Owner, GM and Management Ideas

[aks62]

I came up with a list of some ideas I'd like to see implemented in the future. I've had most of these ideas for at least a few versions and would love to see them considered in future OOTP editions:

1. Midseason budget updates. If the team is contending and profiting but needs money to make a pivotal trade deadline add, allow the owner to increase the budget to accommodate an addition(s). Likewise, if the team is underperforming or attendance and revenues are low, allow the owner to drop the budget mid-year. This could be based on owner attributes too, by fiscal personality.

2. Allow owners to add goals midseason. Maybe this is "dump this contract," "fire the manager," "acquire x position," or any of the other goals the owners already ask. But it would be fun to see owners react to a team's midseason performance more than just updating the goals laid out an offseason ago. This could be based on owner involvement levels.

3. Request a budget exception. I'm a Phillies fan and the news that Dave Dombrowski asked owner John Middleton to make an exception to the normal "don't surpass the luxury tax" rule the organization had when it signed Nick Castellanos got me thinking. What if there was an option where in order to sign/acquire a specific player, you could toggle a button to ask the owner if he'll give you cash/budget room to bring him in? Maybe limit this to once an offseason or something, but I think it would allow for realism and flexibility for teams that might enter free agency in the red or unable to make meaningful additions. Owners could accept or decline depending on their assessment of the team as it stands, their fiscal personality/involvement, etc.

4. Reorganize the front office. Can we see a president of baseball operations position? Maybe you can be hired as an AGM, promoted upward to GM and then eventually to president of baseball operations? And/or leave an org for a higher position? The AGM feature is fun for human managers and I lament that it's not a feature for the AI.

5. Allow human GMs/managers to negotiate contracts with owners/GMs. When you hire a coach as a GM, you haggle with them until they find an offer to their liking, and/or they break off negotiations. Why not have the same for a successful manager or GM over time? If the owner isn't willing to give you an extension that's commensurate with your value, have the option to turn them down and walk away to another team. An owner electing not to renew a contract doesn't always have to be rooted in discipline/poor performance. The auto-renewal where you're given a dollar amount and you just have to take it to stay with the same team feels antiquated, given other features now in OOTP.

6. Allow for year-by-year contract retention. Could we see a feature added that allows a player - say, signed to a three-year deal - to be retained fully for year 1, at x amount for year 2 and not at all for year 3, for instance? I think this would again add to the realism of the game, as opposed to the same percentage throughout the life of a multiyear deal.

7. Limited no-trade clauses. Vesting options allow for customizable thresholds; can we see that NTCs allow for a customizable number of teams? Again, another way to make the game more lifelike.

8. Contract restructuring. This rarely happens in MLB, but there are occasions in other sports where players will willingly restructure their contracts to free up budget room so the team can make additional moves in a given offseason (i.e. James Harden with the 76ers). Would something like this be possible - maybe once an offseason, in the mold of the budget request - and/or a one-time amnesty clause?

9. Coach database management. Players with no MLB experience can be deleted with the toggle of a checkbox. Similarly, can a coach who never gets a job have a box made for himself, too?

10. Option to disable players becoming coaches. I sometimes like to have my player and coach universes be separate and feel like because there is a way for the game to make coaches from scratch without player experience, so too must there be a way for it to ignore the player pool when generating new coaches. Can this option be explored?

11. Overall "delete retired players," "delete retired coaches," "delete trade log history," etc. options. I think deleting the league history as the only way to consolidate an old file more or less ruins the point of progressing for years and years. I feel like as time goes on, there should be a way to delete the guys from the system who maybe had a cup of coffee once but otherwise never had a meaningful career. So would something like "delete players with less than x service time" work? Either way, I think it would be great to preserve league history - rings, MVPs/Cy Youngs, etc. - without needing to preserve every player who didn't reach greatness. After a certain point, I only care about the history from a zoomed-out point of view and would like to be able to cull a file size to keep it healthy for seasons and seasons to come.

12. Show Manager of the Year vote results. It's the only award - excluding Great/Gold Gloves and Platinum Stick/Silver Sluggers - that doesn't show the final standings. Can this be edited? Additionally, can regular season finish have a greater bearing on the winners? 99/100 times I find the pennant-winning teams' managers get the title, but they may not be more deserving of it from a regular season standpoint (which is how/when the results are calculated in MLB).

13. Hall of Fame Veterans' Committee option. In MLB, players who fall off the ballot can be considered down the line in a special Veterans Committee election. Would there be a way to add this feature into the game for players who may have just fallen short? Capping their eligibility on that committee list would also do - maybe being up for a vote no more than two or three times max - in order to keep the number of players considered at a minimum.

14. Option to disable challenge mode. I get that there is an intentionality behind not having this, but there are times when I would just rather keep at a file without the limitations forced upon me. Maybe make it a decision that can't be undone, similar to purging database records? That would prevent people from toggling it on and off and cheating their way to success.

15. The option to checkbox individual coaches on the coaches screens, similar to how the same can be done with players on "list all players," "list retired players," etc.

16. Allow players to approach teams in FA without first receiving an offer (especially in cases of returning to his former team, being interested in playing before their hometown, etc.).

Let me know what you think of any/all of these!

[kq76]

My responses in bold.

Originally Posted by aks62

1. Midseason budget updates. If the team is contending and profiting but needs money to make a pivotal trade deadline add, allow the owner to increase the budget to accommodate an addition(s). Likewise, if the team is underperforming or attendance and revenues are low, allow the owner to drop the budget mid-year. This could be based on owner attributes too, by fiscal personality.

I like this, a lot! When would you want this update to happen? presumably some time before the trade deadline, but when exactly?

2. Allow owners to add goals midseason. Maybe this is "dump this contract," "fire the manager," "acquire x position," or any of the other goals the owners already ask. But it would be fun to see owners react to a team's midseason performance more than just updating the goals laid out an offseason ago. This could be based on owner involvement levels.

Yup. This sounds good too.

3. Request a budget exception. I'm a Phillies fan and the news that Dave Dombrowski asked owner John Middleton to make an exception to the normal "don't surpass the luxury tax" rule the organization had when it signed Nick Castellanos got me thinking. What if there was an option where in order to sign/acquire a specific player, you could toggle a button to ask the owner if he'll give you cash/budget room to bring him in? Maybe limit this to once an offseason or something, but I think it would allow for realism and flexibility for teams that might enter free agency in the red or unable to make meaningful additions. Owners could accept or decline depending on their assessment of the team as it stands, their fiscal personality/involvement, etc.

Yes, yes, yes. I either once posted it myself too or at least thought it. They definitely need to be able to reject your request however.

4. Reorganize the front office. Can we see a president of baseball operations position? Maybe you can be hired as an AGM, promoted upward to GM and then eventually to president of baseball operations? And/or leave an org for a higher position? The AGM feature is fun for human managers and I lament that it's not a feature for the AI.

Yes, I like all of this. I think of OOTP as not just a sim, but a management sim, and so the more management options, the better. I think the key with adding features is not making things mandatory and I think OOTP does a good job of allowing you to ignore features if you don't wish to use them. That is, they could add presidents and AGMs and neither would matter for people who wouldn't want to bother with them.

5. Allow human GMs/managers to negotiate contracts with owners/GMs. When you hire a coach as a GM, you haggle with them until they find an offer to their liking, and/or they break off negotiations. Why not have the same for a successful manager or GM over time? If the owner isn't willing to give you an extension that's commensurate with your value, have the option to turn them down and walk away to another team. An owner electing not to renew a contract doesn't always have to be rooted in discipline/poor performance. The auto-renewal where you're given a dollar amount and you just have to take it to stay with the same team feels antiquated, given other features now in OOTP.

Oh, this is interesting! Personally I like to play as a meddling owner, but if I did play as a GM or manager I think I'd like this a lot!

6. Allow for year-by-year contract retention. Could we see a feature added that allows a player - say, signed to a three-year deal - to be retained fully for year 1, at x amount for year 2 and not at all for year 3, for instance? I think this would again add to the realism of the game, as opposed to the same percentage throughout the life of a multiyear deal.

I don't understand. Are you talking about like in the NFL they can just release a player without paying their unguaranteed amount? If so, okay, I suppose some might like this.

7. Limited no-trade clauses. Vesting options allow for customizable thresholds; can we see that NTCs allow for a customizable number of teams? Again, another way to make the game more lifelike.

Interesting. I'm not sure it'd be worth the effort, but if it was relatively easy to program then sure, why not.

8. Contract restructuring. This rarely happens in MLB, but there are occasions in other sports where players will willingly restructure their contracts to free up budget room so the team can make additional moves in a given offseason (i.e. James Harden with the 76ers). Would something like this be possible - maybe once an offseason, in the mold of the budget request - and/or a one-time amnesty clause?

Is this even allowed in MLB? I'm not arguing against it, just wondering. There's definitely times where I'd go to a player and say, "Hey, your contract just isn't worth it for us anymore. Would you rather be traded or restructure?" It'd be interesting to have that option, that's for sure. I'd definitely want them to be able to get pissed at you for this though.

9. Coach database management. Players with no MLB experience can be deleted with the toggle of a checkbox. Similarly, can a coach who never gets a job have a box made for himself, too?

Like once they retire you mean? Sure, but you might as well make it for all non-player personnel.

10. Option to disable players becoming coaches. I sometimes like to have my player and coach universes be separate and feel like because there is a way for the game to make coaches from scratch without player experience, so too must there be a way for it to ignore the player pool when generating new coaches. Can this option be explored?

I love seeing players turn into coaches, but I do think there should be some who never played in the big leagues. I'm surprised to see this request, but hey, whatever you like.

11. Overall "delete retired players," "delete retired coaches," "delete trade log history," etc. options. I think deleting the league history as the only way to consolidate an old file more or less ruins the point of progressing for years and years. I feel like as time goes on, there should be a way to delete the guys from the system who maybe had a cup of coffee once but otherwise never had a meaningful career. So would something like "delete players with less than x service time" work? Either way, I think it would be great to preserve league history - rings, MVPs/Cy Youngs, etc. - without needing to preserve every player who didn't reach greatness. After a certain point, I only care about the history from a zoomed-out point of view and would like to be able to cull a file size to keep it healthy for seasons and seasons to come.

As someone who saves countless backups, I understand file size issues. I'd like an option to save certain subfolders (dump, import_export, almanacs) elsewhere so they don't replicate. And while your idea wouldn't save, at least not me, as much space, it would save some. So yeah, sounds good!

12. Show Manager of the Year vote results. It's the only award - excluding Great/Gold Gloves and Platinum Stick/Silver Sluggers - that doesn't show the final standings. Can this be edited? Additionally, can regular season finish have a greater bearing on the winners? 99/100 times I find the pennant-winning teams' managers get the title, but they may not be more deserving of it from a regular season standpoint (which is how/when the results are calculated in MLB).

Although I wouldn't want to see the Manager of the Year award done away with (the more awards the better), most would have to admit it's one of, if not, the silliest award in sports. An overachieving team of the year award would be better. I was under the impression none of the awards showed the voting results until I recently updated to OOTP23 (maybe it's new for it), so sure, why not for MOTY too. I'd rather see more awards, customizable and not, though.

13. Hall of Fame Veterans' Committee option. In MLB, players who fall off the ballot can be considered down the line in a special Veterans Committee election. Would there be a way to add this feature into the game for players who may have just fallen short? Capping their eligibility on that committee list would also do - maybe being up for a vote no more than two or three times max - in order to keep the number of players considered at a minimum.

I've come to feel that the HoF in real life is a joke, or at least how one may get in is. It's unfortunate too as I used to think it really must mean something. But yeah, when it comes to OOTP, I could definitely see wanting this. I think maybe we should, in real life and in OOTP, tag how players got in, through the normal process, by veteran's committee, as a commissioner appointee (us, the player), or however.

14. Option to disable challenge mode. I get that there is an intentionality behind not having this, but there are times when I would just rather keep at a file without the limitations forced upon me. Maybe make it a decision that can't be undone, similar to purging database records? That would prevent people from toggling it on and off and cheating their way to success.

Ah, yeah. I never play with that as I like playing as commissioner (I tried it once or twice), but I could definitely see wanting to opt out after realizing it was too limiting. You'd definitely have to lock it in after you opt out though.

15. The option to checkbox individual coaches on the coaches screens, similar to how the same can be done with players on "list all players," "list retired players," etc.

I remember I had a similar thought recently, but I can't remember what I wanted to do with them. Maybe it wasn't staff, but players on a screen that didn't have checkboxes. What do you want to do with them?

16. Allow players to approach teams in FA without first receiving an offer (especially in cases of returning to his former team, being interested in playing before their hometown, etc.).

LOL! I had this exact same thought just the other day. I thought to myself, "we know agents approach teams all the time, it's not just teams approaching agents". Agents should definitely be approaching us about their clients. The one thing I would definitely do with this, however, is be able to tell the agent to not bring up this player to us again, at least not this season (because you know the AI would drive us nuts with this), or tell them we're not interested right this minute, but we might be later. Or of course you could immediately go into negotiations.

There was a player I signed just this preseason who I later realized was in the world last year (and in fact he never signed or played with any team?!), but I never noticed him until my GM offered him a contract. If his agent had approached me last season I would have at least offered him a MiLC and so at the very least he would have gotten a year of development.

Let me know what you think of any/all of these!

You brought up a lot of good stuff! Keep it up.