Season starts in June? (long)

[M's rule]

I went for an attention-getting title just to get some readership, and in the hope that someone who can provide some insight will check this out.

As the manager/GM of the Mariners, I played out the M’s first season (1977) in 6.01, then upgraded to 6.03 just before proceeding to next year. Started the FA signing process. First email during process comes from Seaver, who tells me my offer sucks. It’s dated 4/10/78.

NOTE: IRL, the 1978 schedule begins on 4/5. (This is true in my league as well, since I inputted the 1978 schedule manually.) I received dozens of other emails from players in the next few days, but it took me a while to notice that they were all being sent after the start of the regular season.

On 4/25 (according to emails), I finished my participation in FA signings when I landed the last player I was going for. This is Day 16 of the process (figures, since Day 1 was 4/10). I clicked on “Finish All Days” to get through free agency--which puts the end of the FA period at 5/9.

(Minor incidental problem) Then comes the Rule 5 draft---but I don’t know this right away, because the program next tells me that spring training is about to start. It’s only after I click to continue that I get directed to the Rule 5 draft. I go through that process (skipping my turn and drafting no one), and then I go to ST.

Before I got this far, I made some roster moves---bringing up many of the players I had acquired by FA signings, demoting others to AAA. (I didn’t know whether minor leaguers were included in ST, but in any event I wanted these new acquisitions to be on the ML roster at the start of the 1978 season, regardless of their ST performance.)

To accomplish this goal, I put a couple of ML players on irrevocable waivers. Ike Hampton was claimed on 4/28 by Baltimore, but Pepe Frias cleared waivers. When I found this out, I tried to move him from ML to AAA and was told he had to clear waivers (again?). So I hung him out on the waiver wire once more, and this time he got picked up. The date of this event was 5/12. Two weeks have passed since Frias previously cleared waivers, yet the waiver period is only 3 days.

I came to discover that a player doesn’t have to be on the ML roster to show up in the ST display. Earl Williams, a newly signed catcher in AAA who’s meant to replace Hampton, shows up after all on the display of players whose attributes can be affected during ST. So, I proceed, clicking the button that gets me through spring training.

Now it’s Opening Day, and I’m rarin’ to go. I bring up the schedule for the day and discover that the date is JUNE 9. All teams have records of 0-0. The first two months of the season have evaporated. They exist as games scheduled to be played, if I backtrack to any previous date on the league schedule display, but they can’t be played or simmed.

Knowing what I know now, I should have got a clue when Seaver rejected my contract offer 5 days after the season was scheduled to open.

I’ve tried to be as exhaustive as possible in this retelling. Can someone explain why the season schedule started five days before the FA signing period started?

[sporr]

Originally Posted by M's rule

I went for an attention-getting title just to get some readership, and in the hope that someone who can provide some insight will check this out.

As the manager/GM of the Mariners, I played out the M’s first season (1977) in 6.01, then upgraded to 6.03 just before proceeding to next year. Started the FA signing process. First email during process comes from Seaver, who tells me my offer sucks. It’s dated 4/10/78.

NOTE: IRL, the 1978 schedule begins on 4/5. (This is true in my league as well, since I inputted the 1978 schedule manually.) I received dozens of other emails from players in the next few days, but it took me a while to notice that they were all being sent after the start of the regular season.

On 4/25 (according to emails), I finished my participation in FA signings when I landed the last player I was going for. This is Day 16 of the process (figures, since Day 1 was 4/10). I clicked on “Finish All Days” to get through free agency--which puts the end of the FA period at 5/9.

(Minor incidental problem) Then comes the Rule 5 draft---but I don’t know this right away, because the program next tells me that spring training is about to start. It’s only after I click to continue that I get directed to the Rule 5 draft. I go through that process (skipping my turn and drafting no one), and then I go to ST.

Before I got this far, I made some roster moves---bringing up many of the players I had acquired by FA signings, demoting others to AAA. (I didn’t know whether minor leaguers were included in ST, but in any event I wanted these new acquisitions to be on the ML roster at the start of the 1978 season, regardless of their ST performance.)

To accomplish this goal, I put a couple of ML players on irrevocable waivers. Ike Hampton was claimed on 4/28 by Baltimore, but Pepe Frias cleared waivers. When I found this out, I tried to move him from ML to AAA and was told he had to clear waivers (again?). So I hung him out on the waiver wire once more, and this time he got picked up. The date of this event was 5/12. Two weeks have passed since Frias previously cleared waivers, yet the waiver period is only 3 days.

I came to discover that a player doesn’t have to be on the ML roster to show up in the ST display. Earl Williams, a newly signed catcher in AAA who’s meant to replace Hampton, shows up after all on the display of players whose attributes can be affected during ST. So, I proceed, clicking the button that gets me through spring training.

Now it’s Opening Day, and I’m rarin’ to go. I bring up the schedule for the day and discover that the date is JUNE 9. All teams have records of 0-0. The first two months of the season have evaporated. They exist as games scheduled to be played, if I backtrack to any previous date on the league schedule display, but they can’t be played or simmed.

Knowing what I know now, I should have got a clue when Seaver rejected my contract offer 5 days after the season was scheduled to open.

I’ve tried to be as exhaustive as possible in this retelling. Can someone explain why the season schedule started five days before the FA signing period started?

I can't remember what exactly it is labelled, but there is a button in the League Setup screen that will Reset your league. It will hopefully fix this for you and get you back to Opening Day.

[M's rule]

Thanks for the advice, sporr. Reset League does seem to be the solution; all my offseason personnel moves are still in place, and it's now April 5, 1978.

I've never used the Reset League button before, so I wasn't entirely sure what it would do.

The larger issue, obviously, is why the calendar is ticking off days of the season during the FA signing process and through spring training. As long as Reset League is a workaround, the problem doesn't seem critical, but it's still perplexing.

[sporr]

Originally Posted by M's rule

Thanks for the advice, sporr. Reset League does seem to be the solution; all my offseason personnel moves are still in place, and it's now April 5, 1978.

I've never used the Reset League button before, so I wasn't entirely sure what it would do.

The larger issue, obviously, is why the calendar is ticking off days of the season during the FA signing process and through spring training. As long as Reset League is a workaround, the problem doesn't seem critical, but it's still perplexing.

Usually I've run into this type of situation when trying to modify the schedule during the off-season. When doing so, the league date would sometimes get messed up (probaby due to my own error) and I would have to do the Reset league to correct it.

[M's rule]

Originally Posted by sporr

Usually I've run into this type of situation when trying to modify the schedule during the off-season. When doing so, the league date would sometimes get messed up (probaby due to my own error) and I would have to do the Reset league to correct it.

That's probably what happened to me. After the 1977 postseason, before proceeding to next year (IIRC), I manually inputted the real 1978 MLB schedule. I started off by scheduling the All-Star Game (July 11). At some later point I called up that date, and no game was displayed. Didn't worry about it at the time, figuring that I could reinput the game later . . . and then didn't remember to do it.

Then I discovered the problem I outlined above. After taking sporr's advice and hitting Reset League, I found myself back on April 5---but (as I later discovered, now that I remembered to check) without a scheduled All-Star Game. Went back to the Edit Schedule screen, which does display July 11 as the date of the game even though the day of July 11 shows no game being played. So I inputted 07/11 once again, and was relieved to see that the July 11 spot in the schedule now does hold the game.

What to conclude from all this?

If my memory is correct and I did not proceed to next year before inputting the schedule data, then should I assume it's better to put in the schedule after going to next year? Does the fact that I was still technically in 1977 when I put in schedule data for 1978 have anything to do with the All-Star game data failing to show up?

sporr, I'm not sure what sort of error you refer to. Might I have made some sort of mistake I'm not aware of?

[Tiger Fan]

Modifying the schedule during the offseason is definately your issue here. As a rule of thumb I always modify my schedule once I get to opening day -after all offseason chores are complete including run spring training and just prior to playing or simming the first game of the season.

Note- for the allstar game issue whenever importing a new schedule I always delete the allstar game in the edit schedule screen and then re-add it. Even if it is to be played on the same day as originally listed.

[M's rule]

Originally Posted by Tiger Fan

Modifying the schedule during the offseason is definately your issue here. As a rule of thumb I always modify my schedule once I get to opening day -after all offseason chores are complete including run spring training and just prior to playing or simming the first game of the season.

Note- for the allstar game issue whenever importing a new schedule I always delete the allstar game in the edit schedule screen and then re-add it. Even if it is to be played on the same day as originally listed.

Tiger Fan, now that you say it, it makes perfect sense (in an OOTP-logical sort of way). I have learned my lesson. Thanks a lot to you and sporr.

[Faroo6]

I figured this one out today.

The player still needs to be in the waiver box (cleared) to be taken off of the 40 man roster. If you have him clear waivers, remove him from the waivers box and then try to take him off the 40 man roster he will have to clear waivers again. Step by step

Remove from 40 man roster (question "place player on waivers) Yes
When player clears waivers remove from 40 man roster again.
Now it is safe to remove him from the waiver box.

I ran into this assuming he would automatically be removed from my 40 man roster as soon as he clear waivers. I didn't know i would have to do it again.