Fictional Questions

Royalsusedtorule · 08-12-2011, 10:47 AM

So, I had pretty much played MLB current real life rosters in OOTP 9, 10 & 11 ... However, due to the late release of 12 and some issues with the current MLB quick start, some other OOTP gamers persuaded me to try fictional ...

1st time around, I started with 1985 historical, erased player histories and fictionalized names ... that turned out pretty cool, except every year with a new draft I had to manually go through the names and fictionalize, which took a lot of time ... (nice thing was, in 5 seasons, the Royals won 95, 108, 105, 107, 117 games and 3 straight championships in the middle years ...

)

Anyway, I decided to set up a true fictional league. Thought I would start small with 12 teams, 2 divisions of 6, with two minor leagues, no foreign players, starting 2000 ...

Got everything set up and started 1st season last night ... my question is, there have been some things that don't seem kosher to me ... wondering if these are typical for fictional leagues or if I made some wrong set-up choices ...

Here are a few items:

1) The biggest thing deals with financials, and I'll admit I've never been real immersed in financials when previously using real MLB ... anyway, after creating all teams, they all had 0's for financials, so chose Create Fictional Financials For Teams ... this set up budgets, expenses, etc. (one thing I later questioned was that, despite this being a new league with no history, all teams had a bunch of carryover financials from previous year and all teams basically started $4-5M in the hole, which has hindered player transactions) ... then, following the initial draft, all players had minor league contracts, even those on 40 man roster ... so, chose Make Fictional Contracts For Players ... although this option said it would assign contracts based on players ratings, every player in the league on 40 man rosters was given a $212,000 contract 4 years long, then arbitration figures beyond that ... (Does that sound right? I'm currently in Aug. of 1st season, but with all players under contract, there will be no free agents at end of season, correct? Also, affects player transactions) ...

2) One thing that seems off to me ... there is a HUGE shortage of SPs ... each team has a nominal ace and 8 of the 12 have a fairly solid #2 ... however, SPs for slots 3-5, along with those that 4 teams are having to use as #2s are, frankly, AA or A caliber at best ... on a 20-80 scale, we're talking about pitchers 21-22 overall, with 35-45-35 stuff-movement-control as ML #2 & #3 starters ... I guess I don't remember pitching being that bad in 2000 (especially when using a limited number of teams) ...

3) Also seems to be quite a lot of odd player combinations created ... for examples: OFs with speed in the 30s, but range of 60-65; and vice-versa, OFs with speed of 60 with range of 35; players with HR power 60-65, but gap power 30-35; a large number of the OFs with cannon arms (65-75) all being LFers rather than RFers ... just some odd creation choices to me ... is this common?

4) Finally, backtracking a bit, I had chosen to have players ages 18-26 since this was a new league ... thought they could mature from there and I would later increase the max age ... however, the initial draft pool contained a lot of players much older, up to 38 ... also wondering now if the 1st Year Player Draft will be actual young rookies, or if there will be players of all ages (which happened in the historical league I did, but I figured that was just tied to the historical aspect) ...

Well, this has gotten long, so I'll leave it at that ... just wondering if anyone thought I was making wrong option choices that affected these areas, particularly the financials ...

Thanks for the time ...

08-12-2011, 10:47 AM	#1
Royalsusedtorule Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Nebraska Posts: 281	Fictional Questions So, I had pretty much played MLB current real life rosters in OOTP 9, 10 & 11 ... However, due to the late release of 12 and some issues with the current MLB quick start, some other OOTP gamers persuaded me to try fictional ... 1st time around, I started with 1985 historical, erased player histories and fictionalized names ... that turned out pretty cool, except every year with a new draft I had to manually go through the names and fictionalize, which took a lot of time ... (nice thing was, in 5 seasons, the Royals won 95, 108, 105, 107, 117 games and 3 straight championships in the middle years ... ) Anyway, I decided to set up a true fictional league. Thought I would start small with 12 teams, 2 divisions of 6, with two minor leagues, no foreign players, starting 2000 ... Got everything set up and started 1st season last night ... my question is, there have been some things that don't seem kosher to me ... wondering if these are typical for fictional leagues or if I made some wrong set-up choices ... Here are a few items: 1) The biggest thing deals with financials, and I'll admit I've never been real immersed in financials when previously using real MLB ... anyway, after creating all teams, they all had 0's for financials, so chose Create Fictional Financials For Teams ... this set up budgets, expenses, etc. (one thing I later questioned was that, despite this being a new league with no history, all teams had a bunch of carryover financials from previous year and all teams basically started $4-5M in the hole, which has hindered player transactions) ... then, following the initial draft, all players had minor league contracts, even those on 40 man roster ... so, chose Make Fictional Contracts For Players ... although this option said it would assign contracts based on players ratings, every player in the league on 40 man rosters was given a $212,000 contract 4 years long, then arbitration figures beyond that ... (Does that sound right? I'm currently in Aug. of 1st season, but with all players under contract, there will be no free agents at end of season, correct? Also, affects player transactions) ... 2) One thing that seems off to me ... there is a HUGE shortage of SPs ... each team has a nominal ace and 8 of the 12 have a fairly solid #2 ... however, SPs for slots 3-5, along with those that 4 teams are having to use as #2s are, frankly, AA or A caliber at best ... on a 20-80 scale, we're talking about pitchers 21-22 overall, with 35-45-35 stuff-movement-control as ML #2 & #3 starters ... I guess I don't remember pitching being *that bad* in 2000 (especially when using a limited number of teams) ... 3) Also seems to be quite a lot of odd player combinations created ... for examples: OFs with speed in the 30s, but range of 60-65; and vice-versa, OFs with speed of 60 with range of 35; players with HR power 60-65, but gap power 30-35; a large number of the OFs with cannon arms (65-75) all being LFers rather than RFers ... just some odd creation choices to me ... is this common? 4) Finally, backtracking a bit, I had chosen to have players ages 18-26 since this was a new league ... thought they could mature from there and I would later increase the max age ... however, the initial draft pool contained a lot of players much older, up to 38 ... also wondering now if the 1st Year Player Draft will be actual young rookies, or if there will be players of all ages (which happened in the historical league I did, but I figured that was just tied to the historical aspect) ... Well, this has gotten long, so I'll leave it at that ... just wondering if anyone thought I was making wrong option choices that affected these areas, particularly the financials ... Thanks for the time ...