Top 10 In-Game GM Tasks For a Regular Season Sim

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Top 10 In-Game GM Tasks For a Regular Season Sim

Post by neugey » Sat Mar 11, 2023 3:27 pm

Top 10 In-Game GM Tasks For a Regular Season Sim

For those new to the BBA or OOTP online leagues in general, this is quick guide on what I feel as a GM are the most vital GM tasks for each BBA regular season sim. These tasks listed are all in-game, and do not include the helpful reports, activities and writings frequently going on in the Forums, Discord or Stats+.

NOTE: All of this is just one GM's opinion and nothing scientific at all ... other GM's feel free to reply if there are other integral tasks/habits for your regular season sim periods!

Before diving into the top 10, let's begin with 3 honorable mentions:

Monitor Owner Goals (Team Home -> Front Office -> Owner)
You can't be fired in the BBA, but an ecstatic owner with goals on track is a nice sight, and might positively influence your owner's budget decisions going forward.

Look in on Team Chemistry (Team Home -> Team Chemistry)
A team is the sum of their parts. A dysfunctional locker room can negatively affect team performance. And all else being equal, happy players probably play better than unhappy ones.

Visit Free Agents page (BBA -> Reports & Info -> Free Agents)
During the season, where free agency is concerned, you can be on the lookout for minor league replacements or upgrades, prospects released from other teams or emergency signings to fill a big injury at the major league level. But it's always a little fun to window shop, if nothing else.

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With the honorable mentions complete, let's get into the Top Ten!

10) View Your Accounting Info (Team Home -> Front Office -> Accounting page)
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It's been stated in many other BBA guides that OOTP is primarily a financial sim. The financial side of baseball is often difficult to grasp, and a big main mistake is to go into auto-pilot and forget to monitor it while you're in the middle of the baseball season. On this page, you should keep a watchful eye on your revenue and your budget, both the current state and the forecast amounts. Be on the lookout for any unexpected shifts or consequences affecting your financials - positively or negatively. All the numbers in green on the report generally are the most important.

9) Manage your Major League Lineups/Depth Charts (Team Home -> Lineups)
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There are basically three ways to setup your lineups: (1) ask your manager to setup/update all lineups/depth charts, (2) setup your own lineups/depth charts vs RHP and LHP on an ongoing basis or (3) use the Daily lineups tab. Lineup order is somewhat overrated ... the more important aspect is to dole out the proper playing time so your stars and big boppers see the bulk of the action, while giving them just enough rest and putting your reserves and role players in a position to contribute positively. Whatever your method, lineups and depth charts should be monitored and adjusted somewhat based on the recent performance of your players.

8) Manage your Major League Pitching Staff (Team Home -> Pitching)
pitching_staff.jpg
Managing your pitching staff is quite a bit easier to administrate than managing lineups. There is much less to do here since your manager is ultimately responsible for those all-important pitching substitution decisions in-game. His decisions can be frustrating at times, but focus on the things you can control - the pitching rotation and the usage settings of your bullpen. For bullpen arms that are struggling, you can put them in "Use less often" or "Avoid high leverage" Usage option until they work their way out of their slump. If you believe in a closer-by-committee approach, you can promote a hot reliever to closer and ride the hot streak while it lasts.

7) Check current statistical rankings (Team Home -> "Team Stat Rankings" panel)

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Of all the panels on the Team Home Page, I feel this is the most important one to monitor. Lucky wins and unlucky losses occur. Schedules soften up and get harder. But in order to play the long game of the season, you should monitor your level of statistical success versus the other teams in your sub-league. All of your rankings are from 1st to 16th, based on the number of teams in the Johnson/Frick. At an instant glance you can see where you are strong and where you need help. Maybe you can't hit for power, or your bullpen is an Achilles heel. Use this information to consider a free agency move, trade or a promotion from a high minor league team. And then come back here later to see if your statistical ranking starts to improve.

6) Peruse League Standings (BBA -> Standings -> Expanded Standings)

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In any sport, the Standings tell the story of a league at a given point in time. Games behind, Streak, and Last 10 inform you on current events of the last sim across the league. The Expanded Standings, with Pythagorean differential, Home/Away splits, overall Run Differential and 1-run game record tell you even more. Use this information to find out how many teams seem to be in legitimate contention to make the playoffs. Figure out if your team can be one of them or not, and act accordingly.

5) Check the Waiver Wire (BBA -> Reports & Info -> Waiver Wire)

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This screen is somewhat hard to find, so it is a good screen to bookmark in-game. You won't build the core of your team off waivers or see 80 overall players appear here. But you might find the right 5th starter or middle reliever or backup infielder or platoon outfielder to help round out your team. If you found a good fit, make sure to check the salary/contract of an available player before making a claim. Don't accidentally take on a bad contract. See that the player fits in with your financial plans and your team will be still within the $120 million BBA salary cap.

4) Caretake minor leagues (various)

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There is no silver-bullet strategy for managing the minors. I would even go so far as to say that there are no two OOTP players that have the exact same way of managing the minors. You may opt to the let the AI/Assistant GM do some of the work in this area, or you may wish to retain very precise control of playing time and rosters at every minor league level. What you wish to do on a sim-by-sim basis is up to you. Just don't be the GM that has 6 catchers and no one that can play shortstop at A ball, as a mismanaged farm can catch up with you over time. At a bare minimum, keep an eye on the Team -> Front Office -> Player Development page to monitor the overall quality and balance of your farm system.

3) Interact with the Designed For Assignment (DFA) List (Team Home -> Organization -> "Players Designated for Assignment" list)

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If you sign a major league free agent, claim a player on waivers or trade for a salaried major leaguer, these players will be added to the DFA list. Make sure you move your new player as needed before the 15-day DFA limit. You can also use DFA List for minor league players that you don't have a spot for at the moment. With the minor league roster size limits (and soon age limits) that the BBA has in place, the DFA List is a very important tool. Just make sure that you move or release players accordingly after the 15-day limit on this list.

2) Assess injuries and utilize Injured List (Team Home -> Organization -> "Injured List")

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I'd list this as #1, but in the BBA injuries are set to Low and there are a lot of top-notch trainers employed by teams. But still, it's important to evaluate the severity and duration of every injury and make executive decisions based on them. Can/should the player play through his day-to-day injury designation? And once the player is healthy, does a rehab stint make sense to get the player tuned up again? How a GM accommodates injury time is a somewhat underrated factor in success in online leagues.

1) Read Box Scores (Team Home -> Schedule -> game link OR view on Stats+)

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You can't be a proper sports dork without looking at box scores. There are several important things to look for with OOTP box scores - A) An expected starting pitcher started and how he performed for your team, B) bullpen/closer usage and results, C) your starting lineups look reasonable and what you want, even if no one is hitting, D) strikeouts and walk totals (for both hitters and pitchers), E) injuries that occurred and F) the attendance total, for home games. The box score is a quick substitute for watching the game (you can also watch game replays in-game after updating the league file, but don't do this with any frequency). The closer your engagement level with your team, the sharper your moves as GM will get. Good luck!
Last edited by neugey on Sun Mar 12, 2023 9:29 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Top 10 In-Game GM Tasks For a Regular Season Sim

Post by BaseClogger » Sat Mar 11, 2023 3:36 pm

Maybe it's a product of my team not being very good, but the first thing I'm excited to do after every sim is to review the "Dev Report" on stats+ for each of my org's teams.

Checking the waiver wire every sim is important, and good note on reviewing the contract situation for each player before claiming. I've defenitely claimed guys I thought were cheap when in reality they already had expensive contract extensions that extend out beyond the current season.
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Re: Top 10 In-Game GM Tasks For a Regular Season Sim

Post by trmmilwwi » Sat Mar 11, 2023 3:36 pm

Awesome writeup, this is a fantastic read. I agree 100% with #1 on your list. I even review box scores for my minors. I usually use html to look through them though as it is a huge time saver for me. I also look at last 10 games for a lot of my players.
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Re: Top 10 In-Game GM Tasks For a Regular Season Sim

Post by Jwalk100 » Sat Mar 11, 2023 3:53 pm

Player Filter for Free Agents
Player filter.png

You can tinker with ages and ratings values up or down.
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Re: Top 10 In-Game GM Tasks For a Regular Season Sim

Post by Dington » Sat Mar 11, 2023 4:21 pm

BaseClogger wrote:
Sat Mar 11, 2023 3:36 pm
Maybe it's a product of my team not being very good, but the first thing I'm excited to do after every sim is to review the "Dev Report" on stats+ for each of my org's teams.

Checking the waiver wire every sim is important, and good note on reviewing the contract situation for each player before claiming. I've defenitely claimed guys I thought were cheap when in reality they already had expensive contract extensions that extend out beyond the current season.
I always look forward to the dev report more than anything. The high of seeing your prospects bump is greater than winning games.
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Re: Top 10 In-Game GM Tasks For a Regular Season Sim

Post by neugey » Sat Mar 11, 2023 4:41 pm

Jwalk100 wrote:
Sat Mar 11, 2023 3:53 pm
Player Filter for Free Agents

Player filter.png


You can tinker with ages and ratings values up or down.
There are some pretty creative filters you can use ... Age is a favorite, but also "Demand" and "Opt used"
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Re: Top 10 In-Game GM Tasks For a Regular Season Sim

Post by CTBrewCrew » Sat Mar 11, 2023 7:35 pm

Nice work!
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Re: Top 10 In-Game GM Tasks For a Regular Season Sim

Post by JimSlade » Sun Mar 12, 2023 7:38 am

This is great, thanks! Task #7 is one I can be at risk of overlooking. I try not to get too hung up on rankings, but monitoring that page every couple of sims leads to some helpful V8-headslap moments, like "No wonder my pitching staff is underperforming: I'm ranked 14th in defense!"
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Re: Top 10 In-Game GM Tasks For a Regular Season Sim

Post by tylertoo » Sun Mar 12, 2023 1:01 pm

Bookmarked. I often forget a bunch of these, and I tend to barely skim box scores.

Excellent work.
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