"Stars are not born. They are made." The Nashville Stars Story.

[the_hdk]

"Stars are not born. They are made."


The Nashville Stars Story
OOTP 26 AAR

Welcome to my new AAR.
I'm new to both OOTP and these forums.


Out of the Park Baseball 26 has been scraching the itch that lack of (new) Football Manager has created. It's an amazing sports startegy game that in many ways is far more advanced than FM ever was.


Please do note that my English is still bad (a Pole living in Netherlands) and my knowledge of Baseball, MLB and OOTP is very very limiting. Either way I'm going to take you on a journey with an expansion team in MLB. Nashville Stars. The first season will be the 2028 one to create a bit of...realism. That means i'm setting up myself in quite a difficult scenario. But more on that later. I waited for today as a new patch was just released to start the game, and AAR.


So:
Scanerio: Expansion team in 2028


AAR Goals Short term: (First five seasons)
1 - Have atleast one .450 season
2 - Club culture. Can only sign African-American, African or Latin American ballplayers.
3 - One Owner goal per season
4 - Players are not allowed to earn more than 20 million per season.


AAR Long term goals:
1 - Have a starting pitcher, a closer and two batters that are world class (70+ rating).
2 - Win World series


So the AAR will be written in two different types of updates. First from me as a player, explaining the what is happening to the team and the stats, results etc. and how I play it or atleast want to. And second that will be from a fictional writer Miles Carver who is writing a recurring piece on the team for the Rolling Stone magazine.


Please feel free to ask, suggest or just comment. As mentioned before I'm new to OOTP games. Anyway, each comment gives the extra motivation to write more. Hope you guys enjoy.




Links to opening posts.


Introduction
Part One -
Part Two -
Part Three -
Part Four -


...more to come....




Note:
Credits for the logo to the artist who posted them on the OOTP forums. I just edited the official Nashville small logo to have the same colours.

[the_hdk]

Introduction
Part One - The Nashville Stars Rise Again

Let’s get one thing out of the way: yes, Michael Jordan owns a Major League Baseball team now. In a move that stunned both the baseball world and the world-world, the Nashville Stars are joining MLB as part of the 2028 expansion — resurrecting the name of the old Black Leagues club — and were immediately the most talked-about franchise not for what they’d done, but for who signs the checks. Jordan, long presumed gone from public life (and possibly the planet following his sale of Charlotte Hornets), emerged from self-imposed exile with a staggering business portfolio, a surprisingly sharp eye for undervalued sports properties, and, a genuine love for baseball. Or maybe just sequins on uniforms. Either way, he owns the team. And he's not shy about it.


This is Nashville — the city of music, memory, and money. And the Stars? They’re built to reflect all three. They’re flashy. They’re ambitious. And they’ve got a front office led by former MLB outfielder Curtis Granderson*, who somehow manages to balance baseball idealism with the daily chaos of answering texts from a billionaire and former basketball star who is already planning his upcoming Netflix special.


But beneath the tabloid-ready surface, there’s a serious project at play: a roster built on underappreciated talent, a scouting department that thinks outside the box (and the country), and a fan base hungry for something new, meaningful, and maybe a little strange. The Nashville Stars are not just an expansion team. They are a question mark, a fever dream, and possibly a revolution — wrapped in a rhinestone jacket and ready to hit cleanup.


Welcome to the circus. First pitch is at 7:05.




Miles Carver, senior correspondent — covers the collision of American culture, celebrity, and chaos. Rolling Stone August 2027 edition.




---
* The avatar I will use as GM for this story. Based on real person who would be a great fit as a GM tbh and fits the profile and culture of the team.
Note that the logo is the actual logo used by the team that want to bring the Nashville Stars to MLB. I just edited teh colours so they align to the fictional logo used earlier.

[the_hdk]

Introduction
Part Two - How Did This Happen? (Seriously.)

Nobody was expecting Michael Jordan to start a baseball team in 2026. Not after the Hornets. Not after NASCAR. Not after his retirement from public ambition itself.
But then again, nobody expects Michael Jordan — he simply decides.


The Nashville Stars expansion bid came quietly at first: a neatly packaged, investor-backed offer filed through a new holding company called Jump 23 Sports Group. The materials were clean. The branding was slick. The money was, as always with MJ, undeniable. There was no cinematic trailer. No press junket. Just a faxed letter to Rob Manfred that reportedly read:

“Expansion is coming. Give me the ball.”

Within two weeks, the deal was done. Insiders say the league couldn’t move fast enough. Jordan offered everything MLB wanted — money, attention, legitimacy, and a high-profile presence in a media-friendly market. The Stars would bring baseball back to a historically Black city with deep sports roots and musical legacy. Better yet, they'd be fronted by the man who turned Nike into a religion.


One owner reportedly grumbled, “We’re not just letting him in — we’re letting him win.”


Rob Manfred smiled through it all, called the move “a home run for the league,” and made a joke about getting Jumpman-branded bats. No one laughed. Jordan wasn’t there for the press conference. He doesn’t do public relations. He does power.

“This isn’t a retirement project,” one of Jordan’s lieutenants said. “This is a legacy move. A final flex. He wants to build something that outlasts even him.”

And just like that, baseball had a new face of ownership. Not a cartoon. Not a gimmick. A shark in suede loafers. The Ghost of Baseball Past had just bought into its future.




Miles Carver, senior correspondent — covers the collision of American culture, celebrity, and chaos. Rolling Stone September 2027 edition.

[the_hdk]

Introduction
Part Three - The Jordan Doctrine

The Nashville Stars are not your typical expansion team. There’s no “plucky underdog” branding here. No cuddly mascots. No songs about building brick by brick.
This is Jordan’s house. And in Jordan’s house, you win.

“We don’t hang banners for effort,” GM Curtis Granderson said in a preseason presser. “We’re not here to learn. We’re here to dominate.”

From the start, the Stars were built for blood. Young, explosive talent. Aggressive recruitment from overlooked markets — Cuba, Venezuela, the Dominican fringe — and a scouting network reportedly powered by AI, private equity, and old Chicago Bulls and Charlotte Hornets analytics personnel. The front office calls it “competitive violence with a smile.”


One scout described it this way: “You ever see a 19-year-old shortstop slide hard into second just because someone disrespected his cleats? That’s the guy MJ wants.”


There’s no anthem remixes or glow-in-the-dark uniforms. The Stars wear brown and gold colors*, like royalty dipped in mud. Their logo? Three stars inside a gold sky. Subtle. Sharp. Designed, rumor has it, by Jordan himself after seeing a rough mock-up and saying, “This looks soft. Fix it.”


Even the stadium — Legacy Park — was engineered for intimidation. Low dugouts. High walls. Jumbotron quotes from Sun Tzu and Pat Riley. The locker room lighting is dim, “like a Vegas poker room,” one reporter noted. There is no mascot. There is no need.


Jordan rarely appears in public, but when he does, it’s to walk the field in silence. Players fall into nervous formation like he’s Caesar. Staff call it “The Air Walk.”

“He doesn’t say much,” one prospect said. “But you know if he’s disappointed. It’s like God squinting at you.”

Miles Carver, senior correspondent — covers the collision of American culture, celebrity, and chaos. Rolling Stone September 2027 edition.








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* Zeus and Marzipan to be exact. Yes Zeus is a color. No I did not know that before today.

[the_hdk]

Introduction
Part Four - Curtis Granderson: The Cool Front to a Cold Empire


Granderson during his time at New York Yankees. (source Wikipedia)

If Michael Jordan is the Stars’ dark gravitational center, then Curtis Granderson is the sunlight that keeps things from imploding.


The former MLB All-Star was hired as General Manager less than 48 hours after the ownership deal closed. According to one exec, “Jordan didn’t even interview anyone else. Just texted Curtis a goat emoji and said: ‘You ready?’”


Granderson accepted.

“This job isn’t normal,” Granderson admits, sitting in his minimalist office overlooking center field. “But MJ isn’t normal. And neither is baseball anymore.”

Smart, media-savvy, and universally respected, Granderson was the perfect pick to do what few could: build a cutting-edge baseball team while keeping the atmosphere… breathable. He immediately poached top scouting talent, brought in a performance staff with European football backgrounds. Jordan’s presence looms over everything, but Granderson absorbs the pressure. He’s the one smoothing over harsh messages. The one telling prospects not to look MJ in the eyes on draft night. The one explaining that yes, the weight room has a camera in it — and yes, the footage does go to the owner’s phone.

“This is The Last Dance with sunflower seeds,” joked one coach.

Despite the pressure, the Stars are clicking. The locker room is tight. The media is buzzing. And most importantly — the team looks like it's build for winning. Fast.

“Curtis is calm in chaos,” one coahc said. “A poet in a war room.”

He might need to be. Because in Jordan’s world, second place doesn’t exist. And failure? That’s not just losing — that’s insulting the brand.






Miles Carver, senior correspondent — covers the collision of American culture, celebrity, and chaos. Rolling Stone October 2027 edition.


----
Next update (tomorrow) will discuss the game setup and settings. After that I will give a short update on that happened in the world between now and late 2027, atleast the MLB world. And following that we will start with my initial startegy of team building (expansion draft etc).

[the_hdk]

Intro
The 2028 season Expansion in MLB
Manifest Destiny, Again

How the Nashville Stars (and Sacramento Bears) shook up the MLB map — and made everyone relearn geography


When Major League Baseball finally gave in to the two-headed monster of expansion and profit, the league didn’t just add two teams — it detonated a cartographic grenade over the league’s century-old alignment. The year: 2028. The mood: desperate. The cities: Nashville, Tennessee and Sacramento, California. The new era: beautifully chaotic.


After decades of expansion rumors — Montreal, Charlotte, Portland, even Mexico City — it was Music City and the Farm-to-Fanbase Capital of California that got the nod. Nashville got the Stars, owned by none other than Michael Jordan, who saw the baseball diamond as the next place to prove that second place isn’t real. Meanwhile, Sacramento welcomed the Bears, a working-class club with Silicon Valley money and a chip on its shoulder the size of Yosemite.


The Realignment: Four Squads, Four Directions


To accommodate the new franchises, MLB finally scrapped the outdated East/Central/West nonsense and went full four-division alignment in each league — East, West, North, and South. Each division now has four teams. Playoffs? A seven-team setup per league: six wild-eyed hopefuls and one smug No. 1 seed with a bye.


Here’s the new look:


American League

• East: Orioles, Red Sox, Yankees, Blue Jays
• West: Mariners, Angels, Athletics (Vegas edition), Bears (Sacramento)
• North: White Sox, Guardians, Tigers, Twins
• South: Rangers, Astros, Rays, Royals

National League

• East: Marlins, Mets, Phillies, Nationals
• West: Diamondbacks, Padres, Dodgers, Giants
• North: Cubs, Reds, Brewers, Pirates
• South: Braves, Rockies, Stars (Nashville), Cardinals

No more 5-team divisions. No more wondering why the Astros play the Mariners on a Tuesday at 9 p.m. Eastern. And no more "NL Central" with six teams and an identity crisis.


Why It Works (Even If It Shouldn’t)


This alignment puts geographical logic where chaos once reigned. The Stars land in the NL South alongside old Southern royalty like the Braves and Cardinals. The Bears go west, where late-night first pitches and avocado toast are both mandatory. Plus, it injects two new fanbases into a postseason race that now rewards boldness, not balance.


As one MLB exec (who asked to remain anonymous because he wasn't authorized to speak and was also drunk) put it:

“We didn’t fix baseball, but we sure made it a hell of a lot weirder. And honestly? That’s a win.”

Oh, and in case you’re wondering what convinced Jordan to say yes to Nashville, it probably wasn’t the city’s charm or the growth projections. It was this quote from Space Jam:

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be."
— Michael Jordan, 1996 (while talking to a cartoon bunny)

Miles Carver, senior MLB correspondent — Rolling Stone October 2027 edition.






As an Extra the teams in OOTP with their owners:












Note:


Addition of Vivek as owner makes it that I have changed the country of origin for possible International players joining the MLB as FA. So instead only of International Baseball Leagues I have added possibility of English, Pakistani or Indian players to join as I see it as a scenario that cricket players will in future choose the SUPER big money in MLB. Will be get alot of those players? no maybe 3 per season...and chance is 1 in 10 that they will be good 1 in 100 they will be great. I did change the possibility for youngsters to come from more countries than only Dominican republic. Still y far the biggest chance. Only now there will be also sometimes youngsters from Australia, Colombia or Brazil.


Next update:
The Expansion draft and team building strategy.

[the_hdk]

Intro
Built Different: Inside the Nashville Stars' Philosophy

In an age where most MLB teams talk about "culture" like it’s something you can outsource to LinkedIn consultants, the Nashville Stars are doing something radical:
They actually mean it.


Owned by Michael Jordan. Built by Curtis Granderson. Rooted in the legacy of the Black Leagues and the deep soul of Black Nashville, the Stars aren’t just a baseball team. They’re a blueprint.

“We’re not chasing analytics. We’re chasing purpose,” says Granderson, sitting in a clubhouse that feels more like a study hall than a locker room.

The Stars’ Philosophy Is Clear — and Unforgiving:

They want Black excellence front and center — not as a marketing slogan, but as a foundational principle. Scouting focuses heavily on African-American talent, particularly from underrepresented areas like HBCUs, inner-city leagues, and forgotten pockets of the South.


It’s not about politics. It’s about reality: Black American players have been vanishing from baseball. The Stars want to reverse that — with fire.

“Baseball used to be our game too,” says assistant GM Terrence Malone. “We’re not asking for a seat at the table. We’re building a new table. With better music.”

But heritage alone isn’t enough. The team’s other non-negotiables?
Hard work. Intelligence. Accountability.


Every player in the organization is expected to outwork the spreadsheet. Film sessions are sacred. Dumb errors are unforgivable. And players who fail will be traded away.

“We don’t do soft,” Malone says. “If you want cute baseball, go to L.A.”

Even player acquisition is different. The Stars don’t chase 5-tool prospects just because they’re flashy. They want thinkers. Hustlers. Disrespected bats with chip-on-their-shoulder energy. They’re less interested in your 60-yard dash than how you break down a pitcher mid-count.


The motto inside the facility is simple:
“Talent is potential. Culture is power.”


It’s working. The Stars are aggressive, cohesive, and brutally disciplined on the field. They don’t just win games — they disassemble opponents. Slowly. Loudly. Proudly.

“We play with rhythm,” one scout says. “But it’s a war drum.”

Nashville might be a new team in the standings. But in the clubhouse?
It feels like a movement.


Miles Carver, senior MLB correspondent — Rolling Stone November 2027 edition.


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What are the pillars and how will I represent them ingame?


Core Pillars

1. African-American (and Latin-American) Excellence

• Celebrating Black heritage in baseball — not as nostalgia, but as present and future.
• Inspired by the Black Leagues, civil rights legacy, and Black Nashville.
• A pipeline for African-American athletes who get passed over in the current MLB draft/systems.
• Players who are not just symbolic, but central: stars, leaders, thinkers.
• Ingame: focus on African-American and Latin-American players

2. Hard Work + Hustle

• No entitlement. No TikTok PR signings. Just dogs.
• Everyone runs out ground balls. Everyone lifts. Everyone studies film.
• No "project players" who don't buy into the grind.
• Ingame: Focus on players with Hard Worker personality

3. High Intelligence

• “We don’t do dumb baseball.”
• Players must be able to adapt mid-game, understand matchups, own scouting reports.
• Data-literate + baseball IQ = promotion.
• No meathead clubhouse vibes. Swagger is fine; sloppiness is not.
• Ingame: Focus on players with high Baseball IQ and Adaptability personality.

4. Southern Grit + Rhythm

• The team reflects Nashville's dual soul — Black Southern resilience and creativity.
• There's jazz in the gameplan. Improvisation is allowed, but it’s earned.
• Swagger doesn’t come from social media — it comes from winning fights the hard way.
• Inagme: Focus on local players around teh area of Nashville. Focus on released Free Agents.

5. Leadership-Driven Clubhouse

• No superstar egos. Everyone leads.
• Players mentor rookies. Coaches empower players.
• Curtis Granderson’s philosophy: “We don’t build stars. We build men who make stars.”
• Ingame: Have a good coaching staff. Staff cannot have temperamental personality (preferably personable as they improve players more).
• Inagme: Try to have atleast one leader and one captain on the roster.

6. The Outsiders Pipeline

• Looking in under-scouted areas: HBCUs, inner-city programs, overlooked JuCos, Caribbean diaspora.
• The scouting motto? “If they’re already on someone else’s draft board, we’re late.”
• Ingame: focus on African-American and Latin-American players and Free-Agents. International scouting etc.

Hard set limitations:
- No signing of any players with contract above 20 million USD per season. If a player wants more he gets traded.
- Try to sign young players (under 25) with high ability (>45) and great potential (>60) to long term contracts (10+ years) before or within their first seaosn in the majors. No waiting for arbitration to end. Keep contracts under 20 million ofcourse.
- Startegy that so far has worked for me is to have four aces on your team and build the rest of the team as decent, hard working players.
- Two battling aces that have a >3.5 WAR >35 HR. Ofetn they have high power and rating of 60 plus.
- One ace starting pitcher with >3 WAR and one ace closer with >35 saves.
- Rest of battlers NEED to have great defense. Temas I built have atleast one Gold Glove award per season and I want to keep that. They need to be decent and do their work, but defense en hence the ZR score needs to be above 4.
- Battlers need to have an WAR coresposning to their salary. 5 million is more or less 2 WAR. so 2,5million per WAR. If a players fails under this criteria two years in a row they are OUT.
- Starting pitchers focus on groundballers. Focus on high control statistic. Starters atleats 50. Backups 45. They need to have atleast 4 decent pitches (score of 40 or higher). High stamina (40 or above).
- Relievers need also high control. But need only two pitches. (low stamina or they will think they can be starters). Need to have atleast 2 decent relievers that you can pay well (around 5-10 mln).
- Did I mention before? Well let me do again. DEFEND DEFEND DEFEND. Hard work and great defense wins championships.


So with that in mind I'm going to do the expansion draft. I kept the same rules as during the expansion draft of Tampa Bay and made it a tad but more difficult. So 18 players protected instead of 15. And players with less than 5 years of expierience get auto-protection insead of 3.


35 players will get drafted by both teams. I will first try to see who fits my criteria to be actually a team member on the roster. Than I focus on potential stars...and last trade pieces.




Next update: Expansion draft and follow-up trades.