Trying to do something, can't

[Wayne23]

I want to form a 16 team league (original MLB 16 teams) by taking the very best players from all eras, starting them off early in their careers, and having a draft lottery to start. I want to select the players to be included myself.

Is this possible? If so, how. I've tried sing Custom Game with no success. Not really interested in on line play so Perfect Team isn't what I'm looking for.

[Curve Ball Dave]

It is possible, but very time consuming.

First, create your league, dump all of the existing players into a free agent pool, then delete them.

Next, once you've done all of the research and looked up all of the player IDs you can create a .txt file with all of the players you want on it so you can import all of the players at once.

Say you wanted a young Hank Aaron, his entry on the .txt file would be aaronha1, 1954.

From there you should be able to schedule a Fantasy Draft.

[Wayne23]

Thanks.

[Boomcoach]

Can the reverse be done very easily? Can I dump the current MLB players into a file and import into a Custom league?

[Curve Ball Dave]

Originally Posted by Boomcoach

Can the reverse be done very easily? Can I dump the current MLB players into a file and import into a Custom league?

It would be much easier to create a Standard game with the current MLB set up and players and editing the league structure so it is customized to your liking.

[Boomcoach]

Originally Posted by Curve Ball Dave

It would be much easier to create a Standard game with the current MLB set up and players and editing the league structure so it is customized to your liking.

I may try that. I like to play around with Promotion-relegation setups. I might try removing the affiliations from the minor leagues and using some of them as the lower leagues and set up pro-rel between them. Might be a bit messy the first year or so, as without minor leagues the teams will not have reserve squads, but there should be players available from the leagues that I don't use, if I release them all before I remove the leagues.

I usually start my pro-rel leagues a few years before I want to actually play them and let them sim for 5 years or so to become a bit more stable.

[NoOne]

you could export that file, cut it down and save time on creating the import txt file.

you can edit existing players in an exported player list, but you cannot add new players (playerID creation is incremental and unique and must be done in the game, because you cannot create an ID through import of a player list.

just to be clear -- export players -- league function -- this exports existing players from league... ther's also a way to re-import that list, but as the note says on the league settings page, it must be a list previously exported from this exact league.

the import historical players mentioned and what you most likely should use with a TXT file is a different kind of import. that DOES create players properly that did not exist in the league before.

but, if you want large chunks of the current players i nthe league, then exporting that full list, then deleting things would make the job easier to pare down..

although i am not sure if that exported list has the alphanumeric playerid (bbref id or more specifically ?? forget source). is has the ootp player id column, but if it doesn't have the alphanumeric portion, then nevermind, LoL it won't help at all.

now, just for future reference -- you can copy/past a list of players over an exported list -- BUT you must reuse the playerIDs that exist, so don't copy over that column.. also, make sure enough playerids exist before exporting. make some FA if needed.

then you can copy/paste from other league's export, but keep playerID from destination league's list, and they will function properly in the league they are imported to. ensure team ids are the same.. if same structure they will be the same order.