Any changes to manager only mode?

[wolverinebball11]

I haven't seen this addressed elsewhere, but have there been any changes made to manager only mode in 17? The AI GM who runs your team while you're only the manager, in my experience at least, has been pretty bad. This may just be the AI in general, but I'm now into my 15th season as a manager and it seems as if the AI makes bad move after bad move after bad move and continually runs the team into the ground.

After a trip to the World Series, my GM traded away the reigning league MVP with three years remaining on his contract along with a prospect for an older, more expensive, lesser player. Then, a few years later (while managing a different team with a different GM), my GM once again traded away my team's best player, this time with four years remaining on his contract, for a lesser Major Leaguer and two minor league non-prospects. This happened with the team in position for a playoff berth. Setting aside the fact that these were both abysmal returns for how good the players were, in real life you would never see a team's best player traded away in either of these scenarios. It really saps a lot of the fun out of what is otherwise a very fun new way to play. Has anyone else experienced similar issues?

[Mr. Marlin]

Dear Wolverinebball

We know EXACTLY how you feel. Welcome to our reality!

Love,

Mike Redmond, Ozzie Guillen, Jack McKeon, Brandon Hyde, Edwin Rodriguez, Fredi Gonzalez, Joe Girardi, Jeff Torbourg, John Boles, Jim Leyland, Cookie Rojas, & Rene Lachman

Managers Florida/Miami Marlins

[ChromEagle]

Originally Posted by Mr. Marlin

Dear Wolverinebball

We know EXACTLY how you feel. Welcome to our reality!

Love,

Mike Redmond, Ozzie Guillen, Jack McKeon, Brandon Hyde, Edwin Rodriguez, Fredi Gonzalez, Joe Girardi, Jeff Torbourg, John Boles, Jim Leyland, Cookie Rojas, & Rene Lachman

Managers Florida/Miami Marlins

The 1998 Florida Marlins....

[The Wolf]

Originally Posted by wolverinebball11

Then, a few years later (while managing a different team with a different GM), my GM once again traded away my team's best player, this time with four years remaining on his contract, for a lesser Major Leaguer and two minor league non-prospects.

Andrelton Simmons says to tell you hello.

[bababui]

Sean Newcombe is anything but a non-prospect.

[wolverinebball11]

Originally Posted by The Wolf

Andrelton Simmons says to tell you hello.

Newcomb is hardly a non-prospect and the player in question here is a much better player than Simmons. He has a career OPS+ north of 150 and has averaged over 7 WAR the past 5 seasons.

[Vermin360]

I've had Theo Epstein pull a couple strange moves on me as well. Arismendy Alcantara was leading the league in stolen bases and was really solid in the lead-off role for me, and Theo demoted him to AAA Iowa. And David Ross is lighting up the PCL but won't get called up to replace Welington Castillo or Miguel Montero, both of whom are having plenty of struggles at the plate.

I usually don't get too frustrated. I know when I start my GM dynasty with OotP 17, I'm going to make plenty of bonehead moves myself.

[Matt Arnold]

The AI GM should be significantly improved from the past, so hopefully they'll make less ...questionable... decisions.

We're tossing around some ideas to give more feedback between GM and manager, but unfortunately that won't make it to the initial release. Always glad to hear suggestions for what you'd like to see, though.

[wolverinebball11]

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

The AI GM should be significantly improved from the past, so hopefully they'll make less ...questionable... decisions.

We're tossing around some ideas to give more feedback between GM and manager, but unfortunately that won't make it to the initial release. Always glad to hear suggestions for what you'd like to see, though.

Feedback between GM and manager would be great, both for GM and manager only modes. A few things I think would be great additions are:


GM to manager:
- The ability to request a certain role for a player. For instance, the GM would be able to request a certain player be put into the starting lineup or starting rotation or maybe request a player play a certain position. We have the ability to see a player's expectation right now, maybe there could also be a GM expectation in the same place. In GM only mode, your manager may or may not listen to what you want based on his managerial traits and your reputation. If he doesn't listen, it may be time for you to find a new manager! In manager only mode, you also wouldn't be required to follow the GM's expectation, just like you aren't required to follow a player's expectation now. However, just as a player may become unhappy if he isn't in his expected role, the GM may become unhappy if you aren't using players the way he wants.


Manager to GM:
- Request an upgrade at a specific position. This is something that could happen in-season as well as during the offseason and is also something that could be influenced by a manager's reputation. If you're a third baseman away from having a complete team, you can ask the GM to go get you one! Just like role requests, the GM isn't always going to listen to what you want, but he may be more likely to do so if you have a better reputation.
- Request to trade or not trade a player. If your team has an elite player or maybe someone who's a great leader that you believe is helping everyone around him, you can ask your GM not to trade him. Conversely, if you have a player you believe is causing trouble in the clubhouse or someone who is blocking a great prospect, you can ask your GM to get rid of him.
- Ask for a player's promotion/demotion. I've had experiences before with players who don't have many stars getting demoted in spite of their consistently good performance. If this is happening, it'd be great to be able to ask your GM not to demote that player. This can happen the other way as well. Maybe there's someone with a lot of potential who is also performing really well in Triple-A. You can ask your GM to please promote him to the Major League team (this is something that would probably need to be limited to only players at Double-A or higher).


I could probably write up something a bit longer if anyone would like me to. Thanks for all you guys do, can't wait to play 17!

[Matt Uk]

I've seen a couple of things like this in my recent game I'm playing. I'm playing as Rimini in the Italian League but with the whole OOTP world on. The GM traded early in the season (from another Italian team) for a good SS, 32 but with some MLB experience and much better than any batter I had on my roster. However it seemed that (and I noticed this with most of the teams in the league) the AI seemed to favour filling the active roster with foreign pitchers which makes sense in that they are going to be better quality but with the foreign limit of 8 players it was leaving foreign batters on the reserve roster. The two in my reserve roster were ranked 2nd and 4th in the league on the batting list.

So the question was I guess, should the AI have been trading for a foreign player having already been over the quota amongst the active and reserve roster or should it have traded a foreign pitcher or put him on the reserve roster and brought in what was the team's star batter onto the active roster?

Strangely when the play offs started the AI stuck him onto the active roster (no increase in roster size in Italy though, so not because of that) along with a couple of other decent foreign batters who'd spent the season on the reserve roster.


So as you're happy to hear suggestions, here's a couple (possibly to be toggled on /off as is the brilliant OOTP way to let everyone play the way they like)



1) An option to perhaps 'lock in' a number of players to the active roster, these the AI GM won't trade or move to AAA/reserve rosters

2) Maybe an option to veto a GM trade or at least say you don't think it's a good idea and then the AI GM may or may not take note of your thoughts.


The other thing that we could really do with (might be in 17?) is for more information on call ups with a reserve roster because I noticed a couple of times for example, that I'd go to play the next days game and I'd find a couple of players from my reserve roster had appeared in the active roster but had no idea the move had happened as there is no notification unless they are traded or moved up from minor leagues. Reserve to Active roster moves don't get a mention.


I love the feature and I'm sure like everything else it will get better and better but some feedback options would certainly be helpful

[wolverinebball11]

Crap, one other thing I forgot in my post above.


Real-time evolution of team focus. In my original post, I talked about my best player getting traded away when the team was in position for a playoff berth. Before the season, our team focus had been set to rebuild, which is totally fine. However, the AI should be able to recognize that the team is exceeding expectations and change the team focus if we get far enough into the season (in this case we were roughly at the halfway point) and still look like contenders. I would venture a guess that the team focus is at least partially what caused the trade. Of course, this could go the other way as well if a team is underperforming.

[The Wolf]

Originally Posted by bababui

sean newcombe is anything but a non-prospect.

tinstaap

[The Wolf]

Originally Posted by wolverinebball11

Newcomb is hardly a non-prospect and the player in question here is a much better player than Simmons. He has a career OPS+ north of 150 and has averaged over 7 WAR the past 5 seasons.

Simmons is a generational talent who was under team control and who was traded for a weedeater and two alleged magic beans.

[Mr. Marlin]

Because you have a human interacting with an AI I'd imagine the interactions would be kept simple. Even if it is something as simple as the AI GM asking the human manager to agree or disagree on a trade. You can even increase the immersion by making the human managers reputation vs the GMs reputation a factor on if the GM listens to the opinion or not.

One think I would like to see, expanding on Wolverine's excellent suggestions, is if I am playing as a minor league manager I sometimes find myself seriously short handed due to injuries. It would be nice to ask the ML club GM for help filling out a roster.

[The Wolf]

"And while Chris Ellis and Sean Newcomb are probably the Angels' two best prospects, period, it's not clear that either will actually become a valuable major leaguer." - Rob Neyer

[wolverinebball11]

Originally Posted by The Wolf

Simmons is a generational talent who was under team control and who was traded for a weedeater and two alleged magic beans.

Simmons is a very good player. The best season of his career was worse than this guy's averageseason. And yes, tinstaapp and all, but Newcomb is an actual real prospect with potential to become a good major leaguer. Also Aybar is a solid player. That isn't really the point of this thread though, as it makes sense for the Braves to be trading players away since they're rebuilding.

[Dodgerblue]

It happens to be that this statement applies to every prospect.