Owner Requests Hometown Player

[MisterTidster]

My owner requested a hometown player, so I promoted a prospect that fits the bill. Playing as the guardians, player is from Parma Heights, Ohio (suburb of Cleveland). Does it have to be a free agent or trade acquisition, or is Parma heights not properly set as a hometown for Cleveland?

[LansdowneSt]

Try using this screen and toggling on the "From the [City] area" button and see who qualifies.

[MisterTidster]

Originally Posted by LansdowneSt

Try using this screen and toggling on the "From the [City] area" button and see who qualifies.

For some reason, searching with that tool causes my game to crash.

[oldfatbaldguy]

Originally Posted by MisterTidster

My owner requested a hometown player, so I promoted a prospect that fits the bill. Playing as the guardians, player is from Parma Heights, Ohio (suburb of Cleveland). Does it have to be a free agent or trade acquisition, or is Parma heights not properly set as a hometown for Cleveland?

I've wondered for a while how that works in the game. I had an owner of a fictional team in Albuquerque make that request, and there were two players in the league database from Albuquerque. Parma Heights absolutely should qualify for Cleveland.

[rink23]

I received the sign a hometown player request once from an owner.
I play as the Cardinals so I acquired Jake Odorizzi, back when he was good.
Odorizzi grew up in Highland, Ill., about a half hour from downtown St. Louis.
While Highland is probably not considered a suburb it is very much Cardinals' territory and Odorizzi was well known in local circles having been a former St. Louis Post-Dispatch High School Player of the Year.
But the next time I received a note from the owner; he admonished me for not signing a hometown player.
Heck, I would say 75 percent plus fans don't know what the hometown is for most players even if they grew up across the street from the stadium.
Fans just care about how good a player is.
So I tend to ignore those requests. It's stupid.

[oldfatbaldguy]

Yup.

[niu354]

Sometimes I wish the goals were more absurd, but with the clearer success/failure criteria you seek. I’m sure the real GMs deal with some serious nonsense in their jobs.

[chrismeglan]

Originally Posted by MisterTidster

My owner requested a hometown player, so I promoted a prospect that fits the bill. Playing as the guardians, player is from Parma Heights, Ohio (suburb of Cleveland). Does it have to be a free agent or trade acquisition, or is Parma heights not properly set as a hometown for Cleveland?

From what I understand, you have to "acquire" a hometown player, meaning he has to be brought from outside the organization (trade, free agency, etc), starting from the moment this goal is given to you.

Though admittedly, this mechanic of the game has never fully worked from a geographical standpoint. Realistically, you're expecting every player from Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lorain, Medina County, etc, to show up in a player search. It never works lol and frankly it doesn't make sense for every owner to give out this goal because not every region of the US produces a lot of MLB talent—NE Ohio especially

[OutS|der]

It's stupid requests like this that persist year after year with no insight as to what the owner was actually looking for is why I turn off owner goals. There's was too many instances of them not making any sense.

[Edster007]

I am always on the fence about owners goals and whether to disable. I really don't like the hometown player goal and why it would matter to the owner.

I am also not a fan of acquire an MVP at any point, especially one or two seasons into the save before the league has history.

[dewelar]

Originally Posted by Edster007

I really don't like the hometown player goal and why it would matter to the owner.

That part at least makes sense: the owner wants to raise the fan interest level. More fan interest = more $ in their pocket.

[WhiskyTango]

I tried to play with owner requests but learned to turn it off. Too many non-contributing things like this one. Others were "improve performance vs LHP", "obtain MVP". The last one had the AGM keep pushing 36 year old Lou Gehrig at me all year. I had a young roster, so getting a twilight MVP didn't serve me at all. Getting a hometown player makes sense if the attendence needs a boost, or if the owner personality is just greedy. In that way it makes sense as part of the game.

[uti-pontus-hage]

Originally Posted by WhiskyTango

I tried to play with owner requests but learned to turn it off. Too many non-contributing things like this one. Others were "improve performance vs LHP", "obtain MVP". The last one had the AGM keep pushing 36 year old Lou Gehrig at me all year. I had a young roster, so getting a twilight MVP didn't serve me at all. Getting a hometown player makes sense if the attendence needs a boost, or if the owner personality is just greedy. In that way it makes sense as part of the game.

Owner goals is far from perfect. Your example of performance improvement against lefties is in my eyes a pretty realistic one though. You can argue if that's something an owner would say IRL but at least the game have a mechanic that 'forces' you as a GM to think about certain aspects of the game universe. But like I said, I don't argue that owner goals is perfect but I can see why they exist.

[OutS|der]

At the very least requests like home grown player should include examples of who the owner means, or there should be an way to indicate players that fit owners goals on the player page.

[oldfatbaldguy]

Generally I think dumb owner goals just mean you have a dumb owner, and that's realistic. I have a great owner right now. He wants me to play .500 ball while I build up the farm system. Just finished my first season of the save, went 83-79 and he's happy. Added goal: Build up fan support. No complaints.

[Antonin]

Originally Posted by OutS|der

It's stupid requests like this that persist year after year with no insight as to what the owner was actually looking for is why I turn off owner goals. There's was too many instances of them not making any sense.

I turn off owner goals because for one thing, I always play with "can't get fired," so if I don't meet the owner's goals, I'm not going to suffer any consequences anyway.

But also, I have my own goals. I have always believed the game AI has an advantage over the human player, so my chances of winning a World Series are very, very small, no matter what I do to build a great team. So, I focus on nurturing the careers of players I like, helping players reach individual goals (such as complete games pitched), defeating rivals, etc.

Owner goals often conflict with my own goals. In my long-running fictional Summer League I have a great French-Canadian shortstop named Richard Sabourin. My owner said to upgrade the position, but Sabourin is one of the best shortstops I've ever seen in OOTP, so I signed him to a long-term deal even though he's something like 33 years old. His offense has been suffering in recent seasons, but I want to see how he does as a defensive genius over the rest of his career. After signing him to his last contract I turned off owner goals.