Pre-Playing a Season

[rich1722]

Hi, I'm interested in controlling all roster decisions, setting the lineups for all teams and managing one team while simming the others. Do I just need to be in Commissioner Mode or are there other settings that I need to adjust?

Thanks in advance.

[Larryk007]

I am new to the game too, but that is just what I wanted to do when I started. Yes, GM and Commissioner which gives you the ability to set what the GM does. Once you have set a GM then under Manger Options you can select what you want to do and what the AI will do. I will say that it is a lot of effort to control everything. I have used the AI to help but I am not sure the AI is thinking like I think, so I limit the AI where ever I can.

[Charlie Hough]

Originally Posted by rich1722

Hi, I'm interested in controlling all roster decisions, setting the lineups for all teams and managing one team while simming the others. Do I just need to be in Commissioner Mode or are there other settings that I need to adjust?

Out of curiosity, do you want to do this with a historical game? In case you're wanting to control everything in order to ensure that teams use their real lineups and transactions from history, there are options to enforce and automate that in a historical game.

However, if you're looking to do this because you simply want to control AI teams' lineups and transactions in a non-historical game, then you will need to be in Commissioner Mode. Then, as Larryk007 indicated, you can use the options for each team to set who controls its lineups and transactions.

When you need to make moves for a given team, you can use the Act As option under your manager menu to act as the GM and manager of a team, then make the changes, and then switch back to the club you're normally running. Maybe there is an additional feature to help automate this and notify you when you need to make changes, but I've never run my games this way, so I can't be sure.

[Syd Thrift]

I kind of play like this (except that I also play through all the games from the 7th on). You can 100% play out one game and sim through the rest. One thing that can get hairy is that if you control the lineups, you also need to take care of injuries when they occur. I will go through and make a round through to check the injury log and then the injury report every day - the former for new injuries, the latter to see if anyone has 1 day left - and that works around 99% of the time. It's also, of course, extremely time-intensive.

[SimonBurton]

However, as you mentioned, relying too much on AI may not always yield the results you want. AI may make decisions based on criteria or values that are different from yours, and it may not always consider the long-term impact of its actions. Therefore, you should closely monitor AI decisions and intervene when necessary.
Overall, finding the right balance between manual controls and AI assistance can take some trial and error, but can ultimately lead to a more successful and satisfying experience playing the game. .

[Pelican]

Agree with the above advice.

On injuries, where I control transactions, I typically look at the league injury list once a week, and make changes as needed. Or, better yet, as I scan box scores for other games, take care to note in-game injuries, and make the changes right away through “act as” the GM for that team.

An alternative I’m using now is to throw roster control back to the AI, but lock certain players to the MLB roster (or to the AAA roster), so that the AI cannot mess up my plan. (You can also lock where they play in the field, and where they bat in the lineup.) In this mode, I will set RHP and LHP lineups for teams, and then lock them in through the daily lineups setting, so the AI can’t mess that up.

And you can also create a manager with certain strategy attributes to manage other teams, if for example you want a team to use more “small ball” or an aggressive bullpen, you can assign the manager with those settings to a particular team.