Completely new to baseball

[Timofmars]

Originally Posted by Colorado

The one thing - well it's quite a large thing - that continues to throw me and stops me immersing myself fully into the OOTP is understanding all the rules and regulations around player contracts. It is unbelievably complex, even when I read the manual I find myself not understanding it.

What do you know so far? Or what don't you understand? Which of those questions has a shorter answer, haha.

I think it can all be explained in a way that is more understandable than the manual.

For example, here is a post I made before about protecting players from being lost in the rule 5 draft. It can give you an idea about how you might use option years of a player to extend the time they will be stuck on a minimum salary before becoming eligible for arbitration.

[sutnopG]

Originally Posted by Colorado

I've been in a similar situation to you - I've watched loads of OTTP videos on YouTube and real baseball to develop a better understanding of the game etc.

The one thing - well it's quite a large thing - that continues to throw me and stops me immersing myself fully into the OOTP is understanding all the rules and regulations around player contracts. It is unbelievably complex, even when I read the manual I find myself not understanding it.

How are you getting on with this aspect of the game??

Sorry for the late respons.

I agree that it's complex - much more so then for example NHL (maybe that's a interest/culture thing, an area i've been interested in and put time in since young age) but still, i feel MLB & baseball is pretty hard to understand.

Have read tons of text about contracts / the finance part of the sport / game.

Where i get comfort in understanding is service years. Have created basic knowledge and maybe more than basic about how many years each contract detail takes to kick in. It's a part of the game OOTP does great compared to many other management/simulation games - available information of service time, arbitration and so on. It really helped me understand and educated me to this stage where i feel pretty comfortable in that specific area

[Hammerpgh]

Good to read this thread. I'm in a similar position having got into baseball over 30 years ago but since then have lost touch due to life things taking up by time. I'm now back with my interest in baseball massively peaked by his game and eager to relearn everything. So much to absorb and I'm loving just reading through this great forum at the moment.

Great thread, thanks for starting it and for all the great answers and advice given in it.