OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post - Having/not having multiple minor leagues.

Charlie Hough · 03-25-2014, 07:56 PM

20/20 players are the reality of developing professional baseball prospects. And some of those 20/20 players will actually develop into MLB regulars. Some may even become stars. A player's potential at the start of the game is not necessarily what his potential will be as he develops over the next few years. So you ignore those players at your own peril.

To my knowledge, you can't simply turn off the minor leagues if you're using the current 2013 MLB game. Maybe you can create a custom game using the 2013 MLB plus a more limited minor league structure. But you might end up having to use fictional minor leaguers.

Also, when you create a historical game, you have the option to choose to use minors or not. And you can set the number of levels of minors for your league. However, these will not be the real life historical minor league affiliates for a given year. To do that, you'd have to customize all your minor teams, ballparks, etc.

There isn't a good way to include historical minors because affiliates changed so much year-to-year, and this would cause huge problems in OOTP trying to manage which players should play for which minor league ball club. Also, some MLB teams had multiple affiliates at the same level during certain past seasons, so that's an even bigger problem for trying to emulate that.

My approach is that, if I'm going to use historical minors, I simply set up my minor league levels so that there is a AAA level. Since you're only using historical rookies who already reached the MLB level, there is no need for much below AAA. Then I set up the AAA teams so there is a minor league affiliate for each MLB team based on the AAA clubs that were long associated with those teams in real life (Louisville Redbirds or Rochester Red Wings for the St. Louis Cardinals, the Albuquerque Dukes for the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Columbus Clippers or Newark Bears for the New York Yankees, etc.).

I set up my historical minors based on the eras that I'm simulating. So, if I'm starting a historical game in the 1970s, I use different affiliates and leagues than if I start one in the 1940s.

Then I plan the affiliates for future MLB expansion so that they will fit logically and geographically into the structure of my minors.

03-25-2014, 07:56 PM	#3
Charlie Hough Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 3,642	20/20 players are the reality of developing professional baseball prospects. And some of those 20/20 players will actually develop into MLB regulars. Some may even become stars. A player's potential at the start of the game is not necessarily what his potential will be as he develops over the next few years. So you ignore those players at your own peril. To my knowledge, you can't simply turn off the minor leagues if you're using the current 2013 MLB game. Maybe you can create a custom game using the 2013 MLB plus a more limited minor league structure. But you might end up having to use fictional minor leaguers. Also, when you create a historical game, you have the option to choose to use minors or not. And you can set the number of levels of minors for your league. However, these will not be the real life historical minor league affiliates for a given year. To do that, you'd have to customize all your minor teams, ballparks, etc. There isn't a good way to include historical minors because affiliates changed so much year-to-year, and this would cause huge problems in OOTP trying to manage which players should play for which minor league ball club. Also, some MLB teams had multiple affiliates at the same level during certain past seasons, so that's an even bigger problem for trying to emulate that. My approach is that, if I'm going to use historical minors, I simply set up my minor league levels so that there is a AAA level. Since you're only using historical rookies who already reached the MLB level, there is no need for much below AAA. Then I set up the AAA teams so there is a minor league affiliate for each MLB team based on the AAA clubs that were long associated with those teams in real life (Louisville Redbirds or Rochester Red Wings for the St. Louis Cardinals, the Albuquerque Dukes for the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Columbus Clippers or Newark Bears for the New York Yankees, etc.). I set up my historical minors based on the eras that I'm simulating. So, if I'm starting a historical game in the 1970s, I use different affiliates and leagues than if I start one in the 1940s. Then I plan the affiliates for future MLB expansion so that they will fit logically and geographically into the structure of my minors.