[Giants44]

Now I could probably fill 10 pages of ideas for future additions, updates, versions, etc. But none one of us wants to deal with that so I will simply give you one that I have been thinking about quite a bit.

Considering the scope of this, I would think this is probably more of a v7 thing then a patch to v6, of course I wouldn’t be upset if it made its way into a v6 update.

A frustration I have that I know is shared by many players is not only the obvious AI problems (such as cutting Chipper Jones) but as much the subtle ones – for example a Carlos Delgado leading off. Now I have seen the studies about how players like him SHOULD lead off, but the fact of the matter is for the most part in real life they don’t. For the most part lineups tend to be fairly predictable at least for 1-5. So my thought is for each player to have some “designations” that are 100% controlled by the user, the AI never sets these designations. This would give solo players (especially historical ones) tremendous control over their leagues.

The designations are as follows:

Force Position: Default is a null value, but if you want to make sure that the AI always plays a player at a certain position and plays this play over anyone else on the roster. For example if you designate Andru Jones as the CF – He will be the starting CF, he won’t play left, the AI won’t place someone else above him in the depth chart (it still would of course place backups)

Force Order: Like position default is a null value – But if you want a player to always bat in a certain spot in the order you would set it here. For example the AI will almost never bat Rickey Henderson leadoff because of his power. But with this you could set this to “1” and the AI would set him 1 in all lineups.

Franchise Player: When set to yes – AI will always try and resign him, will never cut him, never trade him. Take a player like Tony Gwynn – set this to yes and he remains with San Diego his entire career (or until to change his designation)

Major Player: Default is no, only other option is yes. Not as powerful as franchise, this designation (when set to yes) simply prevents a player from being cut or sent down to AAA. Solves the Chipper Jones type issue. You don’t always want the Braves to re-sign him, or not trade him – But clearly during the prime of his career you don’t want to see them cut him.

These seem like pretty simple things to implement (to me anyway BUT I know 0 about programming) but for me would absolutely skyrocket my immersion factor in my solo leagues. (and could even prove usefull in my on-line league if for example I want to hit “auto-lineup” one day when I am pressed for time but I still want player X to hit third.)

My thought on this is you would probably only set these designations on 1-2 players per team, with of course the more detailed oriented ones using it a little more and the less so, probably not at all.