In this OOTP Sim, coming into the 1995 season we have a new league, with new teams, but real historical players...
NOT the MLB players, who, in this alternate universe, decided to get paid out and walked as the MLB folded (whether they will enter the new league down the road, or just stay retired, or go play overseas, or whatever, is TBD). But instead, the players in this 1995 season are the minor leaguers who were already on these minor league teams.
We went ahead & did an inaugural draft as well, to a) try to get the fans interested, and b) due to all of the current players having been originally drafted by their parent organizations who have now folded.
I have taken over as the Colorado Sky Sox GM, including designing a new ballpark (wait until you see what it is below).
Or check out the video here-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FznSb7PpgbQ
LEAGUE DETAILS
I decided to take this opportunity to tweak some things vs. how the former MLB was doing it. Some are probably more "player friendly," while some are more "club friendly," but we have an actual commissioner who is NEUTRAL and cares about integrity of the game! Who woulda thought...
*All players are on the "league minimum" for year 1 & 2 ... top 5% are the Super 2 (meaning, they start arbitration 1 year early) and otherwise arbitration starts after year 2 for everyone else. This arbitration is merit based (KBO style), so it doesn't just continually increase. If a player has a bad year, salary can go down during Arbitration period. This will give teams more $ to play with if they just had a bad year, because their payroll will be less.
*4 years of service before free agency (same w/ minors, 4 years), instead of the former MLB's 6.
*Qualifying Offers for later round picks (2017 CBA) ... lottery system enabled for the rookie draft (Importing real historical players from that time period).
*135 games... interleague play ... only an East/West from NL & AL, & 2 wildcards from each league
*Every team has a AAA, AA, and A.
*Unchecked adjusting league modifiers, so it should kind of run away with how the league "randomly" evolves?
*Erased all history- since it's a new league, so players can set new records, etc. on teams & in MLB (it's still called "MLB," ... so in this Universe, once the prior MLB League folded, their name was able to be used).
*As for team's market size, fan interest, etc., I evened every team out to be the same at the start. THIS WAS BEFORE THE INAUGURAL DRAFT. So as the game evolves, it should change. Revenue sharing is at 50% and everything else is very similar to the 1995 default.
*Each year, I can re-evaluate some of the financials & league set up if needed. Can also expand/retract if needed (if retracting, the players on the team being removed will be picked up through a free agent draft). If a team is last in their division for 3 years in a row, they'll be retracted.
PLAN & STRATEGY AS THE SKY SOX GM
I am building around my ballpark which is ridiculous. 475 to CF, 450 to the power allies. There is a chance lefties can pull homeruns down the line, because I put the wall at 5 ft out there and only 325 feet down the line. But then it goes to 400 feet pretty quickly, and again 450 in right center. According to the park factors, lefties are at 20% of what normal parks would be for hitting homeruns. Righties will have a very tough time to hit HRs, as down the LF line is 400, plus a 20 foot wall, and wind blowing in from LF. OOTP park factors estimate 2.2% of normal HRs are going to be hit by RHB in my park
Thus, I am not concerned about getting HR hitters. Doubles and triples are up around 2x. Averages are up around 20%. So I'm trying to find high contact guys and high gap power guys.
As for pitching & defense, this will be the challenge. We'll probably lead the league in lowest HR given up, but also in highest BA and extra base hits. Thus, I'm trying to find high movement & high stuff guys WHO ARE GROUNDBALLERS. Since you have to give & take somewhere, I'm not concerned if their control isn't great. Also, trying to get good defenders who have lots of range... both in the infield (with groundball pitchers) and outfield (with it being extremely huge).
Obviously we do have games on the road too, but with half our games at home, I think it's worth building the team around my ballpark, with it being so extreme.