Jersey City Hires Elijah Craig as General Manager
Here’s where my story starts. I had my pick of jobs with this brand-new league. All 8 teams were willing to take a chance on me. In the end, I went with the best combination of a patient owner who would let me do my job and a scout I could count on. It came down to two teams: Brooklyn and Jersey City. Personally, Brooklyn seems more of an interesting place. But Jersey City had a slight edge on them with a great team trainer and a more patient owner. So Jersey City it was. I’m going to be leading the Hudsons to many championships. I hope. Getting fired is always a possibility.
The first order of business is the Inaugural Draft. Now, a little note about team-building in 1871. Not that I’m an expert. But a few things just don’t matter in these early years. First is home runs. They don’t really exist yet. Power hitters are guys who hit doubles and triples. On the other side of the coin, pitching seems to be almost meaningless. The “3 True Outcomes” almost never happen in 1871. It’s a pitch-to-contact game. And there are also A LOT of errors.
My general strategy for building this team is going to be contact, gap power, speed and defense. I’ll probably grab the best overall hitter first, and then start looking for up-the-middle defensive players with good contact ratings. I’m going to try to avoid any players with good power ratings unless they also have high contact ratings since I noticed the AI will bench contact hitters in favor of power hitters that will never actually hit home runs. Low contact, high power guys are to be avoided like the plague.
I’ll probably pick up a pitcher in round 3 or 4.
Before I get into the draft, here’s the settings I’m using:
Incorporate Stats in Scouting Reports: Yes (something I’m trying for the first time)
Scouting Accuracy: Low
Current Ratings: 20 to 80
Potential Ratings: 20 to 80
Other Ratings: 20 to 80
Overall Rating: Values 20 to 80 (Increments of 5)
Potential Rating: Values 20 to 80 (Increments of 5)
Show Ratings > Max: NO, cut off
NO Owner Goals
NO Injury Ratings
Trading Difficulty: Hard
Trading Preference: Neutral
Active Roster Size: 15 Players
Amateur Draft Number of Rounds: 3
Reserve Clause Era Financial Rules