Loans and Caribbean Winter Leagues

[nico1270]

With the inclusion of loans, these Winter Leagues can be part of the game without much hassle:

Mexican Pacific League
Venezuelan Professional Baseball League
Puerto Rican League
Dominican League

They all follow same rules, 30 player active roster and no more than 9 foreigners. They are all organized within a Caribbean Commissioner and an Agreement with MLB, MLBPA etc.

Only difference within these leagues are the schedule format.

After that, the Caribbean Series (those 4 league champions plus Cuban champion) would be super simple to create as a standalone tournament within the universe. Loving all this.

If those 4 leagues are not going to be part of the game by default, I can gladly help you with rules, contract negotiations and league organization.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by nico1270

Only difference within these leagues are the schedule format.

And playoff format.

[nutt]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

And playoff format.

This. One of the leagues (I think two maybe) take the top four teams and do a double round-robin as their semifinal playoff round. Then, they play a best-of-three (I think) for the League Championship.

[nico1270]

Originally Posted by nutt

This. One of the leagues (I think two maybe) take the top four teams and do a double round-robin as their semifinal playoff round. Then, they play a best-of-three (I think) for the League Championship.

Venezuela (LVBP)
8 teams
Regular Season 63 games
Postseason: 6 team playoff first round (best of seven). The best two losers (based on regular season) play a wild card game for the 4th spot on the semifinals (also best of seven). Then the two winners play the final (best of seven).

Mexican Pacific League
8 teams.
Regular season: 68 games. Split season (first half 35 games, second half 33 games).
Instead of sorting teams by wins, those teams receive points by ranking after each half season.
Then they are sorted for playoffs based on those points. top 6 teams play first three series (best of seven). Best team eliminated gets into the semi finals (best of seven). Both winners to the finals (best of seven).
Similar to the Venezuelan league but without the wild card game.

Points given after each half season:
1st -> 8pts
2nd -> 7pts
3rd -> 6pts
4th -> 5pts
5th -> 4.5pts
6th -> 4pts
7th -> 3.5pts
8th -> 3pts

If a team wins both halves they would get 16 points.

Don't know why this is so twisted.

Dominican Republic (LIDOM)
6 teams
Regular season: 50 games
Best 4 advance to a round robin where each team plays 18 games.
Best two play finals (Best of nine).

Puerto Rico (LBPRC)
5 teams
Regular Season: 40 games
First 4 advance to playoffs.
1v4, 2v3 (best of seven)
Winners advance to finals (best of nine)

[DustinthePOWERHOUSE]

Originally Posted by nico1270

Venezuela (LVBP)
8 teams
Regular Season 63 games
Postseason: 6 team playoff first round (best of seven). The best two losers (based on regular season) play a wild card game for the 4th spot on the semifinals (also best of seven). Then the two winners play the final (best of seven).

Mexican Pacific League
8 teams.
Regular season: 68 games. Split season (first half 35 games, second half 33 games).
Instead of sorting teams by wins, those teams receive points by ranking after each half season.
Then they are sorted for playoffs based on those points. top 6 teams play first three series (best of seven). Best team eliminated gets into the semi finals (best of seven). Both winners to the finals (best of seven).
Similar to the Venezuelan league but without the wild card game.

Points given after each half season:
1st -> 8pts
2nd -> 7pts
3rd -> 6pts
4th -> 5pts
5th -> 4.5pts
6th -> 4pts
7th -> 3.5pts
8th -> 3pts

If a team wins both halves they would get 16 points.

Don't know why this is so twisted.

Dominican Republic (LIDOM)
6 teams
Regular season: 50 games
Best 4 advance to a round robin where each team plays 18 games.
Best two play finals (Best of nine).

Puerto Rico (LBPRC)
5 teams
Regular Season: 40 games
First 4 advance to playoffs.
1v4, 2v3 (best of seven)
Winners advance to finals (best of nine)

That seems like an incredible amount of playoff games as well as a very lengthy process.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by nico1270

Venezuela (LVBP)
8 teams
Regular Season 63 games
Postseason: 6 team playoff first round (best of seven). The best two losers (based on regular season) play a wild card game for the 4th spot on the semifinals (also best of seven). Then the two winners play the final (best of seven).

True for this season. Last season, it had a split-season and used the Mexican Pacific League's point system to determine playoff qualifiers. Before that, it had five playoff qualifiers which engaged in a 16-game round-robin, with the top two of that advancing to the championship.

Originally Posted by nico1270

Mexican Pacific League
8 teams.
Regular season: 68 games. Split season (first half 35 games, second half 33 games).
Instead of sorting teams by wins, those teams receive points by ranking after each half season.
Then they are sorted for playoffs based on those points. top 6 teams play first three series (best of seven). Best team eliminated gets into the semi finals (best of seven). Both winners to the finals (best of seven).
Similar to the Venezuelan league but without the wild card game.

Re: the bolded. That's incorrect. The losing club which advances (despite having lost) is the club which won the most games in the first round. Thus, a club which lost its series 4 games to 3 would advance if the other two clubs had lost their respective series 4 games to 2,

Originally Posted by nico1270

Dominican Republic (LIDOM)
6 teams
Regular season: 50 games
Best 4 advance to a round robin where each team plays 18 games.
Best two play finals (Best of nine).

This playoff format has been consistently used for many years now.

Originally Posted by nico1270

Puerto Rico (LBPRC)
5 teams
Regular Season: 40 games
First 4 advance to playoffs.
1v4, 2v3 (best of seven)
Winners advance to finals (best of nine)

True this year. Last year, the league had four teams, with the top three advancing to a 12-game round-robin. The top two finishers of that advanced to a best-of-seven championship.

The league has varied its playoff format over the years. Sometimes it had the top four finishers playing a 12-game round-robin, with the top two in that advancing to the championship; other times it took the top four teams and played straight best-of series to determine the eventual league champion.

[nico1270]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

Re: the bolded. That's incorrect. The losing club which advances (despite having lost) is the club which won the most games in the first round. Thus, a club which lost its series 4 games to 3 would advance if the other two clubs had lost their respective series 4 games to 2,

Cool, thanks for the correction.

The point system in the Mexican Pacific League was created in the late 60s when the league shortened it's schedule from ~90 games to ~60. But don't know exactly why they picked this system. Maybe there are some soccer connections and standing based on point and not on wins.

Before that they even split the season, once, in three parts of ~30 games.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by nico1270

The point system in the Mexican Pacific League was created in the late 60s when the league shortened it's schedule from ~90 games to ~60.

According to a media guide for Obregon (the closest I've come to finding the final standings and playoff results for those seasons), a points-based system was used in 1968, 1970-75, and 1980-present. The points awarded for each position of finish have changed a couple of times, though.

A points-based qualification system had been used a few times in years past by other winter leagues. The Mexican League used it as well for a period of time from the late 1990s to late 2000s, as did the California League for a season or two in the late 1950s.

Originally Posted by nico1270

Before that they even split the season, once, in three parts of ~30 games.

The Western League in 1940 had a schedule that was split into quarters. (There's an old TSN article which talked about the rationale for it.)

[nico1270]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

A points-based qualification system had been used a few times in years past by other winter leagues. The Mexican League used it as well for a period of time from the late 1990s to late 2000s, as did the California League for a season or two in the late 1950s.

So it's not a Mexican creation and nothing related to soccer.

I could live if these leagues are included with a no so perfect playoff and schedule format knowing how hard this could be to implement.

I will later check how many of the ~800 players that participate in Caribbean Winter Leagues are already in the game as FA or with other teams. If they are almost all there, and loans being included, it could be super simple to have all these 4 leagues here.

[Le Grande Orange]

One of the interesting things with the points-based system is that you can have a tie based on the season points, rather than winning percentage, requiring a tie-breaking playoff.

That happened last year in the Venezuelan Winter League, when at the conclusion of the second half, due to their particular places of finish, three teams had a total of 9.5 points for the overall season, but only two playoff spots were available. That necessitated a three-way tie-breaking playoff to determine the two post-season qualifiers.

A similar thing occurred in the Panama Winter League back in the 1960s.

Originally Posted by nico1270

I could live if these leagues are included with a no so perfect playoff and schedule format knowing how hard this could be to implement.

I've pretty much created a playoff customization system that could do it (still a few details to nail down for the points-based system). It is an 'advanced users' feature, however, in that this playoff customization system would work by creating and editing special files outside the game, somewhat similar to the schedule files the game uses.

I went this route because it became apparent to me that the more playoff customization one wants, the less possible it becomes to do in any sort of in-game, menu-driven system. Trying to recreate inside the game's GUI a screen whereby one could recreate all the playoff systems results in an in-game screen so convoluted and complicated as to be unworkable. Using specialized files outside OOTP itself solves that issue, but at the cost of ease-of-use.

I consider that cost one worth paying, as the system I have in mind allows nearly any conceivable real-world playoff format to be recreated. Indeed, it even allows completely fictional playoff formats, such as conditional post-season qualifiers (i.e. additional teams which make the playoffs beyond the normal number, but only when certain conditions are satisfied).