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joekramer5510 · 01-20-2020, 04:52 AM

I just started playing ootp this past year and I absolutely love the game, especially the historical mode. I love being able to take over certain teams from any point in history and reimagining and recreating that ball club's future fortunes. However there are certainly some pressing changes that I would like to see in next years game.

Here is what I would like to see in OOTP 21: All that I want to see a more accurate historical minor league game mode and this should be very attainable for the OOTp developing team. I come from Seattle where we have a rich minor league history over here with our former long time minor league team and 5x pcl champion Seattle Rainiers. After doing games for old teams such as the mariners of the 90s and the brooklyn dodgers of the 40s and 50s, I was eager to attempt a game with the Seattle Rainiers during their inaugural campaign of 1939. However I was disappointed with several features of the historical minor league game mode. Beginning with the fact, that no financial system is set in place for the minor leagues during this time, which means that unaffiliated teams don’t have any money, can’t make trades or sell players which they did back then, all players are purchased from the majors at the same communist price so players can’t be sold to big league clubs at fair and profitable prices instead which is how the system worked back then. This last feature aggravates me the most.

For some background knowledge, after the National League and the American League began stealing players from other leagues, which is what happens in the game, a number of leagues banded together in 1901 to form the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues (NAPBL, eventually MiLB). The three most notable leagues from the NAPBL were the American Association (AA), The International League (IL) and the Pacific Coast League (PCL). In 1903 the NAPBL and the Major Leagues reached a working agreement by which they would recognize each others contracts. The rule 5 draft was established to allow for upward player movement and a structure to purchase contracts from lower leagues was created. This system basically lasted up until 1962 when television had basically run all the minor leagues to the point of bankruptcy, but obviously the Rule 5 draft has stood the test of time now.
So basically what I would like to see in next years game is a different system setup for the minor leagues from the time span of the creation of the agreement between NAPBL and MLB in 1903 up until the current existing structure which went into effect in about 1962. I want minor league teams or at least just the IL, AA, and PCL, the big dawg minor leagues of that time, to have special financial systems that coincide with the working agreement that actually existed from 1903-1962.

There are a few things that I would imagine should be in this setup. First of all, I think it’s safe to assume that the values of the NAPBL teams during this time ran from about 35%-65% of what a typical Major League team would cost during that time. So coincide the values of the NAPBL franchises with that. Enable trading abilities which would let the minor league teams be able to sell their stars to the majors at a fair price which helped the leagues to stay financially afloat back then. For example, Lefty Grove was sold for $100,000 from the orioles to the Athletics and Joe Dimmagio was sold to the Yankees for $50,000, so the prices for minor league prospects should lineup with those historical transactions as well as others that occured between 1903-1962. Contract purchasing should not exist in this setup, instead every unaffiliated minor league team should be able to swap and sell players with any club.
It would also be nice to be able to shop players which the minor leagues did quite often back then. However I would envision this shopping system being a tad different from the normal one in the game. There would be two or three shopping options where you could shop a player for either a different player, money, cash, or both.

During this 60 year time frame contract purchasing should be more complex than what it is right now. The game lets you purchase any player from any league all at the same cost, usually just a few thousand dollars. Obviously the contract purchase price is adjustable but it shouldn’t even exist because it’s not realistic and it doesn’t take into account the different values of the different players that minor league teams possessed. Instead minor league teams should have the right to sell any player whenever they want to for whatever cost, which is the way that it actually worked back then.
NAPBL teams and leagues had the ability to protect and exempt a certain number of players each year from being eligible for the rule 5 draft. For example, because of this rule and owner Jack Dunn’s unwillingness to sell him to a major league club, Lefty Grove spent five years with the IL’s Baltimore Orioles before finally being sold to Connie Mack’s Athletics in 1925. Specifically the IL, AA and PCL independent teams should be able to hold this power as well and sell and trade players at any time.

I really want to see something similar to this potential realistic historical minor league game mode in which i have as much power as the minor league owners had at that time of 1903-1962. If you, the OOTP developers could make these changes present in the game next year, it would simply make your product more realistic, enjoyable and appealing to historian like fans of the game such as myself. Thank you for your time.

01-20-2020, 04:52 AM	#4
joekramer5510 Bat Boy Join Date: Sep 2019 Posts: 5	I just started playing ootp this past year and I absolutely love the game, especially the historical mode. I love being able to take over certain teams from any point in history and reimagining and recreating that ball club's future fortunes. However there are certainly some pressing changes that I would like to see in next years game. Here is what I would like to see in OOTP 21: All that I want to see a more accurate historical minor league game mode and this should be very attainable for the OOTp developing team. I come from Seattle where we have a rich minor league history over here with our former long time minor league team and 5x pcl champion Seattle Rainiers. After doing games for old teams such as the mariners of the 90s and the brooklyn dodgers of the 40s and 50s, I was eager to attempt a game with the Seattle Rainiers during their inaugural campaign of 1939. However I was disappointed with several features of the historical minor league game mode. Beginning with the fact, that no financial system is set in place for the minor leagues during this time, which means that unaffiliated teams don’t have any money, can’t make trades or sell players which they did back then, all players are purchased from the majors at the same communist price so players can’t be sold to big league clubs at fair and profitable prices instead which is how the system worked back then. This last feature aggravates me the most. For some background knowledge, after the National League and the American League began stealing players from other leagues, which is what happens in the game, a number of leagues banded together in 1901 to form the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues (NAPBL, eventually MiLB). The three most notable leagues from the NAPBL were the American Association (AA), The International League (IL) and the Pacific Coast League (PCL). In 1903 the NAPBL and the Major Leagues reached a working agreement by which they would recognize each others contracts. The rule 5 draft was established to allow for upward player movement and a structure to purchase contracts from lower leagues was created. This system basically lasted up until 1962 when television had basically run all the minor leagues to the point of bankruptcy, but obviously the Rule 5 draft has stood the test of time now. So basically what I would like to see in next years game is a different system setup for the minor leagues from the time span of the creation of the agreement between NAPBL and MLB in 1903 up until the current existing structure which went into effect in about 1962. I want minor league teams or at least just the IL, AA, and PCL, the big dawg minor leagues of that time, to have special financial systems that coincide with the working agreement that actually existed from 1903-1962. There are a few things that I would imagine should be in this setup. First of all, I think it’s safe to assume that the values of the NAPBL teams during this time ran from about 35%-65% of what a typical Major League team would cost during that time. So coincide the values of the NAPBL franchises with that. Enable trading abilities which would let the minor league teams be able to sell their stars to the majors at a fair price which helped the leagues to stay financially afloat back then. For example, Lefty Grove was sold for $100,000 from the orioles to the Athletics and Joe Dimmagio was sold to the Yankees for $50,000, so the prices for minor league prospects should lineup with those historical transactions as well as others that occured between 1903-1962. Contract purchasing should not exist in this setup, instead every unaffiliated minor league team should be able to swap and sell players with any club. It would also be nice to be able to shop players which the minor leagues did quite often back then. However I would envision this shopping system being a tad different from the normal one in the game. There would be two or three shopping options where you could shop a player for either a different player, money, cash, or both. During this 60 year time frame contract purchasing should be more complex than what it is right now. The game lets you purchase any player from any league all at the same cost, usually just a few thousand dollars. Obviously the contract purchase price is adjustable but it shouldn’t even exist because it’s not realistic and it doesn’t take into account the different values of the different players that minor league teams possessed. Instead minor league teams should have the right to sell any player whenever they want to for whatever cost, which is the way that it actually worked back then. NAPBL teams and leagues had the ability to protect and exempt a certain number of players each year from being eligible for the rule 5 draft. For example, because of this rule and owner Jack Dunn’s unwillingness to sell him to a major league club, Lefty Grove spent five years with the IL’s Baltimore Orioles before finally being sold to Connie Mack’s Athletics in 1925. Specifically the IL, AA and PCL independent teams should be able to hold this power as well and sell and trade players at any time. I really want to see something similar to this potential realistic historical minor league game mode in which i have as much power as the minor league owners had at that time of 1903-1962. If you, the OOTP developers could make these changes present in the game next year, it would simply make your product more realistic, enjoyable and appealing to historian like fans of the game such as myself. Thank you for your time.