Who are you starting with?

[tombair]

I'm going with a 28 team MLB, 3 levels of minors, and 3 8-team indy leagues (Federal League, Northern League, and Mexican league). I'll use a lot of the logos and uniforms that cephasjames has made...many thanks to him. If you haven't checked out his project, look in the Mods forum.

[Cal Ripken's Glove]

i think i'll start with 2010 orioles. i'll start by trading brian roberts and tejeda to start the season.

[Sweed]

Originally Posted by Chicagofan76

Although I mentioned earlier that I am going to transfer my current leagues over... I think I am gonna try CephasJames Historical League. He made some really cool uniforms and has the layout of the league evolution all mapped out so I think I want to try doing that 1st.

Keep in mind I started in 2002 with Role17's real player roster file. The Cubs then were very similar to the 1991 Braves, IE great young pitching with Wood and Prior (included in minor leaguers and made the jump for me) along with a good hitting lineup with Sammy and Moises. Bobby Hill was rated pretty good along with Zambrano also up and coming.

So, no in short we were pretty damn good. I posted in either the 9 or 10 forums screenies of Prior when he retired with ~325 wins and multiple Cy Young awards. Couple that with the early versions of OOTP were pretty easy to win in. With the roster rules being added over the newer versions and especially starting in maybe version 9 things are becoming tougher, which is great.

One thing really impressing me is in my league in OOTP 11 Tampa Bay has the lowest budget and second lowest payroll (~50 mil) and are if first place at the start of August(Yanks and Sox both with ~130 mil budgets and ~120 mil payrolls). Their attendance has gone from a total of 900k at home two years ago to already having 1.6 mil as August begins. Fan interest has risen dramatically starting last season as they managed to be above .500 for the first time in 10+ years. I don't believe this would have happened in OOTP2006 to v8 and certainly not in 6.5 and before(the pre SI versions). This to me is really a testament to how much Markus has improved the game over the years.

[ShaneCarson]

Continuing on with my American Baseball Association league I created and have played two full seasons out in OOTP11, playing out every game. My low budget Hartford Owls won the title the first year of the league but missed out on the playoffs the second year. The league is expanding from 12 to 14 teams for the third year so it should get really interesting!

[Peregrine]

I'm torn on how to start things. I'm sure I will be importing my existing fictional leagues - the international World Baseball League (125 seasons old) and my current one - North-South League, featuring teams from North and South Carolina (based on historical minor league teams.)

But I'm sure I'll end up doing something new too - maybe a single country fictional league.

[iBrandon]

Probably do a 2011 MLB with the Rangers.

[Jeffy25]

Cardinals, opening day 2011, gonna play every game (again)



Any idea what time the game should be released? Last year, I believe it was like 3 AM CST the morning of the release.

[The Wolf]

Originally Posted by Jeffy25

Cardinals, opening day 2011, gonna play every game (again)



Any idea what time the game should be released? Last year, I believe it was like 3 AM CST the morning of the release.

Markus said probably some time around 2PM ET tomorrow.

[mort4785]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

And for the record, the 2011 Braves of course. My guess is they'll look a heck of a lot better with Ugga(ly) actually HITTING THE BALL!!!

Yep! Same here!

Uggla is terrible...I did get a chance to see him play in Houston a couple friday's ago. He actually hit a 2B.

[Mntwins]

1955 season. 16 total teams, great era and not to many players to keep track of.

[Neolithic]

2011 MLB Startup with my Cubs.

I usually play a "hands off" GM role, where I just handle GM actions, and put lineups/rotations on the CPU manager's control (however I do use the "team strategy" if I want to dictate to my manager a starter in a position or what not)

I'm debating doing a "fantasy" real MLB with Cuban having bought the team and upping payroll to the Boston/Yankees level for kicks.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by Jeffy25

Cardinals, opening day 2011, gonna play every game (again)



Any idea what time the game should be released? Last year, I believe it was like 3 AM CST the morning of the release.

Is Franklin going to be your closer?

[AC]

Originally Posted by t-bone shuffle

I'm gonna take the new roster set. Contract 6 teams (KC, PIT, AZ and Toronto are certain, two more still undecided) realign into 6 divisions of four, have an 8 round dispersal draft of the players from the contracted teams. Prolly eliminate the DH too.

I'll be running the Houston franchise and certainly they'll have an early pick in the dispersal draft, so the question there will be to draft a near-ready highly rated prospect or someone who's producing at the ML level already.

Probably a stupid question, but how do you do this? When you contract the ML, how do you also get rid of the affiliated teams without manually doing it through each league? Also, is there an option for a dispersal draft? I thought all the players from deleted teams went into the FA pool?

Thanks.

[PyroFalkon]

The last time I played OOTP was, I think, OOTP 9. In it, I did what I called my grand experiment: 50 teams, each one representing a state, all with four levels of minors. No adjustments to the schedule type (that is, 162 games with interleague) and a 5-7-7-7 playoff format. Two leagues, Western and Eastern, and each league had two divisions, North and South.

All ML teams played in their respective state capitals, and each of the minor league teams went backwards from the most populous... which, in retrospect, I might be changing this time around. Because, for example, the ML New York team played in Albany, and the AAA team was in New York City. Just seems... silly that way.

Even more bizarre than the way I formatted the league itself, however, was how I handled the the player creation and salaries, and this is why I really want to give my format another go even if it breaks something along the way. I started with a totally empty roster, then created my 50 (x5) teams. Then, I did "fill all levels of minors with fictional players," released everyone, "fill all levels of minors with fictional players" again, released everyone again, and then held a fantasy draft.

Without a salary cap and with no "established" stars (since literally everyone was rated mediocre at best and the oldest player worth anything was like 23), financials went completely insane. For the first couple years, teams had little cash but very tiny payrolls because of the relative crap statistics of everyone. After the first few years, profits rolled in, and the players who signed short-term contracts were suddenly being negotiated for by teams with Donald Trump's net worth burning holes in their pockets. (One team, I think it was North Dakota, had over $200 million available for signings.) One player was signed for an obscene $51.5 million per year for four years, and within two seasons, he absolutely crashed and was mediocre among the entire league.

I wound up making a post to these boards, positing whether I should try starting over and instituting a salary cap, going into commissioner mode and resetting things manually, or letting the invisible hand of the market fix things after a few more seasons. Most of the people who replied wanted me to just keep going and see what happened, especially when the teams would inevitably start going bankrupt. I did, but I only played another season or two before my computer nuked itself... and I didn't have any backups to my save data.

So that ended the grand experiment, and in ten seasons simulated, Florida won four Patriot Series Championships (yes, I know, it's cheesy), making them the undisputed leaders in America's pastime. I like to think that every orange in every grocery store was shipped with a stenciled middle finger on the peel.

Anyway, I never played OOTP after that. It took me a dozen hours to name and color all 250 teams, not to mention pick non-repeating team nicknames. I made it more difficult on myself by going with state birds and that kind of crap, rather than doing something humorous or at least original. (New York Cabbies? South Dakota Rushmores? The Iowa Apathy?) And losing all that work, with the prospect of trying to do it all again, just... just hurt.

But I'm re-energized this year, and I don't know why. I've had OOTP12 on pre-order for a few weeks now, and no matter how much I try to convince myself otherwise, I absolutely want to give the grand experiment another go. And who knows, maybe I'll do a dynasty or whatever about it on the forums (especially so I can get some help with team colors and nicknames). This time around I'll have the teams play in the most populous cities regardless of where the states' capitals fit into things, and I definitely won't try so hard to come up with 250 unique team nicknames; heck, if the Cubs and Yankees get to name their minor league teams the same thing, why shouldn't I? That should decrease the prep time on the league, letting me actually jump into the season and start playing much quicker.

And this time, I'm going to be sure to backup my [every expletive known to man] data.

[gnomez]

Diamondbacks, Royals move to AL West; Blue Jays to AL Central; Pittsburgh to NL East; expansion teams in Indianapolis (NL Central) and New Jersey (AL East). Work on a "World of Baseball" type setup with indy leagues and Japan (maybe Korea and Italy if I have the time.)

[Germaniac]

Originally Posted by PyroFalkon

.. One player was signed for an obscene $51.5 million per year for four years, and within two seasons, he absolutely crashed and was mediocre among the entire league.

Oh, apparently you were just a few years ahead of RL

But that's a decent income the guy could live a good life with even if he probably had a hard time finding another team after his contract ran out

[Jeremy Weimer]

I'm thinking either a 1901 MLB historical league or 2011 MLB real roster league in God mode. I'm not really a big fan of playing as a specific team because often times I find myself getting bored and wanting to start "cheating" by adjusting my budget so I can afford whoever I want.

[Storm]

The 2011 Red Sox.

I'm going try and make it so Anthony Ranaudo (SP), Bryce Brentz (RF), Garin Cechinni (3B), Sean Coyle (2B), Brandon Workman (SP), Drake Britton (SP) and Jose Iglesias (SS) progress through my system together -- starting, of course, in Salem.

[skunkle333]

There is only one way for me to start. I'll be using PStrickerts
terrific 1959 World Series template and try to take my White Sox
to another World Series win.

And when my young grandsons get here...or there is some other matter that comes up...I'll be able to save the game in progress! YEAH...

[ogie1234]

Washington Nationals...still trying to get the Expos their Championship!