My Solution - How To Building A Historical Expansion Team 1 Year Early

1991Twins · 09-07-2021, 05:18 AM

Hey everyone! Over the years, I have benefitted tremendously by reading advice from many wise people in the historical forum. One thing that no one really has been able to solve is the problem of how to properly do an expansion draft with a real life team to make it more realistic.

After many tests and ideas, I have come up with a workaround that allows you to be able to have a realistic expansion team experience. Without further ado, here are the steps:

(I will use 1998's expansion of Arizona and Tampa Bay as my example....but this will work for any historical expansion season)

1. Start by creating a historical game from the year before (In this case, 1997 is the historical year you will set up). You will need to have historical minors ON. I know many historical players are concerned about inflated ratings. To prevent this, I use import settings for hitters of 300/250 and pitchers 25/8. I also use 5 year recalc with double weight on the current year. Fielding and pitching stamina is based on career. The hitting settings may seem high, but honestly, it really reduces the number of career minor leaguers that have inflated ratings. Your major league guys will be completely fine as they are smoothed over with the 5 year recalc.

2. Once the league is created, and you are on the home page, go to league settings/historical and check the box to turn the historical minors off.

NOTE: Leave "automatically expand league" on so that the teams will show up once the world series ends.

3. Do your research on real life minor league affiliates! In this case, I found these real minor league teams for our 1998 season's future expansion teams:

Arizona Diamondbacks:
AZL Diamondbacks (Arizona League)
Lethbridge Black Diamonds (Pioneer League)
South Bend Silver Hawks (Midwest League)
High Bend Mavericks (California League)

Tampa Bay Devil Rays
GCL Devil Rays (Gulf Coast League)
Princeton Devil Rays (Appalachian League)
Hudson Valley Renegades (New York-Pennsylvania League)
St. Petersburg Devil Rays (Florida State League)
Charleston River Dogs (South Atlantic League)

4. Go to each Minor League Rules Page (League Settings/Rules). Where it says "allow players on unaffiliated teams to be purchased by major leagues" click this button off.

NOTE: This step is huge because it locks your future prospects to your team for the year. You will have all of these players in your big league system at the end of the year.

5. Set the MLB amateur draft to November 8th. Have the players appear 5 days before the draft. (League Settings/Rules)

NOTE: This step allows 2 things to happen. First, it allows free agent compensation to happen after the amateur draft. Second, it also allows you to be able to turn back on the historical minor leagues when the season is over so that you can have the draft class imported properly.

6. Play/Simulate your season however it is most enjoyable to you. I like to turn recalc off and player development on so that the simulation engine controls player development, but do whatever is most comfortable to you. Remember, as "The Wolf" used to say... it's your game...play it your way

Pro Tip: You could even play out minor league games of your future franchise if you would like to immerse yourself more.

7. When the World Series is over, the game will import the real expansion teams and clear the schedule. In this case, when 1997 ends, Tampa Bay and Arizona will appear on the screen for 1998. You will notice that they have fictional minor league teams. Do not worry about that right now as they are just placeholders.

8. Go to each minor level from Step #3. While on the level, click League Settings/League & Teams. You will see all of the minor league teams. Where you see "Affiliation" and it says "None" change it to the correct team. For instance in the Arizona League change the AZL Diamondbacks affiliation to "Arizona Diamondbacks". Complete this for all affiliates of all expansion teams that you wrote down from Step #3.

9. Now, go back to the MLB tab. Choose League Settings/Historical and check the box that says "import & maintain real minor leagues."

10. Click the Play Button and choose "Finish Today." Like magic, your game will fix the historical minor leagues. You will notice that the fictional teams will disappear and that all of the real minor league players are in the correct farm systems.

NOTE: The draft class will appear on the scheduled day including players from the historical minor league file.

** Now you will be able to complete your first amateur draft BEFORE your team takes the field. You then will get to choose all of your players in the expansion draft. I like protecting 18 players since in the real life 1997 Expansion Draft, the rules were that in round 1 each franchise could protect 15 players. Once someone was chosen, you could then add 3 players more to your protected list. Since there were 3 rounds, this was the middle point.

11. Go back to each minor league level's rules page (League Settings/Rules). Where it says "allow players on unaffiliated teams to be purchased by major leagues" click this button back ON for all minor league levels in the game.

12. From here, you get to participate in Free Agency and the Offseason with your new expansion team along with your 1st Spring Training.

Any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. I hope that historical gurus find this helpful and that these steps allow you to be more connected to your simulation. I know that it really has helped make my league more immersive.

Pelican · 09-20-2021, 11:19 PM

Fascinating stuff. Looking at how past MLB expansion happened, it is amazing how the new teams start at a disadvantage in so many ways, including minor league systems. Why should an expansion franchise not have a full complement of minor league teams? Arguably, they need more, to focus on player development, due to lack of much talent from the expansion draft. Yet, incredibly, most recent expansion teams start only a year early, low minors, and even in their first year have no AAA team. Seems exactly backwards. I would use your approach to make sure the team has a AAA club (and every other level) the year BEFORE they start play at the MLB level. Sure, players on that AAA team have a year with no hope of getting called up. But they have a year to impress and an excellent chance to start and play for an expansion franchise. Seems like a decent trade-off to me. No one really benefits from expansion teams that suck.

1991Twins · 09-21-2021, 02:46 AM

I agree with everything that you mentioned!!! In my opinion, it makes expansion very unrealistic. One thing to keep in mind is that depending on your import settings, historical rookies import at a higher ability level. So, even though a player may be at a "lower level" in game, they might be able to help you when the next season comes along due to player development or recalc (depending on how you choose to play). I love this approach that I stumbled upon because for any historical expansion, you just start a year early and voila you will have full minor league rosters ready for you to build around and/or make trades. Has made a big difference in my immersion already.

Tom the Fish · 09-22-2021, 08:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1991Twins

I use import settings for hitters of 502/154 and pitchers 40/14.

Thanks for the work on this. I want to give it a try but I'm getting stuck finding where these settings are. Can you point me in the right direction?

Thank you!

1991Twins · 09-22-2021, 09:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom the Fish

Thanks for the work on this. I want to give it a try but I'm getting stuck finding where these settings are. Can you point me in the right direction?

Thank you!

Hey, good question!!! So, when you are on the main menu of the game, click on "New Historical Game." I do not choose Challenge Mode, but that is my personal preference. From there, in the historical league creation wizard, check the box for "Import real Negro leagues (1920-1950) and minor leagues (1915+)." Under that, on the same screen, there is a link to click on that says "Show Advanced Options". This will open up the screen to choose all of your input settings.

One thing you could do is save the game as a Quickstart once you set it up with everything on this page. That way, you could go back and test it several times

Tom the Fish · 09-22-2021, 10:01 PM

Thanks for the quick reply. I've been through the advanced setting several times and still can't find that specific setting.

great idea about the quickstart. I'll definitely do that.

Thank you!

1991Twins · 09-23-2021, 02:41 AM

Glad I could help! There are so many screens/settings that I am constantly discovering new things. Let me know how things turn out with your save.

09-07-2021, 05:18 AM	#1
1991Twins Major Leagues Join Date: Sep 2019 Posts: 494	My Solution - How To Build An Historical Expansion Team 1 Year Early Hey everyone! Over the years, I have benefitted tremendously by reading advice from many wise people in the historical forum. One thing that no one really has been able to solve is the problem of how to properly do an expansion draft with a real life team to make it more realistic. After many tests and ideas, I have come up with a workaround that allows you to be able to have a realistic expansion team experience. Without further ado, here are the steps: (I will use 1998's expansion of Arizona and Tampa Bay as my example....but this will work for any historical expansion season) 1. Start by creating a historical game from the year before (In this case, 1997 is the historical year you will set up). You will need to have historical minors ON. I know many historical players are concerned about inflated ratings. To prevent this, I use import settings for hitters of 300/250 and pitchers 25/8. I also use 5 year recalc with double weight on the current year. Fielding and pitching stamina is based on career. The hitting settings may seem high, but honestly, it really reduces the number of career minor leaguers that have inflated ratings. Your major league guys will be completely fine as they are smoothed over with the 5 year recalc. 2. Once the league is created, and you are on the home page, go to league settings/historical and check the box to turn the historical minors off. NOTE: Leave "automatically expand league" on so that the teams will show up once the world series ends. 3. Do your research on real life minor league affiliates! In this case, I found these real minor league teams for our 1998 season's future expansion teams: Arizona Diamondbacks: AZL Diamondbacks (Arizona League) Lethbridge Black Diamonds (Pioneer League) South Bend Silver Hawks (Midwest League) High Bend Mavericks (California League) Tampa Bay Devil Rays GCL Devil Rays (Gulf Coast League) Princeton Devil Rays (Appalachian League) Hudson Valley Renegades (New York-Pennsylvania League) St. Petersburg Devil Rays (Florida State League) Charleston River Dogs (South Atlantic League) 4. Go to each Minor League Rules Page (League Settings/Rules). Where it says "allow players on unaffiliated teams to be purchased by major leagues" click this button off. NOTE: This step is huge because it locks your future prospects to your team for the year. You will have all of these players in your big league system at the end of the year. 5. Set the MLB amateur draft to November 8th. Have the players appear 5 days before the draft. (League Settings/Rules) NOTE: This step allows 2 things to happen. First, it allows free agent compensation to happen after the amateur draft. Second, it also allows you to be able to turn back on the historical minor leagues when the season is over so that you can have the draft class imported properly. 6. Play/Simulate your season however it is most enjoyable to you. I like to turn recalc off and player development on so that the simulation engine controls player development, but do whatever is most comfortable to you. Remember, as "The Wolf" used to say... it's your game...play it your way Pro Tip: You could even play out minor league games of your future franchise if you would like to immerse yourself more. 7. When the World Series is over, the game will import the real expansion teams and clear the schedule. In this case, when 1997 ends, Tampa Bay and Arizona will appear on the screen for 1998. You will notice that they have fictional minor league teams. Do not worry about that right now as they are just placeholders. 8. Go to each minor level from Step #3. While on the level, click League Settings/League & Teams. You will see all of the minor league teams. Where you see "Affiliation" and it says "None" change it to the correct team. For instance in the Arizona League change the AZL Diamondbacks affiliation to "Arizona Diamondbacks". Complete this for all affiliates of all expansion teams that you wrote down from Step #3. 9. Now, go back to the MLB tab. Choose League Settings/Historical and check the box that says "import & maintain real minor leagues." 10. Click the Play Button and choose "Finish Today." Like magic, your game will fix the historical minor leagues. You will notice that the fictional teams will disappear and that all of the real minor league players are in the correct farm systems. NOTE: The draft class will appear on the scheduled day including players from the historical minor league file. ** Now you will be able to complete your first amateur draft BEFORE your team takes the field. You then will get to choose all of your players in the expansion draft. I like protecting 18 players since in the real life 1997 Expansion Draft, the rules were that in round 1 each franchise could protect 15 players. Once someone was chosen, you could then add 3 players more to your protected list. Since there were 3 rounds, this was the middle point. 11. Go back to each minor league level's rules page (League Settings/Rules). Where it says "allow players on unaffiliated teams to be purchased by major leagues" click this button back ON for all minor league levels in the game. 12. From here, you get to participate in Free Agency and the Offseason with your new expansion team along with your 1st Spring Training. Any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. I hope that historical gurus find this helpful and that these steps allow you to be more connected to your simulation. I know that it really has helped make my league more immersive. Last edited by 1991Twins; 02-06-2024 at 12:56 AM.

09-20-2021, 11:19 PM	#2
Pelican Hall Of Famer Join Date: Mar 2021 Location: Wilmington, Delaware Posts: 3,020	Fascinating stuff. Looking at how past MLB expansion happened, it is amazing how the new teams start at a disadvantage in so many ways, including minor league systems. Why should an expansion franchise not have a full complement of minor league teams? Arguably, they need more, to focus on player development, due to lack of much talent from the expansion draft. Yet, incredibly, most recent expansion teams start only a year early, low minors, and even in their first year have no AAA team. Seems exactly backwards. I would use your approach to make sure the team has a AAA club (and every other level) the year BEFORE they start play at the MLB level. Sure, players on that AAA team have a year with no hope of getting called up. But they have a year to impress and an excellent chance to start and play for an expansion franchise. Seems like a decent trade-off to me. No one really benefits from expansion teams that suck. Last edited by Pelican; 09-20-2021 at 11:20 PM.

09-22-2021, 10:01 PM	#6
Tom the Fish All Star Reserve Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Jingu Stadium Posts: 510	Thanks for the quick reply. I've been through the advanced setting several times and still can't find that specific setting. great idea about the quickstart. I'll definitely do that. Thank you! __________________ "Any talk of rebelliousness has to begin with one's profound appreciation and understanding of tradition." - Lu Shoukun

09-21-2021, 02:46 AM	#3
1991Twins Major Leagues Join Date: Sep 2019 Posts: 494	I agree with everything that you mentioned!!! In my opinion, it makes expansion very unrealistic. One thing to keep in mind is that depending on your import settings, historical rookies import at a higher ability level. So, even though a player may be at a "lower level" in game, they might be able to help you when the next season comes along due to player development or recalc (depending on how you choose to play). I love this approach that I stumbled upon because for any historical expansion, you just start a year early and voila you will have full minor league rosters ready for you to build around and/or make trades. Has made a big difference in my immersion already. Last edited by 1991Twins; 09-21-2021 at 02:49 AM.

09-23-2021, 02:41 AM	#7
1991Twins Major Leagues Join Date: Sep 2019 Posts: 494	Glad I could help! There are so many screens/settings that I am constantly discovering new things. Let me know how things turn out with your save.