Daddy's Got A New Ride!

Out of the Park Baseball 2018

Daddy's got a new ride, I love it! 

I strongly encourage anyone to play this amazing game, all worth it at the great price of $39.99! You can check out their excellent trailers & tutorials on You Tube or the Out of Park Baseball site. For some of you, this may be old news to you, and maybe you have been enjoying this product for years. 

For those that don't know, you can play as far back as 1871, you can replay actual seasons, you can do career modes, where everything changes from year to year on its way to it's alternative path. I have numerous season modes, I'll give you a descriptions of each of my OOTP projects

Mad Max will be driving batters mad for Detroit (not Washington).

Detroit Tigers 2012 (Re-Dux)

We all have wondered what if the Tigers never let Max Scherzer or even Doug Fister go... I started it at the 2012 season & moved forward... 2012 unfortunately didn't go well, I jumped early on acquiring Anibal Sanchez & Omar Infante -- the trade (to Miami) was different though, as I unloaded Jacob Turner with Eugenio Suarez & Curt Casali instead.  

At mid-season with our team 8.5 games out, and with Prince Fielder possibly opting out of his contract, I decided to trade him to the Texas Ranger; My return for Fielder & Hernan Perez was 2B-Rougned Odor, CF-Lewis Brinson & 1B-Andrew Clark. Traded an unhappy Ryan Raburn to the Giants for RP-Joe Biagini. Released Jose Valverde of his 15 Saves & 7.56 ERA, along with Octavio Dotel.

Entering 2013, made many minor league deals for upgraded potential in younger prospects... Regretting my extension to Omar Infante and his payroll of $12.5 million each of the next two seasons, I traded him to Philadelphia with Lewis Brinson & RP-Joe Biagini in exchange for SP-Gabriel Arias (Class A) & 3B-Zach Green... Hated seeing Brinson go, I was in the middle of free agency and was pretty confident in adding Justin Upton (a few years early), which I did get him. This Gabriel Arias's stats look really good, and I need help in the pitching department, particularly bullpen of course. Upgraded prospects in a trade with Seattle that sent them newly-acquired Zach Green. 

Since I am in 'Win Now' mode, and the fact that Devon Travis got his debut earlier by playing the entire 2nd half of 2012, and holding his own. I decided to trade Odor, with SP-Matt Crouse, SP-Thad Weber & Bruce Rondon (hate that guy) to the Angels for star-ready Kole Calhoun (my RF), Upton will play LF, while Austin Jackson in center. Jhonny Peralta is still with us, and he's at short, while Cabrera moved back to 1st with the absence of Fielder... Nicholas Castellanos played well in 2nd half of 2012 as well, and is already at third for me. 

Calhoun is in right, as newly signed Justin Upton (a few years early) is in left.

The only glitch in the plan, Anibal Sanchez who came up for free agency, wanted too much, a 9-year deal at nearly $20 per year, I tried to counter with 4-year deal, top-heavy in front, with a player option after the 2nd year, and it apparently pissed him off, in which I couldn't even contact him any further (LOL!) The Rangers signed him to  a 7-year deal worth $112,700,000 with additional incentives. 

The Tigers drafted SS-Willy Adames, SP-Aaron Blair, LF-Dustin Fowler, RP-Zack Godley, SP-Ian Clarkin & C-Francisco Mejia in the 2012 Draft (which OOTP does in December) just after the Winter Meetings. I was surprised to get all of these studs signed to their bonuses, when denied during 1st 3 rounds, you receive compensation picks, there is draft slots pay, it has it all, you will shit a brick and drool when you see what this game has to offer.

I then lucked out on the Rule 5 Draft and snagged Dellin Betances & Brandon Kintzler, I am not sure how that happened. My bullpen for 2013 will be Joaquin Benoit (Closer) with Betances, Kintzler, Luis Marte, Phil Coke & Kyle Ryan (LH specialist) with Drew Smyly slated in 5th rotation spot for now (his stamina is not good at the moment though), so I may use him like the current real-life Indians use Andrew Miller... I traded for Taylor Jungmann (on a minor league contract), trading two developmental prospects with upside to add him as possible 5th slot guy, just extra insurance that didn't cost me anything. 

My 3 pitching prospects in Gabriel Arias (future rotation starter), Marcelo Carreno & Joshua Turley (closer-type) will get more seasoning in the minors, they are capable of pitching in my pen now, but I want to make sure they continue to improve. My team finished 78-84 in 2012 & are predicted to win the division with 92 wins. 

We are currently 6-1, with both Justin Verlander & Max Scherzer at 2-0. Devon Travis & Kole Calhoun have been brilliant in their roles.

ALTERNATE SERIES or EXHIBITION SERIES of all kinds

I started a What If 1967 World Series -- You can do exhibitions of any team in MLB history, so I decided to do one involving the Detroit Tigers and St. Louis Cardinals, what if the Tigers got there over the 'Impossible Dream' Red Sox? So far the Tigers are down 1-0 in this series. I also did a series between the 1912 Giants & the 1985 St. Louis Cardinals (since Cards were about the closest thing in the modern era to the dead-ball era)... The St. Louis Cardinals won the series, 4-1, with Willie McGee earning MVP honors, while John Tudor was amazing.

ALL ERAS in ONE PLACE

1950 MLB All-Era -- You can do a season with players from all eras, the catch is that it generates plenty of players from eras, but not all of those players at the same time... I started in 1950, with 1950 rules on everything, my team is the Detroit Tigers, and we did a fantasy draft at the beginning, my lineup is CF-Austin Jackson (27), RF-Homer Summa (27), 3B-Wade Boggs (28), LF-Garret Anderson (34), SS-Derek Jeter (37), 1B-James Loney (25), C-Dave Duncan (21) & 2B-David Bell (23). Players at all ages... My rotation is Wilbur Cooper (24), Johnny Cueto (23), Andy Hassler (21), Fred Hutchinson (19) & Carlos Silva (28), while I have John Hiller (27), first Steve Kline (24) & Eric Plunk (27). I have young talent coming up in Johnny Groth, Whitey Lockman & Yank Robinson. Ruth has yet to make his debut, while Mookie Betts was an early 1st Round pick by the Washington Senators. 

My Alternative Timeline Career project is the 1901 Pittsburgh Pirates, they actually had Rube Waddell on their roster early that season (which I did not know), so I kept him on team, and they won it all in 1901 & are seeking a repeat, while drafting Frank Schulte & adding pitcher Ed Killian to the club. 

Then there is my 'League of All Leagues' with 40 teams, made up team names, you can create uniforms -- that's really fun, the creativity aspect of the game is pretty amazing. Plus I did an updated rosters of end of 2017, so all players with their prospects in the right places. That's another thing, if you start at say 1991, you will have the players that were prospects at that time in the exact levels that they were at, there is all levels down to Dominican League, Fall League, Independent Leagues, you can play the Japanese Leagues even, and the World Baseball Classic. 

I'm still going to play APBA from time to time, but it's so cool that all the statistics are kept automatically and you can see all the stats in all of the levels, while you can take a look through their profile and see at age 26 where so-and-so was at in his career (through 'Real Stats' sections) you can figure out if a guy is about to hit the wall in his career. 

This game has it all, and in good time I will show you plenty.