Out of the Park Baseball Tutorial - Five Tips to Help Build a Winning Team

We offer five tips that can help build a winning team in the game!

[@alexdostaler]

Meta here: interesting to see Realmuto be so good with outfielders when that's not even where he plays IRL

[@ojsimpson7816]

Great video, I just started playing this game pretty recently because of my love for the game but there’s definitely a lot that goes into it.

[@oldschoolsports]

Thanks! There are definitely a lot of things to think about! I don't think OOTP is quite as complex as Football Manager, but there are a lot of things to manage.

[@Chuckthulu]

Excellent video. I paused to go look at my coaching staff. And have made one offer for a new pitching coach already. Likely more changes coming based on your info.

[@oldschoolsports]

Glad to hear it! Thank you for watching!

[@petraugustin7521]

Good video, all I would say is that the scouts do not actually really work as you say, that's just how OOTP Developments claims they work. Fundamentally, Highly Favor Tools scout is the only type of scout that 'scouts' the players and gives you the results, whereas all other scouts just lie to you to different degrees (highly favor ability being the worst etc.). If you have some basic idea about how the game works (i.e. 3 pitch starter prospects where one of the pitches is a changeup are most likely going to bust, because the changeup almost never develops; what kind of batter profiles work well/what are the thresholds for players to be good/passable defenders at what positions etc.), you are able to find just as many, (actually more) 'average' starter players with a highly favor tools scout as you would with a highly favor ability scout. The game gives you the stats anyway, so when deciding between players that look close or that you maybe don't have fully highly scouted you can incorporate that into your decision making as it is, even without your scout having to lie to you.

[@jmagnum8087]

Thanks a lot! Your tutorials have helped me in my first playthrough. Excited for OOTP 24.

[@oldschoolsports]

I am too! Thanks for watching.

[@alpaul2166]

Thank you! Great video

[@oldschoolsports]

Thank you for watching!

[@TheFilipFonky]

Very good video, thank you a lot for this

[@oldschoolsports]

Thanks for watching!

[@individual_disk_936]

Very helpful tips. I have definitely been under-investing in International Scouting. Excited to make the change and see how many more interesting prospects that yields.

[@oldschoolsports]

Hope it helps out... I think it's less impactful in OOTP24 with the larger IAFA classes than in previous versions of the game, but I still invest pretty heavily in Scouting in general/International scouting specifically!

[@jmagnum8087]

Tutorial request: what's your strategy behind contracts? Tutorial could address questions like, what is your approach for extending players prior or during arbitration? What factors influence how you structure contracts? Do you use options and/or bonuses? As a new player, my biggest struggle is extending the core that I want to build around while being a budget team. My players always want 1-2 year deals. I'd like to hear your strategy on how to tilt negotiations in the GMs favor. Thanks!

[@oldschoolsports]

Not a full tutorial on contracts, but I do mention them in the video I posted a couple days ago called Five More Tips to Help Build a Winning Team. Hope there's something in there on how I think about contracts that is helpful!

[@jmagnum8087]

@@oldschoolsports Video was great as usual. Learned a lot. Thanks for making it!

[@jaybird2585]

Great video - Loved the section regarding scouting/development budgets, but further to your tips regarding coach selection - do you also go through the "works well with" and "doesn't work well with" personalities to avoid conflicts? Or are player relationships the only ones you're concerned about?

[@oldschoolsports]

Great question, and apologies I did not mention anything on that topic in this video. I absolutely do hire with an eye on ensuring that Staff Cohesion is high among my MLB coaches, by trying to maximize those who get along well and minimizing the potential conflicts among their personalities. I go into the concepts around Staff Cohesion (coaches) and Team Chemistry (players) in the video I posted last week titled "Five More Tips to Help Build a Winning Team." And about a year ago I posted a video called "How to Build a Great Coaching Staff" that goes into more detail on the topic. Thanks for the question!

[@seankelley4745]

I think your colorado strategy is perfect. I am taking the 2007 rockies and am in the 2008 season. First question on your team overview screen. how do you get nine widgets I can only get 4.

[@oldschoolsports]

Good luck with the Rockies! To change the Overview, go to the Screen Setup dropdown on the right side of the page, and there are a bunch of options for configuring that screen.

[@rybkabananka3446]

Is an Assistant GM completely useless in this game? Have you ever hired one?

[@oldschoolsports]

I have never hired one. When I have played a few seasons with one that I inherited and didn't fire immediately, it seems to me all they did was give me a second opinion on trades, and I often found their analysis to be unhelpful. If you are playing mainly as a Manager, and want to delegate most of the GM tasks to someone else, maybe there is some value in a good Assistant GM? But as someone who plays primarily as a GM, I have found the Assistant GM pretty useless, since I handle everything I could possibly delegate to them myself.

[@petraugustin7521]

The main utility of the AGM in this game is to stash a good backup scout in that position in case your current one decides to retire on you and whatever's on the market then is worse than your AGM, so you'll make him your scouting director then.

[@oldschoolsports]

@@petraugustin7521 That's an interesting idea, and not something I have thought of before. When I fired my scout and tried it in a game I am playing, however, the option to appoint my Assistant GM as Scouting Director is greyed out in the Actions drop down. I'm guessing maybe he views that new job as a demotion and wouldn't take it? Is this something you have to be in Commissioner Mode to use, or is there some other trick to make this work? I am also now more open to having an AGM when using "Hard Mode" trading in OOTP 24, as I have found some value in the feedback from the AGM when building trades to propose to other teams in the new version.

[@petraugustin7521]

@@oldschoolsports I am not sure about 24 as I have not played it (and my understanding is that the whole hard mode and trade reputation etc. are a mess so far before they patch it up a bit), but I have not encountered the AGM not wanting to become the scouting director before, maybe it is because most of the times the best scouts are classified as 'SC' instead of 'GM' when free agents and they are always willing to take their 'natural' role? But I haven't really tested it

[@TeamRio_Group_Gaming]

@rybkabananka3446, Great question I was wondering the same thing myself.