Quote:
Originally Posted by Reed
I'm trying to think of a way to start a random league but not have star players starting their career at age 30+. I'm just thinking out load. What if I started a league with say 4 teams (or heck, 2 teams) (yes, I'll have a few older players) and then expanded my league to 16 or 20 teams the following year with a 25 round draft. Won't these players in the draft debut at their 1st real MLB year? For the next few years you would have to have small draft round until the ages become evenly distributed. Does this make any since or am I ding bat crazy?
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The starting at age 30+ (sometimes 40+) thing is a PITA. Are you using OOTP16 or OOTP17? If you're using 17 it's much harder to get around this because the database is a bit tougher to navigate thanks to it getting beefed up in 17 with all those minor league "Ballplayer X" guys. Also, I'm not as sure of my way around in 17 because for the most part I've stayed in 16.
In OOTP16, you can get around it manually (also a PITA) by deleting the players and bringing in the same player at age 18 or 19 via the Spritze database which works very well with 16. You have to know what you're doing, but once you get the hang of it, it's pretty routine. Let me know if you want instructions for that if you want to try it. I just imported a Negro Leaguer who never made it to the big leagues (Lee Moody), and I've got PCL guys, Japanese guys, and Korean guys who never played in the big leagues as well.
This method will also allow me to delete the 40-whatever year old Satchel Paige whenever he shows up, and bring in the teenage version via Spritze which should be cool. Already did this for Elston Howard, Billy Harrell and Lou B Johnson, who all showed up in this draft (1945).
I use a random number generator and the master list from Spritze to determine what non-MLB guys come in, but when I'd had no Negro Leaguers for 44 drafts, I decided to hold out until I got at least one. Wish I'd done it sooner, but I had too much faith that my method would work. Moody's not very good unfortunately, but I'll bring another one in next year and in each subsequent draft and eventually two when expansion happens. Can't wait to see Josh Gibson, Oscar Charleston etc etc but I'll always take whichever ones the random number thingy gives me because it's a random debut historical after all. I'll just hold out for Negro Leaguers for one of my extra draftees, two if there's lots of teams. Don't want too many because I have a five round draft with sixteen teams and I add two from Spritze, so that's 82 players and that is plenty.
I'm not sure how this would work with OOTP17 because I love my league so much that I've stayed in OOTP16. I don't want to mess it up by exporting/importing it, and I'm not sure what would happen to the random debut thing if I did export/import this now 45 year old league. Would it start bringing in players who have already been through my league because it's a different database? I don't want to find out the hard way that this would happen.
I'm also not sure about you starting with two teams and then expanding to sixteen. That is a huge amount of expansion and it might bork your game, which I suppose is OK if you don't mind starting over. It just seems like too much to me, but I could be wrong.
I don't mind the whole starting at 30+ year old player thing because what you'll find is that other players can come out of nowhere to become superstars and potentially HoFers. Some 2B named Tillie Shafer did this in my league and went to the HoF. Yes it's maddening to have favourite players come in needing a walker to get to 1B, but you never know who's going to step up and who you're going to discover from history. I use 3-year double weighted recalc and Neutralized Stats in all of my games with "Remaining Years of Career" for Potential Ratings. I also base Rookie Fielding Ratings and Pitcher Stamina on 3-year periods. Finally, I use the Player Development System at default settings
in conjunction with recalc. This is critical if you want the Tillie Shafers of the world to emerge.
Remember as well that if you started with all 18ish year olds in your random debut or even players at their actual debut dates, guys might not retire as quickly as they will if the ages are randomly (there's that word again) dispersed. By having my five round (plus two players) draft, I have about the right amount of players. There are about 50 or 60 free agents hanging around at any one time during the regular season. You want that cushion for injuries (which I have set to High (Realistic Modern Day)), but you don't want too many free agents because then guys aren't playing. Believe it or not age 30+ and 40+ guys in the inaugural draft is a good thing because it keeps the line moving in your league and allows for a natural churn of talent to occur.
Without enough guys retiring, things get awfully crowded in the free agent bin, and then guys don't play. You want to get as many guys as possible into the game because that's what they're there for. I think I've got about an 83% rate of drafted players coming into my league and getting at least the proverbial Cup of Coffee. You're never going to get 100% because some guys are just too crappy.
I hope I haven't overloaded you with info. This post has gotten quite long and feels a bit disjointed, so I hope you can get something out of it. Whatever way you decide to go, I hope you enjoy your random debut historical because in my mind it's the best way to play historical and perhaps is OOTP's best kept secret. Enjoy it, and fire away with any questions you may have. OOTP is a great game, but it is complicated, with many moving parts, and it helps to have people who've fumbled (and fumbled and fumbled) around with settings over the years to help you figure out what you want to get out of it.
