Fictional historical setup

Biggio509 · 06-15-2010, 09:15 PM

I thought up a plan for a historical fictional league and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas to if it will work. I plan to start in 1901 since things are less stable prior to that period. It will take a lot of management but here is the plan.

1. Setup fictional league replicating MLB at the time. Use strategy and settings tab to import 1901 financial, PCM, etc. automatically adjust each year but do import historical rookies. No draft no free agency.

2. Setup historical minor leagues as unaffiliated minors. Use class A as AAA, B as AA, C as A, and D or below as short season or rookie. The manual says these guys will sign FAs from the free agent pool. Set minor league free agency to one year eligibility so higher level teams and MLB can sign players from these teams in fashion similar to history. This is also the hard part, keeping up with minor league changes. I have a good resource for this on the web 1901 Minor League Baseball League Encyclopedia - Baseball-Reference.com but it takes work every season.

3. Add high school and college feeders. Hoepfully, the grads who are not MLB ready will be signed by the class A, B, C, and D teams. What I am a bit afraid of is that MLB teams might sign high caliber prospects who are not developed. However, adding minors means no reserve roster so teams should cut the guys who don't have current skills for the majors. Hopefully these are scooped up by the minor leagues so they can develop until ready for the majors.

I think putting 1 year on minor league free agency should allow players to become free agents each year. However, I am not sure. I plan to turn off minor league free agency as the modern minor system begins and teams get affiliates.

Any ideas? Do you think this will work?

Kobeck · 06-26-2010, 07:48 AM

set up a small test league and run a decade at a time and see.

the concept looks interesting

mjj55409 · 06-28-2010, 07:24 PM

What I've found is that if you have a college feeder league without a draft, then the players leaving college will be stuck as free agents in the college league. They are not made part of the parent's league free agent pool.

mparks19732 · 07-09-2010, 10:37 PM

You can also start a historical game in 1901 then uncheck "import historical rookies", and release all players from their teams and delete all the free agents. I you then go into the league setup you can fill teams with fictional players. By doing this you not only get the financial imports but also get the historical settings for errors and such. Just an idea for those that don't mind a few extra steps to get the realism effect. I've done this in 1871 and 1886 or 1888 and it worked fine. You could even start with roster size larger then after creating fictional players set the size lower and have some game ready players in AAA right off in case of injury. Did this once to see what if and liked it. I've noticed this works much better than creating the players in the Free Agents screen in Commish Mode. Quite often the players have either no fielding ratings, no ratings at all or for some reason they show up later after I've done a draft. Real pain.

06-15-2010, 09:15 PM	#1
Biggio509 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 2,027	Fictional historical setup I thought up a plan for a historical fictional league and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas to if it will work. I plan to start in 1901 since things are less stable prior to that period. It will take a lot of management but here is the plan. 1. Setup fictional league replicating MLB at the time. Use strategy and settings tab to import 1901 financial, PCM, etc. automatically adjust each year but do import historical rookies. No draft no free agency. 2. Setup historical minor leagues as unaffiliated minors. Use class A as AAA, B as AA, C as A, and D or below as short season or rookie. The manual says these guys will sign FAs from the free agent pool. Set minor league free agency to one year eligibility so higher level teams and MLB can sign players from these teams in fashion similar to history. This is also the hard part, keeping up with minor league changes. I have a good resource for this on the web 1901 Minor League Baseball League Encyclopedia - Baseball-Reference.com but it takes work every season. 3. Add high school and college feeders. Hoepfully, the grads who are not MLB ready will be signed by the class A, B, C, and D teams. What I am a bit afraid of is that MLB teams might sign high caliber prospects who are not developed. However, adding minors means no reserve roster so teams should cut the guys who don't have current skills for the majors. Hopefully these are scooped up by the minor leagues so they can develop until ready for the majors. I think putting 1 year on minor league free agency should allow players to become free agents each year. However, I am not sure. I plan to turn off minor league free agency as the modern minor system begins and teams get affiliates. Any ideas? Do you think this will work?

06-28-2010, 07:24 PM	#3
mjj55409 All Star Starter Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 1,166	What I've found is that if you have a college feeder league without a draft, then the players leaving college will be stuck as free agents in the college league. They are not made part of the parent's league free agent pool. __________________ FABL -- Chicago Chiefs

06-26-2010, 07:48 AM	#2
Kobeck Major Leagues Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 491	set up a small test league and run a decade at a time and see. the concept looks interesting

07-09-2010, 10:37 PM	#4
mparks19732 Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Jun 2010 Posts: 30	You can also start a historical game in 1901 then uncheck "import historical rookies", and release all players from their teams and delete all the free agents. I you then go into the league setup you can fill teams with fictional players. By doing this you not only get the financial imports but also get the historical settings for errors and such. Just an idea for those that don't mind a few extra steps to get the realism effect. I've done this in 1871 and 1886 or 1888 and it worked fine. You could even start with roster size larger then after creating fictional players set the size lower and have some game ready players in AAA right off in case of injury. Did this once to see what if and liked it. I've noticed this works much better than creating the players in the Free Agents screen in Commish Mode. Quite often the players have either no fielding ratings, no ratings at all or for some reason they show up later after I've done a draft. Real pain.