September Callups Issue

[BleacherBum]

Perhaps this is by design, in which case just call this post "Feedback" instead of an error report.

On 6.5, I've created 4 separate fictional leagues, run season #1 of each, and in each case, every single CPU managed team will call up their entire 40 man roster to the major leagues on Sept 1st. In one of these leagues, I played on to season #2 and every team did the same thing on Sep 1st again. Does it make any sense to stuff the dugouts for the entire month? What about teams battling for the playoffs? Don't these unproven players just get in the way? And there must be some financial hit for calling up 15 guys to the majors.

Is there any way to prevent this? If not, perhaps an adjustable Sep 1st roster limit instead of the automatic 40? Heck, if this number was just buried in the league.dat file instead of in the code, I'd figure out a way to adjust it.

Particulars for the Leagues the exhibit this behavior:
League Format: 12 teams total, 2 leagues of 6 teams each.
Fictional Players
Financials = Enabled
Standard Roster Limit = 25
40-Man Roster Rule = Enabled
Waiver Rule = Disabled
Minor League Option Years = Disabled
Rule 5 Draft = Enabled
Salary Arbitration = Enabled
Min Days for 1 Service Year = 150
Minor League Free Agents = Enabled

[BravesSince66]

I, for one, think it is "realistic" for teams to call-up their 40-man roster in September. Most teams do this in real life. OOTP maight could handle this better.

[CobaltJays]

While major league rosters do expand to 40 players in September in real life, no team ever calls up their entire 40-man roster. Usually they limit their call-ups to a handful of guys they want to take a closer look at. From what I've seen in 6.5, the computer will expand the rosters it controls to 38 or 39 players, which is not realistic.

[BleacherBum]

I guess I should have made that point too. I assumed that was common knowledge. Anyway, adding 15 players to the ML roster on 9/1 is extremely unrealistic. MLB teams just do not do this.

Here's a few recent examples if you're curious, from 2004. I sampled a couple of contenders (BOS, NYY), and a few teams building with youth (OAK, CLE, TOR). Notice how some of the callup activity occurs mid-September after the minor league season is over, so the players aren't giving up their minor league full-time activity in favor of one or two ABS or innings in a lopsided MLB game. This would also be much more realistic.

http://www.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/team/t...r=2004&month=9
http://www.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/team/t...r=2004&month=9
http://www.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/team/t...r=2004&month=9
http://www.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/team/t...r=2004&month=9
http://www.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/team/t...r=2004&month=9

[LeafsFan2005NC]

That is true. The rosters do expand to 40 on September 1, but not everyone is immediately called up from the minors. They're commonly referred to as September callups. It's usually when a good deal of rookies (the ones picked very late in the draft) make their debuts.

Maybe for v7 the September callups will be made more realistic.

[sixto]

Teams typically call up 3-5 players, sometimes more, sometimes less. Some managers don't like having a dugout crowded with useless people, while some teams won't pay per diems and hotel and airfare costs that pile up for every September call-up. The Phillies, for example, are notorious for limiting September call ups to two or three because they don't want to pay for more.

Needless to say if OOTP 6.5 has teams filling a 40-man active September roster (which would be a recurrence of an old bug, since this problem had been fixed in v6), it needs to be rectified, and quick.

[BleacherBum]

I tinkered with a few things, just to see if I could have any impact on the CPU decision making:

1) Changed the financials of a few teams before 9/1. Forced a negative cash balance of $5mm on one team. Zeroed out another team's cash and wiped out their TV contract revenue. Both teams still called up 15 players.
2) Changed "Minor League Option Years" setting to Enabled. No effect - all teams called up the maximum again.
3) Changed "40-man Roster Rule" option to Disabled. All teams still called up 15 players on 9/1.

I can't find any way to stop this behavior. I'm actually surprised that few others have chimed in, but perhaps solo players just don't scrutinize the CPU transaction activity.

If someone on the test team wants to reproduce this, its fairly simple. Create a new league (a small one is fine and speeds up the process), and fill it with fictional players. Set all teams to CPU and auto-draft and then Sim thru the end of the season. Check the "Transaction News" for any team and scroll down to 9/1.