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Originally Posted by spartaneers
I've never done one but have wanted to the last couple years. For statistical purposes, what starting year/era do you find a good balance at? How are minor leagues handled? What tips do you have for someone looking to start and maintain their first random debut historical league?
Thanks!
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I think when you start probably depends on what type of baseball you enjoy. I often find it fun to start in or around 1947 and simply let the game follow history. The 50's, 60's, 70 and 80's are a blast and you get to watch the game evolve. Remember, you can always change strategies to whatever you like as well, so playing in the 50's with teams trotting out closers is not impossible.
I also enjoy picking a season to use as my base. I've used 74,78, 82 and 84 plenty of times.
I recommend using 1901 as a minimum year. This is just my opinion, but I don't like the way the pre 1901 guys behave in a random debut league. Especially the pitchers.
If you use recalc, I recommend leaving development on as well. The combo of the two works great. This will ensure that when a guy plays past his final real year he still evolves. For example, Sandy Koufax's final real season was a monster super hero like performance. Without development you stand the chance of Koufax recreating that same year over and over into his 40's.
Use the historical wizard to set up your league. I know folks love to try random using custom league, but it's full of pitfalls. Use the historical wizard. If your desire is to edit the real life structure of a league you can always do so after the league is created Simply uncheck the box for historical expansion and edit to your hearts desire.
As for minors, I don't use them. I simply use reserve rosters. Players in random leagues debut the year they made their actual MLB debuts, therefore you don't have to run them through 3 levels of minors to get them ready. When you create a league, there will be enough players for each team to have 44 players. So if you use 25 man rosters you will only have 19 players at the minor league level to start. I also prefer small draft size when playing random. I use 4-6 rounds each year. I will increase the rounds if I know I want to expand my league.
If you use recalc, choose 3 or 5 year. I used to love 1 year, but things started getting a little crazy a few versions back. Markus said 3 or 5 year were the better options when it comes to random. Recalc is optional. If you desire, you can simply turn recalc off and go 100% with the OOTP development engine.