Contraction and Dispersal Draft

[t-bone shuffle]

Originally Posted by Orcin

Thank you for taking the time to detail this process! I was thinking about this type of setup, and your post probably saved me many hours of frustration and experimentation.

Happy to. Please be sure to let me know if you run across anything that makes the process better, more efficient, etc.

[Questdog]

Originally Posted by t-bone shuffle

Other than changing the focus (Rebuilding, etc.), I did not mess with any financial settings.

Can't say yet about fictional contracts, as I haven't finished the draft. My advice would be to conclude a draft and then have a look at the contractual status of both drafted and non-drafted players and see what you think.

I'll move farther along tomorrow and report back.

The problem you had in the past with contracts getting messed up with this procedure was probably due to a longtime bug in the import/export function (been there ever since there HAS been an import/export function), but that bug has been squashed finally and you should not have problems with contracts anymore.

[t-bone shuffle]

Originally Posted by Questdog

The problem you had in the past with contracts getting messed up with this procedure was probably due to a longtime bug in the import/export function (been there ever since there HAS been an import/export function), but that bug has been squashed finally and you should not have problems with contracts anymore.

I see that you are correct. Also, the import put the players back to their original levels/teams, which it would not do previously.

The AI will still have to do some organizational shuffling after the dispersal draft, but it's much better than having it have to completely reset the entire organization. Which is a big improvement.

[t-bone shuffle]

I've discovered that when the rosters are imported, the players who were on the DL are not returned to the DL, and the 40 man rosters are not filled either. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal except for the fact that running an AI reset will not place the injured players back on the DL. It will fill out the 40 man, but the injured players remain on the 25 man, and in fact will stay there when games begin. I've run some tests and determined that the issue is strictly an export/import one and has nothing to do with the "release players-inaugural draft" function that we're using to have our dispersal draft.

Definitely a bug, somehow related to the new retro-active DL assignments (as the AI will eventually DL these player 14 days into a sim), and I have submitted a support ticket for this.

The only current solution I see is to manually go to each team and replace the injured players on the DL before you draft.

Let me know if you're seeing this too and if there's anything else.

[AC]

T-Bone:

Have you had to adjust any financials at all? I contracted six teams and two weeks into the first season it seems like the remaining teams all have a ton of cash.

[t-bone shuffle]

Originally Posted by AC

T-Bone:

Have you had to adjust any financials at all? I contracted six teams and two weeks into the first season it seems like the remaining teams all have a ton of cash.

What specifically do you mean by "cash"? When I look at my league financial report most teams project a positive balance, but very few project at over $3M for the season and a couple project a loss.

If your talking about the current "Balance", they are all going to be quite high early in the season because the player and staff expenses are pro-rated by month (I guess) and aren't fully realized as they would be at seasons end.

And to answer your question, I did utilize the "refresh" button on the new "Financials" page in League Setup, after adjusting some of the market sizes of a few of the teams and upping the minimum salary to $504,000 (throwing the players a bone for losing 150 jobs at the ML level). I didn't really see that it changed any of the settings on that page, but maybe it did some things internally.

Hope this helps, let me know what you think.

[AC]

SMH. Yes, you are right. That's what I get for posting as I run out the door.

Now I just need to decide if I want to restart and use the updated roster set.

[t-bone shuffle]

Originally Posted by AC

SMH. Yes, you are right. That's what I get for posting as I run out the door.

Now I just need to decide if I want to restart and use the updated roster set.

FWIW, I've decided not to at the moment, though I am running some sims (without contraction) of the new set update they just released, just to have a look at the numbers overall.

It's my feeling that by the time you contract six teams, have a dispersal draft, etc it's basically become a fictional league anyway, so unless I get further along and see something really wonky, I'll probably just keep moving forward.

[AC]

Yeah, I'll probably keep it. The AI did a great job of drafting and I don't want to mess that up. I haven't noticed any glaring errors in the roster set I am using anyway.

[t-bone shuffle]

Agreed. Let me hear from you if you see anything unusual or that you aren't happy with.

[AC]

I play out all my games, so it might be a while for me to notice anything fishy coming up. Unless you consider Twins' dispersal round pick Willy Aybar leading the majors with 7 home runs after two weeks fishy

[t-bone shuffle]

Originally Posted by AC

I play out all my games, so it might be a while for me to notice anything fishy coming up. Unless you consider Twins' dispersal round pick Willy Aybar leading the majors with 7 home runs after two weeks fishy

Interestingly, Willy went undrafted in mine, signed a minor league contract with the Reds, and was called up on April 27 when Scott Rolen went on the DL. Sounds pretty realistic to me.

It's the variables between your W. Aybar and my W. Aybar that are one of the many things so great about this game.

[Questdog]

Just wanted to say that I've been playing OOTP since the very first edition and it is seldom that anyone has taught me a work around to an issue that I haven't already figured out a better way on my own, but you, Mr. Shuffle, are one of the few I owe a debt of gratitude for making my OOTP life a bit easier.

Thanks for this tip!

[t-bone shuffle]

Originally Posted by Questdog

Just wanted to say that I've been playing OOTP since the very first edition and it is seldom that anyone has taught me a work around to an issue that I haven't already figured out a better way on my own, but you, Mr. Shuffle, are one of the few I owe a debt of gratitude for making my OOTP life a bit easier.

Thanks for this tip!

Been playing this game since the second edtion myself. Can't tell you how much I've learned about getting around a computer, just from f'ing around with this game and it's add-on's and in the days of the original version, roster set's.

Glad I could be of help. I'll admit I really love doing this contraction thing. I'm not completely certain how league totals/modifiers should be adjusted to accommodate contraction (sort of the opposite of "expansion pitching"), but I will say that this new version handles this contraction scenario much better than any of the previous versions in the overall view.

[Qundrum9]

Almost five years later and we still have to go through this complicated process. I love OOTP, really I do, but seriously, this is getting to be EA Sports levels of developer laziness

[AC]

I haven't contracted teams and run a dispersal draft since I started this thread many years ago. I think I'm going to give it another run when OOTP 16 comes out. It was fun back when I did it.

Florida is about to lose a couple of baseball teams

[t-bone shuffle]

Don't the more recent versions have a option to do this very thing? Almost certain they do.

[AC]

Originally Posted by t-bone shuffle

Don't the more recent versions have a option to do this very thing? Almost certain they do.

I don't think so.....but someone correct me if I'm wrong because I haven't tried to do it in the last couple of versions.

[t-bone shuffle]

in15, at least, there is the option under - League Settings, Popular Functions - to schedule a "Free Agent Draft", which will allow you contract (manually), then draft all players in the free agent pool.

Been there for a couple of years, and i did do a contraction/dispersal using this process and in works just fine.

At this point, I think its safer to assume that you can do whatever you'd like in this game, rather than you cant, whatever it may be. Just have to look around some.

[AC]

Awesome. Does is get rid of all the team's minor league affiliates as well when you contract?