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Old 05-16-2016, 02:23 AM   #1
HUNT3R
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Setting up a specific playing style

Hi everyone.

I'll start off by saying that I'm a complete noob when it comes to baseball. I know the rules etc, but that's it. I don't know anything about the management side of things. I have a lot of experience with Football Manager, so I'm no stranger to management simulations and that's why I'm keen to try this as well.

How do 'transfers' work? Are they only possible through trades and signing free agents? Are there specific windows where this happens?

My main question is about setting up a specific playing style.

I realise that I have no clue what I'm doing, but I prefer to start with a 'bottom' team, so as low down the leagues as is possible and try to work my way up. Which league would this be? I have no idea what A and AA etc means.

I'd like to be in charge of signing players, if that is possible in these leagues and if it is also realistic for me to do so instead of a GM.

I also want to choose the starters and the strategy before the game starts, but I don't want to manage games. At least not initially.

Lastly, are there any gameplay/strategy guides that are worth recommending? I'm looking for something that'll help me find my feet - newbie guides, basically, not a 'do this and win times infinity' guide.

Thank you.
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Old 05-16-2016, 04:39 AM   #2
battists
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Well, I will start with a few things, then let the others jump in. First off, pretty much everything that you indicate is achievable. Except for perhaps one thing.

In baseball, there are major leagues and minor-leagues. For the most part, especially in leagues based off of today's MLB, minor league teams belong to a major-league team. As a result, there is only one general manager who deals with obtaining new players and so forth.

So, per your original note, there is no way to start with a lower team as someone with responsibility for hiring or firing players. You can certainly start on the lower team as a coach, but that would involve playing out all of the games or some such.

On to another point. For the most part, baseball doesn't share the same concept as the football "transfer". The closest thing in concept is a trade. Which is pretty much the same thing, except that in the US you often see teams trade players to another team for a combination of money and other players, where in football it's almost always for cash.

For the record, you also cannot send players out on loan.

The game definitely does have options to set your preferred strategy. And you certainly don't have to manage your individual games.

One idea to help you get started, since you seem more interested in the GM aspect, (hire/fire etc), is to start a new fictional game, without minor leagues. Then you can act as the general manager, without having to worry about 300 players across 8 teams in your organization. Over time, you can either expand that league, or once you feel comfortable you can create a new, more complicated league.

Just my two cents!


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Old 05-16-2016, 04:57 AM   #3
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Interesting!

So if I select a minor league team, I'll only be a coach. I'll have to consider this as a possible playing style then. It sounds like a lot to handle the hirings/firings of all the teams involved, so it may be better to start off basic and get to grips with that rather before moving onto the GM aspects of the game.

I'm assuming the minor league roster varies throughout the course of a season, as the GM will promote/relegate players as he sees fit?
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Old 05-16-2016, 05:49 AM   #4
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Setting up a specific playing style

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Originally Posted by HUNT3R View Post
Interesting!

So if I select a minor league team, I'll only be a coach. I'll have to consider this as a possible playing style then. It sounds like a lot to handle the hirings/firings of all the teams involved, so it may be better to start off basic and get to grips with that rather before moving onto the GM aspects of the game.

I'm assuming the minor league roster varies throughout the course of a season, as the GM will promote/relegate players as he sees fit?


Yes that's exactly it. In fact, that's what I am doing as well. If you do well, or honestly sometimes even if you don't do well, the general manager can promote you to a higher level at the end of the year.

It can be challenging, because just when your players are starting to perform well, the GM takes the best ones and moves them up ha ha!

And whether you are a good team or not, honestly, the GM isn't doing much about it. Because while there are championships in the lower leagues, they are really more about player development. So, for example, the GM isn't going to try to get you a new player just to help you win games.

By and large, the majority of personnel moves are made during the off-season.

I don't think this is a bad way to start, though, because without understanding how to manage a game, it's going to be tough to understand what kind of players you want to get and so forth when you become a GM. If you think about it, it would be like trying to manage a transfer window when you have never watched soccer before.
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Old 05-16-2016, 05:53 AM   #5
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Setting up a specific playing style

When it comes to hiring and firing, your team will typically change drastically when the draft happens. The draft is when teams get to choose young players coming into the league from college and so forth. When this happens depends on your league, but if you are playing MLB, it happens right in the middle of the season. In my custom league, it happens before the season starts.

When the draft occurs, your team will sign a bunch of new players, and most of them will start near the bottom of your minor-league system. So you will get a big influx of talent. (well, players anyway. Whether they are any better than what you already have depends on a lot of other factors.)

Once that happens, most of the other player movement or small moves due to injuries up the chain from you. So, a first team player gets a long-term injury, so they move up a player from the second team, and it ripples down through the system.

Apart from that, really the only time you will see personnel changes is if your team pulls off a trade.


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Old 05-16-2016, 06:46 AM   #6
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Yeah, I'm familiar with the draft, mainly because of the NFL. All very helpful information though, thank you.

I'm working my way through the manual at the moment, but are there any other guides worth reading?
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Old 05-16-2016, 06:56 AM   #7
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I am sure there are somewhere. I wish I had the time to write one for newbies.


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Old 05-16-2016, 06:57 AM   #8
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Setting up a specific playing style

I can't recall, but there might be a section near the end of the manual with helpful links, and one might be to a site that teaches you more about baseball in general. (I actually wrote the original manual; it has been updated somewhat since then, but not quite enough for my tastes haha!)


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Old 05-19-2016, 10:55 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HUNT3R View Post
Hi everyone.

I'll start off by saying that I'm a complete noob when it comes to baseball. I know the rules etc, but that's it. I don't know anything about the management side of things. I have a lot of experience with Football Manager, so I'm no stranger to management simulations and that's why I'm keen to try this as well.

How do 'transfers' work? Are they only possible through trades and signing free agents? Are there specific windows where this happens?

My main question is about setting up a specific playing style.

I realise that I have no clue what I'm doing, but I prefer to start with a 'bottom' team, so as low down the leagues as is possible and try to work my way up. Which league would this be? I have no idea what A and AA etc means.

I'd like to be in charge of signing players, if that is possible in these leagues and if it is also realistic for me to do so instead of a GM.

I also want to choose the starters and the strategy before the game starts, but I don't want to manage games. At least not initially.

Lastly, are there any gameplay/strategy guides that are worth recommending? I'm looking for something that'll help me find my feet - newbie guides, basically, not a 'do this and win times infinity' guide.

Thank you.


MLB is the highest league (think premier league)
AAA is the next tier (think championship)
AA is the next one (League One)
then A (League Two)
and the various rookie/short-season leagues


now the big difference (besides no promotion/relegation) being all the minor league teams are tied to a MLB team. when an MLB team drafts a player out of college or high school, they own the rights to that player but the player is not MLB ready, so they are essentially loaning that player to their minor league system - the player gets a minor league contract and stays in the minor leagues until the MLB team decides he is ready. the player will get promoted thru the various minor leagues as he improves (The MLB teams GM decides this)


when the minor league player is promoted to the active roster, the MLB team has purchased his minor league contract and now must pay that player the MLB league minimium salary ($500k or thereabouts)


the trade window would be from the day after the world series until July 31. trades can happen in the other months but there are restrictions and the player has to clear waivers (unlikely if he is reasonably valuable)
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Old 05-20-2016, 03:51 AM   #10
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A suggestion that should help with style. When you go to start a game there are options over on the left. I suggest start with an A team (I have two of mine in that as I am doing careers... one as a manager and one as a GM but both play manager as a result of being in the minor leagues). Your goal is to be a GM so make it a GM character. Now, those options say who decides lineup, offense, defense, etc. in games. Start with the AI making decisions. Whenever you are comfortable with taking over a duty at the start of a game then take it over. Gradually you will have it all taken over as you will see the logic being used and what ratings the players have that it is done with. Just because I find it boring, I leave Defense up to AI. It is lame to me remembering to decide that on a computer every batter. Real life is much easier for that one. So, one day you will find yourself comfortably doing everything. Once that happens then pay attention to what the GM is doing. When they change players go look at stats of who you lost and gained. Check where the person went and you may see it was replacing an injured player and you may be getting them back when the injury is finished. Ask away if you have questions you don't find obvious answers or in tutorials. Above all enjoy the process!
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Old 05-21-2016, 08:15 AM   #11
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Okay, so after some great advice (and also making the MLB seem like a daunting prospect!) I decided to rather start in Mexico. No minor leagues, which is a plus.

I sign players now, hire staff and set the line-ups/depth charts, but for now I don't manage games at all.

I started with Saltillo Saraperos. They seem to have a fairly weak/average roster, so I went looking for Free Agents. I had no problem finding good 5-star players who would play for me! The money I pay to get them seems like very little ($12,000 - about $50,000), especially looking at my budget.

After a while, my roster is stacked. I'm now 17-12 and close to the top of the league.

Is there a catch? Am I abusing a mechanic or am I going to feel the dent in my budget, because right now, I'm not seeing anything wrong with what I've done. The reason I'm questioning all of it, is that it seemed all too easy to get decent players and then do well with those players.

----

On a different note, it's probably somewhere in the manual, but how does pinch hitting work? If I do eventually start managing games, it would be useful to know.
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Old 05-21-2016, 09:16 AM   #12
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A pinch hitter is a batter who you send in to hit for another batter.

As I'm sure you've discovered, in baseball, like football, once a player leaves the game he cannot re-enter it. So once you pinch-hit for a player, the original player is out of the game.

You can then keep the pinch hitter in to play the defensive position of the person he replaced, or replace him with yet another player. If you do that, then the pitch hitter is out for the rest of the game.

Most of the time, a pinch hitter is used to replace a pitcher, because pitchers are terrible hitters and rarely pitch the whole game anyway. Of course, in the next half of the inning, the pinch hitter is replaced by a relief pitcher, since almost all pinch hitters are not specialist pitchers.

I feel as though I've over-complicated this, apologies if I've left you more confused - let me know and I'll try to clear things up.
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Old 05-21-2016, 10:31 AM   #13
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As I'm sure you've discovered, in baseball, like football, once a player leaves the game he cannot re-enter it. So once you pinch-hit for a player, the original player is out of the game.

You can then keep the pinch hitter in to play the defensive position of the person he replaced, or replace him with yet another player. If you do that, then the pitch hitter is out for the rest of the game.
Not at all, the quoted part was key for me. I did not know that! That's extremely helpful. It also clears up as to why the AI is using it toward the end of a game.
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Old 05-21-2016, 11:37 AM   #14
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It's also a fairly common practice late in games (last inning or two), if you are holding a slim lead, to replace your weaker defensive players with better ones, if you have them available on your bench.

Most times, to start games, you want your best offensive players in the lineup. So, sometimes if you're protecting a two-run lead in the 8th or 9th, it's valuable to replace that hot-hitting but clumsy 2B with a defensive whiz who can't hit a lick.
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Old 05-21-2016, 03:02 PM   #15
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Okay, so after some great advice (and also making the MLB seem like a daunting prospect!) I decided to rather start in Mexico. No minor leagues, which is a plus.

I sign players now, hire staff and set the line-ups/depth charts, but for now I don't manage games at all.

I started with Saltillo Saraperos. They seem to have a fairly weak/average roster, so I went looking for Free Agents. I had no problem finding good 5-star players who would play for me! The money I pay to get them seems like very little ($12,000 - about $50,000), especially looking at my budget.

After a while, my roster is stacked. I'm now 17-12 and close to the top of the league.

Is there a catch? Am I abusing a mechanic or am I going to feel the dent in my budget, because right now, I'm not seeing anything wrong with what I've done. The reason I'm questioning all of it, is that it seemed all too easy to get decent players and then do well with those players.
Just make sure that currently the Mexican League has the limit of 6 foreigners per team. Sometimes oopt misses on that and its a simple way to take advantage.
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Old 05-24-2016, 04:32 AM   #16
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Just make sure that currently the Mexican League has the limit of 6 foreigners per team. Sometimes oopt misses on that and its a simple way to take advantage.
Yeah, this was the issue! I had far too many foreigners in the team. No wonder it was so easy.

I'll start again with a 6 foreigner limit. Cheers.
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