Twins OOTP24 Simulation

[danielp19653]

I recently picked up Out of The Park Baseball 24 to pass some time and fill the baseball craving leading up to opening day. For those of you unfamiliar, OOTP is a baseball management simulator. You can control the rosters, salaries, trades, extensions, drafts, lineups, and even managerial decisions mid game. The difference between it and other games like MLB The Show is that you do not actually play the game as a player. Every pitch and swing is simulated based on the projected ratings of players. Given that I thought it would be fun to spin up the new season a little early and play through the month of April. 

I didn't make any changes to the Twins roster, Polanco was set to a day to day status to start and so I kept him on the roster instead of an early alternative, and Kirilloff was marked for about a month and a half for recovery and was replaced by Wallner on my roster. This is slightly different than what the Twins did keeping Larnach, but the game rates Larnach as a below average player and Wallner as an average one through scouting reports and I decided to roll with it. The other slight change I made was choosing a 6 man rotation with Ober kept on the roster over Alcala who started the year in AAA. 

So since we know this is a simulator and is regarded as being one of the better ones out there I'm going to treat this as the only possible outcome for the month of April. The Twins will wrap up the first month of the season sitting in 1st place of their division and with a few surprising performances to get there. First off nothing better than sitting a solid 6 games over the Guardians and 15 games over .500 to get some excitement going!

The biggest surprise of the season will be Gallo wrapping up the first month in a Twins uniform with an absurd (for him) .292 average while also putting up 9 HR and 19 RBIs. The only other Twin showing off the power potential to that degree is Buxton who also has 9 HR and 24 RBIs, while the average is a bit lower at a .266 both of them sitting with an OPS over .900 is a big reason why the Twins will be able to race out in front of the division. Everything else seems pretty close to career norms for the lineup minus a bit of a sophomore slump out the gate for Miranda and Wallner playing to his rookie designation with 3 HR and .182 average. 

The lineup may be producing but that alone doesn't get you 15 games over .500, the starters have been lights out from the first pitch with 5 of the 6 starters under a 3.25 ERA and 4 of them under 3. Everyone is chewing through innings well and taking their turn each time called upon which leaves little room for error for the opposing staffs. Ober has a pretty unsightly ERA sitting around 6 but most of that was a single bad start against the Yankees giving up 9 runs in 3 innings. Overall the hype on the site about this being one of the better rotations the Twins have assembled in the last couple decades seems to carry some serious weight. 

Lastly let's get to the bullpen, the bullpen has been more a bend don't break and really the only part of the team not firing on all cylinders to start the year. Duran, Jax, and most suprisingly Pagan have been handling their side of things and keeping lineups in check all with low ERAs and Duran with 8 saves already. Thielbar and Moran have both struggled to start the year posting 5.8+ ERAs, but hopefully both settle down as the weather starts to warm and Yankees games turn to distant memories. Cole Sands has not been great but given his role of eating innings when the game is over in the 5th I really can't complain too much although he seems the obvious candidate for a swap with Alcala to try and stabilize the bullpen.

This may seem like a surprise to know the Twins are going to be so far out ahead of the division a month from now, but with snow still on the ground and the doom and gloom projections all over the place I thought I'd let everyone see we'll be just fine! Nothing left to do but enjoy the ride, and if you thought this was fun let me know I plan on playing out the season and would love to post how the end of May looks in the future and hear your thoughts!

 

 

 

[danielp19653]

sorry for the image locations relative to the text, couldn't figure out how to place them better haha

[Pebble]

I’ve been scratching that itch on OOTP as well. Interesting stuff.

 

How far into the season do you have to simulate before Buxton gets injured? 

[danielp19653]

39 minutes ago, Pebble said:

I’ve been scratching that itch on OOTP as well. Interesting stuff.

 

How far into the season do you have to simulate before Buxton gets injured? 

So far he's safe, I can't say I have the highest hopes he makes it much longer but get the value while you can at least haha

[Jocko87]

Jeez, that thing is even more optimistic than me!  Leading the AL in both base running and starter ERA is just a bridge to far. 🤣

Somewhat related, I was wondering today if anyone had been asking ChatGPT about baseball strategy?  Bunt in extra innings?