Various beginner questions

[BeisbolFan]

Hi all,

I'm relatively new to both baseball and OOTP, and while waiting till I could get back to my desktop, I've been reading a lot online and on the forums. Following some advice for beginners, I set up an 8-team league, and I added three levels of minors. I just got started with the game this weekend, and am loving it so far even though there are some things I don't quite get, and I am getting a little overwhelmed with detail. So I have some questions, and surely will have more soon

1) When I started my fictional league, none of the players had stats, only abilities (I was kind of looking forward to learning to deal with the stats haha). Was there a way I could generate a fictional league with stats, or should I have just simmed the entire season and then started the following year?

2) I'm still confused about the difference between the budget for free agents and the budget for extensions. After some trading, I currently have no money for extensions, and a little over a million for FAs (not that there is anyone worth signing as far as I can tell!). When the regular season starts, will I get more money from ticket sales that I can use for extensions? I ask because I have 4 players coming up for arbitration next year.

3) Baseball newb question: How does the roster work for Spring Training? It seems I have a 40-man starting roster, but because I just started the league, I have hardly anyone on the 40-man roster. If I bring up a minor leaguer to either the starting or 40-man roster during Spring Training, does that mean I am offering them a major league contract?

4) I've run across in the forum people taking about when minor leaguers are ready to move up to the majors. How do you usually assess this? Do you wait until actual and potential scores are closer together, and they are suitable for the position?

Thanks a lot!

[The Game]

Originally Posted by BeisbolFan

Hi all,

I'm relatively new to both baseball and OOTP, and while waiting till I could get back to my desktop, I've been reading a lot online and on the forums. Following some advice for beginners, I set up an 8-team league, and I added three levels of minors. I just got started with the game this weekend, and am loving it so far even though there are some things I don't quite get, and I am getting a little overwhelmed with detail. So I have some questions, and surely will have more soon

1) When I started my fictional league, none of the players had stats, only abilities (I was kind of looking forward to learning to deal with the stats haha). Was there a way I could generate a fictional league with stats, or should I have just simmed the entire season and then started the following year?

2) I'm still confused about the difference between the budget for free agents and the budget for extensions. After some trading, I currently have no money for extensions, and a little over a million for FAs (not that there is anyone worth signing as far as I can tell!). When the regular season starts, will I get more money from ticket sales that I can use for extensions? I ask because I have 4 players coming up for arbitration next year.

3) Baseball newb question: How does the roster work for Spring Training? It seems I have a 40-man starting roster, but because I just started the league, I have hardly anyone on the 40-man roster. If I bring up a minor leaguer to either the starting or 40-man roster during Spring Training, does that mean I am offering them a major league contract?

4) I've run across in the forum people taking about when minor leaguers are ready to move up to the majors. How do you usually assess this? Do you wait until actual and potential scores are closer together, and they are suitable for the position?

Thanks a lot!

1. For a league with no history the players won't have stats even if the players are 40 yrs old with 20 yrs ML experience. You create your own history with these fictional leagues.

2. Your owner will tell you the 1st day of the offseason how much $$ you will have for the following season. Making trades, signing players, arbitration can add or subtract money from this. Signing coaches I think also affects this. Trade a high priced player for a players making league minimum or a minor league contract and that will free up a lot of $$ for FA & extensions.

3. you can add players to your 40 man roster for ST. If they are sent to AAA or below and dont have ML experience they will stay on a minor league contract. Some players with ML exp will stay at whatever contract they are signed to. Sorry that my response was kind of vague, others may elaborate.

4. It depends and if I have space for a player and what his stats are. Right now I have a 1 star rookie backup 5th OF who is batting .338 4 HR 14 RBI. He was tearing up AAA at .356 12 HR 34 RBI. Missed m,aking my Opening day lineup because I had 2 2 star OF. I have since traded both guys to give this guy a chance and save some $$. I pay more attention to stats vs potential. I usually bring up 5-10 September call ups and depending how how good or bad my team is dictates on how much they will play. I try to use former Mlers at AAA and as fillers for injuries whenever possible. Everybody has their own strategy when it comes to advancing a player.

[Charlie Hough]

Originally Posted by BeisbolFan

Hi all,
1) Was there a way I could generate a fictional league with stats, or should I have just simmed the entire season and then started the following year?

No. You could have simmed ahead and created stats, and then you could start as a manger and/or GM. But the only thing that OOTP generates as past history for fictional players is service history. And that can be deleted if you want to truly start from scratch.

2)When the regular season starts, will I get more money from ticket sales that I can use for extensions? I ask because I have 4 players coming up for arbitration next year.

If you generate more money in the current season, that can always help you with your budget for next season. But it can also depend on whether the owner is determining the budget and his personality. However, budgets are budgets, and as far as I know your ticket sales will not move your extension budget for the current year. Maybe someone else can comment on this, though.

3)If I bring up a minor leaguer to either the starting or 40-man roster during Spring Training, does that mean I am offering them a major league contract?

In real life, yes. Anyone on the 40-man roster has had his contract 'purchased' from his minor league team, and he must now be on a major league contract. OOTP may handle it a bit differently, though. The main purpose of adding players to your 40-man roster is so that they can be called up relatively easily to the major league team as needed. For a decent summary of how the 40-man roster works in real life, visit this blog post at SB Nation.

4) I've run across in the forum people taking about when minor leaguers are ready to move up to the majors. How do you usually assess this? Do you wait until actual and potential scores are closer together, and they are suitable for the position?

It probably depends on the quality of players ahead of them on your 25-man roster. If a player has improved and is producing good statistics at the AAA level (especially if he's showing dominance), then he may be ready for a shot at major league playing time. You don't necessarily need to wait until his actual gets closer to his potential. If his batting (or pitching) and fielding ratings are good enough to be comparable to other major league players, then he's probably good enough to hold his own.

If he still has some weaknesses, then he may need more development in the minors. Then again, getting a AAA player some limited exposure at the major league level can supposedly help his development. So you could do some September call-ups like real life teams do and bring up some 40-man roster players to see how they do. Or, if you encounter injuries during the season, you can experiment with younger players at those times.

Just keep in mind that players won't always succeed at the major league level, even if it appears that they have decent enough ratings to be productive. Just as in real life, some players simply never make a successful transition to the majors. They become the infamous "four-A" players. These are players who are arguably too good for AAA but have certain weaknesses that prevent them from being permanent major leaguers. So, in a sense, they belong in a AAAA league between AAA and MLB, but no such thing exists.