What to do about Spring Training

Curtis · 10-24-2006, 07:53 AM

I've finally reached Spring Training in my Oriental universe, and now I'm at a loss. First, I didn't get notified until after two games had already been played. I didn't get a chance to set my lineups, rotation, call up minor leaguers, etc.

Second, how do I manage my team? There's supposed to be someplace where you can play games out, but I can't find it. All I can do is autoplay. And in spite of having set (in Game Setup) to be interrupted when my players are injured, I'm not getting any notices (I didn't in my last campaign, either).

Does anyone have any advice on how to make this a more enjoyable experience? I'm loving the roster management parts of the game, but I'd really like to be a bit more 'hands on'.

eb45 · 10-24-2006, 04:06 PM

Go to your league drop-down menu, select "Scores and Schedule" or something like that, and you should be able to select a game to manage.

1998 Yankees · 10-24-2006, 06:14 PM

Curtis - I know you are not a newbie from your other posts, so I apologize if I insult your intelligence. However, you:

1) Clicked your league button and selected either "Spring Training" (for standings and stats) or "Scores and Schedules" for access to scheduled spring training games?

2) Are actually in control of a team, not just "Acting As" the commissioner?

3) Are signed on (Select League) to a major league? The game guide states that "Spring Training is only for major league teams." I think if you have your Oriental leagues set as "International Level" that also qualifies, but I'm not sure about that.

You certainly can play out spring training games if all of the above is true. At the very least, you want to have your lineups, depth charts, and pitching staff in place because the game guide also says that you need to play players in spring training to shake off some of the "rust" of the offseason. As long as your team is set up this way, then you can blow by with auto-play and accomplish the same thing.

Regarding injuries, if one of the above is not true, that may be why you have not gotten any injury notifications during spring training (of course, you have the setting to stop auto-play if one occurs, right?). If all of the above is true, you may just have gotten lucky. I had one devastating injury last year, but none this spring training, thankfully.

Curtis · 10-24-2006, 06:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1998 Yankees

Curtis - I know you are not a newbie from your other posts, so I apologize if I insult your intelligence. However, you:

1) Clicked your league button and selected either "Spring Training" (for standings and stats) or "Scores and Schedules" for access to scheduled spring training games?

2) Are actually in control of a team, not just "Acting As" the commissioner?

3) Are signed on (Select League) to a major league? The game guide states that "Spring Training is only for major league teams." I think if you have your Oriental leagues set as "International Level" that also qualifies, but I'm not sure about that.

You certainly can play out spring training games if all of the above is true. At the very least, you want to have your lineups, depth charts, and pitching staff in place because the game guide also says that you need to play players in spring training to shake off some of the "rust" of the offseason. As long as your team is set up this way, then you can blow by with auto-play and accomplish the same thing.

Regarding injuries, if one of the above is not true, that may be why you have not gotten any injury notifications during spring training (of course, you have the setting to stop auto-play if one occurs, right?). If all of the above is true, you may just have gotten lucky. I had one devastating injury last year, but none this spring training, thankfully.

You aren't insulting anyone. I've been playing the game for nearly three months now, but never got far into a universe before updating or becoming frustrated with accruing annoyances (like the financials in my suspended Federal League universe).

I have selected Spring Training (which took me three days to find, because I kept thinking I should be able to access it from the league main page when it only appears in the dropdown menu). All that's there is the current standings. The league main page lists the day's matchups, but no results. My leaderboards are blank, and no stats are showing up on the Pitching, Lineups or Depth Chart pages. I read a couple of days ago on this site that you don't get leaderboards if your statistics are set to 'minimum', which mine are. (I have a very slow machine.) So, I may just be out of luck there, but why doesn't some of that information appear elsewhere? What are the statistics views for if they're always blank?

I did check the Scores and Schedules pages for three of my leagues, and they were all blank. It may be that my league ([league redacted]) wasn't one of the ones I checked. I'll try that again tonight.

I am the named general manager of the Hokkaido-Nippon Ham Fighters. I am also the commissioner and 'acting as' the Fighters' pooh-bah. Does this mean that I am, or am not, in control of the team? I don't know. I have to 'act as' someone. The game doesn't allow me to just 'act as' commissioner; that's not one of the options.

There are no major leagues in this universe. There are three international level leagues, of which I am in one, and that is the league I spend most of my time tuned to. It's the default when the game starts up. Spring Training IS happening. I'm 1-1 playing with no rotation or lineups. I want to be able to play everyone — run starters for only three innings, let minor leaguers get their shot — but it's all happening in a box somewhere and I'm not able to get at it. I can't even find out what the scores were or who got playing time (though my five tired pitchers give me some idea). I'll check the Scores and Standings again. Thanks for the suggestions.

As far as the injuries go, I autoplay only one day at a time, so there's nothing to interrupt. One reason I abandoned my second Federal League (it's my third that's currently suspended) was that I had five pitchers, three of them starters, go down in two weeks, and I didn't know it until I stopped by my Pitching page one day and saw the devastation. Because I had locked out AI manipulation of my rosters, I was playing VERY shorthanded. That was during May. Earlier, in that league's Spring Training, both of my catchers went down in one game, and I couldn't figure out how to get past the 25 man limit to replace them. (I still can't, but in this campaign I hit a 'run my life for me' button and eleven players were magically added. Not the ones I wanted, but better than nothing.) Fortunately they both recovered before the season started.

Okay, off I go to try again.

CMH · 10-24-2006, 08:31 PM

To play out the games you have to go to the Scores screen and select to Play from there. There is not an option from your team page to do this.

To get notices about your players click on Manager and view your Manager HomePage. You'll see options for a password, whether the CPU or you should make roster changes, and when you want to receive personal messages and news from your league.

Outside of that, 1998 basically has the rest of it down for you.

Keep us updated.

Curtis · 10-25-2006, 01:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by YankeePride

To get notices about your players click on Manager and view your Manager HomePage. You'll see options for a password, whether the CPU or you should make roster changes, and when you want to receive personal messages and news from your league.

I did find the third day's games listed on the Scores and Schedules page. I just spent six hours setting lineups and rotations. I go away for a few days tomorrow, so I'm hoping I'll get to play out my first actual games this weekend.

My settings on the Manager Home Page appear to be correct. I'm set to receive messages about my league, my team and my organization. I just don't. Players get traded, signed, released, waived, extended, and they all show up on the league transactions page (if I think to look), but I get no messages about them. To be honest, I don't care if Yomiuri signs their star second sacker to a five year extension, but getting my Spring Training notice on the third day of Spring Training really annoys me. If they're going to notify me, why not notify me before it happens, instead of after?

Oh, and I found out what happened to the thirteen players who disappeared off my rosters when I hit the 'Calgon, take me away' button (I'm now typing this from Hawaii). They got designated and put on waivers. I was able to rescue five of them, including the only two outfielders, but eight of them refused to come off waivers, even though only one was noted as 'irrevocable'.

I guess I see why the computer did it, since all of these guys are over thirty, but two were on my parent club, and the six from AAA include my first and second starters, closer, and starting first and second basemen and shortstop! In my first 56 days, I built my minor leagues from twelfth-rated (out of twelve) to number one with a bullet, more than forty points ahead of the second place organization. And there's NO ONE in the free agent pool that comes within miles of these guys. If they get claimed, it's going to devastate the Nippon Clippers, and it won't help my AA club any, either, as several of their players will have to move up and be replaced by dregs.

Oh, well. All that's for another day. Thanks for the help, guys.

1998 Yankees · 10-25-2006, 09:39 AM

Curtis, it sounds like your mostly there. However, focus on this part of your post:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Curtis Cook

I am the named general manager of the Hokkaido-Nippon Ham Fighters. I am also the commissioner and 'acting as' the Fighters' pooh-bah. Does this mean that I am, or am not, in control of the team? I don't know. I have to 'act as' someone. The game doesn't allow me to just 'act as' commissioner; that's not one of the options.

The commissioner role is still a bit confusing to me. I am the commissioner of my league, and I am the GM of the NYY. This suits me in a number of ways, ease of league maintenance and job security paramount. However, you can be a commissioner without being a GM. If you have that identity selected, you can "Act As" the GM for any ballclub, but this does not mean the usual GM prerogatives. You can make roster moves, force trades, etc. but you are not the GM so this team does not report to you, hence no news. At least I *think* this is the way it works, based on my readings here and what I have seen in my game.

Curtis · 10-25-2006, 01:08 PM

Okay, I'll check that out the next time I start up the game, but I'm pretty sure there's no option in the upper right corner for 'act as nobody'.

1998 Yankees · 10-25-2006, 02:53 PM

No, what I mean is, when you make a commissioner you also need to employ him as GM in the same screen. Otherwise, all you can do is "Act As" which is not the same thing as being the actual GM of a team. If you don't employ the commissioner when you create him, then he must apply for a GM job like anyone else. Of course, he can choose from any team and is hired instantly. It's good to be the commissioner.

CMH · 10-26-2006, 02:42 PM

1998 is right.

If you're a commissioner and then decided to act as a GM of another team you don't get all of the GM goodies.

My work around for this is to create two managers. One can be the commish, the other can be the GM (you have to make sure you are not a commish).

Of course, this poses a problem that 1998 avoided - you can be fired. Of course, if you also have a commish manager then you can reassign your other manager to be GM of the team again.

I hope that wasn't confusing.

Curtis · 10-26-2006, 04:01 PM

Not confusing, but I tried it (for this universe, actually) and couldn't make it work. I wanted to GM the Ham Fighters in the Nippon League and the Chinese National Team in the China League. I tried two or three times to get it to recognize both human managers, but everytime I tried to close out that panel and proceed to the game, it would jumble the managers. Their names would change, their names would reverse, parts of their names would change. I didn't know if that had any real game meaning, but it worried me. Since I knew I was going to be putting in hundreds of hours setting this thing up, I didn't want to invest that time and then find out that something more serious than names was screwed up, so I decided to abandon the China League and just play as Nippon.

Thank you guys for your interest. I broke down and played my first three games last night, to take me up to the end of the waiver period (none of my players were claimed, which I don't understand, but I'm loving it). I went 1 for 3, beating a team better than I am, and losing to a worse team and the team that I'm guessing will win the division.

My relief staff has been fairly impressive, allowing no runs in ten innings, but the starters have coughed up 13 in 17 innings. All of my 21 position players got at least two plate appearances, but nine of them are hitless so far, and no one is hitting over .286 (2 for 7). I've scored seven runs so far, three by my minor league starters and four by the IL leaguers I'm bringing in as late inning substitutes (they've gotten about a third of the PAs).

Someone wrote in to complain about how hard it is to gain experience, even in Spring Training, but I'm finding it too easy. My three starting outfielders rose three points each in position rating after only 13 fielding innings. I had guessed that experience would accrue at the rate of maybe one point per nine innings in the field, twice that in S.T., but I grossly underestimated. The first time I tried to drag a substitute in to pinch hit, I accidently landed him on the pitcher's slot, then the game wouldn't let me change my mind. Anyway, I quickly replaced him with a reliever, but the next day he showed up as having accrued three experience for not having thrown a single pitch!

I do have some more questions: How many S.T. games are there? I was originally thinking thirty, but now I'm wondering about that. And are there any scheduled rest days? I don't think there's a schedule grid where I can check that, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

I did turn my statistics level up from minimum to normal, so I am accum,ulating stats after the two games I missed. Does anyone know if I'll have to keep it at normal for the regular season? I'm really disappointed that I can't get team or league stats during S.T. Would I get them if I moved the stat index higher yet?

1998 Yankees · 10-26-2006, 04:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Curtis Cook

Not confusing, but I tried it (for this universe, actually) and couldn't make it work. I wanted to GM the Ham Fighters in the Nippon League and the Chinese National Team in the China League. I tried two or three times to get it to recognize both human managers, but everytime I tried to close out that panel and proceed to the game, it would jumble the managers. Their names would change, their names would reverse, parts of their names would change. I didn't know if that had any real game meaning, but it worried me. Since I knew I was going to be putting in hundreds of hours setting this thing up, I didn't want to invest that time and then find out that something more serious than names was screwed up, so I decided to abandon the China League and just play as Nippon.

Thank you guys for your interest. I broke down and played my first three games last night, to take me up to the end of the waiver period (none of my players were claimed, which I don't understand, but I'm loving it). I went 1 for 3, beating a team better than I am, and losing to a worse team and the team that I'm guessing will win the division.

My relief staff has been fairly impressive, allowing no runs in ten innings, but the starters have coughed up 13 in 17 innings. All of my 21 position players got at least two plate appearances, but nine of them are hitless so far, and no one is hitting over .286 (2 for 7). I've scored seven runs so far, three by my minor league starters and four by the IL leaguers I'm bringing in as late inning substitutes (they've gotten about a third of the PAs).

Someone wrote in to complain about how hard it is to gain experience, even in Spring Training, but I'm finding it too easy. My three starting outfielders rose three points each in position rating after only 13 fielding innings. I had guessed that experience would accrue at the rate of maybe one point per nine innings in the field, twice that in S.T., but I grossly underestimated. The first time I tried to drag a substitute in to pinch hit, I accidently landed him on the pitcher's slot, then the game wouldn't let me change my mind. Anyway, I quickly replaced him with a reliever, but the next day he showed up as having accrued three experience for not having thrown a single pitch!

I do have some more questions: How many S.T. games are there? I was originally thinking thirty, but now I'm wondering about that. And are there any scheduled rest days? I don't think there's a schedule grid where I can check that, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

I did turn my statistics level up from minimum to normal, so I am accum,ulating stats after the two games I missed. Does anyone know if I'll have to keep it at normal for the regular season? I'm really disappointed that I can't get team or league stats during S.T. Would I get them if I moved the stat index higher yet?

I have a few more suggestions, if I may and you're willing.

First, the GM problem sounds familiar. Sometimes when you edit them, they get garbled because it's not being done in some precise manner that escapes me right now. At least, that's how I remember it. Try deleting your old GM's and creating (adding) new ones altogether, if you don't mind losing career records. Follow YankeePride's advice.

As far as the number of games, your figure seems about right. You can see how many by looking at your team's Schedule tab; they are on there, but the only problem is that they are not labeled as such so it may be a bit difficult knowing which are ST and which are regular season games.

I think you get ST stats on normal; but I don't know for sure. I know why you have stats down to minimal - you mention your game slowness in other posts. Still, I would leave stats at normal if you can tolerate the lack of speed; there's no telling what else you may be missing with low level stats. I don't think stats building is retroactive, either, when you do decide to dial them upward.

Curtis · 10-27-2006, 12:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1998 Yankees

I think you get ST stats on normal; but I don't know for sure. I know why you have stats down to minimal - you mention your game slowness in other posts. Still, I would leave stats at normal if you can tolerate the lack of speed; there's no telling what else you may be missing with low level stats. I don't think stats building is retroactive, either, when you do decide to dial them upward.

Oh, they're not retroactive, believe me. Even though I have a 2-3 record, as far as the stats are concerned I've only played three games.

I am getting some S.T. stats on normal, but only for individuals, not for teams or the league, so I don't know how I compare (I suspect that I suck). During the regular season there are, according to the game guide, some stats kept even on minimal, but I'd like to know what they are before deciding whether to set the level back to minimum on Opening Day. I don't care at all about double splits, and not much about most splits, but I would like to have righty/lefty breakdowns, and maybe early/mid/late game breakdowns.

I'll try looking for that schedule tab. I don't remember it. The only two places I've found schedules, they were only regular season games.

Since I'm already underway, and I've already had some disasters with the China League (the 'Thursday Night Massacre'), I think I'll just ignore the rest of the world until I need to interfere.

Another preference question for you: During S.T., do you work on what your players are weak at? I'm letting the guys who can't hit lefties (or righties) hit against them, in the hopes that they'll improve. I'm also mostly playing guys at their second-best fielding positions, to try to beef up their positional numbers.

Curtis · 10-27-2006, 01:12 AM

Dola.

I just checked, and there are 24 spring training games in 25 days, with the day off right in the middle. Then there are FIVE days off before the season starts. I'm sorely tempted to insert some exhibition games in there. All 24 games are against teams in my own division, which seems silly. We play each other 26 times during the regular season, and the other division teams only four times each. Wouldn't we draw bigger crowds facing 'the strangers' during the pre-season?

By the way, the adjustment to attendence for S.T. games works. I'm drawing about 1/6 of last season's per game crowds.

The actual schedule is also weird. For most of the season we have every Monday off, which seems remarkably civilized. Aside from that, there are only one or two other days off each month from Opening Day until July. In July there are four (out of five) Mondays, a five day stretch, a three day stretch, a couple of two day breaks, and another couple of odd days off. At one point I play one game in nine days, and later two games in six! August is more normal, with eight off days, then September has nine off in the first 27, which is when the season ends.

The minor leagues are even worse, with 96 games stretched out over a 187 day season. It looks like I could get by with a three man starting rotation!

10-24-2006, 07:53 AM	#1
Curtis Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Watertown, New York Posts: 4,567	What to do about Spring Training I've finally reached Spring Training in my Oriental universe, and now I'm at a loss. First, I didn't get notified until after two games had already been played. I didn't get a chance to set my lineups, rotation, call up minor leaguers, etc. Second, how do I manage my team? There's supposed to be someplace where you can play games out, but I can't find it. All I can do is autoplay. And in spite of having set (in Game Setup) to be interrupted when my players are injured, I'm not getting any notices (I didn't in my last campaign, either). Does anyone have any advice on how to make this a more enjoyable experience? I'm loving the roster management parts of the game, but I'd really like to be a bit more 'hands on'.

10-24-2006, 04:06 PM	#2
eb45 Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 28	Go to your league drop-down menu, select "Scores and Schedule" or something like that, and you should be able to select a game to manage.

10-24-2006, 06:14 PM	#3
1998 Yankees Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Yankee Stadium, back in 1998. Posts: 8,645	Curtis - I know you are not a newbie from your other posts, so I apologize if I insult your intelligence. However, you: 1) Clicked your league button and selected either "Spring Training" (for standings and stats) or "Scores and Schedules" for access to scheduled spring training games? 2) Are actually in control of a team, not just "Acting As" the commissioner? 3) Are signed on (Select League) to a major league? The game guide states that "Spring Training is only for major league teams." I think if you have your Oriental leagues set as "International Level" that also qualifies, but I'm not sure about that. You certainly can play out spring training games if all of the above is true. At the very least, you want to have your lineups, depth charts, and pitching staff in place because the game guide also says that you need to play players in spring training to shake off some of the "rust" of the offseason. As long as your team is set up this way, then you can blow by with auto-play and accomplish the same thing. Regarding injuries, if one of the above is not true, that may be why you have not gotten any injury notifications during spring training (of course, you have the setting to stop auto-play if one occurs, right?). If all of the above is true, you may just have gotten lucky. I had one devastating injury last year, but none this spring training, thankfully.

10-24-2006, 08:31 PM	#5
CMH Hall Of Famer Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 5,057	To play out the games you have to go to the Scores screen and select to Play from there. There is not an option from your team page to do this. To get notices about your players click on Manager and view your Manager HomePage. You'll see options for a password, whether the CPU or you should make roster changes, and when you want to receive personal messages and news from your league. Outside of that, 1998 basically has the rest of it down for you. Keep us updated.

10-25-2006, 01:08 PM	#8
Curtis Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Watertown, New York Posts: 4,567	Okay, I'll check that out the next time I start up the game, but I'm pretty sure there's no option in the upper right corner for 'act as nobody'.

10-25-2006, 02:53 PM	#9
1998 Yankees Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Yankee Stadium, back in 1998. Posts: 8,645	No, what I mean is, when you make a commissioner you also need to employ him as GM in the same screen. Otherwise, all you can do is "Act As" which is not the same thing as being the actual GM of a team. If you don't employ the commissioner when you create him, then he must apply for a GM job like anyone else. Of course, he can choose from any team and is hired instantly. It's good to be the commissioner.

10-26-2006, 02:42 PM	#10
CMH Hall Of Famer Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 5,057	1998 is right. If you're a commissioner and then decided to act as a GM of another team you don't get all of the GM goodies. My work around for this is to create two managers. One can be the commish, the other can be the GM (you have to make sure you are not a commish). Of course, this poses a problem that 1998 avoided - you can be fired. Of course, if you also have a commish manager then you can reassign your other manager to be GM of the team again. I hope that wasn't confusing.

10-26-2006, 04:01 PM	#11
Curtis Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Watertown, New York Posts: 4,567	Not confusing, but I tried it (for this universe, actually) and couldn't make it work. I wanted to GM the Ham Fighters in the Nippon League and the Chinese National Team in the China League. I tried two or three times to get it to recognize both human managers, but everytime I tried to close out that panel and proceed to the game, it would jumble the managers. Their names would change, their names would reverse, parts of their names would change. I didn't know if that had any real game meaning, but it worried me. Since I knew I was going to be putting in hundreds of hours setting this thing up, I didn't want to invest that time and then find out that something more serious than names was screwed up, so I decided to abandon the China League and just play as Nippon. Thank you guys for your interest. I broke down and played my first three games last night, to take me up to the end of the waiver period (none of my players were claimed, which I don't understand, but I'm loving it). I went 1 for 3, beating a team better than I am, and losing to a worse team and the team that I'm guessing will win the division. My relief staff has been fairly impressive, allowing no runs in ten innings, but the starters have coughed up 13 in 17 innings. All of my 21 position players got at least two plate appearances, but nine of them are hitless so far, and no one is hitting over .286 (2 for 7). I've scored seven runs so far, three by my minor league starters and four by the IL leaguers I'm bringing in as late inning substitutes (they've gotten about a third of the PAs). Someone wrote in to complain about how hard it is to gain experience, even in Spring Training, but I'm finding it too easy. My three starting outfielders rose three points each in position rating after only 13 fielding innings. I had guessed that experience would accrue at the rate of maybe one point per nine innings in the field, twice that in S.T., but I grossly underestimated. The first time I tried to drag a substitute in to pinch hit, I accidently landed him on the pitcher's slot, then the game wouldn't let me change my mind. Anyway, I quickly replaced him with a reliever, but the next day he showed up as having accrued three experience for not having thrown a single pitch! I do have some more questions: How many S.T. games are there? I was originally thinking thirty, but now I'm wondering about that. And are there any scheduled rest days? I don't think there's a schedule grid where I can check that, but please correct me if I'm wrong. I did turn my statistics level up from minimum to normal, so I am accum,ulating stats after the two games I missed. Does anyone know if I'll have to keep it at normal for the regular season? I'm really disappointed that I can't get team or league stats during S.T. Would I get them if I moved the stat index higher yet?

10-27-2006, 01:12 AM	#14
Curtis Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Watertown, New York Posts: 4,567	Dola. I just checked, and there are 24 spring training games in 25 days, with the day off right in the middle. Then there are FIVE days off before the season starts. I'm sorely tempted to insert some exhibition games in there. All 24 games are against teams in my own division, which seems silly. We play each other 26 times during the regular season, and the other division teams only four times each. Wouldn't we draw bigger crowds facing 'the strangers' during the pre-season? By the way, the adjustment to attendence for S.T. games works. I'm drawing about 1/6 of last season's per game crowds. The actual schedule is also weird. For most of the season we have every Monday off, which seems remarkably civilized. Aside from that, there are only one or two other days off each month from Opening Day until July. In July there are four (out of five) Mondays, a five day stretch, a three day stretch, a couple of two day breaks, and another couple of odd days off. At one point I play one game in nine days, and later two games in six! August is more normal, with eight off days, then September has nine off in the first 27, which is when the season ends. The minor leagues are even worse, with 96 games stretched out over a 187 day season. It looks like I could get by with a three man starting rotation!