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BirdWatcher · 03-26-2019, 05:25 PM

I will admit that I started my current fictional save (my first) with a very basic and simple structure and have added little things to it as I get more comfortable with the process and the fictional universe of this save.

So some of your questions I still can't answer as you are, I sense, being more adventurous in your approach than I have been so far.

I certainly can't speak to expansion as I haven't had any of that in my league yet.

Or, well, your questions about playoffs and draft pick trading. Sorry.

But as for quite a few others here I do think that they are likely the result of settings that you may wish to play around with and modify a bit.
In my fictional league I do get several season ending injuries each season, and while they are more common for pitchers, position players are not immune. On the other hand, it does seem like AI managed teams have more players who end up playing far more games, pitching far more innings, than my guys. I'm someone who likes to use the whole bench and get my starters plenty of rest. Then again, it seems like my team tends to do better down the stretch than some of the AI run teams contending with my team for the title. Maybe I need to look at my settings and see if I can't tweak this to get AI managers to behave a bit more like me.

I'm not sure what to say about salary development. I would think having your financial settings set to align with the MLB historical year you are mirroring your league on should do the trick. But I imagine there are still some variables, like ballpark capacities, that will affect revenue and therefore might throw off average salaries a bit.

I have no inter-league play (yet) in my league, so can't speak to that.

As for inflated stats, well, it does sound like part of what you are describing is likely about players accumulating counting stats at higher rates due to higher numbers of starts/plate appearances,etc. Now if numbers are off in more serious, underlying ways then of course you can adjust league totals stats modifiers.

I've certainly seem some very good international free agents thrive in my league. Then again, I've seen the same with players drafted through the regular amateur draft, but that often takes longer. My sense, for my league anyway, is that the international free agents are few in number and the percentage of them that turn into very good big leaguers is higher. But that makes sense to me. I think they are pre-weeded out pretty well and if they don't look like they would make decent major leaguers teams wouldn't take an interest in them to begin with. The regular draft is more about playing the numbers and accepting that most won't make it but some will and you can't always tell at 18 or even 21 years old which might be which.

Not sure what to say about the numbers of relievers/closers in your drafts, particularly in the early rounds. My experience has been that different drafts have different trends. I've certainly had drafts where a large percentage of the first round draft picks were pitchers, though usually heavier on the starting pitchers. Then, other years, the number of high quality position players is greater and pitchers aren't as highly valued. My sense, in OOTP as in real life, is that pitchers are the less predictable commodity and therefore they might be drafted in higher numbers, knowing that a smaller percentage will ever prove valuable at the big league level. And they are, of course, more likely to sustain injuries that either end their careers prematurely or render them even less valuable and less likely to make it to the show. And to sustain a minor league system you need a lot more pitchers than say, firstbasemen. So if a draft is pitcher heavy that doesn't bother me- it seems to mirror real life.

Skipping over the "disband" a team question. Someone smarter and more experienced than me will have to answer that.

As for players aging gracefully (the way I like to look at it), this should certainly be something you can alter in your settings. Probably just need to play around with and test it until it feels right to you. I like players aging a bit more slowly and gradually so the settings that I use mean that there will be plenty of veterans in their late 30's (and sometimes even early 40's) who can still be productive. But that's just my preference.

Not sure what to say about the multiple MVP award winners and such. Sounds like the league might be a bit superstar heavy. Not necessarily a bad thing, but one would hope that over time that might balance out a bit. My sense is that early in a fictional universe you will have some talent imbalance (but then again, such was also true of MLB in the early days) but that given time you should see variation in this over the decades. But I'm only into year 8 of my league so this is just based upon things I have read from others around here, not personal experience yet.

I am absolutely in love with my fictional universe, simple and vanilla as it might be. I hope you feel the same way about yours once you are fully up and running with it.

03-26-2019, 05:25 PM	#23
BirdWatcher Hall Of Famer Join Date: Mar 2018 Location: Denver, Colorado Posts: 4,263	I will admit that I started my current fictional save (my first) with a very basic and simple structure and have added little things to it as I get more comfortable with the process and the fictional universe of this save. So some of your questions I still can't answer as you are, I sense, being more adventurous in your approach than I have been so far. I certainly can't speak to expansion as I haven't had any of that in my league yet. Or, well, your questions about playoffs and draft pick trading. Sorry. But as for quite a few others here I do think that they are likely the result of settings that you may wish to play around with and modify a bit. In my fictional league I do get several season ending injuries each season, and while they are more common for pitchers, position players are not immune. On the other hand, it does seem like AI managed teams have more players who end up playing far more games, pitching far more innings, than my guys. I'm someone who likes to use the whole bench and get my starters plenty of rest. Then again, it seems like my team tends to do better down the stretch than some of the AI run teams contending with my team for the title. Maybe I need to look at my settings and see if I can't tweak this to get AI managers to behave a bit more like me. I'm not sure what to say about salary development. I would think having your financial settings set to align with the MLB historical year you are mirroring your league on should do the trick. But I imagine there are still some variables, like ballpark capacities, that will affect revenue and therefore might throw off average salaries a bit. I have no inter-league play (yet) in my league, so can't speak to that. As for inflated stats, well, it does sound like part of what you are describing is likely about players accumulating counting stats at higher rates due to higher numbers of starts/plate appearances,etc. Now if numbers are off in more serious, underlying ways then of course you can adjust league totals stats modifiers. I've certainly seem some very good international free agents thrive in my league. Then again, I've seen the same with players drafted through the regular amateur draft, but that often takes longer. My sense, for my league anyway, is that the international free agents are few in number and the percentage of them that turn into very good big leaguers is higher. But that makes sense to me. I think they are pre-weeded out pretty well and if they don't look like they would make decent major leaguers teams wouldn't take an interest in them to begin with. The regular draft is more about playing the numbers and accepting that most won't make it but some will and you can't always tell at 18 or even 21 years old which might be which. Not sure what to say about the numbers of relievers/closers in your drafts, particularly in the early rounds. My experience has been that different drafts have different trends. I've certainly had drafts where a large percentage of the first round draft picks were pitchers, though usually heavier on the starting pitchers. Then, other years, the number of high quality position players is greater and pitchers aren't as highly valued. My sense, in OOTP as in real life, is that pitchers are the less predictable commodity and therefore they might be drafted in higher numbers, knowing that a smaller percentage will ever prove valuable at the big league level. And they are, of course, more likely to sustain injuries that either end their careers prematurely or render them even less valuable and less likely to make it to the show. And to sustain a minor league system you need a lot more pitchers than say, firstbasemen. So if a draft is pitcher heavy that doesn't bother me- it seems to mirror real life. Skipping over the "disband" a team question. Someone smarter and more experienced than me will have to answer that. As for players aging gracefully (the way I like to look at it), this should certainly be something you can alter in your settings. Probably just need to play around with and test it until it feels right to you. I like players aging a bit more slowly and gradually so the settings that I use mean that there will be plenty of veterans in their late 30's (and sometimes even early 40's) who can still be productive. But that's just my preference. Not sure what to say about the multiple MVP award winners and such. Sounds like the league might be a bit superstar heavy. Not necessarily a bad thing, but one would hope that over time that might balance out a bit. My sense is that early in a fictional universe you will have some talent imbalance (but then again, such was also true of MLB in the early days) but that given time you should see variation in this over the decades. But I'm only into year 8 of my league so this is just based upon things I have read from others around here, not personal experience yet. I am absolutely in love with my fictional universe, simple and vanilla as it might be. I hope you feel the same way about yours once you are fully up and running with it.