For those playing a realistic MLB league...
 

Do you guys turn on any other leagues when creating your "realistic" MLB universe? There are other professional leagues in Japan, China, Korea, Mexico, etc. along with the World Baseball Classic. I'm just wondering if anyone who's trying to make it realistic thinks it's worth it to enable these leagues. Thanks!

I'm running a historical game as my main one right now, but if you've got a decent enough CPU (i5 or better) you probably want to run Japan, Korea, the Indies, and your pick of the Latin American leagues.

Even on a weaker CPU I'd argue you should at least have Japan and Korea because the posting system.

The classic has very minimal impact on runtime, and it's a neat thing, so it might as well be enabled, but it doesn't make much of a difference to the game world either way.

No. Don’t see any real benefit to that myself. But do what you like.

Posted players should be generated (with fictional stats) the way other international players are generated. I'd argue they should have fictional stats as well.

If you are playing stats only, don't have them on is my advice. The AI sees obviously terrible players, who accrued good stats over 40 or so games in Mexico (for example) and gives them $50 million/5 year type deals.

With ratings as more of the AI evaluation, it's more your choice. Personally, I have the Japanese league but none of the others as the posting system is worth having from Japan as it impacts ML thinking sometimes. The other leagues, not so much.

I would argue Korea could also. The other leagues do affect the MLB also, but maybe more or less from the opposite direction. Some washed up MLB players will play in foreign leagues such as the Mexican League, Nippon, KBO and CPBL.

In my MLB world I have and would at least have these three (for me, these three are “must”):

*** (Japan)

Mexico

KBO League (Korea)

Then (optionally), perhaps add 2 of the following: Cuba, Venezuela, Columbia or the Dominican, possibly CPBL .

I guess it could be argued that 5 is the best balance, so for me, those "Must have 3" above, then 2 of the "Optional". As to importance, I'd be interested to hear what others think of these "Optional" pro leagues; which two they think should be included.

And yes, add the WBC.

Could certainly, although in my experience it is very rare that a posted Korean player actually makes the MLB (OOTP18 experience - not really got deep into 19). Nippon ones do quite often. If performance isn't a problem then Korea is definitely not a bad league to have running.

I am going to include all leagues in my universe I think (working furiously on logos, ballcaps now) but if I were to only have 5, they would likely be:


MLB
NPBL
KBO
CPBL
LMB
US Indy Leagues


Then turn off Generated Indy players, and set established international FA's to minimum (5 annually) and remove the above nationalities and recalculate the percentages. Cuban players will be the ones mostly generated, with a few other random ones after that.

Me either.. just MLB for me.

This is my first game I've ever had the other leagues on (Japan, Korea, and I think Cuba) and I barely notice that they're even there, except for when the simulation slows down to generate their league predictions/draft etc. I thought it would add more immersion but I dont pay attention to it or notice it and it just slows my entire league down, so I would say it's not worth it, maybe just the *** (japan) would do

This is exactly my experience although each time I start a new league these days, I ponder whether I should have other leagues.

The thing is, even when I had a NCAA feeder league, I never went there to look at anything. I never noticed who won the College World Series, never visited team pages, never followed players in their collegiate careers. When I used to have international leagues, I never followed them, either.

With this in mind, I choose to have just a fictional MLB and full minor leagues. The game does a good job of creating new players in the appropriate situations: amateur, international discovery, foreign free agent.

This is NOT to run down the idea, however. There can be much immersion in following those other leagues but I feel obliged to offer my two cents about weighing whether your past/present level of interacting with those leagues justifies the time and effort of setting them up (plus the drawbacks of slower simulations and larger / more numerous files).

YMMV, of course.

I have 4 Indy leagues running in North America. No foreign leagues. AZ Fall league in um, the fall.

I have a fast computer (i7 8700K, 1070ti) so I turn most of them on. I don't do the WBC though, because I don't like it. You could easily leave them off and not miss much. If you are going to use any, I would suggest Japan and maybe Korea for the posting system, Mexico and Cuba, plus the U.S. indy leagues.

I think I forgot to add the WBC, can I add that in now during my season?

The problem with Cuba is it doesn't do much. Defection is not modeled in the financial system...so of all the international/Indy leagues, Cuba actually is the least interactive of them all. You cannot sign any of it''s players, and it cannot sign any foreigners either.

You would need to give Cuba a posting system by turning on financial aspects which don't really exist. Once you do this, you are now dealing with a parallel MLB, as the Player creation modifiers are all at 1.000 for some reason. I seriously question why this was done, and have never gotten an explanation.

I turn them all on, I like to get the best players in MLB. Sometimes, players do end up in MLB, but I admit, mine is not the most realistic.

That's a really good point.

Guess I would take them off my two other "optional International" list.

I am curious though...if I run all available leagues, how to realistically get cubans into the MLB.

I have every league on, plus WBC, Olympics, and the Arizona Fall League.

I wouldn't want to play the game without at least the independent leagues and the AFL now. Those are the bare minimum for the kind of emersion I want to have.