Three questions

[Biggio509]

1. Is there away to tweak the AI into accepting trade player for cash trades or initiating them more? This was the dominant form of transfer in the early years and there were periods when teams could only protect a few players from being signed elsewhere.

2. Is this a bug? On player's real life stats often there is a blank spot for team abbreviation if the team did not exist yet when the player was imported. Is this common or is it something I did in setup?

I have been debating over how to simulate the early years of baseball more accurately. Importing historical rookies gives teams the players that were needed that year in real life because they sold a player, someone didn't perform, or someone was injured. Therefore reserve rosters sometimes do not reflect what the team will need because injuries are random and not historical. Trades also happen that did not in RL creating holes that importing rookies doesn't fill. If your starting SS played every game you may not have a backup SS that year. Therefore question 3.

3. Is there anyway to get a viable free agent pool in the early 1900's where teams can pick up players? Reserve rosters have at least a 15 guy limit so often I find if a free agent pops up the free agent pool is empty the next day because someone puts him on their reserve needed or not. I suppose trades can help sort this out. Reserve players can be traded for reserve players. However, There is no reason to believe that guy who played part time for Boston in 1901 would not have been signed by New York if injuries had played differently so I am ok with having guys who were in the minors that season sitting in the free agent pool.

Finally,

Is there anyway to turn off the reserve roster completely? Would a minor league with no teams work or would it crash the sim? What I would like to see is the guys with limited playing time hanging around on reserve rosters be free agents who get signed if an injury occurs or someone gets cut like in real life.

I said finally but one more is there perhaps a DB where these minor temporary callups are available early so they can be free agents or sitting on a reserve roster if needed? There is no reason, for instance, Nick Altrock, out of the majors 1900 to 1902, would have been in the minors in 1900 or 1901 if Boston or someone else had needed him.

[SteveP]

Originally Posted by Biggio509

1. Is there away to tweak the AI into accepting trade player for cash trades or initiating them more? This was the dominant form of transfer in the early years and there were periods when teams could only protect a few players from being signed elsewhere.

You can do cash deals, but you may or may not have enough cash. The AI will not initiate cash deals. Just as the OOTP financial model isn't really designed to work all that well in the pre-free agency era, cash deals can sometimes not be all that realistic. But it is certainly something you can experiment with. AI teams that are trying to shed a player are more likely to take cash.

2. Is this a bug? On player's real life stats often there is a blank spot for team abbreviation if the team did not exist yet when the player was imported. Is this common or is it something I did in setup?

Not a bug, just a limitation in how the data is accessed from the Lahman DB. If the team doesn't exist yet, it doesn't exist.

3. Is there anyway to get a viable free agent pool in the early 1900's where teams can pick up players?

I am not going to try answering all of the #3 questions. Adding fictional players in one way or another is the main device for having enough backup players to deal with realistic injuries, if you are using the Lahman.

I don't know the status of the Gambo and/or Spritze DBs, but those are designed to provide a lot more historical players in any given year. More info about them, or any others, would be in the mods forum.