2018 Winter Meetings Thread

[mstreeter06]

Oregon is definitely all on board so we just need to hear from Iowa.

I have found 1 new owner to take over one of the openings.

Thanks guys!

[BaseballAddict32]

If you make it 11 rounds or more Generated we would get a few more good quality players and a few more middle of the road guys and then thast means a few more FA but we pick up the good ones any way pretty fast. It would take about a year or 2 to see effects.

Agreed. Hopefully there would also be more positions with some quality. When I look at the draft pool on the first two pages, if you will, worth of scrolling down there are two infielders, both 3bs. No 1b, 2b or SS. In that regard I am not sure what the answer is as it always seems to do that. I'll be honest at times when I get far into leagues I do on my own and it does this I will save it right before the draft pool is released and if its a problem I won't save the league I will exit the game and create a new draft pool. Not sure what can be done on this platform though.

[mstreeter06]

I need to double check but it might be different with feeder leagues.

[Cannon Fodder06]

2018 Winter Meetings: Topics To Discuss

Interleague Play: Interleague works for me.

Designated Hitter: I'm anti-DH myself.

Storylines in-game option: leave on\

Upgrade to OOTP15 or wait for OOTP16?  I'll follow on with the rest of the group if they want to upgrade.

Ratings: stay at 1-10 or move to 1-20?  I'm fine with either.

Final regular season sim: keep at last 10 games or split into 2 sims to have a final 3-game series sim? keep as os

Playoff format: keep current playoff format

Future plans/ideas: I'm fine with expansion when demand for teams.  I don't think we need another league. 

Reinstate Texas 2B Tim Francis (2 years removed from kidney donation)? Bring him back.

[fhomess]

• Interleague Play: keep Interleague play or revert back to none? Get rid of it.
• Designated Hitter: keep as is with no DH, 1 league with DH, or both leagues with DH? No DH in FL.  I like having the AL/NL difference, so am in favor of DH in one league, but would prefer to not have it in mine.  Generally, I think this is the type of thing that the owners of each league should be allowed to vote on independent of what the owners in the other league decide.
• Storylines in-game option: leave on or turn off? I prefer off, but don't really mind leaving it on.
• Upgrade to OOTP15 or wait for OOTP16? If upgrade to OOTP15, target year for start: 2020? Upgrade in 2020.
• Ratings: stay at 1-10 or move to 1-20? Stay at 1-10.  I'm not opposed to 20-80, but really prefer to have less accurate ratings.
• Final regular season sim: keep at last 10 games or split into 2 sims to have a final 3-game series sim? Split into two sims.
• Playoff format: keep current playoff format (4 teams per league, 2 division winners & 2 wildcards) or add a 3rd Wildcard for 5 total playoff teams (play-in 1 or 3 game series between Wildcards 2 and 3 to earn 4th and final seed in playoffs)? Keep it as is.
• Future plans/ideas: target year for Expansion Phase 2 to get to 24 total teams?, add another minor league level?, add FA draft w/ International/Amateur FAs/another baseball world?, adjust/update names.dat? One of the things I like about this league is the relative simplicity of it.  On the ammy draft, I think we need to be careful about tinkering too much with it.  The 2016 draft looks way out of place with all of the other drafts.  Even adding 1 round of players can have a reasonably big impact on things.  Lower talent draft pools make talent changes have a bigger impact, and decrease the value of picks.  I actually think that's a good thing.
  In terms of expansion, the important thing to remember is that leagues hover around 10% turnover each offseason, so adding more teams typically increases the recruiting requirements.  I do like larger divisions, though.
• Reinstate Texas 2B Tim Francis (2 years removed from kidney donation)? Don't care one way or another... but if you're going to do this type of things for players that "retire" due to storylines, there needs to be a policy in place on when reinstatement happens/doesn't.  I foresee some upset GM's if they don't get their guy back.
• Anything else? Ok.

[mstreeter06]

For the bringing back of "retired" players... we have had 2 cases with Luis Bravo and Ron Pratt. I've gone by a 2 full seasons retired rule but I do think I need to get something in writing. Either keep it at the 2 years, increase the wait time, or get rid of doing this all together?

I agree with you Frank on the Ammy Draft tinkering and such. Right now, we have 8 rounds with 9 rounds of talent generated. Is this a good balance? Does using the feeder leagues have any affect on the quality and such of the draft pools and the difference between the number of rounds and number of rounds generated?

[fhomess]

For the bringing back of "retired" players... we have had 2 cases with Luis Bravo and Ron Pratt. I've gone by a 2 full seasons retired rule but I do think I need to get something in writing. Either keep it at the 2 years, increase the wait time, or get rid of doing this all together?

I don't really care what the policy is, as long as it's applied consistently.  We shouldn't have to vote each time and I doubt people are going to say no when we do vote.

I agree with you Frank on the Ammy Draft tinkering and such. Right now, we have 8 rounds with 9 rounds of talent generated. Is this a good balance? Does using the feeder leagues have any affect on the quality and such of the draft pools and the difference between the number of rounds and number of rounds generated?

I'm fairly certain the nature of feeder leagues changes the draft.  I can't tell you specifically how, because I haven't done comparative testing, but anecdotally I suspect we'll get a better draft pool and have more quality hitters from skill positions.  I think you also tend to see more 2-pitch guys who might or might not learn a 3rd pitch and be able to start some day, but fewer guys who are sure future SP's.

[24Rocks]

For the bringing back of "retired" players... we have had 2 cases with Luis Bravo and Ron Pratt. I've gone by a 2 full seasons retired rule but I do think I need to get something in writing. Either keep it at the 2 years, increase the wait time, or get rid of doing this all together?

I don't really care what the policy is, as long as it's applied consistently.  We shouldn't have to vote each time and I doubt people are going to say no when we do vote.

I agree with you Frank on the Ammy Draft tinkering and such. Right now, we have 8 rounds with 9 rounds of talent generated. Is this a good balance? Does using the feeder leagues have any affect on the quality and such of the draft pools and the difference between the number of rounds and number of rounds generated?

I'm fairly certain the nature of feeder leagues changes the draft.  I can't tell you specifically how, because I haven't done comparative testing, but anecdotally I suspect we'll get a better draft pool and have more quality hitters from skill positions.  I think you also tend to see more 2-pitch guys who might or might not learn a 3rd pitch and be able to start some day, but fewer guys who are sure future SP's.

If my solo league is any example, feeder leagues from the start of league other then the very first draft, You tend to see alot of 3 pitch pitcher with 2 great pitches but shitty change up so not full time starters but there are a lot of pen guys, but in OOTP14 my drafts I saw a good number of 4-5 pitch guys start to show up more and have pretty good careers but my league is big so with a smaller league we should see a few of those as time goes on. 

[BaseballAddict32]

Honestly part of the flaw is in the game there is simply no way to actively improve prospects and where most games players are entered as finished products this game leaves a long lag for development but no way to participate in that. Posted this on the main OOTP discussion forum.

"Playing in an online league and seeing the ammy draft pools lack year after year one thing I thought about was a need for manual player development. A way to sort of choose what you want a pitcher to develop and put some sort of points or something that will allow you to budget improvements like scouting budget but for developing a third pitch for a pitcher or stamina for a great three pitch pitcher. As is there is no way to actively develop players other than hoping they do. Work ethic and such can still be x-factors in development, but it gives someone a chance to work with player development like in real baseball. Seems to be the next step in the evolution of the game. At least its just a suggestion FWIW."

[fhomess]

"Playing in an online league and seeing the ammy draft pools lack year after year one thing I thought about was a need for manual player development. A way to sort of choose what you want a pitcher to develop and put some sort of points or something that will allow you to budget improvements like scouting budget but for developing a third pitch for a pitcher or stamina for a great three pitch pitcher. As is there is no way to actively develop players other than hoping they do. Work ethic and such can still be x-factors in development, but it gives someone a chance to work with player development like in real baseball. Seems to be the next step in the evolution of the game. At least its just a suggestion FWIW."

In versions of OOTP prior to 2006 (OOTP6.5 and earlier), you had a ST screen with points you could allocate to your players to have them work on specific areas.  What would appear to be a step forward would actually be bringing back an old feature. 

[Chappy]

From OOTP2-6.5, spring training was a time to focus on certain skills and there were no actual games.  When the game moved to OOTP 2006, it did away with the training aspect. 

[Chappy]

Ha, I guess I should have read that old "another post was made while you were typing" and not been Frank's echo.

[BaseballAddict32]

"Playing in an online league and seeing the ammy draft pools lack year after year one thing I thought about was a need for manual player development. A way to sort of choose what you want a pitcher to develop and put some sort of points or something that will allow you to budget improvements like scouting budget but for developing a third pitch for a pitcher or stamina for a great three pitch pitcher. As is there is no way to actively develop players other than hoping they do. Work ethic and such can still be x-factors in development, but it gives someone a chance to work with player development like in real baseball. Seems to be the next step in the evolution of the game. At least its just a suggestion FWIW."

In versions of OOTP prior to 2006 (OOTP6.5 and earlier), you had a ST screen with points you could allocate to your players to have them work on specific areas.  What would appear to be a step forward would actually be bringing back an old feature. 

Bad idea to remove that then. Such a critical component of this sort of simulation.

[24Rocks]

I remember my first few Online leagues When i was 12, 13 and some league you could buy a 5 points or 10 points out of your budget to improve a guy or stuff, We could bring that in to consideration but 1 point lol for this league im older now but since there's no money that would be hard for this league.

I was just thinking after a post on the fourm about sound that i should Download OOTP 5, i miss when you could see who your fav player got there first hit off off

[Chappy]

• Interleague Play: Keep Current Schedule
• Designated Hitter: No for PL; don't care about FL   
• Storylines in-game option: leave on
• Upgrade to OOTP15 for start of 1st season after 1st patch
• Ratings: stay at 1-10
• Final regular season sim: keep at last 10 games
• Playoff format: keep current playoff format
• Future plans/ideas: eh, none of those right now
• Reinstate Texas 2B Tim Francis

I agree with the other poster that we need to just formalize that all storyline-related players can be re-instated with no vote needed...  some of them will need to be clarified (leaves for NFL career) but the ones that include a timeline should be automatic.