[Highlander]

I'm finally at the stage where I thought I'd share what happens in my Greatest OOTP Team of All-Time League. I have spent the past month or so running sims to get a representative team for all 30 current franchises. Here's how I determined them-

All teams from 1901-2024 were used except those from partial seasons (1981, 1994, 1995, 2020) and a very small number of teams that I had to remove to give me an even number of teams for certain franchises....it was always the team with the worst winning percentage in the history of that franchise.

I set up leagues of teams within each franchise. For ones that have been around since 1901, there were 4 leagues created. One with the teams from 1901-1932, one for 1933-1964, one for 1965-1999 and one for 2000-2024. Franchises that started in other years had either one or two leagues made in pretty much the same way.

Next, each league was run through 8 seasons....one for each of the eras I am using teams from. The years used were 1910, 1933, 1953, 1971, 1986, 1999, 2010 and 2022. All teams used the DH in the years it was active, regardless of whether they actually used it themselves in real life. That gave each league 4 seasons with a DH and 4 without.

Each league had 4 divisions and the winner of each went to the playoffs with no wildcards. I kept track of the winning and losing team for each of the 8 seasons and the team that won the most World Series would move on. If there was a tie, the tie breaker was how many times they went to the Series altogether. If that was also a tie, then the teams would face off in a one-on-one 8 season playoff using the same 8 years and the team with the most wins over the other would move on. Hope that all makes sense!

Finally, for franchises with 2 or 4 leagues, the winners faced off in another 8 season battle without playoffs. It was all about who got the most seasons where they beat the other teams....or if it was a tie, then which team had the most wins in total. For a couple of teams that started more recently (like Arizona) they only had one season so the winner of that single season just moved on.

My thinking is that to be considered the greatest team of all time, you have to be able to win in all eras...or at least win in more eras than other teams that you are competing with. I felt this was the best way I could think of to run teams through a real "gauntlet" of having to face off against each other in a multiple era tournament of sorts. I also used 1-year recalc and bumped the adjust/weaken levels for AB a little higher so I got ratings based on exactly how each player played in their given year without having partial seasons affect things too much. Overall I was pretty happy with the results.

Now you can see why it took a month or more to get these teams settled! As you might expect, there are some all-time great teams that came out of this and a fair number of surprise teams that must have some magic that OOTP really likes.

Where we will go from here is a set of 8 more seasons with these 30 teams. They are set up in leagues/divisions as in current real life. The difference will be that only one Wildcard per league will move on....so it will be 3 division winners and a Wildcard battling out to make the World Series. I will keep track of which team wins the most World Series and also which team ends up with the most wins through the 8 seasons. I am using Interleague Play and a balanced schedule, so everyone gets to play everyone else pretty evenly.

I think that leaves just one more big reveal before I start simming the league.....the actual teams involved! That will be what comes next. I'll reveal each division and the teams representing their given franchises. See if your favorite team is the one that made it through...again, there will be some strange ones but also some that most of you could easily guess. I have a few that I think will be the favorites to come out of this as THE best team of all time, but there are definitely a number of candidates.

If anyone has any questions for things I missed, let me know. Otherwise I will reveal the NL East in the very near future.