Expansion Draft Timing

csherwood001 · 03-29-2021, 11:11 AM

I have set up a league in which I intend to expand but control when those expansions occur manually.
What is the optimal time to hold the expansion draft?
Would it be at the start of the Offseason (before arbitrations), after free agency filings (and thus after arbs),or even possibly at the start of the Preseason (when most of the significant free agency moves have been completed)?
Thanks!

Bobbyraz49 · 03-29-2021, 11:14 AM

Wondering what cities you will be expanding to ?

ohiodevil · 03-29-2021, 11:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by csherwood001

I have set up a league in which I intend to expand but control when those expansions occur manually.
What is the optimal time to hold the expansion draft?
Would it be at the start of the Offseason (before arbitrations), after free agency filings (and thus after arbs),or even possibly at the start of the Preseason (when most of the significant free agency moves have been completed)?
Thanks!

I usually play real life MLB but expand after a couple seasons. I will do the expansion the day after the World Series and the game will schedule the draft for you (usually after free agents have filed). You want to make sure it happens before free agency so the expansion teams have a chance to sign players, otherwise they will only be able to build their teams via the expansion draft, amateur draft, Rule V draft and whatever scraps are leftover from free agency and players who get waived and they will be pretty bad for a while.

csherwood001 · 03-29-2021, 01:14 PM

Thanks!
It is a modified historical sim (using players from all eras) so I started with just 8 teams and intend to add 2 teams at a time as time passes until I eventually have a full major league. If I go beyond 30 teams, I would probably add Montreal and San Antonio next.

seth1710 · 03-30-2021, 07:03 PM

My one frustration with expansion mode is the timing: Normally a franchise is awarded and then participates in the amateur draft the year before it begins playing. As in my Las Vegas expansion team would participate in the 2021 amateur draft, then hold the expansion draft after the 2021 season, and begin play in 2022. I don't suppose there's any way to do that?

ohiodevil · 03-30-2021, 07:53 PM

The game cannot do this at this time, but there is a way to draft a year (or two) before your expansion team comes into the league, but it is very manual intensive. I have done this in the past but it was a lot of work, assuming you are playing with the modern setup, first thing I did was to expand the two lowest minor leagues by 2 teams each (to for my new team and two for the other expansion team) and did not affiliate them with any MLB team. When the draft rolled around, I allowed my new teams to pick at the end of each round, so I would sim to the end of each round, then manually edited the player that the expansion teams picked and placed them on the appropriate minor league team. I did this for each round of the draft until it ended. Then I looked at the free agent pool and manually moved players to these new teams until they had a full roster. I set those 4 new minor league teams to no allow the AI to make moves and I simmed a week at a time, and checked those new teams at the end of the week, only making moves when it came to injuries and update lineups and pitching staffs as needed. When the season ended, I expanded the league and then affiliated those 4 teams with the new MLB teams and continued on build the team I wanted to run.

It is not easy and I wanted to give up so many times because it took a long time to get through the season, but it built up some prospects for the new teams when they started out, but I did not see any advantage over just starting from scratch with nothing. What I have done is create 5 or 8 fictional players per expansion team and make their potential at least Very Good at creation and move them to whichever expansion team they were created for. This gives some top talent to build from without the grind of moving 60-80 players on draft day and then managing all those teams and battling injuries and poor performances.

Hope that made sense.....maybe one day expansion will get some more love and it can be more like how they did it the last couple times the league expanded, but for now it's a manual process.

seth1710 · 03-31-2021, 07:00 AM

That's interesting, thanks! So the one part about that I don't understand is how you access the amateur draft when you've only added two low-level minor league teams?

ohiodevil · 03-31-2021, 07:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by seth1710

That's interesting, thanks! So the one part about that I don't understand is how you access the amateur draft when you've only added two low-level minor league teams?

You have to be playing in Commissioner mode and when you sim to the amateur draft, you can run it pick by pick or there is an option to Sim Til End of Current Round. Then you can look through the draft pool and click on the player you want to draft and click on the Edit tab and there will be a drop down to select a League and Team to put the player on. I am not in front of the game otherwise I could post a screen shot.

But make sure you are not playing in Challenge Mode, otherwise you do not have the ability to edit the players like this.

BBGiovanni · 03-31-2021, 10:41 AM

Not sure if this is still the case in v.22, but expansion teams didn't get a minor league affiliate at every level at first (and they were randomly stuck in the wrong leagues/divisions, but anyway). I used to create minor league teams a year before the draft and leave them unaffiliated. They should sign players themselves, but even if you have to create fake players, at the low levels most will never advance far in the system anyway because of the player creation modifiers.

If you're even less finicky, you can just take extra teams oul of the Florida/Arizona complexes, most teams have 2 squads anyway and again so few guys get to the majors out of rookie ball in OOTP it's nobig loss. You can check the rosters and manually move star prospects if you want so they stay with the parent club.

ohiodevil · 03-31-2021, 10:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BBGiovanni

Not sure if this is still the case in v.22, but expansion teams didn't get a minor league affiliate at every level at first (and they were randomly stuck in the wrong leagues/divisions, but anyway). I used to create minor league teams a year before the draft and leave them unaffiliated. They should sign players themselves, but even if you have to create fake players, at the low levels most will never advance far in the system anyway because of the player creation modifiers.

If you're even less finicky, you can just take extra teams oul of the Florida/Arizona complexes, most teams have 2 squads anyway and again so few guys get to the majors out of rookie ball in OOTP it's nobig loss. You can check the rosters and manually move star prospects if you want so they stay with the parent club.

In 21 they changed it so you could control the minor league affiliates when setting up an expansion team. You can set which level, league they are in and as many or few as you want. So you can create a new team without and minor affiliates.

valuezzz · 03-31-2021, 12:17 PM

Hijacking the thread for another question. Anyone have difficulty hiring personnel in an expansion draft? (simple version of using the wizard the day you create a new sim)

I have all open slots but when I try to fill the vacancy it says no coaches found.

ohiodevil · 03-31-2021, 12:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by valuezzz

Hijacking the thread for another question. Anyone have difficulty hiring personnel in an expansion draft? (simple version of using the wizard the day you create a new sim)

I have all open slots but when I try to fill the vacancy it says no coaches found.

When did you expand? I know there is some sort of checks in place so coaches do not move until after the 2021 season in game. You may have to wait until the 2022 season to expand or just create a bunch of fictional ones.

I have not yet done an expansion draft yet with 22

AirmenSmith · 03-31-2021, 12:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by valuezzz

Hijacking the thread for another question. Anyone have difficulty hiring personnel in an expansion draft? (simple version of using the wizard the day you create a new sim)

I have all open slots but when I try to fill the vacancy it says no coaches found.

I have had trouble filling slots with for my current team. While not an expansion team it has been harder. Make sure you check the box to include minor league personnel as well.

AirmenSmith · 03-31-2021, 12:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by valuezzz

Hijacking the thread for another question. Anyone have difficulty hiring personnel in an expansion draft? (simple version of using the wizard the day you create a new sim)

I have all open slots but when I try to fill the vacancy it says no coaches found.

Here is a clip of it

valuezzz · 03-31-2021, 06:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AirmenSmith

I have had trouble filling slots with for my current team. While not an expansion team it has been harder. Make sure you check the box to include minor league personnel as well.

Yeah I avoided doing that thinking I could just hire my own (similar to if you fire someone in a regular start), but I guess it isn't possible

valuezzz · 03-31-2021, 06:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ohiodevil

When did you expand? I know there is some sort of checks in place so coaches do not move until after the 2021 season in game. You may have to wait until the 2022 season to expand or just create a bunch of fictional ones.

I have not yet done an expansion draft yet with 22

I did it on the first day. I had assumed that you could just pick from the pool of unemployed coaches/personnel (for instance you can usually fire you scout on day 1 and get a better one, though I have not tried this in '22 yet)

seth1710 · 03-31-2021, 07:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ohiodevil

You have to be playing in Commissioner mode and when you sim to the amateur draft, you can run it pick by pick or there is an option to Sim Til End of Current Round. Then you can look through the draft pool and click on the player you want to draft and click on the Edit tab and there will be a drop down to select a League and Team to put the player on. I am not in front of the game otherwise I could post a screen shot.

But make sure you are not playing in Challenge Mode, otherwise you do not have the ability to edit the players like this.

This is awesome help, thanks!

The_Niddler · 08-02-2021, 06:20 PM

I know this is an older thread, but how do the expansion teams see the Expansion Draft Pool in-game?
I am in a league where we are expanding 4 teams. We are at the day of the Expansion Draft and we cannot see any players available in-game.

progen · 08-05-2021, 02:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ohiodevil

In 21 they changed it so you could control the minor league affiliates when setting up an expansion team. You can set which level, league they are in and as many or few as you want. So you can create a new team without and minor affiliates.

You're right. This has never been a problem. I generally sim 5-7 seasons, then expand to two teams. Usually Montreal(which I take), then Orlando or Mexico City. I generally wait till Nov. 1st to expand, no specific reason, just what I do.

*For the expansion draft, I usually protect anywhere from 22-25 players to make it more of a challenge, and always 4 years of service. If you do 3, you'll get too many young, really good prospects, which isn't reality to me. I currently just finished my second season with the Expos. It's been rough sledding with 51 wins the first year, 52 the second season. Hey, at least we're improving, lol.

I've done pretty good with my first two drafts. Had five players(college) from the first draft join "The Show" in our second season, some because of injuries to my regulars. That's a pretty decent return, with a possibility of 1-2 others making it as well.

shaner_wils · 08-07-2021, 01:09 AM

Here is what I do and is much less time consuming than an earlier post
- in league structure add 2 teams in mlb. Do not adjust schedule, play out the whole year without them playing a game. It will fill the roster with free agents but who cares
- add 2 teams in league structure in a rookie league. And then generate
Their schedule so they can play and your players develop.
-adjust your draft order however you want and then draft your players-sign them and they will report to your rookie league.
- once the season is over, delete the created teams in mlb
- then expand the proper way, go to your rookie league team and change the affiliate to the newly expanded teams to match them up with their picks. SIM a day and they will appear.

03-29-2021, 11:11 AM	#1
csherwood001 Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Mar 2021 Posts: 41	Expansion Draft Timing I have set up a league in which I intend to expand but control when those expansions occur manually. What is the optimal time to hold the expansion draft? Would it be at the start of the Offseason (before arbitrations), after free agency filings (and thus after arbs),or even possibly at the start of the Preseason (when most of the significant free agency moves have been completed)? Thanks!

03-31-2021, 10:41 AM	#9
BBGiovanni All Star Starter Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Republic of California Posts: 1,910	Not sure if this is still the case in v.22, but expansion teams didn't get a minor league affiliate at every level at first (and they were randomly stuck in the wrong leagues/divisions, but anyway). I used to create minor league teams a year before the draft and leave them unaffiliated. They should sign players themselves, but even if you have to create fake players, at the low levels most will never advance far in the system anyway because of the player creation modifiers. If you're even less finicky, you can just take extra teams oul of the Florida/Arizona complexes, most teams have 2 squads anyway and again so few guys get to the majors out of rookie ball in OOTP it's nobig loss. You can check the rosters and manually move star prospects if you want so they stay with the parent club. __________________ Let's Go (San Jose) Giants, Let's Go Mets! Current Project: WBAT/AABBA: Organized Base Ball And the "New Normal" World Baseball Aid Tournament 2023 trophy round underway!

03-29-2021, 11:14 AM	#2
Bobbyraz49 All Star Reserve Join Date: Apr 2020 Posts: 933	Wondering what cities you will be expanding to ?

03-29-2021, 01:14 PM	#4
csherwood001 Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Mar 2021 Posts: 41	Thanks! It is a modified historical sim (using players from all eras) so I started with just 8 teams and intend to add 2 teams at a time as time passes until I eventually have a full major league. If I go beyond 30 teams, I would probably add Montreal and San Antonio next.

03-30-2021, 07:03 PM	#5
seth1710 Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 34	My one frustration with expansion mode is the timing: Normally a franchise is awarded and then participates in the amateur draft the year before it begins playing. As in my Las Vegas expansion team would participate in the 2021 amateur draft, then hold the expansion draft after the 2021 season, and begin play in 2022. I don't suppose there's any way to do that?

03-30-2021, 07:53 PM	#6
ohiodevil OOTP Roster Team Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Rocky River, Ohio Posts: 2,426	The game cannot do this at this time, but there is a way to draft a year (or two) before your expansion team comes into the league, but it is very manual intensive. I have done this in the past but it was a lot of work, assuming you are playing with the modern setup, first thing I did was to expand the two lowest minor leagues by 2 teams each (to for my new team and two for the other expansion team) and did not affiliate them with any MLB team. When the draft rolled around, I allowed my new teams to pick at the end of each round, so I would sim to the end of each round, then manually edited the player that the expansion teams picked and placed them on the appropriate minor league team. I did this for each round of the draft until it ended. Then I looked at the free agent pool and manually moved players to these new teams until they had a full roster. I set those 4 new minor league teams to no allow the AI to make moves and I simmed a week at a time, and checked those new teams at the end of the week, only making moves when it came to injuries and update lineups and pitching staffs as needed. When the season ended, I expanded the league and then affiliated those 4 teams with the new MLB teams and continued on build the team I wanted to run. It is not easy and I wanted to give up so many times because it took a long time to get through the season, but it built up some prospects for the new teams when they started out, but I did not see any advantage over just starting from scratch with nothing. What I have done is create 5 or 8 fictional players per expansion team and make their potential at least Very Good at creation and move them to whichever expansion team they were created for. This gives some top talent to build from without the grind of moving 60-80 players on draft day and then managing all those teams and battling injuries and poor performances. Hope that made sense.....maybe one day expansion will get some more love and it can be more like how they did it the last couple times the league expanded, but for now it's a manual process.

03-31-2021, 07:00 AM	#7
seth1710 Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 34	That's interesting, thanks! So the one part about that I don't understand is how you access the amateur draft when you've only added two low-level minor league teams?

03-31-2021, 12:17 PM	#11
valuezzz Bat Boy Join Date: Jun 2020 Posts: 13	Hijacking the thread for another question. Anyone have difficulty hiring personnel in an expansion draft? (simple version of using the wizard the day you create a new sim) I have all open slots but when I try to fill the vacancy it says no coaches found.

08-02-2021, 06:20 PM	#18
The_Niddler Major Leagues Join Date: Jul 2014 Posts: 306	I know this is an older thread, but how do the expansion teams see the Expansion Draft Pool in-game? I am in a league where we are expanding 4 teams. We are at the day of the Expansion Draft and we cannot see any players available in-game.

08-07-2021, 01:09 AM	#20
shaner_wils Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Feb 2017 Posts: 30	Here is what I do and is much less time consuming than an earlier post - in league structure add 2 teams in mlb. Do not adjust schedule, play out the whole year without them playing a game. It will fill the roster with free agents but who cares - add 2 teams in league structure in a rookie league. And then generate Their schedule so they can play and your players develop. -adjust your draft order however you want and then draft your players-sign them and they will report to your rookie league. - once the season is over, delete the created teams in mlb - then expand the proper way, go to your rookie league team and change the affiliate to the newly expanded teams to match them up with their picks. SIM a day and they will appear.