Salt Lake Gulls - Hyper Realistic Expansion

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Salt Lake Gulls - Realistic Expansion Playthrough

Entering MLB in 2030
A & A+ teams will launch in 2028
ACL & AA teams will launch in 2029 with the , DSL, AAA and MLB teams beginning play in 2030

The Gulls and Nashville Stars will pick at the end of each round of MLB Draft in 2028-2030, per previous MLB expansion team rules

The Expansion Draft will be conducted using the same rules as the 1998 Expansion Draft. Summarizing briefly, teams will get to protect 15 40-man players. Players with less than three years of service time are protected automatically. The Gulls and Stars will draft round robin for 15 picks each, picking one player from each MLB team.

For the 2nd round, existing teams can protect three more players and the process repeats. For the final round, consisting of five more picks, teams get to protect an additional three players, now 21 total. MLB teams can lose a maximum of three players overall.

OOTP House Rules

We will play using the new-to-OOTP27 ‘Hall of Fame’ difficulty. Additional House Rules include:

Waivers can only be used in-season and the player must have a negative WAR at the time of claim and be a realistic DFA candidate.

We alternate utilizing IAFA and Rule 5 every other year, except in the 2029 offseason, leading up to our inaugural season. We will limit ourselves to one R5 pick, minimum 25 years old, with no MLB service time, except for 2029, where we can select up to three with the same restrictions. IAFA players can only be signed if they have the highest possible ‘Relationship Strength’ with the team.

We will set a rolling, ambitious two-year profit requirement. If we overspend in the first year, we need to make it up in the second year. If we sell off heavily at the deadline or make a deep playoff run and exceed the profit level in year one, those funds can be plowed back into the team in year two.

Not an official rule, but trades should generally pass the smell test, ideally being a trade that we would make from either side of the deal.

In the MLB Draft, we use the draft slots and overall signing pool as a hard and fast limit, as it is in reality. We can over on a given pick, but cannot exceed the pool amount in total. If a player is asking for an excessive bonus (8-10M) that goes over our pool amount, we treat that as a failed negotiation and a pick we can’t sign, and won’t select him.

One More Thing:

I recently came across this interesting article by Maxwell Kates that ranks all of the previous expansion teams by analyzing their overall wins and losses, how many core players they were able to acquire through the expansion draft and resulting trades, and also by the WAR generated by their expansion drafts through the first decade of their existence:

https://sabr.org/journal/article/whi...cessful-draft/

I thought it was a great piece and highly recommend reading it. Through the first ten years of this save, we’ll be tracking the Gulls and Stars by the same metrics and will see where we land on the list.

We’ll do quick summaries of the 2026 & 2027 seasons and then dive in on putting together our A-Ball teams for 2028, with the hope of winning a decent number of games, creating a solid development environment for our first draft class, and maybe even finding a diamond in the rough or two among the unsigned minor league free agent masses.,

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The Mets lead the majors with 103 wins and rolled to the World Series, but the Yankees finally got over the hump and took the Subway Series.Trent Grisham won series MVP and promptly signed a lucrative six-year extension to remain in pinstripes.



MVP:
AL - Bobby Witt Jr.
NL - Shohei Ohtani

CY:
AL - Max Fried
NL - Christopher Sanchez

ROY:
AL - Carter Jensen
NL - Carson Benge

RROY:
AL - Aroldis Chapman
NL - Mason Miller

Offseason Notes

The Angels are back to spending big cash, winning the Tarik Skubal sweepstakes and also adding Sandy Alcantata to remake their rotation

The Royals are seeking to build on their 93-win season by trading cash and prospects to Atlanta for Chris Sale and making other aggressive moves to acquire veterans

Houston has fired everyone and is signaling towards a rebuild after a 72-90 finish; Ben Cherington is out in Pittsburgh after a disastrous 95-loss season. The Paul Skenes rumors continue and escalate.

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The AL East sent four teams to the postseason but it was the Mariners winning their first ever pennant, to the elation of the Seattle fanbase. It was a west coast series, as the 88-win Giants caught fire under controversial 2nd year manager Tony Vitello and are back on top, in an odd-number year, no less. Team captain and NL WAR leader Willy Adames took home the MVP trophy.



MVP:
AL - Aaron Judge (NYY)
NL - Juan Soto (NYM)

CY:
AL - Garrett Crochet (BOS)
NL - Paul Skenes (PIT)

ROY:
AL - Dom Keegan (TB)
NL - Harry Ford (WSH)

RROY:
AL - Aroldis Chapman (BOS)
NL - Zach Agnos (COL)

Offseason Notes:

Bobby Witt Jr. tore his ACL on opening day, dashing the Royals championship hopes. The Angels improved but not nearly enough and Skubal wasn’t his usual dominant self. History may be repeating itself in Anaheim.

The Phillies run may be coming to an end as they missed the playoffs and manager Rob Thomson announced his retirement. Team legend Chase Utley will be stepping into the role and trying to make one more run at a championship with their aging core.

The Brewers returned to the playoffs for the 8th time in nine years and were quickly bounced again. Will they open the purse strings or find another way to get over the hump?

After an 82-win season and huge improvement from Konor Griffin, Paul Skenes agreed to an extension with the Pirates. Things might be finally turning around in Pittsburgh.

The Washington and Chicago (AL) rebuilds are on track, with the Nationals shockingly snagging a wild card spot. NL ROY Harry Ford is developing into a star and they should have a ton of money to spend this offseason if they want to get aggressive.

Winter Meetings:

Kyle Tucker and Bo Bichette both utilized their opt-outs and signed with the Nationals and Rockies respectively; the future is now for those clubs. Continuing the trend, Cody Bellinger also opted out and signed with Pittsburgh.

Freddie Freeman returns to the Braves in free agency to finish his career

The Angels continue to spend, acquiring Munetaka Murakami, who was unhappy in Chicago, and giving him a lucrative extension

In a shocking move, the now-officially Las Vegas A’s made a jackpot acquisition, trading for injury-plagued superstar Ronald Acuna Jr. in a package highlighted by top pitching prospect Jaime Arnold.

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Tryouts and contract signings have concluded and the Charlotte Stone Crabs and Ogden Raptors, the new affiliates of the Salt Lake Gulls, are ready to take the field. While we’re mostly looking for warm bodies to fill out the rosters this year, there are a few things we are specifically targeting.

The home field of the Gulls will play similarly to Coors Field, meaning that we’re focusing on groundball pitchers with above-average sinkers or splitters, and rangy fielders with above-average range and BABIP.

There are a few guys we’re hopeful might have a future in the system, but mostly we’re hoping not to embarrass ourselves. The Opening Day Rosters:

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As we hit the 2028 draft and roughly the midpoint of the season, Ogden and Charlotte are performing about as anticipated, though Ogden is trending upward. For the most part, our players are both older and less productive than their counterparts, though we have identified a couple of players who may be able to crack our 40-man roster at some point.



Yovanny Duran is a switch-hitting outfielder originally signed by Minnesota. The lack of power and plate discipline probably puts him in the 5th outfielder range, but the defense and speed play and heÂ’s acquitted himself well at A+ as a 20-year old.



Kole Myers is an oft-injured former Dodgers draft pick who made it as high as AAA before getting hurt and released. While dominating A-ball at 27 is no major feat, he has a similar profile to Duran with even greater speed, and, our scout thinks, some room to grow as a hitter.