rewatching an older series, it's incredible how much you've improved with your commentary. Not that it's bad here, still very enjoyable obviously as I'm watching it again 😅Have you intentionally tried to cut filler words out? or did it just happen naturally as you got more comfortable?
Thank you. I've gotten some feedback over the years that I've tried to incorporate into what I'm doing... some of it is intentional, some of it hopefully just has happened naturally as I've gotten slightly better as a speaker!
Finally you traded for someone with true power, Juan Soto. If going for a player like Soto one need to give up a lot. Kind of strange Twins just throws in the towel in that chase for a playoff when handing Soto to your A's. I traded for Soto in my save but earlier years and version. It turned my team around and I even gave him the keys to the bank to retain him beyond the rental year. You might have done a much smarter trade than me, but I hope you get as much out of him as I did. It wasn't really the HR that impressed me when I had him on the team, but the walks. It was like I saw Barry Bonds or Kevin Youkilis once more. He brought two rings and even if it was expensive he was worth it. With that trade the draft kind of slipped for me. Still I think it was a promising draft (almost as always) Hm, I for sure is not a fan of the A's, but I can say I'm a keen follower whatever team you pick to manage. Even after so many years playing this game I can still find stuff you handle differently and the learning process never end. (Then we still get new things in this game with each version and love to see how you deal with that). See I even try to keep up and follow your struggle with the A's when it's Olympics going on almost every hour of the day.
Great job getting Soto. I'm still plugging away with my A's save. I'm about to start 2034. No WS rings. Went to the ALCS last year. Fan interest is in the 60's. I did draft my Deshawn Deify a few years back. I signed him after his rookie year for 13 years at $12 Million per year.
I need to get fan interest moving in the right direction... which is going to be difficult with all of the big losses we're likely to have to deal with this offseason!
@@oldschoolsports That should have read "Seifu" This guy has a 75 Contact; 75 Gap Power; and a 70 Eye. Power is only 35; His Stealing, Base Running, and Stealing Aggressiveness are ALL 80. He is an 80 at 2B; 75 at SS, and 75 at 3B. Infield Range, Error, and Arm are all 70. His Turn DP is 80.
@@oldschoolsports He was #1 overall. We sucked the previous year and moved up a little via the lottery. The Mock Draft had him 5th overall, but he had a killer profile and was coming out of college.
Oakland is now Harmantown! Love the draft, really like the Soto trade as long as he doesn't underperform like he has for pfholden. But even then I think you got a pretty solid deal there. Especially since it didn't take one of your top two prospects.
Going to try to temper my expectation for this season after thinking last season ws going to be so much better than it was but it's hard not to be excited :) I hope Seifu has as good a season as projected. Nice to see those rating boosts, a shame there's no player development in 24 like we have now in 25.. would have been perfect to get his defensive ratings moving upwards quicker ;)
I didn't give my thoughts on the pre-draft as I did not have strong feelings about anyone, but I like how things turned out and particularly like Chuck Huntley in hindsight. While I am usually on par with your decisions in this playthrough OSS, I have to say I would have made one particular deviation in the Soto trade. If you recall, the Twins were willing to take Lara for Soto. Perhaps I am a bit more rash in such things, but I would have sent Lara to Minnesota, kept Estrada and sent the additional players to lower the money on the deal. I know, Lara has been a defensive cornerstone of the A's, but w/o sifting back through history, isn't he due to be a free agent or arbitration at a high number anyway? I can't recall off the top of my head. Point is, I would have rolled the dice with Ortega and Rhodes in a platoon as we already have one foot through the "door" to our future roster post Colt Keith & Co. Well, that's my take on it anyway. 🧐 Good luck with the race to the playoffs!
If Lara was one of the guys who might be leaving I think I would have strongly considered moving on since he's already out for another month. But he is actually signed for the next 3 1/2 years, plus two potential team option years, at pretty reasonable numbers, which is why he still had pretty high trade value.
Imagine your team is on the clock to make their first round draft pick and they announce they've traded for Juan soto, incredible. Can we get an update on the Japanese international free agent you almost signed before this season? Curious what his numbers look like in his rookie year. Edit: nevermind! Saw you did it at the end, cheers!
Holding onto draft picks/international armatures is great for cost control, but like you said, you’re going for it. I don’t think the package you gave up was too much either for Soto. 9/10 trade since it still gives you payroll flexibility and only gave up one high end prospect. The only reason it isn’t 10/10 is because we haven’t achieved the goal of a World Series yet.
That was a big move grabbing Soto. Disappointed to see Estrada gone but with the win now need I totally get the thinking and if Soto delivers it could be a masterstroke. Hope you keep tabs on Estrada though to see how he progresses, i'm sure you will anyway. Soto along with Madden as the new guy in the rotation hopefully is the big push needed. I do hope that Madden does not destabilise things with his outspoken personality though. The draft went very nicely with good players falling your way after the first round. Hopefully with the good coacjhing Raphael starts to progress his ratings a bit more now and we can see him flourish. Excited for Harman as well, like the look of him and looking forward to see how he gets on in the farm system. Of course we are fans as well as all the other things you specified. 89 episodes in here along with al the other content you have provided I think is enough to put us all firmly in the fan category 😁 The first thin I look for each morning is another episode and if that's not there it's back ot the Wings series 😉
Surprise, surprise the Yankees fan gets another Yankees guy. Do think we got him for a decent price though. Really liked how the draft class shaped up as well. Just good business overall.
I hope you did bail on Carlson, that €30 million is just too much for what he offers. Shame Acuna was off the table, at what he went for he would have perhaps been the better option.
Never really understood the impossible to sign designation. Extremely difficult would make sense. Impossible would just make you wonder why they're there. Also and you might have answered this before is there coding for prospects not signing because they expected to go higher and if they don't get picked by that threshold they plan to reenter the draft. Or am I giving the programming more credit than I should? That could explain the impossible guys I suppose
Good point, since I have definitely signed "Impossible" guys in the past! I think you're giving the programming too much credit unfortunately... my experience is that guys are listed as "Impossible" to sign as the draft begins, and I don't think it changes based on the dynamics of the draft.
I would be upset with the deal if you were trading for any less than Juan Soto. I probably wouldn’t Waive Rhodes, at least until he comes down to earth. In general a quite good draft, but I’d love it if you kept an eye on Vermillion.
It was pretty hard to say no to Soto, even if it's just a rental and we had to give up one of our best prospects. But we'll reload and worry about the future next year! I've added Vermillion to my prospects list! I'm still thinking about the roster move I'll need to make for Soto... sending down Stubblefield to play in AAA every day for the next month and a half until September instead of DFAing Rhodes is definitely an option...
Nice analysis of the players performances this season, always enjoy those. IAFA looks pants this year.. interested to see what you do but i suspect you'll be throwing darts at a bunch and hoping one sticks.
Not the season we thought our hoped but hey progress is progress. Also good to see the improvement offensively in the last couple of months with the youngsters Seifu and Honeycutt onboard. The faith in Seifu certainly paying off and am expecting great things from him going forward. The pitching was pretty up and down shutting teams down one game and getting hammered the next. Othani has to be better next season and I think Painter will come to the fore for us with that contract extension. Think he showed better signs second half of the season.
Hey Old School, I'm not sure if you read comments from your "older" videos or not but you put them out so quickly I can never catch up! :) Hopefully you do because I wanted to ask (since I've been having a similar quandry): With several young draftee's and the amount of time many of them seem to take before being ready for Low A how are you managing that with your rookie level rosters? Do you just carry a very large roster size or are you dropping/promoting players before you really want to in an effort to keep the roster size at a more workable level? Curious to see how you manage the lower levels of your system. Thanks!
I don't know that it's the correct way to do things, but I tend to run a larger roster for my Rookie League Arizona or Florida teams. I force roles for the top prospects on the team to ensure they will get as much experience as possible, and then let the manager decide who else gets the rest of the playing time in a survival of the fittest type approach. After the draft I'll generally do a little bit of roster cleanup with players picked in previous years - trying to promote some to A ball, and cutting a few of the true non-prospects - but I still often have a roster of 40+ in Rookie Ball following the draft. Thanks for watching and good luck trying to catch up!
if it's not too late, Joe Harman is interesting to me, with that asking price maybe he falls to the 2nd round. Balanced player offensively, with defensive ability. Salazar is also interesting, could be a high batting average guy but definitely doesn't look like he'll walk much; good defender anywhere in the infield. I like Ament too, especially since he's a college guy. I doubt he makes it to you if you don't take him in round 1. with all that said, i'm probably taking Omari (especially given your love of pitching). It's a good storyline for the series too: you wanted him three years ago and now you can draft him. i would probably rank them: Raphiel, Ament, Harman, Salazar, and Jonathan Brown. Raphiel is also 'Easy' to sign. I bet you can get him below slot value if you need to.
I’d be okay with Raphiel. Honestly think he’s the pitcher I like the best. I also think I’d take a chance on vermillion as a hitter. You’ll have plenty of time to train his avoid K rating, and that elite power and eye is very tempting.
Main concern with Omari is age and wondering how he hasn't developed more by now. I like Chris Derrick and Mat Perry more, but Omari's signability opens up options to overpay slot in later rounds.
Nice return for you with that little run before the draft.. back to .500 and in the wild card places 😁. Plus Ortega is doing the business and with Lara out for a while now has a chance to really shine 🤞👍Maybe time to put Lara on the block once he returns if things go well in this month. On the draft i think it's Raphael for me. None of the other pitchers really jump off the page and shout me,me. Maybe Perry has a decent chance of anyone else but his movement maybe limiting and Raphael is almost there in many cases with most of his ratings. Would like to know more about his personality though. Batting wise I like the four star Harman. Seems to me to be the most well rounded guy with his bat, speed, base stealing, defence and personality while the others all seem to have weaknesses in one or more areas.
How is the 98-100 mph knuckleball throwing pitcher doing lately? Since you have been gone for a week it seems like we haven't checked in on him in awhile. I am curious about him because he is an amazing speciman and athlete to be able to pound the zone with 100 mph knucklers. 😂
He is very special, but he's actually having an off-year this season this year... 6-9 with a 4.15 ERA after winning the Cy Young Award last year. I look at how much it would take to get him in a trade every once in a while, and it's always something like the top three players on my team and the top three prospects in our organization before they aren't even offended by my offer....
@@oldschoolsportsMaybe they will lower their asking price some with his off year. He is obviously worth a haul, but your top 3 prospects just to get the conversation started is definitely too steep for me as well.
Omari Raphiel is the guy for me. I do like Josh Ament and Joe Harman if you're leaning toward a bat but both could be great pickups in the 2nd and I doubt Omari is an option at that point. Glad to have you back, hope you enjoyed the vacation!
Welcome back OSS.. pleased that you and the family had a pleasant break. I've enjoyed catching up on some of the Buffalo expansion playthrough from 24 in your absence but glad you are back to continue this one. Just halfway through this episode and abt to hit the sack so will finish it up in the morning. I like the trade for Madden to solidify the middle of the rotation and although sorry to see Soderstrom go after his efforts for the team in previous years it was the right move to make for this point in the season.
Sheesh!! This had been as bad a first half of the season as you could have imagined i'm sure. Certainly didn't see it coming 😔 At least Seifu and Honeycutt have come in and performed so far though 👌 Agreed with your picking Mr 0160 in the first round.. looking forward to the progress reports on him. Is Joe Edwards the same guy you regretted not picking for the A's in the 25 playthrough?
It's all Olympics these days, so hope that other Lebron delivers 😁 Good you took a well deserved vacation with your family. Treasure those moments, that's what it's all about actually. Looks like it's Ortega time now. You did some restructing good moves. They needed to be done.
Welcome back :) I reckon the international scouting team are gonna have a hard time peeling you away from Omari, so I'm just gonna enjoy you finally taking some more college players haha
Ha... I am open to suggestions and can probably be swayed this year as there are several players I like but none that I love... but if I had to pick right this second, it would probably be him!
Welcome back, hopefully you had a good break! I like Josh Ament. It's really the arm I like, looks like he can steal some runs potentially and his bat development is a bit further along. Seems like he's a very useful player with decent traits
Thank you. There are another couple college players I've come across offline that could also be in the mix, similar to Ament. I'll make sure to show them at the start of the next episode, but I think I'm leaning towards high school right now... but a lot can change between now and decision time!
I've checked Omari in 2029 draft video and in 3 years he have improved his control by 5 points and HRA stat stayed the same. His potential stuff is already down 10 points. I would not draft him based on that. Top guys for me are Joe Harman and Fidel Salazar.
Thanks for taking a look! I meant to show Omari's scouting report before the 2029 draft during the episode but forgot to, so great point! We had Omari at 35/75 Stuff before the 2029 draft, have him at 45/65 today, think he'll likely come in at 55, although with his arsenal of pitches, our big investment into player development, and the potential ability to upgrade his secondary pitches in the Dev Lab, I think there's some chance we could get him to 60. Movement is the real weird one... we had him 45/55 three years ago, but after his college career we have him at 40/60... so his floor is lower after three years of "development", but his ceiling is higher?!?!?! Granted, it's a different scout now... but still odd. Think we can probably get him to an average 50 here... Control was 30/55 as a high school prospect, and is 35/55 today... still a lot of work needed... but at least his ceiling is still above average. He's also gained a mile on his fastball to 96-98 MPH while in college. Part of me thinks his development has been stunted by the poor level of competition he's faced at a D3 school and we might be able to really supercharge his development over the next couple seasons compared to the last few with our great coaching and big investment in development... but there are caution signs here as you note. I still might draft him though, unlike you! But Harman and Salazar are both on my five person shortlist right now along with Raphiel.
I've been playing this game for years, and drafting HS pitching prospects is generally a bad idea. I rarely ever have one that pans out. Most, if not all, blue-chip HS pitchers turn out to be busts or just mediocre, at least for me. College pitchers on the other hand develop pretty nicely.
I agree the success rate with higher floor college pitchers is much higher than it is for raw high schoolers, as it should be. But over the years I have done fine with HS pitchers as well when I have been willing to consistently draft them and invest good money into player development and strong coaching staffs. Lots of different ways to play the game, but I know there are many who abide by "never draft a HS pitcher". The Angels probably draft more college players than any other team in baseball in recent years, and their farm system is a disaster, so I think there are degrees to everything. If I was in a financial position where I couldn't invest well above baseline in player development, I'd probably be more cautious around HS players in general.
Ha... I am back home... will be a video by tomorrow... not confident there will be a new one today, but there's some chance of it... thanks for your patience!
It is is my OOTP Tutorials and Strategies Playlist, dated March 17, 2024... the original video on the topic is in the same playlist dated April 6, 2022.
Obviously I’m a long way behind on this and can find out quickly how it all panned out regarding the Medina situation but I’m hoping you went for Painter as he seems to good right now to let slide. Medina just isn’t moving other than backwards so I think it’s time to let him go. Wasn’t really convinced on the Kershaw deal, thought it cost too much but I’m interested to see how it works out over the rest of this series. Oh and I love the way you frame these recordings. Hearing your thought processes on trades and strategies is really informative and also entertaining as far as I am concerned 👌
While you were gone. Race for the Pennant came out. I've spent the last couple days tinkering with it. So far. I don't like it. But I want to see how things like the draft, trade deadline, and postseason look. I don't like it because you can't set budgets, hire and fire staff, or even run a scouting report. Maybe this changes during the offseason. Maybe not. Worse yet. You can't access the league settings. I'm not really into playing the games, so I don't really see the benefit. Especially, when it comes at the expense of losing many of the GM functions. Even if I was a day to day player, I wouldn't like it because I wouldn't have enough game action. It might not be so bad if they just offered it as an option within the game and let you keep the settings you want. But as a standalone, iits really disappointing. At least so far.
Interesting, just saw there was the new patch while I was gone. I may take a look at some point, but it was not something that sounded all that interesting to me, and based on your review, probably not on the top of my list of things to investigate!
@@oldschoolsports I don't see what I'd be gaining here. If I wanted to, I could start a regular save and sim each game up to the 7th inning. If the game is interesting, I could play it. If not, I could just sim it out. Maybe this would appeal to someone who is new to the game. They would be less overwhelmed.
Wow!! What a stellar episode.. Ohanei, Bieber and Nakajima all in the books and some very interesting looking rule 5 pickups to boot. Can't wait to see how this works for the upcoming season. Got to be at least .500 with those additions and likely better. Could be an epic second year for the new franchise 😊
Wow what a great draft!! Exciting to watch that progress 😊 Really pleased you took Seifu first, can’t wait to sees how he progressed and how quickly you got him into the lineup. Surprised Blevins dropped to 9th though.. I guess the lack of a position was not looked on well. WTH was your scout thinking with that catcher recommendation (Cassrez) in round 4 (and every other round after it seemed lol). Not sure I would have picked him in any round 😮 Very iffy recommendation from him… does he survive long in this playthrough I wonder 🤔 I was shouting at the tv for you to take Penfold over Ojeda in the 5th. Really pleased that one worked out as hoped 👍🏼 Good to see your thought processes all the way through the 20 rounds 👍🏼
