Originally Posted by Pelican
To the OP, I have experimented with the 1914 and 1915 Federal League seasons. It's a challenge, because OOTP essentially treats the FL like a AAA-level circuit, if such categories had existed in those years.
That said, I have had reasonable success using essentially default settings, but with development enabled and annual recalc off, duplicating the actual player and team performance. In other words, since MLB and FL teams don't play one another (in my sim and IRL), the AL and NL and FL spool out consistent with IRL.
The challenge comes in having FL teams sign players who had MLB records in 1914 and 1915. [As a kind of "house rule", I have painstakingly researched instances of players who were courted by the FL, negotiated and then pulled back, or even signed contracts and later repudiated them. In my sim, those guys show up on FL rosters.]. Or rookies like the Ruth fellow playing literally across the street from the Terrapins' new stadium (for the Orioles). If you check the ratings comparison choice (versus MLB or versus FL), there is an uptick for MLB guys going to the FL. In my experience, the performances have been realistic. Of course, I am playing with relatively hight TCR, so there have been significant variations, up and down.
What this approach (FL as AAA equivalent) lacks is financials. FL teams don't have budgets or balance sheets. That's a pretty glaring omission, since the FL teams struggled to compete, lost money, and eventually folded. (They were far more competitive on the field than at the box office, in most cases.)
A possible way around that is expansion. I have not tried this for the FL teams; but it worked out well for creating the Continental League in 1961, with eight teams. Expansion teams are MLB teams, so they have the full financial screens and attendant limitations. Far more realistic. For a "renegade" league, there would be no expansion draft; just raids on MLB players. And no trades between MLB and FL/CL, at least until a peace agreement.
But beware the "doctrine of unintended consequences". In my CL sim, I somehow caused a bunch of MLB stars, presumably those at the end of a contract, to become free agents. They were no longer bound by the reserve clause to their existing teams. This caused something of a free-for-all. ["Free' is a poor choice of words, since these contracts were huge for the era.]. In other words, I imposed the post-1975 landscape on 1961. My goal had been to give CL teams a chance to sign players from MLB. What happened is that Banks, Clemente, Mays changed teams, in the prime of their careers.
Back to the FL. There was a ton of player movement for most FL teams, in 1914 and 1915. I play without actual transactions and injuries on, and that calmed things down. Players who had some time on a FL roster were there for the year. (FL teams have reserve rosters, rather than a farm system...) Loss of dozens of players to the FL upset the AL and NL standings a bit. But I did not find any teams running out of players. Actually 1915 is easier to play than 1914, because OOTP upgrades the minor leagues starting in 1915.
Hint: There are plenty of PCL players who would look good in a FL jersey. My guess is that the early PCL had players who were not ready or able in 1915 to journey across the country, on the hope of playing in MLB. Another project is to develop the PCL into a major league, after WWI, and again (or instead) after WWII.
And finally, if you find yourself short on players, disable the color line. This would have been radical in 1914 or 1915; but so what? Unfortunately, there are not a lot of Negro League players available. (In fact, there were no Negro Leagues yet.) But there were stars, and this is another cool "what if?" scenario. Also a way for a renegade league to become viable.
I've been neglectful in reporting on these projects. Once I get some time, I will post updates in the historical thread area, for what it's worth.
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