OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post - An Un-Official Guide to Minor League Management for OOTP 21

luckymann · 05-31-2020, 12:38 AM

This is a fantastic post J, thanks so much for sharing it. I have printed it off and refer to it regularly when trying to keep my farm ticking along.

Of the many aspects of this game that bring me joy, tracking the progress of prospects as they develop and crawl up through the ranks is right up there. In my main fictional league I have one pitcher who I drafted as a 17yo RP with a profile of 20-45 because I liked his makeup. He started in the lowest level and is now killing it as an SP in AA at age 19 with a profile of 49-60, while my scout rates him at 47-79 as an SP!! It's like he's my son or something I get so happy when he's advanced more - tragic, really!!

It is a lot of work and occasionally drives me bat**** crazy, but I handle all of the call-up / send-down duties myself and track all of my farm system (MLB- thru R) on an Excel spreadsheet, updating it once a month when the Player Dev Report comes through on the 1st.

In doing this I try to "colour-block" at each level (obviously I use numbers rather than stars for ratings). By this I mean I aim to have as much blue and green as possible in my MLB squad, as much green and yellow as possible for my MLB- and AAA squads, as much yellow as possible in my AA squad, and as much orange (or, looking at it from a different angle, as little red) as possible in my A and SA squads. At the R level, I can usually tell how well my whole farm is doing with regard to depth by how many non 20-20 rated players it is comprised of, especially pitchers. I have a no-limit roster at this level and try to cull 20-20 players regularly, usually by age (oldest first) or those with iffy makeup (work ethic particularly).

The one element of the game this leaves you vulnerable to overlooking is, of course, potential. That's where the spreadsheet / regular updating comes into play.

So for example here is my MLB- position players squad. Just looking at it without even examining it more deeply, I can see that I have a lot of good contact hitters who don't walk or strike out much and that my power is limited to too few players. I can see that I am weak at 1B (the #1 guy at that position is on the IL) and strong in the OF.

Anyway, thought I'd share my way of doing things. Hope it's of some interest.

05-31-2020, 12:38 AM	#26
luckymann Hall Of Famer Join Date: Nov 2019 Posts: 13,375	This is a fantastic post J, thanks so much for sharing it. I have printed it off and refer to it regularly when trying to keep my farm ticking along. Of the many aspects of this game that bring me joy, tracking the progress of prospects as they develop and crawl up through the ranks is right up there. In my main fictional league I have one pitcher who I drafted as a 17yo RP with a profile of 20-45 because I liked his makeup. He started in the lowest level and is now killing it as an SP in AA at age 19 with a profile of 49-60, while my scout rates him at 47-79 as an SP!! It's like he's my son or something I get so happy when he's advanced more - tragic, really!! It is a lot of work and occasionally drives me bat**** crazy, but I handle all of the call-up / send-down duties myself and track all of my farm system (MLB- thru R) on an Excel spreadsheet, updating it once a month when the Player Dev Report comes through on the 1st. In doing this I try to "colour-block" at each level (obviously I use numbers rather than stars for ratings). By this I mean I aim to have as much blue and green as possible in my MLB squad, as much green and yellow as possible for my MLB- and AAA squads, as much yellow as possible in my AA squad, and as much orange (or, looking at it from a different angle, as little red) as possible in my A and SA squads. At the R level, I can usually tell how well my whole farm is doing with regard to depth by how many non 20-20 rated players it is comprised of, especially pitchers. I have a no-limit roster at this level and try to cull 20-20 players regularly, usually by age (oldest first) or those with iffy makeup (work ethic particularly). The one element of the game this leaves you vulnerable to overlooking is, of course, potential. That's where the spreadsheet / regular updating comes into play. So for example here is my MLB- position players squad. Just looking at it without even examining it more deeply, I can see that I have a lot of good contact hitters who don't walk or strike out much and that my power is limited to too few players. I can see that I am weak at 1B (the #1 guy at that position is on the IL) and strong in the OF. Anyway, thought I'd share my way of doing things. Hope it's of some interest. Attached Images Last edited by luckymann; 05-31-2020 at 12:49 AM.