Fictional leagues and service time.

[dtizzle]

I started setting up my fictional league and getting ready for the inaugural draft. Looking over the available players, I see most of them have “service time”. But I am thinking as this is a new league maybe everyone should have no service time. I see there is a button “delete all service time”. So wondering if some of the more experienced fictional leaguers have any hot takes on the topic.


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[Bluenoser]

There are no "hot takes", if you don't want them to have service time, delete it.

Everyone has their own way of playing, the options are numerous.

I like to delete the initial pool and create a new one with an inaugural draft. I delete everything (entire league history) just before the draft. This eliminates anything and everything in the player histories.

I've played with nothing but fictional players since OOTP 6.5, and have tried many different ways of doing things over the years. Eventually I have settled in on a way of doing things that I like, and rarely have to make tweaks anymore when a new version with new features comes out.

That's the beauty of it though - you have plenty of options and ways of playing. Lots of fun experimenting and finding what you like.

[dtizzle]

So I erased all service time. My league begins 1988 and it is a combo of fictional players and some mlbers from 1998. In the midst of the draft. I assume with no service time for these guys, this will delay free agency and all these dudes will be going through arbitration first etc. so should be interesting to see this how develops over time.


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[dmacgreg37]

Originally Posted by dtizzle

So I erased all service time. My league begins 1988 and it is a combo of fictional players and some mlbers from 1998. In the midst of the draft. I assume with no service time for these guys, this will delay free agency and all these dudes will be going through arbitration first etc. so should be interesting to see this how develops over time.


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Yeah, that is why I left service time when I did a Random Debut league with inaugural draft. I wanted FA to start the first offseason. As said above though, no wrong answers, just preferences.

[NoOne]

"seed" players are meant to ease that type of transition. age distribution and finances are roughly what you'll see in the simulation as it runs naturally.

I would bet the same logic is used to fill (league function) an empty league, since it results in similar distirubution of age and service time etc. no reason to code that logic twice. in the past, it looked similar from experience too. you can roll the dice and get a deeper league by repeatedly filling, deleting until you like what you see. there's a range of quality due to randomness involved.

if you want something as close as possible to an MLB quickstart as far as depth of FA and quality and depth of MLB players, i'd suggest pre-dating a league ~20-30 years, then simulate to the start date you intend to play.

you can make the simulation faster, the only important funtions to leave on are the things that directly affect players, development, aging etc...

awards, news, level of statistical tracking etc can all be toned down for faster sim speeds. or, just let it run overnight before starting etc.

You can also delete history and all info and make it just like a newly created league. Scheduling an inaugural-like draft can still be done.

Another bonus -- you can start at any point... like day 1 of offseason of that year.

You can make a template after you reach your start date and clear history. the players will remain the same, if you use that template, but everything would be naturally random after that.