[Tiger Fan]

I tinkered for a long time trying to find a way to import the entire historical draft class (including Negro League players and career minor leaguers) into a fictional environment annually just as they do in a standard historical league with minors enabled setup. I tried various mass importing player text lists and many other things but purely by accident I stumbled on a way to auto import them a week ago.

This allows a user to create a historical league and then modify the team names, add his own custom minors (as many or as few levels as you might choose) and still get the full collection of rookies each year just as they would debut in a standard historical league with full minors enabled. Following these steps will prevent your fictional teams being overwritten or overwhelmed by all the real minor leagues that would typically arrive.

It is not without flaws. In my tests I decided I would like want to tinker with the league total modifiers to account for the extra influx of talent into my league the Negro League players bring (but that is the same if you turned the color-barrier off in a historical sim). There is also the matter of some of the short-career minor league players being too good so perhaps you might want to tinker with the draft pool each year. But the good news is the players will all import. And if anything this is a great argument why all of those customization options that a few have criticized of late on the boards have such value.

Here are the steps I used.

STEP 1- Choose NEW HISTORICAL LEAGUE in the League creation wizard. Follow step one of the wizard in selecting your season to start (I will use 1901 for this example). Select import complete history up to 1901 if you so desire - does not matter either way. What does matter is make sure you have the checkbox for Import Real Negro Leagues (1920-1950) and Minor Leagues (1915+) UNCHECKED. That is essential. Also do not check the option to Use Random players from all eras instead of real rosters or this will not work. Optimize Player ratings for either Career Play or Single Season replay is fine.

Click next step. The game will then take you to Step 2 out of 6 of the Historical League creation wizard.

STEP 2: At this point click on Advanced Mode to get out of the wizard and to the normal league creation screen.

STEP 3: From the create new game screen you will see your Major League Baseball league. Click on the historical tab and from here enable the checkbox to IMPORT &MAINTAIN REAL MINOR LEAGUES

STEP 4: At this point you can if you desire add fictional minor leagues to your league, change any of the rule settings you like, rename your teams, do pretty much anything you like.

However, do not change the date of your amateur draft to during the season. Leave it at December 15th as the default setting indicates. (Note, perhaps you can make some changes without hurting things but I have it working fine leaving it as is). I also changed my Amateur Draft Pool Reveal date (in the RULES tab for my Major League baseball) from 120 days to 180 days prior to the draft. I don't think it matters when you have it as long as the draft class reveal date occurs before the World Series finishes. That date will be key so remember it. In my case it says June 18. Also, I suggest while you can rename the existing 16 major league teams (in my setup I am using 1901)do not add any or delete any, at least not until your league is finished the creation process.

STEP 5 - So I have renamed my teams, added my minor leagues (make sure enable ghost minor leaguers has not be unchecked as you will be short players the first few years if you added minors). Click on the START GAME option and your league is created.


STEP 6- You now have your major league with the renamed teams you decided upon. You also have your 16 teams with full rosters but they correspond to the real life MLB teams of 1901 so if you like you can go to the LEAGUE SETTINGS/FUNCTIONS tab and choose clear rosters and then schedule a free agent draft to randomize them.

Note at this stage there are only players who played in MLB in 1901, no career minor league or Negro League players yet. They will only appear beginning with the 1902 draft class.

STEP 7- When you are ready to go play out your league. When you get to June 18th (or whatever day is set as your draft class reveal date) the rookies, including all of the career minor leaguers from the MiLB database will import.

STEP 8-The only thing you need to do now to make sure the game does not overwrite your fictional teams and minor leagues with real ones so after the draft pool announcement date go to the HISTORICAL tab in LEAGUE SETTINGS AND uncheck in this order: Automatically import historical rookies followed by Automatically expand league. I typically do that on June 30th, after I make sure my draft class is in place. Note you must be sure to uncheck both of those options mentioned here or the game will overwrite your leagues will real MLB and minor leagues

From there all you need to do is each year after opening day but before your June 18 draft class reveal date make sure you enable both of those checkbox options in the Historical tab - Automatically Expand League and Automatically Import Historical Rookies. I have been doing it on June 1st each season in my current league and then at the end of June (after the new rookie crop appears) I uncheck them again until the following June.



That looks like a lot when I read it back but it is pretty straightforward and easy to do once you have the league created. It really comes down to just those 2 checkboxes being changed twice each June. Depending upon how many minor leagues you have you could turn off the option to use ghost minor leaguers once you get a few years in and start to have a lot of rookies.

Let me know if you have any questions. I did 10 years in my 1921 start and am in 1928 at the moment in my 1901 start using this method and all is working fine - my team names and minor leagues are all intact, no real MLB teams have taken over (or real minor leagues shown up) and all of the players (MLB and minor leaguers) appear to be importing just as they would were it a standard historical league with full minors.