Looking Ahead to 1969 (from ’68….Expansion Question)

[JerryShoe]

I want my 1969 expansion to conform to how it actually took place, that is after protecting an initial 15 players existing team loses one player in each of six rounds and after each round the teams can protect an additional three. I see settings for the first rule, but not the latter two. I think that these are too specific for OOTP so I am prepared to do this offline and use Commissioner Mode to re-man the rosters but want to double-check with experienced players to see if I missed anything. Thanks!

[Syd Thrift]

I just simmed through '68 to '69 a couple years ago and I don't think the game does this specifically, sorry. It will handle expansion similar to what happened the last time the majors expanded: I think you start with protecting 15 (I think you can set that number specifically) and then add players to the protected list every round, not just whenever a team loses a player.

The 1968 expansion draft is a weird one, too, just for the sheer size. I guess the league expansion in 61 and 62 was technically larger but didn't happen all at once (in those drafts though you could only draft players out of your respective league, so the Yankees didn't have to worry about losing players to the Mets, etc.). 4 teams in one year is kind of a lot.

[JerryShoe]

The 1969 expansion draft was actually nice and uniform, especially after the headache-inducing 1961 AL draft and the less-whacky 1962 NL draft. Each team had a player chosen each round by one of the two new teams in their league, so each lost 6 players and each new team drafted 30. In 1961 there were separate drafts for pitchers, catchers, infielders, outfielders and then any 6. No team could lose more than 7 players and no new team could choose more than 4 players from a team. There were a lot of mistakes, so to fix things some players were "undrafted" and others picked to take their place or trades were made, so Dean Chance was sent from the new Senators to the Angels. 1962's NL draft was cleaner, but still strange. It was held in 3 phases, the first had each new team draft 2 players from a list of 15 provided by the old ones, the second had a third player chosen from that list at the expansionists' option (any choice not taken saved the Colt .45s/Mets a selection fee, so between the money and the "talent", only 5 of a possible 16 were taken). The final phase had the old guard provide a new list of 2 players and the new guys had to choose 4 each, each team losing 1.
Thanks for your input, I can work with what OOTP provides.

[progen]

Originally Posted by JerryShoe

I want my 1969 expansion to conform to how it actually took place, that is after protecting an initial 15 players existing team loses one player in each of six rounds and after each round the teams can protect an additional three. I see settings for the first rule, but not the latter two. I think that these are too specific for OOTP so I am prepared to do this offline and use Commissioner Mode to re-man the rosters but want to double-check with experienced players to see if I missed anything. Thanks!

I always play this way, usually taking over Nashville or Montreal. To make it more challenging, I allow teams to protect 26 to 28 players. And also, definitely make the service time 4 years. If you leave it at three, you'll get a good deal of young talent, just ready to play at the MLB level. Just felt unrealistic to me.

I just finished my first year with Nashville in this new start, and was happy to go 63-99, with the lowest payroll in the league by about 10m. Patience is definitely a virtue when it comes to expansion teams. Always like building a team from square one.