Ootp Baseball 2023 - Orioles in Playoffs

[bluedog]

Not sure if anyone will find this fun or not, but here goes.

I picked up Out of the Park Baseball 2023 a few weeks back and started a league as the O's.

I made a number of impact trades including DL Hall for Jarred Kellenic  who slotted into Left Field for the team from day one and delivered 34 HRs / 3.3 WAR while playing elite defense. Hall ended up leading the league in Walks for the M's, so I felt pretty good about this trade.

Traded away Hays, Mountcastle, Urias and Mateo and picked up Gavin Sheets while turning over everyday 2B duties to Vavra and RF to Stowers allowing the team to run out 8 lefty / switch hitters each day against RHPs. Along the way, upgraded the bullpen with Brian Cosgrove and 3 former Yankees relievers who all fell into a roster crunch when NY signed too many high profile free agents.

Rutchsman ended up the top C in the majors (6.3 WAR, .398 OPB), Kelenic was the 2nd ranked LFer and Gunnar was #6 at the hot corner in the bigs (33 HRs /  102 RBIs and 4.8 WAR)

Grayson Rodriguez ended up 18 - 9 with a 2.77 ERA and a league leading 236 Ks for 6.0 WAR. GRod is likely the Cy Young and ROY winner in the AL.

Net result - the O's grabbed the last wildcard with an 87 - 75 record and took on the Houston Astros in round one.

The one O's youngster who had a terrible year was Vavra, who hit .154 for the season and couldn't hold down the starting 2b job. But he stuck as a super utility guy and a clubhouse leader (Ootp Baseball tracks personality types and contributions to team chemistry...). But - in the first playoff game against the Astros, Vavra was called to pinch hit in the 10th inning tied 6 - 6 with the bases loaded and delivered a bases clearing triple against Abreu to give the O's the win. After a walk, Stowers crushed his 2nd jack of the night to give the O's a 6 run lead, capping off a 4 hit, 8 RBI game and grab Game 1 MVP honors.

Game box score attached. It's not real, but it still made me happy to see the O's win a playoff game...

Have had a blast managing the O's elite farm system in the game.

Let me know if anyone cares how the rest of the playoffs turn out. 

[Aristotelian]

Nice to see Preston Guilmet back.

[bluedog]

Game 2 - John Means pitched 7 innings of 2 ER ball with 10 Ks, but was outdueled by Christian Javier and took the loss.

With nobody out and down by 2 runs, Cedric Mullins singled in Terrin Vavra in the 8th inning, stole 2nd base and went to 3rd on an errant throw from the catcher. Then Rutschman, Henderson and Stowers each struck out swinging to strand the tying run at 3rd.

Next up Garrett Stallings versus Lance McCullers Jr for the decisive Game 3.

[bluedog]

Game 3 - Aint the Beer Cold!

Cedric Mullins and Gunnar Henderson each greeted McCullers with 1st inning blasts to right field as the O's built a 3 - 0 lead. Stalling's gave the O's just enough to get the game to the back of the O's bullpen where Cionel Perez, Ryne Stanek, Tom Cosgrove and Ron Marinaccio blanked the Astros with 3 innings of solid relief. Marinaccio needed only 10 pitches to grab his 45th save of the season as he sealed the O's first playoff series win of the Elias era.

Gunnar Henderson's second two run homer run of the night gave the O's the lead for good in the 8th and helped the rookie of the year candidate to bring home series MVP. 

Next up the O's take on the Cleveland Guardians.

[Orioles4Life21]

Garrett Stallings?!?! 
 

No offense Garrett you’re a great guy lol 

[bluedog]

Stallings was IL Pitcher of the Year with an 18 - 4 record. Extreme ground ball pitcher with elite defense behind him played well in Baltimore once Dean Keller went down with an injury requiring TJ surgery.

[luismatos4prez]

I have a better chance than GRod of throwing 115 pitches in a game for the Orioles this year. 

[bluedog]

My favorite thing in the minors though was Heston Kjerstad putting up 46 HRs and 125 RBIs in Bowie to take home Eastern League POY honors.

[bluedog]

3 minutes ago, luismatos4prez said:

I have a better chance than GRod of throwing 115 pitches in a game for the Orioles this year. 

Ootpb has a model for player development as they age and GRod evolved elite stamina during the season which is why he was able to work 115 pitches. 

A man can dream right?

[Snutchy]

Did you have it set on beginner?

[Bmorebirds24]

2 hours ago, bluedog said:

Ootpb has a model for player development as they age and GRod evolved elite stamina during the season which is why he was able to work 115 pitches. 

A man can dream right?

I love this game. OOTP 24 will be out right around opening day. Only gripe had with the 23 version was they didn’t have OPACY updated. 

[Moose Milligan]

This was the game I played during Covid when there wasn’t any baseball.  It’s really weird to get emotionally attached to fictional players you’ve drafted and developed. 
 

I also had an ‘86 Mets franchise going which is nice cause you can keep going and pretend that Doc and Darryl never did blow. I traded for Ozzie Smith in that one, he was amazing on defense. Maybe I’ll get back to playing it, it was fun. 

[Frobby]

Reading this thread, I like the speed of the games!   What do they have, an 0.1 second clock between pitches?  

That Hall for Kelenic move was pretty bold.  Would you do that in real life?

[Moose Milligan]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

Reading this thread, I like the speed of the games!   What do they have, an 0.1 second clock between pitches?  

That Hall for Kelenic move was pretty bold.  Would you do that in real life?

You can simulate a game in less than a minute.  And then you can have it stop and you can control situations in late and close games from a strategy perspective (what pitch to throw, hit and run, take a pitch if you're at the plate, swing for contact or sell out for power, etc).  You can get through a whole season in a day or two...or you can really slow down and manage every pitch of every game.  

I'm not huge on Hall but I wouldn't trade him for Kelenic, especially with the amount of positional talent we have now.   558 plate appearances across two seasons, he's not been good.  And he didn't get better from 2021 to 2022, he got worse.  I realize that's not a huge sample size but you want to see him get better from 2021 to 2022, not worse.  

[Frobby]

27 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

You can simulate a game in less than a minute.  And then you can have it stop and you can control situations in late and close games from a strategy perspective (what pitch to throw, hit and run, take a pitch if you're at the plate, swing for contact or sell out for power, etc).  You can get through a whole season in a day or two...or you can really slow down and manage every pitch of every game.  

I'm not huge on Hall but I wouldn't trade him for Kelenic, especially with the amount of positional talent we have now.   558 plate appearances across two seasons, he's not been good.  And he didn't get better from 2021 to 2022, he got worse.  I realize that's not a huge sample size but you want to see him get better from 2021 to 2022, not worse.  

We need upside pitchers more than upside hitters, so I wouldn’t do it either.  Then again, @bluedogmade a whole bunch of position player trades, so maybe Kelenic’s upside was more useful on a restructured team.  Very Billy Beane of him!