Here’s some more of our sub-par OOTPB 2006 analysis. As promised, I did another overnight 18-season sim with all modifiers set to their 1.000 defaults. The AL seems to be a bit skewed toward better hitting and worse pitching when the modifiers are left alone. This could be a DH effect, but I’m not certain yet that it is.
The AL started with a low .250 league average in 2017 and finished with a .285 average in 2035. The average stayed below .260 from 2017-2023, which is consistent with previous results in OOTP 6.5. The span 2024-2030 saw the AL average go from a low of .260, to a .276 high, which is consistent with MLB averages. From 2031 forward, the league average went from .282 to .286, with three seasons at the .285 level.
The NL was a very different story. Teams hit below .260 in the NL from 2017 until 2026. A low of .238 was posted in 2017, and the NL didn’t break .250 until 2022. Interestingly, there was a jump from .259 in 2026 to .270 in 2027, and the league maintained roughly a .270 average for the remainder of the sim.
The pitching results pretty much mirror the batting results – AL was much higher than NL league ERA for any given year. OOTPB 2006 seems to do a better job with non-DH sub-leagues than DH sub-leagues maintaining that close to .275 MLB average, or at least this is the case for the IOSBL (my league). It could be that the results are within a standard deviation or some margin of error that Markus had programmed into the game.
The unmodified test sim produced a 71 HR hitter post-OOTP 6.5. The leader boards look pretty good, with two players hitting .371 at the top in 2034. ERAs are a bit high, with the best being 2.47, and the next lowest at 3.22 in 2034. The hitting leaders were back to .348 as a high on the boards in 2035, although pitching was terrible. The fifth best pitcher ERA on the leader board was 4.12 in the AL.
A couple of caveats. These are all computer AI run teams. I think human managers will produce slightly different league total results. IOSBL owners seem to value pitching quite a bit and we’ve been described as a pitcher’s league. So I expect things to be OK in general. Those of you playing solo leagues may want to wait and see what the new AI brings to the table once the patches are released.
Next, I will take a look at what the AI did and player progression over the 18-year sim…
