Setting Up Fictional League And Need Help

[sreem]

Hello all. I am once again starting a new fictional league. This time it will stick however. I am so psyched about this, but I need help. My dilemma is that I want this league to start with a clean slate, i.e. no records, record book, etc. but I also want it to be stats only. I would also like it to begin with the premise that nobody really over the age of 30 is a part of the inaugural draft.


My problem is how do I set this up? I need to have stats on the players before the first draft, enough that I can make intelligent decisions on who to draft, but I have no clue how to do this.


Secondly, when I've tried to use feeder leagues in the past, I never seemed to be able to generate the right amount of players for the draft rookie draft at first, but 5 years down the road I would have WAY to many players in the draft pool/free agency.


If someone can help by providing detailed instructions on how I can set this up to work, please let me know! Thanks

[Westheim]

This might be a blunt way to solve the draft problem, but why not just seeding the teams with players? Good luck in Spring Training, though.

[sreem]

Originally Posted by Westheim

This might be a blunt way to solve the draft problem, but why not just seeding the teams with players? Good luck in Spring Training, though.

Good Idea, but I would like to be totally immersed from beginning to end. That includes spending hours analyzing the draft pool for the inaugural draft! (and then swearing uncontrollably when my draft strategy blows up mid way through the second round

[battists]

As for the inaugural draft, there really isn't any way to control the age of players. So, I would suggest you do this:

1. Set the league up for an inaugural draft.
2. Look at the player list and sort by player age.
3. Depending on how many players there are, you may just be able to delete the players who are over X age. It's possible there is a way to export/delete/re-import if there are many, but I haven't played much with those options.

However, in terms of stats, there really isn't any way to generate them. Here's one "out there" possibility:

1. Set up a dummy league in the saved game.
2. Sim for, say 10-15 years.
3. Delete this league. This should release all of the players into the FA pool.
4. Create your new league, and schedule an inaugural draft.

Bingo, you should have a draft pool filled with players with history. However, you would still need to delete the 30+ yo players. Also, your league would have 15 years of history in a "fake" league, which may bother you.

[sreem]

That is closer to what I'm looking to do.....Thank You

[battists]

Originally Posted by sreem

That is closer to what I'm looking to do.....Thank You

I should add . . . this isn't something I've done myself. I would suggest testing it out yourself on a small scale. Set up a tiny league (like 1 division, 4 teams), turn off fictional faces and baseball cards, and sim for 10 years, and then try it out. (I suggest a tiny league because it will sim 10 years much more quickly. Turning off the other two things will just speed up the processing.

[Barkingturtle]

You absolutely can control the ages of players during the inaugural draft.

Go into "Rules" for each league and set the min/max ages of the players. It's that easy. Just remember to reset them after you create the league and the initial players have been generated, so that going forward every league(most importantly your feeders) is making players in the appropriate range.

I do something like this, myself:
Majors: 22-30
AAA: 21-28
AA: 19-28
A:I don't use
R: 18-24
College Feeder:19-22
High School: 15-18

One unintended consequence of a younger playerbase, though, is lower budgets. If you're like me and you use the inaugural draft to set your markets and budgets, you'll find that since the players have less experience, their demands will be lower, and there will be less money in the league, overall.

[battists]

Originally Posted by Barkingturtle

You absolutely can control the ages of players during the inaugural draft.

Go into "Rules" for each league and set the min/max ages of the players. It's that easy. Just remember to reset them after you create the league and the initial players have been generated, so that going forward every league(most importantly your feeders) is making players in the appropriate range.

I do something like this, myself:
Majors: 22-30
AAA: 21-28
AA: 19-28
A:I don't use
R: 18-24
College Feeder:19-22
High School: 15-18

One unintended consequence of a younger playerbase, though, is lower budgets. If you're like me and you use the inaugural draft to set your markets and budgets, you'll find that since the players have less experience, their demands will be lower, and there will be less money in the league, overall.

That's awesome! Thanks!

Although, do you really need to set the ages for the (non-feeder) minors?

[sreem]

Originally Posted by Barkingturtle

One unintended consequence of a younger playerbase, though, is lower budgets. If you're like me and you use the inaugural draft to set your markets and budgets, you'll find that since the players have less experience, their demands will be lower, and there will be less money in the league, overall.

The budgets will evolve over time though, right? As players mature and demands begin to rise budgets rise also or not?

[Barkingturtle]

Originally Posted by battists

Although, do you really need to set the ages for the (non-feeder) minors?

If you don't you can end up with a number of older, less-talented guys -- guys in their 30's who were generated to fill a AAA or AA team.

Originally Posted by sreem

The budgets will evolve over time though, right? As players mature and demands begin to rise budgets rise also or not?

Yes, but I've found that if a ton of dudes are hitting free agency at the same time, which happens when the ages are compressed this way, guys who should find homes can go unsigned. Easy fix is to keep a close eye on league finances and just increase revenue incrementally. After a season or two, I usually just add 5 million or so to everyone's merchandising income.

Good luck!