offseason in OOTP 2006

[WWBL Commissioner]

Has anybody gone through an offseason yet in OOTP 2006? In the other versions you could schedule things for online leagues like FA bidding and such but if that happens over the entire winter I wonder how online leagues are dealing with that

[bp_]

We are about to hit our first offseason. Any feedback on how other leagues have handled it? Pitfalls to watch out for?

[Stu]

Originally Posted by bp_

We are about to hit our first offseason. Any feedback on how other leagues have handled it? Pitfalls to watch out for?

I've been through one offseason and will be doing a lot of things differently next time. The schedule will look roughly like this. (note I do the rookie draft in June)

- Sim from end of playoffs, to start of Free Agency. We vote for all our awards so don't really care about the in game ones.
- Sim 2 days at a time, 5 times in one week of real life time (so 10 days in game). We normally do three 7 day sims a week, but I'm going to blitz through 5 during this period (only uploading the league file, no HTML). Simming the normal 7 days at a time makes free agents basically sign the first offer they get and all the good ones are gone by the second sim of free agency.
- After this 10 day period, sim 14 days at a time until we hit the Rule 5 draft. Waivers won't work correctly during this period so people will need to post them in the forums like the 6.5 days.
- After the Rule 5 draft, sim 21 days at a time (max allowed with DFA) until you hit the start of Spring Training. If it seems like people are done making moves, and nobody has anybody on DFA you can do more than 21 days.

To me this schedule seems like it will help slow down the initial Free Agency push, but speed through the rest of the offseason. Let me know if anyone has any questions or other suggestions.

[bp_]

Originally Posted by Stu

- Sim 2 days at a time, 5 times in one week of real life time (so 10 days in game). We normally do three 7 day sims a week, but I'm going to blitz through 5 during this period (only uploading the league file, no HTML). Simming the normal 7 days at a time makes free agents basically sign the first offer they get and all the good ones are gone by the second sim of free agency.

Did you feel like all the major FA were signed after this one week period?

[Stu]

Originally Posted by bp_

Did you feel like all the major FA were signed after this one week period?

Yes, it's a matter of timing. They get all the offers on Day 1 of Free Agency. So if you sim 7 days, they're sitting there thinking "Gee it's been a week and nobody has made me any new offers, I better take the best one I've gotten so far"

It never gives you a chance to make offers or counteroffers. I'll try to look make to get some hard data, but I'd guess most major FA's were signed in the first week, certainly the first 2 weeks when simming 7 days at a time.

This is what led to our decision to switch to five, 2 day sims.

[DaMook]

Originally Posted by WWBL Commissioner

Has anybody gone through an offseason yet in OOTP 2006? In the other versions you could schedule things for online leagues like FA bidding and such but if that happens over the entire winter I wonder how online leagues are dealing with that

Ive done an offseason already. What I did was I start on Nov 22 when players file for Free Agency. Then we do 5 offseason sim days where GMs can submit offers. I sim about 3 or 4 days in the schedule for each sim so you end up in the beginning of January. By then all the big free agents have signed. I then sim up until Spring Training.