Question for sim players who do seasons

[saltuskin]

If you are starting a team say in 1970 and are going to do a 10yr time frame as a gm and manager do you simulate very game or do each game one by one

seems to do it one by one would take for ever but I am new player to this and I am thinking of redoing the original Seattle Mariners to a better start

Thanks for the help

[Pelican]

I think this comes down to how much time you have on your hands, combined with how much control you want. (The latter is not really a “control freak” issue so much as sooner or later the AI manager will do something you never intended….).

With experience, you should be able to play a game in one-pitch mode in ten or fifteen minutes. You can do the math. Something like 36 hours total to complete a season. Add on for trades and organization changes. An hour a day for a month? Five hours a day for a week?

Now that I am (mostly) retired, I like to play out games. Some even play in pitch-by-pitch mode, which easily doubles the time for each game. Others set up rosters and daily lineups and team strategy and then auto-play, maybe week by week, make adjustments. Back when I was working full time and raising three kids, if I played at all, it would have been auto-play.

I love re-do’s and what-if’s. With the original Mariners, you could re-do the expansion draft, or simply try to do better sooner with the guys they took. Your sim would be heavy on GM stuff, finances, setting up an organization, then a 40-man roster and active roster and lineups. Lock in your manager and player strategy settings, maybe play the first few games for fun, and then auto-play, going back to check box scores, making changes as needed. Should be fun. Expansion teams are tough, because of the limited talent left for the draft, and because new teams rarely if ever go heavy into free agents - even though that is the only way to get better fast.

[saltuskin]

like said I am fairly new did some 1975 reds season, how do you redo the expansion draft all i see is for the first season of the Mariners

Thanks for the comments

[snepp]

I'm a "one day at a time simmer". I click the little checkmark to sim the day, then go look at my boxscore. After I've simmed a couple series doing this I'll go set a bunch of manual scouting reports, peek at my top prospects, glance at the standings, read any noteworthy mail, etc. Then I'll go sim a couple more series a day at a time again, lather, rinse, repeat.

[Pelican]

Originally Posted by saltuskin

like said I am fairly new did some 1975 reds season, how do you redo the expansion draft all i see is for the first season of the Mariners.

You need to back up to the season before the expansion draft. Choose the historical expansion setting (which may be the default). You should - after the regular season ends - see the pool of expansion-eligible (i.e. not protected) players. If you toggle off historical transactions, there may be differences from the IRL pool, as the AI would be making the decisions. (You can also change the rules, as in allowing established teams to protect fewer players, and/or exempting guys with more or less than three years service. This could expand the pool of talent for you and KC.).

You’ll need to set up your organization, of course. I would find the absolute best scouting director you can, and throw resources (money and talent) into scouting players. In addition to the expansion draft, you will need to fill your minor league system with minor league free agents - not exactly the cream of the crop. You will need the best insight possible on these guys. You are going to be looking for diamonds in the rough. Potential is important; but you need to put a team on the field.

In 1969 you’ll have no free agency (or none to speak of; just marginal guys let go by their teams). You’’ll have more cash than most teams, because your mediocre players won’t pull high salaries. As Commissioner, you can change the ground rules on free agency, and create a pool of players. But then you would not really be re-creating the dire conditions facing the original Pilots. I would plow that extra cash into player development, full minors, get ready for the next amateur draft.

I would encourage you to draft your own team. You might well end up with some of the same guys. (As I recall, Seattle went for veterans and KC for prospects.). Of course you can take the best guy available (highly recommended) or draft to need. Emphasize pitching (highly recommended) or hitting or defense. You will need a stout bullpen, because you are not going to end up with four or five strong SP. You’ll need middle relievers, for sure. But don’t scrimp on a bona fide closer. You’ll need saves.

Sorry for the detail. The game makes it pretty easy.

[Pelican]

One small request. If you draft, please take Jim Bouton, so you can re-create the “Ball Four” scenario. Don’t trade him off to the Astros.

[gordontrek]

I am also a pretty new player. It depends entirely on how I feel at any given moment. Most of the time I sim a few games at a time and make GM moves as I feel necessary, but occasionally I hop in and manage a game myself. It stresses me out a lot more than I imagined it would....but it is still quite fun to do from time to time.

The beauty of this sim is that there is no right or wrong way to play it!

[Syd Thrift]

I'm in a fictional league in 1972 and I do this horrific thing where I play both teams (subs only but still) in every single game from the 7th inning on, manage lineups and pitching staffs, and do transactions modeled after real-life ones (it's a long story and has confused the vets). This takes a looooong time to play out but it also allows me to get super deep into the league and is a good way to wake up in the morning before I start work.

[kidd_05_u2]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

I'm in a fictional league in 1972 and I do this horrific thing where I play both teams (subs only but still) in every single game from the 7th inning on, manage lineups and pitching staffs, and do transactions modeled after real-life ones (it's a long story and has confused the vets). This takes a looooong time to play out but it also allows me to get super deep into the league and is a good way to wake up in the morning before I start work.

Playing in the morning before work is by far the weirdest thing in your post. I don't think I've touched a game before 6:00pm since I turned 18 (except weekends ofc)

[omg_pwnasaurus]

I took on the task of "piloting" the Mariners and as suggested, I started the sim in 1976 as unemployed and then took over the team right before the expansion draft. As an aside, I HIGHLY recommend grabbing Silvam's stadium mod as it greatly enhances historical play imo.

I'm in 1979 now and I haven't made it to .500 yet but I'm having a blast trying. I try to keep the realism high as possible and even though I have the $$$ to do crazy things I tend to try and just build from within mostly and supplement from the outside. Plus I hate giving up first round picks in FA lol.

[pauwoo]

Originally Posted by kidd_05_u2

Playing in the morning before work is by far the weirdest thing in your post. I don't think I've touched a game before 6:00pm since I turned 18 (except weekends ofc)

Funny. I play out series in the morning as I'm drinking my coffee... before I get into work. I also play out each game for my team from the bottom of the 7th on... A series a day, usually. When I play at night it's usually just looking at trade options, stats, players.

[snarls200]

Originally Posted by Pelican

You need to back up to the season before the expansion draft. Choose the historical expansion setting (which may be the default). You should - after the regular season ends - see the pool of expansion-eligible (i.e. not protected) players. If you toggle off historical transactions, there may be differences from the IRL pool, as the AI would be making the decisions. (You can also change the rules, as in allowing established teams to protect fewer players, and/or exempting guys with more or less than three years service. This could expand the pool of talent for you and KC.).

You’ll need to set up your organization, of course. I would find the absolute best scouting director you can, and throw resources (money and talent) into scouting players. In addition to the expansion draft, you will need to fill your minor league system with minor league free agents - not exactly the cream of the crop. You will need the best insight possible on these guys. You are going to be looking for diamonds in the rough. Potential is important; but you need to put a team on the field.

In 1969 you’ll have no free agency (or none to speak of; just marginal guys let go by their teams). You’’ll have more cash than most teams, because your mediocre players won’t pull high salaries. As Commissioner, you can change the ground rules on free agency, and create a pool of players. But then you would not really be re-creating the dire conditions facing the original Pilots. I would plow that extra cash into player development, full minors, get ready for the next amateur draft.

I would encourage you to draft your own team. You might well end up with some of the same guys. (As I recall, Seattle went for veterans and KC for prospects.). Of course you can take the best guy available (highly recommended) or draft to need. Emphasize pitching (highly recommended) or hitting or defense. You will need a stout bullpen, because you are not going to end up with four or five strong SP. You’ll need middle relievers, for sure. But don’t scrimp on a bona fide closer. You’ll need saves.

Sorry for the detail. The game makes it pretty easy.

also remember that this gae doesn't replicate the expansion drafts correctly anyways since only the 90's expansion drafts didn't limit you in real life to drafting from teams in your subleague

[Pelican]

FWIW I tried a “proof of concept” approach to the 1969 expansion draft.

The good news is, the game let me add AAA teams (in the PCL) in 1968 for the two future AL expansion teams. The Omaha Uniroyals and the San Jose Co-Pilots. They are independent teams, since as of yet there are no organizations with which to affiliate. I toggled off trades with independent teams and the option for buying their players, and the AI left these teams alone. I drafted minor league free agents, and had to supplement with a few “ghost” players (who can’t reach the majors) to play the season. This yielded at least a few prospects who could make the expansion teams, to supplement the draftees and free agent signings.

The bad news is that, when I changed how MLB service time is calculated (to reduce the number of players on established teams who are exempt based on three years service), things went haywire. The AI seemed to be incapable of calculating service time under the new metric. Young guys were listed as having twenty or thirty years of service. Guys with less than three years who should have been exempt were drafted and lost. So, my advice would be don’t be tempted to change service time from the default (182 days or something like that = a year).

I’m going to try this again from a backup prior to the draft, with the default settings on how service time is calculated. With established teams only able to protect twelve guys - in addition to the younger exempt players - the expansion pool should be stronger than IRL.

One feature that would really help is for established teams to know which guys on the roster are exempt from the draft. I was submitting the Phillies’ protected list, and I had to go through each of the younger guys, to confirm MLB service time. There ought to be a list of those who are exempt, so that the team only has to choose from among the rest in determining who to protect.

Incidentally what you will find is that the Ai will not protect some older guys with high salaries, on the theory that the expansion teams won’t want them. In truth, I did the same thing with the Phillies. But expansion teams start with no liabilities, so are not necessarily adverse to taking on salary, in return for some initial stability. Their payrolls will still be low, due to the lack of superstars and (costly) solid established players on the roster. A few solid veterans could stabilize a new team, and could make watching them play less than awful.