Questions about minor leagues

[LoneRhino]

New player here. I'm starting a league as the 1962 Mets and I'm playing with full minor leagues. Is there a way, in 1962, to fill the rosters manually? I'll probably let the ai do it for me but I wanted to know if it's possible.

[Charlie Hough]

Yes, if you make sure to give yourself control over minor league rosters, lineups and transactions, as opposed to delegating it to the AI, you will be able to do everything manually. In some circumstances, OOTP may still populate your minor league rosters by default, or it might assign newly acquired players to your lowest level of minors by default. But generally you can override any of this and control everything, if that's what you prefer.

[LoneRhino]

Are there players available? I found a list of free agents butt that didn't have that many players. Do I have to play a season in order to have enough players to fill all of my rosters?

[thehef]

Originally Posted by LoneRhino

Are there players available? I found a list of free agents butt that didn't have that many players. Do I have to play a season in order to have enough players to fill all of my rosters?

This depends upon how you set up your game. If you enabled minor leagues on the first panel of the Historical (game creation) Wizard, then the real minor league teams would've been populated with the correct players (AI will pretty quickly start moving players around within an organization, but otherwise it should be pretty accurate). However, if you did not enable minor leagues from the get-go, and instead added minor leagues later in the set up of you game (IOW, you did not enable historical minor leagues at the very beginning of the creation of your game), then the minor league players will not be available. Only players who played in the majors that year (and some other free agents with previous MLB experience) will be in your free agent pool.

[Brad K]

Originally Posted by thehef

Only players who played in the majors that year (and some other free agents with previous MLB experience) will be in your free agent pool.

What is in () is partially true when entire history is imported.

If entire history is imported FAs are those who played MLB before and after the start year but did not play MLB in the start year. I recommend these players be assigned to their appropriate teams rather than left as FAs signable by anyone.

If full history is not imported then players who did not play MLB in the start year will not be in the game. This can cause a shortage of subs. If in real life a team did not call up a SS during the season then you won't have one to call up in the event of injury.

In Pirates Moneyball I had about 80 FAs in 1951 which which only 16 teams was a good boost to the reserves.

[thehef]

Thanks Brad. Very good clarifications

[Yogi Swoboda]

I also like to play as the 62 Mets. What I do is start my sim in 1961 as unemployed and then at the end of the season take the Met GM job on the first day it is available. That way you are in charge of everything from day 1 including the inaugural expansion draft. No Hobie Landrith, unless you want him.

[LoneRhino]

I love this idea. I'm going to give this a try.

[Pelican]

Also, you can create an unaffiliated minor league team in 1961, that would become a part of the future Mets’ farm system in 1962. I would suggest no higher than A. You can draft minor league free agents to fill out the roster. You can’t affiliate with the Mets, because in 1962, there are no Mets. But at least you can get a jump on forming an organization - the true weakness of most expansion teams.

[thehef]

I've never done this, but I think it would work: Assuming you are playing with real minor leagues (which gives you access to many more players) I'm thinking you could take over a 1961 minor league team that was not affiliated with any MLB team. Your choices for that would be these:

TEAM			LEAGUE			LEVEL	1962 MLB AFFIL		1961 ROSTER
Harlan Smokies		Appalachian League	B/C	remains independent	5 future/former MLB players
Mobile Bears		Southern Association	AA	none/folded		< 10 "
Raleigh Capitals	Carolina League		A	Wash			*1 "
Toronto Maple Leafs	International League	AAA	Milw			~ 30 "
Pocatello Bannocks	Pioneer League		B/C	Bos			2 "
Macon Peaches		Southern Association	AA	Cinc			~ 20 
*45-year-old Enos Slaughter

Harlan might be easiest because as soon as the game changes stages from the 1961 Postseason to the 1961-62 Offseason (this occurs like a day after the conclusion of the World Series), all of the affiliate changes (and the disappearance of Mobile) will occur, meaning a lot of players will be automatically moved around to their new organizations (and the Mobile players will become free agents). The Harlan players should mostly stand pat, though. (I'd think you could get around any of those player moves - that OOTP will automatically make during the transition - by using the Shortlist feature. It'd enable you to easily track your players and then undo whatever moves/transactions OOTP made to your players...)

When the game transitions from the '61 Postseason to the '61-'62 Offseason, you could either:

a) Manually change the affiliate of Harlan from IND to NY1 (Mets)
b) Move all of your players to the '62 Mets' organization and disassociate yourself with Harlan. The Mets' '62 affiliates are Santa Barbara (Calif Lg - A), Quincy (Midwest Lg - A), and Auburn (NY-Penn Lg - B/C)

I'd go with b) because then you can move forward without any further required manual affiliation changes, etc., whereas with a) at the end of the '62 season you'll need to do something with all of your players because Harlan affiliates with Yankees for '63 (and then moves to Johnson City in '64)... So it'd be cleaner with b) to just move all your players to the Mets' org and then let OOTP handle minor league history moving forward, without any manual changes needed...

Note that the change from '61 Postseason to '61-'62 Offseason is also when the Mets will appear in OOTP as an expansion team.

[fredbeene]

why can't you start the game PRIOR to the draft for the expansion mets?
I want all the stats and rating PRIOR to expansion of mets. Then going fw have OOTP dev engine take over. Then start the draft so i can draft the mets.
there is not a way to do it in prevous versions

[LoneRhino]

How do I move the players?

Edit: Never mind. I figured it out.