beloved Mariners pitcher of all time. In 2031, he showed up for Spring Training as he had for most of the last decade: ready to work, ready to lead his staff, and ready to win baseball games. On his first practice pitch of the spring, however, the ball flew into the bleachers, and Jack stood on the mound with a limp arm and a mix of pain and sadness spread across his face. He'd virtually destroyed his rotator cuff -- ordinarily, a death sentence for a pitching career. After surgery and 6 months of relentless rehab, his reconstructed shoulder gave way during some exercises, and Jack had to endure a second major surgery. This one would take nearly a year and half to recover from. His contract with the Mariners ran out; and he'd miss three full seasons of baseball doing little but trying to rebuild his shoulder. Most players would have simply retired and taken their ticket to the Hall of Fame, but Jack wasn't quite done yet: in 2033, he signed a league-minimum contract with the Oakland A's, and to everyone's surprise, made the starting rotation out of spring training. He'd lost some heat on the fastball, but his control seemed even better, and he used his secondary pitches far more effectively. He'd put up 3 brilliant seasons in Oakland, nearly winning another Cy Young and propelling a young team to a World Series championship. He parlayed this into a big-money deal with the Cubs, and hung up two more solid seasons before the tank finally ran dry in 2038. Today, his talk show with his former teammate and best bud keeps him occupied, but he hasn't thrown a baseball since the last time he stepped on a major league mound.
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Jun 21, 2021 14:45
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Our 15 year career ended with some amusingly round numbers. Of the 2,430 games teams played under our leadership, we won 1515 of them, good for a .623 career win percentage. Our 2023 Mariners team set the record for wins in a season, while the 2024 and 2026 teams strolled to World Series victories. We'd win two more series in 9 seasons with the A's, making the playoffs every year but the two when we first took over the gong show that was the late 2020's A's. We're old now, and long since retired, but maybe someday a new iteration of us will try to GM...an indy league team...? Note: if there are any more player careers anyone wants to see let me know -- otherwise, this concludes this very fun iteration of OOTP Goonball!
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Jun 21, 2021 14:51
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bewbies posted:Note: if there are any more player careers anyone wants to see let me know -- otherwise, this concludes this very fun iteration of OOTP Goonball! Thanks yet again for running this. I do kinda like the idea of running an indie team. I'm personally most familiar with the American Association (or whatever it's currently called) which is home to the FM RedHawks and the Chicago Dogs and til recently the Saints. But maybe going to Mexico or Australia or something could be fun? Gonna keep a bookmark here as always.
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Jun 21, 2021 15:36
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Thanks so much for writing this, super engaging + entertaining
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Jun 21, 2021 16:46
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I've always wanted to see a global league with actual financial parity. Have teams in London, Istanbul, Cairo, Rio, Bordeaux etc. Since this game doesn't model travel time and fatigue, so far as I know, it's doable at least in theory.
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Jun 21, 2021 16:51
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Thanks much for the sim. Last time I checked OOTP came with lots of fantasy presets that were neat on paper but then auto-generated very badly (such as the "Pacific Rim" league that was 90% teams from east coast USA and mainland China). Everyone loves a good inaugural league draft though.
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Jun 21, 2021 18:03
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This was a blast, Bewbies. Thank you for running it!
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Jun 21, 2021 18:10
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This was a fun LP, thank you for running it. The fantasy leagues can be neat, but they require a lot of setup, and even then you just pop into a world without any generated history which is kind of weird. This 33 year old is a superstar and he has no career hits?
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Jun 21, 2021 19:16
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Thanks for running this LP, it was really fun! These OOTP LPs always give me the desire to play a management game of a sport I've never actually watched!
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Jun 21, 2021 19:35
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Thanks for running this LP! If you do end up diving into independent baseball, I’d love to see the triumphant return of my now defunct local team, the Bridgeport Bluefish of the Atlantic League. Not sure if they’re in the OOTP database though since they folded a few years ago.
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Jun 21, 2021 19:42
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This was fun as always.
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Jun 21, 2021 21:23
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Very fun bewbies, thank you for running it. e: i would be 100% there for an indy league game Schnorkles fucked around with this message at 16:20 on Jun 22, 2021 |
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Jun 22, 2021 16:18
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This was an awesome thread! Thanks for running it!
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Jun 22, 2021 21:05
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