In OOTP11. The game came out Monday but I just got back from GA today and I'm starting a new 2010 MLB game. For those of you who don't know, OOTP11 is Out of the Ballpark Baseball 11, a text-based baseball sim and the newest in the line of the best baseball simulations out there.

To start this game I first downloaded a mod that gives me all of the teams' logos, parks, etc. This year the mods creators went all out, even including the game generated face-gen files for pretty much every player. Here is Brian McCann:

via lh5.ggpht.com

Of course, some look better than others. Bobby looks like he just got hit by a nuclear bomb:

via lh6.ggpht.com

These pictures come courtesy of the new baseball card generator in the sim. You can see McCann's lifetime stats there.

Another new feature is the ability to have the rules and setup of the league change automatically. Because I don't want the Red Sox to move to Alaska, I only enabled league expansion and the ability for the DH to come and go.

Also new is the addition of actual owners. Over time they will die and the team can be bought by someone else or can be inherited. The new owner will have a totally different set of expectations and tendencies. The Braves aren't owned by Liberty in the game, but a 47-year old Japanese guy named Koto Fujimoto from Tokyo. Right now he is patient and financially generous.

Onto actual gameplay. The way I have played since OOTP6 is to control the rosters of the MLB team, draft, etc and sim a month or so at a time. There are alot of guys out there that play each game all the way through and have been playing the same franchise for years, importing their save game from old game to new game. At the end of each month I look at the players' performances and make changes accordingly. I can see stat breakdowns on pretty much everything. I play with coaches on most of the time but I rarely enable scouts. To hell with those guys.

The roster that came with the game had Acosta still on our team, so I went into Commissioner (God) Mode and placed him on the Mets. Now we have a hole in the bullpen and I wanted to plug it with another lefty but we don't have anyone worth a damn in the minors, so I went to the free agent pool. As far as lefties go, the free agent pool is pretty shallow too. I decided to sign Jarrod Washburn to a 1-year 2.42 mil deal. I will use him out of the bullpen, and heaven forbid someone gets injured, as a starter.

While in the free agent section I noticed Elijah Dukes was there so I right clicked on him and wrote a note that will remind me in a pop-up in 30 days. I also set one for Mr. Glass, as I am interested to see where both of these guys end up, and in Mike Hampton's case, if he ever plays again.

I've just started so I don't really have much more. Oh yeah one thing; the ratings system I use is the scouting 20-80  scale. Jason Heyward is currently a 62 with 80 potential. We will see how it works out.