Importing Historical Players in Pre-Draft Era

[Argonaut]

Just curious how to get players imported to their real-life initial team in the pre-draft era? I started in 1901, and it seems like some players just enter free agency when they're rookies, instead of joining real-life teams.

I've got Ty Cobb on the Naps, Tris Speaker on the Giants, and other things like that. They were never traded. Meanwhile some players seem to import correctly, with Walter Johnson on the Senators for instance.

I've got the amateur draft disabled, import historical rookies enabled, import rookies as free agents disabled. No real-life transactions or lineups. Players retire according to history, and also miss seasons according to history... although those settings shouldn't matter.

[Andrej72]

You have to disable draft, then you can chose if rookies are going to their real-lift teams, or to free agency.

[Andrej72]

Originally Posted by Argonaut

Just curious how to get players imported to their real-life initial team in the pre-draft era? I started in 1901, and it seems like some players just enter free agency when they're rookies, instead of joining real-life teams.

I've got Ty Cobb on the Naps, Tris Speaker on the Giants, and other things like that. They were never traded. Meanwhile some players seem to import correctly, with Walter Johnson on the Senators for instance.

I've got the amateur draft disabled, import historical rookies enabled, import rookies as free agents disabled. No real-life transactions or lineups. Players retire according to history, and also miss seasons according to history... although those settings shouldn't matter.

Actually Tris Speaker had been traded, which was considered a worse trade than Babe's trade (sell) 5 years later. Or do you mean that in game they were never traded?

[Argonaut]

I've already done those things, it's just not working. I guess I'll start over and try real life transactions. Will give less variety but won't be as weird.

[VitoA]

I was trying to do the same thing and find no way of disabling Free Agency, in general. Did you ever find a way to do that?

[Tiger Fan]

Originally Posted by Argonaut

I've already done those things, it's just not working. I guess I'll start over and try real life transactions. Will give less variety but won't be as weird.

Do you have the option to "IMPORT AND MAINTAIN REAL MINOR LEAGUES" enabled?

If so then Cobb for example imports right after the1903 World Series because 1904 is his minor league debut season. He played for 3 independent minor league teams including Augusta that year before joining Detroit for the 1905 season.

Since you have minors enabled and the leagues Cobb played in are not active in the game at that point in time he imports as a free agent which means any MLB team can sign him and usually will right away. Eddie Cicotte, on the other hand, also debuted with Detroit in 1905 but since his first pro season according to BaseballReference was 1905, which he split between Detroit and Augusta, debuts with the Detroit Tigers in 1905. So both Cobb and Cicotte were rookie Tigers in 1905 but because Cobb imports in 1904 with a minor league organization that is not included in the game, Cobb becomes a Free agent while Cicotte becomes Detroit property.....as long as you have Minor Leagues enabled in your game.

If you do choose not to enable minor leagues and the draft is disabled both Cobb and Cicotte will import to Detroit when the updating is done right after the 1904 World Series.


This happens with many players when you use the minor leagues because they are not part of a major league organization when they debut with the minor league database. Ted Williams and the DiMaggio's - who debut with indy PCL teams San Diego and San Francisco - are some later examples although once you get to the thirties and forties there are far less instances because of the number of affiliated minor league teams in the game at that point. The biggest exception being the PCL clubs of that era.


So it is working the way it's designed, but short of manually assigning them immediately after import to their real life organization, there is no way to change it if you want historic minors included in your league.

[VitoA]

Thanks for the quick reply. I should have said what I was trying to do which is to begin with the 1901 season and play each season forward thus maintaining actually transactions/rosters with as much accuracy as possible. So I am selecting the following options when creating the game;

1. Single-season replay
2. Use real historical transactions
3. Use real historical lineups
4. (No minor leagues)
5. Recalculate player ratings before each season using real stats
6. Enable automatic import of financial settings

After I simulate 1901, the Brooklyn team loses a bunch of players to Free Agency. As an example, Jimmy Sheckard who stayed with Brooklyn until 1906. Possibly I should approaching this a different way, but I was hoping not to have to create a game for each year.

[VitoA]

I was SOOOO wrong, looking at Jimmy Sheckard (my example, of course), in 1902 he actually played 4 games with Baltimore and then back to Brooklyn (don't ask me how) but OOTP has him sign as a FA with Baltimore then back with Brooklyn as a FA on 4/27th - this game ROCKS!