The Continental League comes to the MLB in 1961

[uruguru]

ok, I'm going to be playing a hopefully interesting save that I created as described in this thread: https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...d.php?t=348165

Basically, it's a "What If" where, instead of the normal expansion the MLB had in the 1960s, instead the actual Continental League joined the MLB. It was the threat of this league that forced MLB to finally expand. But what if the other alternative occurred? That's what this save will be about.

I will play as the GM in one of the 8 new teams in the league, forced to build an entire franchise and farm system during the off-season from the free agency system that arrived with the league.

Very Low scouting accuracy, maximum Talent Change Rating, coaching, player personalities and a full minor league system will make this an unpredictable adventure. Below are the standings at the end of the 1960 season with the 8 new teams added.

Please note that anyone who finds this save interesting and download it from the linked thread and have a go at it.

[uruguru]

Below are the existing team personnel and the owner goals given to me when I took the job. (Since I was not alive in 1961, the GM name is that of my grandfather who I will be blanking out for privacy.)

Please note that part of this save is the replacement of fictional coaches with their actual coaches whereever possible. Every coach without a picture is a fictional OOTP person. The other ones are actual people (almost always former ballplayers). This includes general managers and owners for all 24 teams.

The owner goals all seem very reasonable! I was pleasantly surprised that I wasn't asked to win the World Series in my first season :P

[uruguru]

First things first: what players are available to me? There are currently about 2000 players in the free agent pool, comprised of the incoming first-year players (the good ones) and a bunch of minor-leaguers released by teams to get within the roster limits of the new league (the bad ones).

In addition, on November 11 (3 weeks from the current date), existing major-leaguers that have opted for free agency will be available. There will be BIG STARS in this list among a lot of solid players. They will all be veterans so most likely more expensive to acquire. Here are the lists I'm looking at how to build my team:

1) existing free agents sorted by current value (list 1) - these guys I will offer major-league contracts

2) existing free agents sorted by potential value (list 2) - these guys I will generally offer minor-league contracts with signing bonuses in hopes that will convince them

3) upcoming MLB free agents (list 3) - I will be looking at getting 1 or 2 impact players here, hopefully

The Rule V draft is coming up in December, but I have no way of being ready for that.

Finally, I will be trying to quickly sign 1 & 1.5 star young players to fill out the lower minors and hope for some lucky TCR.

Here are the lists of free agents I am poring over on my first day of work. gah. This game is a lot of work!

[uruguru]

The Judge has given me $1.56M to spend on free agents. Those lists are long but here is what stands out to me:

* The owner wants an upgrade at SS and Ernie Banks (29) will be available. I will go after him

* 3B Brooks Robinson (23) is young and will hopefully develop more. I hope. I will go after him.

All of the other MLB free agents are too pricey compared to the first-year players, so I will try to go after those to fill out the starting team with quality players and maybe get lucky with some trade bait for other established stars.

There are five 3-star starting pitchers in that list: David Busby, Dave Giusti, Billy Macleod, Natividad Martinez and Dennis Ribant. They are the most expensive in the list and have Low scouting accuracy, so I will scout them out to get confidence in their ratings before spending too much time bidding on them. Joe Moeller and John Miller are 2.5 stars but have 4-star potential, so I will scout them as well. I would love to sign 3 of these guys.

OFs Tony Oliva 2.5/4.0, Lou Brock 2.0/5.0 and Tommie Agee 2.0/5.0 look like no-brainers as well. What an outfield that could be!

C Bill Freehan 2.0/5.0 could be a long-term star as well.

Remember, this save is using the development engine with a high TCR I have to look at the ratings and completely throw out what I know about the real players.

Time to get the scout busy.

[uruguru]

ok, what a crazy first day. I spent a huge chunk of time finding every available free agent that my scout told me his potential was at least 2.5 stars. From here onwards, I am going to convert the 5-star system into a 1-10 scale. Half-star is 1, five stars is 10. Easy peasy.

Number one rule: TRUST THE SCOUT. I don't want to fall into the trap of using my meta-knowledge of real history to guide my decisions, so I am relying on the scout.

ok... I mentally divided the players into 3 groups:

1) players with at least 5 potential (2.5 stars!) who were willing to accept a minor-league contract. EVERY SINGLE ONE of these players received an offer from me with some sort of scaled signing bonus (detailed later)

2) players who wanted a major-league option but whom I was confident would not be on my opening day roster. Any player with a 3 current rating (1.5 stars) or most of those with 4 fell into this category and none of them received offers.

3) players rating 4 or up whom I wanted on the active roster. All of these players received an MLB contract offer. Some of these were guys like Lou Brock 4/10 who wanted a minor-league contract, but I said no, here's a MLB contract.

The following 10 free agents received MLB offers:

* OF Lou Brock 4/10, $23,000 for 5 years (wanted milb contract)

* C Bill Freehan 4/10, $23,200 for 5 years (wanted milb contract)

* OF Tommie Agee 4/10, $23,000 for 5 years (wanted milb contract)

* SP Sammy Ellis 5/9, $120,000 for 10 years

* SP Dave Giusti 6/10, $130,000 for 10 years

* SP John Miller 5/8, $23,000 for 5 years (wanted milb contract)

* SP Dennis Ribant 6/10, $140,000 for 10 years

* 1B Dick Nen 5/10, $23,200 for 5 years (wanted milb contract)

* OF Tony Oliva 5/8, $30,000 for 5 years (wanted milb contract)

* SP Natividad Martinez 6/8, $130,000 for 10 years


Of my $1.56M budget, I just allocated $642K for those 10 players. However, signing veteran FA in November will be more expensive for the same quality.


In addition, I offered minor-league contracts to 96 players, with signing bonus totaling about $380K.

The formula for the signing bonus went like this:

Current rating * Potential Bonus = Signing Bonus

where the potential bonus is:

potential 5=$500, 6=$1000, 7=$1500, 8=$2000, 9=$2500, 10=$3000

So a 3/7 free agent would get a minor league contract of 3x1500=$4500. The idea here is to improve my chances to building a strong farm system by outbidding the AI and/or force the AI to spend money to outbid me for these guys. I have no plans to raise the offer if the AI outbids me, so I expect to get a bit of money back. However, a disproportionate number of quality prospects should land in my system which means players more likely to help me in future seasons and good trade bait for quality veterans.

That leaves me $547,112 left for free agents, plus any signing bonuses offered out to players who do not sign. I will probably be relying heavily on the Rule V draft to flesh out the reserves on the active roster (for minimum wage!)

[darkcloud4579]

Nice work on the imagination, will be following along and thanks for sharing the file!

[uruguru]

The first day of free agency is the most important because the AI gets an advantage over the player in that they will often get prospects to accept minor-league offers after the first day whereas we humans don't get that advantage. Our contract offers often linger for at least a week to give the AI time to decide if it wants the same prospect.

I'm sure it probably saves a lot of AI computation if, when the AI offers a minor-league contract to a player that the human is not interested in, it's often automatically accepted. But if the human got that same advantage, it would be quickly discovered and exploited pretty badly against the AI.

However, what this means is that, if the human player doesn't want potential prospects whisked away before he gets a chance at them, he needs to get out of bed early, do his homework, and make offers from every potential minor-leaguer he wants on the first day.

Which is what I did.

[uruguru]

Oct 21,1960 (start of Off-Season) to Nov 10 (last day before veteran FA filings)

A running ramble of my activity.

Oct 21 - my last act of Day 1 was to convince the Judge to lower ticket prices from $1.90 to $1.50... the lowest in the MLB by a penny (just ahead of the Senators). Our team will have to play in a substandard ballpark until our newfangled DOMED STADIUM is ready for play in 1965. They haven't even broken ground on it but its already generated a ton of interest outside of the sport. They even say it will be air-conditioned! Imagine that, indoor baseball always at the perfect temperature. What an incredible world we live in.

Anyway, the goal now is create a good selling point ("cheapest baseball tickets in the league!") to bring lots of fans to the games despite the temporary ballpark. We'll need to sell 27% more tickets than planned for this to be a break-even move. The Judge is skeptical but he's also a good businessman and sees the potential upside in revenue.

Oct 25 - after 4 days of silence, my GM phone starts lighting up with a wave of players happy with their offers so far

Oct 30 - SP Sammy Ellis 5/9 and 1B Dick Nen 5/10 want better offers.

I had offered Sammy Ellis 120K over 10 years, but now he wants 156K over 10 years. Haha, if I pass then I have potentially saddled the Twins with what might be an average pitcher for 10 years. He was the least desirable of the big contracts I offered so I will pass.

I offered Nen 23K over 5 years, but now he wants 28K for just one year. I don't think he got a counter-offer since he didn't mention a team. His Avoid K rating is 1/5 so I think his 5/10 rating might be understated. Our scout says he is a natural leader and I believe in having good team chemistry, so I'll offer him the 28K over 5 years.

Oct 31 - minor SP prospect Jose Tita 3/5 is trying to convince me that he is going to take a better offer from the Erie Sailors in the independent New York-Pennsylvania league. I seriously doubt he is going to turn down a $1500 signing bonus and a chance at the bigs to play in an Independent league. I am calling his bluff. If he signs there, I can just buy out his contract anyway.

Nov 1 - CF prospect Mickey Stanley 2/7 wants a better deal. This is the one milb contract I screwed up and didn't offer a signing bonus so this was expected. I will now give him a new offer with the appropriate signing bonus.

Nov 2 - SP prospect Cal Koonce 1/5 is pulling a Tita and trying to leverage an independent league offer into a better deal. Not biting. If you like Idaho that much, go play in Boise, Cal.

Nov 3 - the Tita brigade continues with 2B Bernie Allen 1/6, SP Clay Caroll 1/6, and SP Jack Billingham 1/6 all threatening to go play in an independent league. You know what this tells me? That major-league teams are not topping my signing bonuses. Which is a good sign. I am hopeful these guys will come crawling back.

Nov 4 - now SP Tommy John 3/8 is threatening to go independent. If he signs I will freaking buy out his contract in a heartbeat. On the contract screen, he wants me to raise the signing bonus from $6000 to $6200. He expects me to believe that the Billings Mustangs offered him a bonus between those amounts? Nope. Not buying it.

Nov 5 - the Bisons have topped my offer for Tony Oliva 5/8. This will not stand. However, I have to be careful because this Oliva may not break out like the real Oliva. He's still a 5 overall at Low scouting accuracy, but I think is 8 potential is real based on meta knowledge. But then again he's already 22 years old so his window for development is rapidly closing. I bump his offer to $40,800 over 5 years, but I'm getting a little nervous about this.

Nov 7 - prospect SP Thomas Moser 3/6 has joined the Tita brigade. Good luck in the independent leagues!

Nov 8 - prospects LF Lee May 3/10 and SP George Nanton 2/5 are pulling the same Tita schtick. The only thing that makes sense is that these kids read about the new domed stadium and concluded that the Judge is made of money. Still, the Tita brigade is up to 8 players now so I'm starting to wonder if I'll actually lose any of them. I'm tempted to call up one of these teams and ask them what the hell is going on?

Nov 9 - prospect SP Gene Brabender 1/6, SP Darold Knowles 3/9 and SP Aubrey Greenwood 1/5 are now threatening to go independent. That's 11. However, the Cubs have outbid me for SP Lew Krausse 3/8 who now wants a major-league option. Not doing it, so the Cubs win this round. If he doesn't make the MLB team 30 days into the season, they could lose him to free agency. I don't want to play that game.

Nov 10 - the veteran free agency filing is just one day away and now SS Bob Baily 1/10 wants to go independent. Exactly zero of my 151 contract offers have been accepted so far. The other 7 expansion team each have over a dozen players signed, but they are all lower-rated prospects that I didn't bid on. So I'm not too worried, yet.

Tomorrow is the day that veteran free agents will become available. It would be nice if some of my 150 contract offers were accepted so that I would have a better idea how to navigate through the veteran free agents.

[Brad K]

Originally Posted by uruguru

They haven't even broken ground on it but its already generated a ton of interest outside of the sport. They even say it will be air-conditioned! Imagine that, indoor baseball always at the perfect temperature. What an incredible world we live in.

I heard it will be tough for the hitters when the AC is blowing in.

This is a really cool concept.

[uruguru]

Originally Posted by Brad K

I heard it will be tough for the hitters when the AC is blowing in.

This actually became a point of contention such that a ground rule had to be instituted that stated that the dome's huge AC units over CF could only be turned off or on between full innings so that both teams would be impacted equally.




Nov 11, 1960 (Free Agent Filings)

What a day! 78 players accepted their contracts which means I now have 78 players with at least 5/10 potential in my franchise. More than half of the 150 players I can carry!

This means lots of trade bait for good players. First, set trading difficult to max (from default). Second, put all 78 players on the trading block. Third, create a single team need that encompasses every position. Lastly, wait for AI offers to come in. In general, I do not solicit trades because it's too prone to abuse so I only consider trade offers made to me.

With regards to the new Free Agent Filings, it seems that the cream of the crop is 23-year-old 3B Brooks Robinson. He's 4/5 defense and wants $140K over 8 years. Done.

Next is SS Ernie Banks 9/9. He's 29 and still has a ton of pop with the bat, but is average 3/5 defensively at SS. If he declines further I can move him to 2B. He also wants $288K over 9 years. Yikes, he'll be 38. NO, WAIT. I should move Brooksie to SS, he'll be better, younger and cheaper there. ok, I'll pass on Banks and look for a different 3B.

3B Frank Malznone 6/6 is 30 years old and 5/5 defensively at 3B. He's a year older than Banks but only wants a 6-year deal at $150K a year. I'm not convinced he can hit (3/5 Contact) because hits overall rating is probably inflated by his 5/5 Avoid K's rating.

3B Ken Boyer 10/10 is 29, a hitting machine and 4/5 defensively at 3B. But he wants $300K for 9 years. Yikes. I'm not the Yankees.

Suddenly I spot minor league 2B Domingo Carrasquel 5/5. He's listed as a 2B but could be a 5/5 defensively at 3B if he gets more games in the Spring. He's also probably underrated with his 2/5 Avoid K's. He 22 and only wants a one-year contract at $24K. Worst case scenario is that he's my defensive backup infielder. Offering him a 1-year deal but he's probably going to be our starting 2B or 3B. I need to look for more gems like this guy.

(Some time passes).

No gems found. My best bet seems to be 2B Nellie Fox 6/6. He's 32 and wants a 6-year deal, but the last 2 years are vested based on 110 games played. So I'd have an out. I'm just going to offer him 4 years at $140K, no vesting.

Finally, I noticed that none of the Tita clan accepted offers. I'm nervous about them now, so I went through each one and resubmitted a milb offer with signing bonuses. It might cost me about $2K more in bonus than planned, but geez those are all still prospects with value.

ok. I'm in the bidding for a 2B, 3B and SS for a combined $305K. Not too bad. That will leave $352K for other moves and negotiations.

[uruguru]

Nov 12, 1960 to Dec 20 (Rule V draft)

11/12 - 5 more prospects sign contracts including 3B Ken McMullen 3/9!

11/13 - 6 more sign, all immediately to the trading block.

11/14 - 3 more.

11/15 - 2 more sign, but one is a biggie: RF Lou Brock 4/10. We have a beast of a farm system now. 94 players now, with 62 outstanding offers. Apparently the hack is having signing bonuses with your milb offers.

11/16 - 5 more.

11/17 - 3 more sign, but SP Dave McNally 1/5 and SP Carl Bouldin 4/5 both want me to up their milb signing bonus from around $2000 to around $15000. Wow, and no. I'm think I'm going to need to shed some of these contracts anyway, so it was nice of these two guys to step up and volunteer.

11/18 - 7 more signed. I now have 108 players signed and 45 contract offers pending. I still need to shed 3 of these. Nice problem to have, tbh.

11/19 - 3 more signed. SP Sammy Ellis 5/8 ended up signing with Toronto for 10 years at $148K. The news notice was pretty passive aggressive. It said "Though his numbers don't jump out at you, Ellis does fill a void for Toronto, according to several respected analysts."

Also, SP Steve Hargan 1/6 asked for a massive signing bonus. Interesting why this is happening now.

11/20 Big Day. 11 more sign, including SP Dennis Ribant 6/10 for $140K over 10 years. The analysts like this much better than Toronto's signing of Ellis. "The deal is being hailed by media analysts... the consensus is that Ribant will contribute a lot to the team"

11/21 4 more signed, including SP Dave Guisti 6/10 for $130K for 10 years, and C Bill Freehan 4/10 for $23K for 5 years.

11/22 No news today. Exhausted from the last 11 days of high-powered GM'ing, I finally catch some ZZZZs.

11/26 A few guys wanted $15K signing bonuses during this time, and I'm happy to let them go. However, when SP Tommy John 3/8 pulled that stunt, I just offered him a $15000 MLB deal. He can slave away in the bullpen until he gets better. Same thing for SP Clay Carroll 1/6. SP Dave Morehead 5/5 signed for 5 years at $23K. Happy about that.

11/30 I've hit some weird bug where the top unsigned prospects are now asking for increasingly wild signing bonuses, up to $30K now. So I am instead offering them $15K MLB contracts with the plan of just keeping them on the 40-man and letting them play in the minors until I trade them. Otherwise remaining milb offers are slowly dribbling in now.

12/5 I'm in a bidding war with the Red Sox over Brooks Robinson. The last offer was $225K for 8 years. Pricey!

12/11 2B Nellie Fox 6/6 just signed for 4 years at $140K. He's 32 but extremely popular. Fan interest jumped from 52 to 57!

12/20 The Rule V draft is about to start. We have one outstanding MLB offer (Brooks Robinson) and 5 outstanding offers for the last 5 minor-league spots in the franchise. If Brooks is signed, we'll still have 4 MLB spots to fill for reserve players. Hopefully we'll get something good in the Rule V draft for that.

Also, planned 3B Domingo Pascual is going to rate 4/4 at 3B, whereas he was 5/5 at 2B. This means that 3B will be a potential upgrade opportunity for us.

I'm not going to lie, this past month has been a total domination by me of signing prospects. I didn't realize this beforehand, but the AI clearly does not offer signing bonuses with milb contracts. I did, and as a result I won all of the contracts. Every single player in the organization is at least 2.5 stars of potential, whereas almost none in the other new organizations have players of that potential. Unless my scout is the worst scout in the world, this next season is going to be a bloodbath, especially if I can trade some prospects for star starters.

This is a bug for the AI negotiations. Fortunately, I did not realize it so my signing bonuses were often hefty, based on the quality of the prospect. Someone wanting to exploit this could snap up everyone with relatively small bonuses.

[uruguru]

Mandatory bug report! https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/....php?p=5022911

[uruguru]

Dec 20, 1960 - Rule V draft

It's Rule V day, where I try to fill holes in my active roster. Assuming that I successfully sign Brooks Robinson (as my SS), what I need most are 2 reserve infielders. In addition, I have some 4-rated (2-star) guys on the active roster that I could send down.

I don't need pitchers, but as always with Rule V, you look for gems anywhere you can find them.

Below are the available 5-rated (2.5 stars) pitchers and hitters.

Guys I will consider snagging: CF Jimmie McDaniel (fragile), 3B Bobby Prescott (he might start lol), 2B Larry Bulla (he's 4/5 defensively at SS), SS Jorge Fitch (looks good offensively), RP Pat Gillick (he's really a SP), RP Tex Clevenger and CL Tom Brewer.

[uruguru]

The draft.. .The 8 continental teams pick first, and Houston has the #7 pick. Boo.

1. Buffalo - LF Asdrubal Baro
2. Toronto - CF Jimmie McDaniel
3. Texas - LF Carl Warwick
4. New York - SP Joseph Materile
5. Minnesota - SP Thomas McNulty
6. Atlanta - 2B Larry Bulla

ok, my pick.

7. Houston - 3B Bobby Prescott

lots more picks happen. The Rockies take SS Fitch at #8, The Athletics take RP Gillick at #9.

For Round 2, I decide to search a bit more and, under the catcher list, I found 2B Milo Fuller 4/5. He's weak defensively but he won't get very many innings. (3/5 at 3B and probably 3/5 at 2B if I train him there), but he is 3 contact, 4 walk and 3 strikeouts. So he should be a respectable hitter. However, he can also serve as an emergency #3 backup catcher -- a role that I have a soft spot for.

I pick him as a utility guy and pinch-hitter, and that's probably it for me in this draft.

Lots more guys were taken but RP Tex Clevenger is still available in Round 3 and I need bullpen depth, so I'll take one more pick I'll sick my scout on the bullpen to figure out who gets pushed down to make room for Clevenger.

ok, I auto-complete the draft but let me relate how dire the straits are for the other 7 expansion teams. They all took NINE picks in the Rule V draft. Insane.

[uruguru]

Dec 21, 1960 - Fan Interest now up to 62

[uruguru]

Dec 31 -

Johnny Mize and Hal Newhouser are both inducted into the Hall of Fame.

I notice a free agent RP Warren Hacker 5/5 who is Extremely Popular in Houston and only wants $60K for 1 year... hmmm. Sick the scout on him.

Jan 15

My scout tells me that Lou Brock and Tommie Agee are not ready for prime-time. RF Rocky Colavito 7/7 is 26 yo and still available in free agency. I toss him a 4-year offer.

Jan 31

The extremely popular RP Warren Hacker signed to a 1 year, $50,000 deal. He's 36. Fan interest up to 64. If he increases ticket sales by 500 that's $58,000 in revenue over the full year. cha ching.

Feb 6

Colavito signed with Cleveland with no chance for a counter-offer. eh.

[uruguru]

Feb 28, 1961

Preseason has started an still no trade offers from other clubs. Difficulty is set to max and there's no Make it Work.

I'm going to try and trade away prospects to improve the team with players that will be popular here. Here we go:

* Offered prospects P Jim Roland 4/5 and C William Madden 1/7 to Pittsburgh for extremely popular RP Tom Parsons 5/5. Only marginally helps the team on the field, but will sell tickets for sure.

* Offered prospects OF Tommie Agee 3/10 and SP Jim Hannan 1/6 to Washington for extremely popular CF Lenny Green 8/8. Definitely helps the team but my assistant GM Gabe Paul says its bad for us. But we have prospects to spare and no good CF right now. I have no idea why the AI would make this deal, but let's see.

Hmmm, my Asst GM is full of poop. They all say "NO WAY!". Or maybe I am misreading his advice. Then again, one of them insisted I throw in SP Dennis Ribant 7/10 to get that 5/5 relief pitcher. Madness.

[uruguru]

Mar 6, 1961

Spring Training has started and I still have real weaknesses in the lineup as most of these prospects are barely ready for the majors. I feel like if I somehow squeaked by the all-expansion Continental League that I would still get absolutely flattened in the post-season

So my new strategy is this... shop around some of my prospects for aging veterans that still have pop but their team is willing to let them go.

* I offered 17yo 3B Jose Cardenal 1/7 to St. Louis for 43 yo CF Al Pinkston 8/8, but they have to retain 100% of his 242K salary. FORTY-THREE

* I offered 18 yo CF Mickey Stanley 1/7 to St. Louis for extremely popular 40 yo LF Stan Musial (hahahaha) 7/7 and they retain 50% of his $134,000 salary. This game has no sentimentality. Let's see what happens!

[uruguru]

Mar 7, 1961

We defeat the Mets 11-6 in our first ST game.

St. Louis said "ALMOST!" on both of those trades.

For Musial, they gave me a list of 10 players they would complete the deal if I threw one in. Who the heck is 21yo CF John Mustion 1/7? I guess I'll let the Cardinals find out. I'll get Musial muhahaha.

For CF Pinkston, they gave me a list of 6 to choose from. I chose Fred Norman. This is actually a good deal for St. Louis because Pinkston is 43yo and is retiring after this year (ok, I checked. He's 43, sue me).

Whoa... Pinkston was popular in Houston, too!


Pinkston email: "The overall fan interest increases significantly!"

Musial email: "The overall fan interest increase is amazing!"

Fan Interest is at 76. BUY SEASON TICKETS NOW! CHEAPEST TICKETS IN BASEBALL!

That was fun because both of these guys are old so neither will help the long-term success of the club. This is purely a business decision to sell tickets while helping the team on the field.

[uruguru]

Mar 8 1961
We lose to Buffalo 2-1 in 10 innings. Brooks Robinson is now 5/5 defense at 3B so I am leaving him there. Domingo Pasqual will be the SS.

The Milwaukee Braves are really interested in prospect 3B Bob Bailey 1/10. I want a catcher and they seem to be willing to trade 31 yo Del Crandall 7/7. They are grooming uber-prospect Rico Carty for that spot so maybe that's driving it. I suggest they pay 100% of Crandall's salary this year. Let's see!

This is on maximum trade difficulty.


May 9 1961
We beat Texas 5-4.

Braves say "NO WAY!", so I suggest they pay 50% of his salary. Let's see.


Mar 10 1961
We beat Colorado 6-2

The Braves now say "ALMOST!" but want me to throw in too good of a player. All of the options are from my active roster. Nope... ok fine.. I'll pay 100%. Sheeesh.


Mar 11 1961
We beat Milwaukee, 3-0

The Braves again say "ALMOST!" but want me to throw in a lesser prospect. I'm confused. This was something they agreed to on the "Shop a Player" screen. Let me try that again.


Mar 12, 1961
We beat Toronto, 9-2

Same response from Milwaukee. ok fine. I'll throw in another prospect. You can have 16yo SP Gary Sinossian 1/4. "Really? That was the deal-maker?", I ask Milwaukee GM John McHale.

"Yes", he says, so Del Crandall is now our starting C. Overall fan interest increase is amazing! Fan interest now at 83. They are suddenly starting to realize that hey, we might have a good team.