Major League without an amateur draft

Righty Groove · 02-10-2014, 11:08 AM

Hello all,

After reading recently about MLB draft (and drafting in major league sports in the US/Canada as a whole), I experimented with something I've wanted for a long time: make my fictional major league a draft-less league.

Simple enough, right? I disabled the amateur draft in the pre-season and, I knew that, right after the world series (first day of offseason), the game would generate a bunch of draft-aged free agents to populate the league. Then, free market would ensue.

I was somewhat afraid it would screw it all up, since there is no control of HOW MANY draft-aged free agents the league would create, or how good they were going to be. Nevertheless, I trusted OOTP and went along anyway.

In the offseason, the draft-aged free agents were created. I was somewhat disapointed that no news item appeared announcing the "new group of amateur free agents avaible!", but my biggest surprise was: all these 18-19 year-old players were fully developed! I mean, guys with 80 POT and 80 OVR! Both hitters and pitchers (about 5 hitters and 5 pitchers with overall and potential both above 60, in a 26-team league).

Needless to say, they were asking (and getting) astronomical major-league contracts. I had to edit them all manually as the commisioner, decreasing their ratings while leaving their potential ratings untouched. It's certainly not what I had in mind.

Since the pre-season is obviously before the season, and offseason is after, I would lose a season of play by going back to my backup. I think I'll revert to having a draft next season...

Does anyone have any experience with this? I didn't find much information, besides the fact that the game generates the amateur free-agents at day 1 of the offseason. Their ages were allright, too, 18-19 (as I set in the League Options tab). I didn't find anything about the QUALITY of these players, though.

Edit: the amateur draft-aged free agents were all from the correct origin, too (in this case, 100% US). So that did work allright.

I run 2 major leagues in my game. Both had their drafts disabled. Both created fully-developed 18-19 year olds with outstanding attributes.

dward1 · 02-10-2014, 11:42 AM

I've never done anything like this but would be very interested to see if this could be worked out. I'd like to play a league where the typical draft pool gets generated but as free agents

Righty Groove · 02-10-2014, 04:28 PM

I suppose that, in historical games, before the advent of the amateur draft, new players join the league every offseason. But since they're historical players, their ratings are already "set", they're not created. But with fictional players, I'm having this problem.

OmahaReynolds · 02-11-2014, 12:13 PM

I've had this problem and I think that it creates a very different talent distribution than a league that uses an amateur draft. The problem with having new players enter the universe as free agents, is that the game will create some prospect-type players, who need to be developed, but it will also create a handful of fully developed superstars who just appear out of nowhere the first day of the off-season.

It's also really easy, as a human player, to just go to town signing the best of these free agents and really build a dominant team quickly.

Sadly, I think the only way to approach adding new players to a universe in OOTP is to use the draft.

You could always generate a large draft pool, have a one-round draft and the rest of the players would go into the free agent pool (I guess some would go to college or back to school).

OmahaReynolds · 02-11-2014, 12:18 PM

One thing you can do is set your draft to have one round with one round of players generated and on draft day just go in and delete everyone in the draft pool. Then go into the free agent screen, and create a batch of fictional players.

Go to create player, select "Prospect" for player type, and "Raw" for development level, and then pick the number of players you want to create. This might inflate the talent level, so you migh want to run some tests and see.

Righty Groove · 02-11-2014, 01:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OmahaReynolds

One thing you can do is set your draft to have one round with one round of players generated and on draft day just go in and delete everyone in the draft pool. Then go into the free agent screen, and create a batch of fictional players.

Go to create player, select "Prospect" for player type, and "Raw" for development level, and then pick the number of players you want to create. This might inflate the talent level, so you migh want to run some tests and see.

Thank you very much for your answer. It appears that is indeed the case.

One alternative that would be really simple and really effective would be to, simply, run a one-round draft (with several rounds of players created) and then, once the draft is concluded, you make every drafted player a free agent. That way, the entire draft pool is dumped into the FA pool, and you still retain the control and quality of draft pool generation.

The obvious drawback is that, well, you would have to do it manually. The only way to mass-select the draft pool is BEFORE the draft. Afterwards (I believe), the only way to access the drafted players is through the 'last draft log', and from that to each player individually. Then set as a FA in the player editor tab. Also, it does hurt my sensitive OCD feelings (since the draft is for naught), but it's an adequate compromise, and an effective work-around.

In my (very short) experience with youngsters-as-FAs, since the advent of the international amateur FAs and the option to sign a minor-league contract with a signing bonus, it does create a bidding war for the top prospects' services. Maybe they aren't valued enough by the AI, but it's also easy to trade for top prospects anyway, so that's moot.

Righty Groove · 02-11-2014, 01:56 PM

Another option is to use the International Amateur Free Agents as means to annually reestock your league.

For example, in a US league, you set your draft for one round, with players generated for also one round. You may set the player nationality for local (US/Canada) or international, it's your call. But the international amateur free agents, you can set their origin at 100% US (or 90% US, 10% Canada, or something else you'd like), and that's where the main talent to your league will arive.

You will have to set the 'Generate Amateur Free Agents' to "A lot" (which is 4 per team), and adjust the Signing bonus cap as you like.

This requires testing, as it can lead to awckward talent levels entering the league. But it's interesting, I suppose.

02-10-2014, 11:08 AM	#1
Righty Groove Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Apr 2012 Posts: 262	Major League without an amateur draft Hello all, After reading recently about MLB draft (and drafting in major league sports in the US/Canada as a whole), I experimented with something I've wanted for a long time: make my fictional major league a draft-less league. Simple enough, right? I disabled the amateur draft in the pre-season and, I knew that, right after the world series (first day of offseason), the game would generate a bunch of draft-aged free agents to populate the league. Then, free market would ensue. I was somewhat afraid it would screw it all up, since there is no control of HOW MANY draft-aged free agents the league would create, or how good they were going to be. Nevertheless, I trusted OOTP and went along anyway. In the offseason, the draft-aged free agents were created. I was somewhat disapointed that no news item appeared announcing the "new group of amateur free agents avaible!", but my biggest surprise was: all these 18-19 year-old players were fully developed! I mean, guys with 80 POT and 80 OVR! Both hitters and pitchers (about 5 hitters and 5 pitchers with overall and potential both above 60, in a 26-team league). Needless to say, they were asking (and getting) astronomical major-league contracts. I had to edit them all manually as the commisioner, decreasing their ratings while leaving their potential ratings untouched. It's certainly not what I had in mind. Since the pre-season is obviously before the season, and offseason is after, I would lose a season of play by going back to my backup. I think I'll revert to having a draft next season... Does anyone have any experience with this? I didn't find much information, besides the fact that the game generates the amateur free-agents at day 1 of the offseason. Their ages were allright, too, 18-19 (as I set in the League Options tab). I didn't find anything about the QUALITY of these players, though. Edit: the amateur draft-aged free agents were all from the correct origin, too (in this case, 100% US). So that did work allright. I run 2 major leagues in my game. Both had their drafts disabled. Both created fully-developed 18-19 year olds with outstanding attributes. Last edited by Righty Groove; 02-10-2014 at 11:11 AM.

02-10-2014, 11:42 AM	#2
dward1 All Star Reserve Join Date: Apr 2012 Posts: 929	I've never done anything like this but would be very interested to see if this could be worked out. I'd like to play a league where the typical draft pool gets generated but as free agents

02-10-2014, 04:28 PM	#3
Righty Groove Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Apr 2012 Posts: 262	I suppose that, in historical games, before the advent of the amateur draft, new players join the league every offseason. But since they're historical players, their ratings are already "set", they're not created. But with fictional players, I'm having this problem.

02-11-2014, 12:13 PM	#4
OmahaReynolds All Star Reserve Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: New York Posts: 653	I've had this problem and I think that it creates a very different talent distribution than a league that uses an amateur draft. The problem with having new players enter the universe as free agents, is that the game will create some prospect-type players, who need to be developed, but it will also create a handful of fully developed superstars who just appear out of nowhere the first day of the off-season. It's also really easy, as a human player, to just go to town signing the best of these free agents and really build a dominant team quickly. Sadly, I think the only way to approach adding new players to a universe in OOTP is to use the draft. You could always generate a large draft pool, have a one-round draft and the rest of the players would go into the free agent pool (I guess some would go to college or back to school).

02-11-2014, 12:18 PM	#5
OmahaReynolds All Star Reserve Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: New York Posts: 653	One thing you can do is set your draft to have one round with one round of players generated and on draft day just go in and delete everyone in the draft pool. Then go into the free agent screen, and create a batch of fictional players. Go to create player, select "Prospect" for player type, and "Raw" for development level, and then pick the number of players you want to create. This might inflate the talent level, so you migh want to run some tests and see.

02-11-2014, 01:56 PM	#7
Righty Groove Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Apr 2012 Posts: 262	Another option is to use the International Amateur Free Agents as means to annually reestock your league. For example, in a US league, you set your draft for one round, with players generated for also one round. You may set the player nationality for local (US/Canada) or international, it's your call. But the international amateur free agents, you can set their origin at 100% US (or 90% US, 10% Canada, or something else you'd like), and that's where the main talent to your league will arive. You will have to set the 'Generate Amateur Free Agents' to "A lot" (which is 4 per team), and adjust the Signing bonus cap as you like. This requires testing, as it can lead to awckward talent levels entering the league. But it's interesting, I suppose.