Knowing the future
 

Created a historical 1969 season in which I kept all the regular teams but dumped all the players back into the draft.
My question for you more experienced players, its seems weird to draft players that have good ratings, when you know in real life never turn out to be that great.
My point is, how do you draft against the AI when you already know how good (or not so good) these players are going to turn out to be.
I finished my first season and ended in last place in the NL West as the Padres, but a lot of that was because I drafted guys who I know in three years are going to be studs (Ted Simmons, Carlton Fisk, Steve Garvey).
Guess I'm not sure how to get past this crystal-ball affect.

I recommend checking the "Use pre-defined draft value for AI" box on the Game Settings > League Settings > Rules > Amateur Draft Settings page, at least for the amateur drafts. For the inaugural draft, this setting isn't as useful because it will cause some guys who are older, who had great careers, to be drafted earlier in the draft, and their best years may already be behind them.

Wow. Ted "Simba" Simmons and Carlton "Pudge" Fisk? Who you gonna choose when it comes time to, the HoFer or the switch hitting shoulda been HoFer?

Play fictional.;)

Not only did I draft Simmons and Fisk, but I also got Thurman Munson and Gene Tenace. I'm loaded behind the plate, so I have to figure who to trade and when to get a decent hall. Plus I'm an NL team so don't even have room to use one as a future DH, though Tenace can play 1B down the road.
Funny thing is, I was planning on drafting Bench with my first pick, but he was chosen by the team right in front of me. And, of course, he goes on to hit 43 homers for that team.

For historical, I never use an inaugural draft. The spread of talent is much better if you use real rosters to begin your league. I also turn off the amateur draft and have players assigned to their original teams, again to spread the talent out naturally. I turn off the option to allow trades of recently-drafted players, which gives the AI a little more time to properly value a stud prospect.

From there, you can use house rules to limit your ability to abuse the AI. One rule that I always use is to never trade for any player that is in the Hall of Fame. I also only allow four players in any one trade, i.e. no more than a 2-for-2 or 3-for-1, with trading on at least Hard. I sometimes play with the limitation that I can not acquire any player that did not play for my current team in real life.

Even with all of that, it is still hard to avoid scamming the AI and still have any fun (i.e. try to win). As Rich said, if you want to play all out against the AI and see how good you are, play fictional.

If I decide to do something other than just watch, I manage only.

You all make excellent points. At some point I will do a straight fictional league, the problem is I love using the real players too much.
My next project will probably just taking the padres in 1969 and either re-do their expansion draft or just take over the franchise after the draft.
OOTP offers so many options.

Fictional will eventually claim your soul.:D

Not necessarily. Chacun a son gout mon ami (I know you're not french, but I just thought it applied here ;) ).

I suggest taking over the franchise after the draft. Identify the key weaknesses that prevented them from becoming competitive more quickly, and try to rectify them without going overboard. I think you will enjoy this.

I second this. It's more of a challenge starting from the bottom. Let the expansion draft of qualified major leaguers happen first, and then get in there and see what you can do with your merry band of misfits that nobody wanted to protect.