Quote:
Originally Posted by Sweed
The early start overseas games were a pain back in the day when they played games in Japan. It meant that regular season games were being played while spring training games were still scheduled, IIRC. Is that an issue too, or did they do something in v25 to avoid the conflict.
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In real life there are special roster rules in effect.
MLB realized early on that it wasn't fair to have the two teams playing overseas cut down to their final 25 players a week before the other teams did, so it invented special roster rules to assist the two teams.
The clubs playing overseas could bring 30 players with them, and all 30 could be used in any exhibition games played overseas. When it came to the regular season games, 28 of the 30 players were eligible to play in them. The day of the regular season game, the clubs had to select 25 of the 28 players for use, and it had to be the same 25 players in both games. In all respects the two games are counted as regular season MLB games.
After the regular season overseas games, the roster went back up to 28, and all 28 players could be used in the spring training games played back in the U.S. The teams then had to cut down to their final 25 at the same time as the rest of the MLB clubs did, in preparation for the continental opening season date.
These rules allowed the two clubs playing overseas to have 28 players for their final week, giving them some flexibility in assessing their talent prior to the start of the regular season in the U.S.
Given that the active roster limit is now 26, presumably the aforementioned roster numbers will be increased by one (31 / 29 / 26) for the teams playing overseas.
As to OOTP, it did NOT recreate these overseas roster rules previously, and I highly doubt it ever will. (There are certain fundamental roster transaction rules it has never recreated, despite both OOTP and the rules being around for a long time).