rookie leagues and useful players?

[mjlewis]

(If this has been asked and answered a ton of times before, as I'm sure it has, just point me to the answer -- I wasn't sure where to look.)

I just fired up OOTP10 after having put it away for a while. Updated to the newest patch, started a new league, and took a job running a rookie league team. Is there some way to make it give me something approximating a usable roster, where I don't have 10 catchers, 2 first basemen, 2 second basemen, 4 third basemen, 4 shortstops, and no outfielders, or more than one starting pitcher with a control rating above 1?

- Mike

[ChronX]

The quick and easy reply is don't manage a minor league team. I'm not being a smartypants here; the game just isn't designed that way. You are intended to be the boss...Theo Epstein/Brian Cashman etc. When you have control of the whole organization, you can stack up all levels of minors with "correct" rosters. If your particular interest is grooming newbs, you can focus on that.

When you take on a minor league franchise at any level, you are hostage to what the AI GM does for the whole organization. All you can really do is set lineups, which like I said above, you can do for your rookie league club anyway if you have the whole system under you.

If you like the idea of playing with more raw talent, create a second league (but within the saved game universe you are currently in), independent of the other tree of leagues, and fiddle with its settings...give it less money, give it a defined age window (for example, 18 to 24). Particularly with the second aspect, your "graduates" will get fed into the main major league in your universe as free agents when they hit your age cap. Don't have minors in "your" league. This effectively (with some more tweaking) will make it an independent rookie/low A league.

[Spritze]

If you have a historical league ......Do not use ghost players but require full minor leagues instead. Then you should see more sensical rosters.

For fictional you won't have ghosts so if you get weird roosters then it's probably an undocumented enhancement in the program.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by Spritze

For fictional you won't have ghosts so if you get weird roosters then it's probably an undocumented enhancement in the program.

Heh, like how a nuclear meltdown is an unrequested fission surplus.

[mjlewis]

ok, so the thing where you start a game without a job and take a position trying to work your way up just isn't going to work in general? Good to know. Thanks!

- Mike

[Flying Dutchmen]

Originally Posted by mjlewis

ok, so the thing where you start a game without a job and take a position trying to work your way up just isn't going to work in general? Good to know. Thanks!

- Mike

In my experience, you sometimes can have problems with the lowest level team (making sure you don't have a roster limit for the lowest level can help). Beyond this though, if you start at short-season level A for instance, and you can get jobs there too without a job to start, you should be fine. Just be ready for a fair bit of roster instability.