Out of the Park Baseball is Out of This World!

Out of the Park Baseball (OOTP) 24 is the perfect simulation game for SABR members.  It is easy to play with games lasting 15 – 20 minutes, but allows players a variety of experiences.  

STANDARD GAME (2023 Rosters)

The standard game allows you to play out the 2023 season using any of the 30 MLB teams, the 120 minor league teams, the 10 teams in the Korean Baseball Organization, or even several teams from independent leagues.  I am the Secretary of the Bob Broeg SABR Chapter located in St. Louis.  Naturally, I am a lifelong fan of the St. Louis Cardinals.  As probably most of you are aware, the Cardinals have been a huge disappointment this season.  Hoping to rectify this situation, I decided that I would play a season with my beloved Cardinals to see if they really are this bad.  As of June 15, my Cardinals are 12 – 8, sitting in first place 2 games above the Milwaukee Brewers.  So far, so good!  

When you first log into the game, you can choose your game mode – tutorial game, standard game, historical game, or custom game.  On the right, you can log into the Perfect Team mode, which will be discussed a little later.  

The game play is easy to understand, but complex enough to elicit thrills as you play.  

If you don’t want to be restricted to any of the more than 200 teams I listed above, create your own league either using the real world teams, historical teams, or fictional teams.  In this mode, you can organize your league however you like.  

If you want to see how well the great Josh Gibson would have performed in MLB, trade for him!  

In this mode, you can even create your own stadium or modify your favorite stadium.  Want a short porch in left field?  Feel free to bring the fences in to help out your right-handed power hitters.  

The simulation is very well complete featuring aspects not readily available in other games.  On Opening Day, I experienced an 18-minute weather delay because it was snowing in Colorado. Details like this make playing the game quite enjoyable.  Thankfully, I survived that snow storm and was able to win my Opening Day game although reliever Jordan Hicks suffered a strained forearm putting him on the IL for approximately three months.  Good thing I (and the real life Cardinals) are not counting on him to close out games anymore!   (EDIT: Hicks has collected the last two saves for the Cardinals this past weekend.  Maybe I spoke too soon.)  

One of the best things about playing OOTP Baseball is the end of the game summary pages.  Using Win Probability Added (WPA) displayed on a time series chart, it is easy to see when the outcomes of games turned.  In my game fictionally played on April 21, 2023 in Seattle, the two teams battled back-and-forth until 2022 MVP Paul Goldschmidt came through in the clutch, knocking in two during the 7th inning.  I was able to hold on to win the game adding 4 runs in the top of the 9th to put a close game out of reach for my opponent.  

OWNER OPTIONS

As team owner, you get to control all of the finances.  You can sign free agents, sign your young stars to extension, or release overpaid players that are no longer worthy of their salary.  

You can also set the average ticket price.  This might help you bring in more revenue, but it could backfire on you causing your fan loyalty to drop.  So, make these changes wisely.  

PERFECT TEAM mode

One of the best features connected to Out of the Park Baseball is their Perfect Team Mode, which is a pure simulation game.  There is no game play; you just have to build a team and put the players in the right place to get the results that you desire.  Perfect Team is set up for the player to build their team by opening packs of baseball cards.  Just that aspect by itself appeals to me and perhaps others of you that have come back to the hobby since the pandemic began.  I named my team the St. Louis Maroons in honor of that great 1884 Union Association team which received a lot of publicity this year after Tampa Bay won their first 13 games which was the longest winning streak since the Maroons won 20 to open the 1884 season, most of which were played at Union Grounds in St. Louis.  My six starter packs provided me with an average team to begin my quest.  As I opened these packs, I was thrilled to pull former Cardinal Luis Alicea who played six seasons with the Cardinals during his 13-year MLB career, most notably the years that I attended high school.  I was delighted to insert him into my Perfect Team lineup as my starting 2B.  He remained there for two months before Baerga with his 19.6 WAR replaced him (11.9 WAR).  There is an old adage that no one wants to hear about your fantasy baseball team.  But, do you want to hear about my Perfect Team?  Please do not hesitate to ask! 

Tournaments

If you think you have built your Perfect Team to perfection, it is time to try your hand at a tournament.  All you have to do is join the tournament, setting up your rotation and lineups, and the computer will do the rest.  

Historical Packs

Packs range from Bronze, Silver, Gold, Historical, Diamond, and Perfect.  Occasionally, they might offer special packs.  When you are starting out, it is a good idea to buy Silver packs to complete your starting lineup with good MLB talent.  These packs even include MLB prospects making this game fun for all SABR members, no matter which part of baseball interests you the most.  After you get a decent starting lineup, you really should wait until you can buy Gold packs which are guaranteed to be stars (rated above 80 overall).  However, for the SABR member, the historical packs are probably the most fun.  The pack is filled with players that played years ago, many of which you probably heard about during your SABR meetings.    

HISTORICAL GAME MODE (1871 – 2022)

This mode allows you to use almost any professional baseball team that has existed since 1871 including Negro League teams as well as Korean Baseball Organization teams.  Who among us does not remember waking up at 5:00 AM to watch some KBO action on ESPN in 2020 when no other baseball existed?!  

This is where this game becomes quite interesting for SABR members.  In our SABR meetings in St. Louis, occasionally we have very knowledgeable members talk about baseball played in the past.  Bob Tiemann, member of SABR’s Nineteenth Century Baseball Committee,  presented to us the details of the 1884 St. Louis Maroons season.  I went home the next day hoping that I could play some games using that team to get a feel for how good they really were.  Unfortunately, the Union Association (only considered Major Leagues for that one year) were not included in the game.

However, I did find the 1921 Negro League St. Louis Giants and was able to play some games using the great Oscar Charleston after Jeremy Beer told us how amazing Charleston was.  He really is good, guys!  (This last line is a nod to Ted Drewes, St. Louis’s most famous ice cream salesman.)  

Recently, I started a season playing as the 1942 St. Louis Cardinals in anticipation of the All-Time Greats Tournament which will be played Thursday night at SABR 51.  I really wanted to learn more about this team believing that it might help me in the tournament and would at least make me more knowledgeable about a Cardinals team that I knew little about before this summer.  I think this is the greatest value of a game like this – being able to manipulate historical players which helps you get better acquainted with their names as well as skills. 

In my simulation, I was devastated to lose to the Cardinals’ rival Chicago Cubs in game 1 of the season, but quite satisfied when I was able to lead the team to victory in game 2.  

Online Leagues

The OOTP community is fairly active.  You can find discussions about all aspects of the game.  One of the more recent posts discusses using ChatGPT prompts to generate player summaries. Essentially, you can have ChatGPT write a SABR Bio for your fictional players!  This is the place where you can find online leagues, which elevates the game from an individual experience to that of a community one.  Having read a post that was in search of an owner for their league, I joined the True Neutral Baseball League.  This is an online simulation league run through the OOTP 24 game.  Unfortunately for me, I did not get to start in the league from scratch.  My team had been run by the computer using AI since they started the league.  As a result, it was in complete shambles when I took ownership of the team.   It took me a few days, but I was able to move players, sign players, and draft enough players to fill out the system (4 minor league teams, 1 major league team).  Before me, the team only had 8 players rostered on its MLB team while 60 were rostered on its Rookie League team.  I suppose that the AI GM making the decisions never thought that any of his players were worthy of being promoted.  Now that my rosters are fleshed out, I am trying to get better each and every day.  It’s fun!  Each morning, I upload my file with the changes that I made to the team.  Slowly but surely, my Endor City team will rise out of the ashes! 

OOTP Go 24 app 

Out of the Park introduced an app a few years ago to help players who were on the go, hence the name.  In my opinion, it was a bit clunky.  I just never used it since the display was so horrible.  The new app is much improved!  The color looks nice.  The font size is certainly readable.  

Since everything is online, you can do anything that you can do with your computer on your phone.  However, the feature I enjoy the most while using the app is the Perfect Team mode. You can log in no matter where you might be and get an update on how well your team performed in its last game played.  You also can open packs that have been awarded to you or ones that you have purchased.  Recently, I was in Busch Stadium sitting about 200 feet away from St. Louis Cardinals All-Star third baseman Nolan Arenado when I pulled his card in my pack.  He’s rated a 100!  How exciting to put him in my Dream Team lineup minutes before he played his real life game in front of me.     

OOTP Now podcast

One of the fun things about the OOTP game is that they have a podcast.  Obviously, when you play the game, it is typically an individual experience unless you join an online league, but the podcast will open your eyes up to new things that you can do in the game.  The podcast does not come out that often.  Typically, they produce an episode about once a month.  In some of the episodes, they discuss the development of the game.    As a computer programming teacher, I am fascinated when they talk about these aspects.  In other episodes, they discuss general baseball topics with FanGraphs editor/ fantasy baseball expert Paul Sporer.  I have known Sporer for about a decade and even competed against him in a few fantasy baseball leagues.  I always enjoy his commentary.  

OOTP YouTube page

There are tons of videos on YouTube that not only discuss the Perfect Team updates, but also walk you through all of the aspects of playing the game that you would need to know.  Although there are not tutorials made for OOTP 24, there are 11 very good tutorials created for the OOTP 23 version walking you through every aspect of the game.  

OOTP Reddit Subgroup

If the tutorials were not enough to help you solve your problem, you might try the OOTP Reddit subgroup.  With more than 25,000 members, someone will surely be able to answer your questions or help you find an online league to join. 

Discounts

If you do decide to join the OOTP community by buying the game, you might want to take advantage of the discounts that the game offers.  Typically, during the start of Spring Training as well as Opening Day, they will offer a 25% discount to purchase the game.  During the All Star break, you will likely see a 50% discount on the game.  At the start of the playoffs, they will increase their discount to 75%.  For a price of $10 (most discounted price), it is definitely worth the money!  

Jeremy Gibbs

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