Created a channel (in addition to the seldom used thread on the Forum) for any topics to be discussed to improve the league

@jeffnewmexico brought up the way we handle the draft order tiebreaker for teams with the same head-to-head record during the season.

Currently the team that has the better season record gets the higher draft slot as a reward.

Argument is that the worse H2H record should get the higher pick or even we should use a different tiebreaker.

Thoughts?

keep as is... gives you a bonus for competing/performing well against those in and around your level

agreed

That was my original reasoning but as always I'm open to discussion

Using HTH as tiebreaker is great, but I think rewarding the winner of the HTH matchup (the team with the better HTH record) with the better pick is the opposite of the way it should work.

The purpose of an inverse draft is to give better picks to the lessor teams.

A team with a worse regular season record gets a better pick.
The team that loses the Federation Championship series gets a better pick than the winner.

So, to be consistent with the spirit of the inverse draft, the loser of the HTH tiebreaker should get the better pick. In an inverse draft you should get a bonus for being worse at something, not better.

I think I still like giving bad teams a reason to win at least some games instead of just outright tanking.

and something to look forward to (a little) when you’re bad

I think if someone is going to tank they’re not going to pay attention to hth records.

Trying to win a hth matchup would work to defeat their goal of tanking

The one thing you really have to look forward to (a lot) when you’re bad is a better draft pick than teams that are better than you. So when a team gets a better draft pick because they beat you head-to-head during the season it kinda worsens the badness of it all.

Especially this league that Is all about drafting, But Whole point of the head-to-head is that the team isn’t better than you, That team just happened to beat the worst team in baseball and your team happened to beat a better team to get the same record Which technically means you’re team is better

And if it was the first overall pick in the second overall pick. Yeah it would matter a lot but it was the 10th and 11th pick I don’t see Much of a difference between either slot

Yes, this league is all about drafting. That’s why I think it’s esp. important that the rules of the draft be consistent. Not sure what you are saying re hth though. As I see it the point of the head-to-head is to use the simplest, most direct way of comparing the two teams to determine who is “best” between the the two (for the purpose of determining position in the draft).

Sometimes one position in the draft does make a difference. I’m my short time in the league I have missed several players that fit my plan and had to take guys that didn’t fit the plan (though too good to pass, they duplicated a spot already taken etc)

but this is only when two teams tie right? Like both go 69-93?

I like the "winner" of the H2H getting the better pick... JMO

If 2 teams tie, I would also say give it to the team that beat the other more in the h2h.

But if not that way, then I'd say just use worse run diff

If you think about it, if two teams are tied but team X beat team Y H2H 8-4, that means team Y actually had a better record against the rest of the league and should pick 2nd

but I'm against it being the team that lost to the team it tied more

what we don't want is teams super-tanking against equally shit opponents. So like if GA and I both suck again next year - I start tossing ridiculously shitty SPs out only against his squad (not that I would)

Back when half the NPBL was tanking, I considered making the draft order best-to-worst non playoff teams followed by worst-to-best playoff teams... AFBL doesn't seem to have that problem though.

Well, sucking is different IMO than tanking. Like I didn't tank this year in AFBL - I played my best players in every game. I just traded away everyone of note. Tanking IMO is playing intentionally crap players, when you have better options

yeah same. Virginia isn’t tanking in NPBL. We’re just not good because most of the young guys with promise haven’t come together yet.

(rebuild cycles in these non-financials leagues often look a lot like tanking because if you trade usable guys who are aging, you often get picks/prospects in return and they don’t always pan out)

Yeah and without having to worry about attendance you can really scrape the bottom of the bowl trade-wise

It’s not only about teams that tie at 69-93. Could be 81-81 etc. teams that might be fighting for wildcard.

NM was 6-12 against Washington last season and though we ended up with equal overall records, I was never under the illusion NM was the better team.

I don’t think genuinely bad teams should be penalized because some team might try to tank. It’s bad enough being bad.

Man, I’m feeling bad and lonely here defending the principles of an inverse draft. 😳

“If you think about it, if two teams are tied but team X beat team Y H2H 8-4, that means team Y actually had a better record against the rest of the league and should pick 2nd” -chappy

That’s a good point but I think the overall record against all the teams except the one your tied against is a weaker comparison than the direct head-to-head record. Because in order to do it you have to completely ignore the head to head record. Which doesn’t make sense to me.

I don’t care which tiebreaker is used, they all have drawbacks but I think the lessor team should get the pick in any tiebreaker.

I mean, I'm fine using worse RD - but I don't think NM should pick ahead of WA bc they lost to WA more

it's "rewarding" the wrong thing, IMO

So you are good with a team with worse RD getting better pick?

Yes, if we use RD, i'd want the worst RD picking earlier

but if we use h2h, I don't want the team that lost h2h getting the earlier pick

I've always gone back and forth on the best way to do it with our setup

fight club

Using RD works for me too if worse RD picks earlier.

I like this too:

“The general draft order is the reverse order of the year's standings. If two teams finish with identical records, the previous year's standings of the two teams is the tiebreaker, with the team having a worse record receiving the higher pick.”

From Wikipedia on mlb draft. Only thing I could find in a quick search.

I think I’d prefer either of run differential or previous year to head to head tbh

the previous year makes a certain amount of sense. If you’ve been worse for longer, etc etc

yeah I'd be down with that too

previous year is how ootp handles a tie in draft order in game I believe

is it the worst h2h record of the previous year getting the higher pick?

No head-to-head. It’s the worse overall record in year previous to the one in which there is tie.

That gets better pick

I actually like run differential

I like the previous year record because you are using the same stat as tiebreaker as you are in determining overall draft order.

RD works too but it doesn’t always match up well with win-loss record. There are different routes to a winning record and not all of them depend on a high RD.

Let's do a lottery

I'm in another league that does this for the non playoff teams. I really like it

I'd also prefer a lottery since that takes out all worry of tanking

that'd be interesting

Since this league depends so much on the draft i think a lottery probably isn’t a good idea if you want long term balance. The only way a bad team can improve is by drafting higher than the better teams. There can be a big difference between the worst and best non-playoff teams. You can trade but you need something to trade. And the only free agents are marginal at best.

I am not against a lottery. Probably should weigh it in favor of the bottom 5 teams. But i did a quick look at drafts from 2022-2034 and only 2 times did the first overall pick lead their draft class in WAR. Only one time was the top 10 littered with first rounders.

For what it’s worth here is WAR vs. draft slot 2019-2035

[ MESSAGE TEXT EMPTY ]

Slots 1-4 are best, 5-7 (and 15!) next and the rest is kind of a mess. Of course it doesn’t take into account owner’s draft ability injuries etc. but still interesting.

that is very interesting. thanks for putting that together @jeffnewmexico

odd that slot 15 is outside of the slope

A 67.81, a 31.46 and a 54.25 at pick 15 really bought the average up for that pick.

Based on the chart I’d say 1-4 should be definitely be protected in a lottery and probably 5-7 as well.

why are we discussing changing things? is there something broke I'm not aware of? the discussion all started because of the discussion of tie-breaking equal records and now we're talking lottery.... just leave things and move on, the league has been running for nearly 30 seasons with the same tiebreaker for draft positions and I don't believe it's caused any problems...

I think we're all just going stir crazy waiting on the season to get started lol

that must be it 🙂

lol ya me too guys

rolling over tonight to 2043. soon 😄.

So, just throwing this out there, but do we want to follow the new MLB roster expansion rules? Basically 26-man rosters until 8/31, then 28 man the rest of the year.

I would miss the 40-man period, but I could live with the extra player all year haha

Is that in place for the MLB next year?

yeah 2020

oh wow hadn't heard that

You have no idea how badly I wanted a 26th man for the playoffs. (And most of the season, really.)

I platoon a lot. So I’m on board. ;)

I'd be in favor of the extra player

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/26283683/what-need-know-mlb-new-rules

ESPN.com

What you need to know about MLB's new rules

Changes to the trade deadline, roster size and minimum pitcher workloads over the next two seasons should shake up your scorecards.

Original URL: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/26283683/what-need-know-mlb-new-rules

scroll down to 2020

I'd be in for 26 players until 8/31 then 28 or even 30 for September for AFBL

I ususally only promote 2 pitchers and 2 fielders until the AAA season ends at which point I call up a full 40... But I'm not suggesting we set the rules around how I run my team. 😁

Although I am the champ, so you will listen to every damn word I have to say

26 and 30 for September is a great idea.

Proposed new rule: the champion gets to make one rule for the ensuing season.

😎

I like the 26 man roster, but still like having the 40 for september (call me old fashioned). I def prefer more than 28...

I could work with anything in the 30-35 range. Given that September call ups seem to help with development, I’d hesitate to just do 28.

But I always have some AAAA re-treads on the roster if I fill it to 40, so a few less seems ok

Yeah that's where I'm at too

i guess I like throwing a bone to some 29 year old guy who won't make it... or some bad draft pick who is just hanging around... lol

I’d prefer 30 for September, but any reduction from 40 would be good.

26 and 30 sounds good to me

I'd want more than 30 personally, i like to protect against injuries

You could in theory still do that with demotions

Some teams took advantage of other teams resting starters the final sim (not criticizing, I did it). 30 man rosters would help the integrity of those games a little

yeah, I only demoted guys who would not make the playoff roster.

pure developmental types. sent them down and brought up AAAA types

Sending guys down who expect to be in the majors might crater their morale tho

Ya i wonder what impact that might have...

If a player gets hurt, the one you call up can be on the playoff roster, just fyi

Are the roster limit changes something we are voting on before ‘46 or is this a postponed/dead idea?

Ahh I need to circle back on that. I'm down to change it for the upcoming season assuming we have enough people on board.

Just let me know whether/where to vote

Also I was wondering whether expanded roster size of 33 might be a happy medium (also, reject the tyranny of numbers divisible by 5!)

33 works for me

I could live with 33

LONG LIVE THE TYRANNY OF NUMBERS DIVISIBLE BY 5!!1!

but also

https://vinepair.com/wine-blog/33-the-many-myths-of-rolling-rock/

VinePair

"33": The Many Myths Behind The Rolling Rock Label

Some theories that attempt to explain the elusive '33' printed on the back of every bottle of Rolling Rock.

Original URL: https://vinepair.com/wine-blog/33-the-many-myths-of-rolling-rock/

perhaps the real reason is really ineffective activism about the MLB expanded roster size. 😉

As long as we get 26 for the reg season I don't really care about september. 🙂

Moving the moving the Ammy Draft (and International FA reveal) date to here

Doing some testing but I think we could do the following:

• move our draft from November 20th to May 1st


• have the reveal dates for both the Draft Pool and IFAs be the same date in early/mid February


• we start drafting before the start of Spring Training and the Regular Season


• 2 Spring Training sims plus 4 April sims is 1.5 to 2 real life weeks to finish the draft which is our usual spead

So if we wanted to proceed, we would/could move the 2047 Draft from November 2047 to May 2048 which would make it the 2047/2048 Draft. Then we'd be on our new Ammy Draft schedule.

My only concern is what happens to the Draft Pool and IFAs from the draft date move from Nov to May (or whenever)? Wouldn't want to lose any players.

We'd probably also need to push back the feeder leagues (and maybe at least Rookie League) to at least not start until mid May.

I may be in the minority on this, but I’d rather have it slightly earlier so we can get more or less a full season out of everybody in the minors. So a 4/15 draft day at the latest. I wouldn’t mind adding a ST sim or two to avoid down time.

idk when you’d need to move the date to avoid bad effects but I’ll bet somebody has dealt with this on either the OOTP forums or the subreddit

I want to test again but I was able to edit the draft date to the spring and the draft pool looked like it stayed the same. I just had to be sure to edit the date to the correct year and such the next season then we we're good in my AFBL test environment.

The potential new draft time on the calendar need to be post March.

Thought May 1 to give us our usual time for draft pace but that requires shifting the feeder leagues and Rookie League start dates at least to post draft completion.

April 15 is a good compromise to help that.

Maybe in between Spring Training and Opening Day and make Spring Training 3 or 4 sims instead of 2 big dims?

I would actually kind of like more ST sims. I’ve been using it to experiment more with teaching positions to guys etc.

But again, I think I’m a weirdo on this.

A couple extra sims wouldn't hurt and it would still be much faster than running the draft over 6 weeks (or whatever it seems to take to complete it

@yuda Glad you qualified that so we wouldn't think you were a weirdo overall.

I hadn't thought about breaking up the ST sims and it is a good idea

oh i know i’m a weirdo overall 😜

lol

I like the idea of more ST sims.

Testing it again but it looks like I could shift the 2047 Draft date during the 2047 Preseason to be in March (31?) 2048 along having the Draft Pool Reveal date to be in September 2047 (200 days - max available) plus aligning the IFA Reveal date to match Draft Pool Reveal date.

Hey I like the additional ST sims as well. Just go Sun-Sat like regular season.

Yup that's what I would be thinking

Agreed more ST

Late draft is ok with me too

Have we ever considered a rule V draft? Might shuffle the talent a little more and relieve log jams around AAA

With no finances or minor league option, notsure if that's possible. But I have wondered if we'd be able to do a FA draft of like 4-5 rounds to help teams restock that don't place manual FA claims with low minor league rosters.

No don’t do the free agent draft lol. Signing free agents is an area where some hard work can pay off. It’s one of the more interesting things to do in this league. Don’t just give it away.

Ya that is a good point

We did a FA Draft after the 2017 Expansion Draft

There are really nice under the radar signings throughout the year and of course post draft.

Yep! Make people put the work in. Granted a draft requires some work too but it’s optional you can have the computer draft for you.

And you never know when that guy you randomly sign can turn into something cool

I think if our FAs could somehow play in an independent league or winter ball type league that'd be awesome. Just so they get some playing time to auction for AFBL squads.

Back in the early days league I picked up a bunch of bit players threw FA

You don’t usually find anyone with above average potential but sometime guys develop.

We have like 1500-2000 FAs available normally

One of Idaho’s greatest ever was a FA pickup. David pegas

Wow that's awesome

I don’t think I’ve ever had one make the ML yet but there are some who are might turn into solid bench players.

/player David pegas

Ernie Evans is one of mine but never was Good basically average but 2 ASG

Working on getting more than the 3 versions of our schedule generated/created.

We currently have the following setup for our schedule:

• 162 total games


• 18 (9H/9A) against your division (72 total)


• 10 (5H/5A) against your league's other division (50 total)


• 4 (2H/2A) against the other league's opponents (40 total)

• 162 total games


• 18 (9H/9A) against your division (72 total)


• 12 (6H/6A) against your league's other division (60 total)


• 3 (3H or 3A, flips each year) against the other league's opponents (30 total)

The second option looks like it would get rid of two-game series. I like it.

Ya the 2 game series for the interleague and 1 intraleague series makes it tough to generate a schedule

Or balance with the league makes sense. I didn't realize we played so many more in division.

#more balance

I like the change as well.

I’m for it

Yeah I’m in favor of ditching the 2-game series as much as possible

I’d also be OK with ditching inter-league play if it makes it easier to do a good schedule.

I think the proposed change to get the intraleague and interleague series to multiples of 3 is ideal

Matters not to me. Either way.

i wouldn'

t mind dropping inter league

Would love to ditch the two gamers as well

I like interleague so I would like if we keep that, But I’m OK with However long the series are

I like the variety of interleague play. Though it might be interesting to play the 30 interlleague games against one division each year. Then play the other division the next year. West against north and east against south one year then switch.

Hmmm don’t really like how unbalanced that would be though.

Might give one division in a league an advantage in wildcard race

Never mind

I’m against all of it.

Interesting idea but I like the balanced schedule

That was my socially awkward “humor” again

yeah if we’re doing inter league, I’d rather play everybody

I should just play Virginia 162 times until they are good. Then someone else

Hey I made the playoffs last year!

Okay, change it to 162 games against Georgia then.

For our potential schedule updates to remove the 2-game series in our current rotation of 3 schedule variations, I've gotten some schedules made for us by gmo on the OOTP boards. Original post here: https://afbl.slack.com/archives/CFTUYEZDZ/p1580581983005100

He did create another version of our current schedule so if we wanted to keep things as they are, I believe we have a 4th version now.

Today, he developed 2 options for our proposed updates but they're not exactly what I'm looking for yet. The 2 he posted today setups are below if you're curious. I like the 2nd one minus the only playing against 1 interleague division which I've requested to be adjusted.

#
# 20 team schedule, 162 games
# Designed for the following configuration:
# 2 subleagues, each with 2 division, each with 5 teams
#
# 18 games against other 4 teams of division (8-10H/8-10A)
# 12 games against other 5 teams within league (6H/6A)
#  3 games against 10 teams of league (3H or 3A)
#
# This schedule has a sibling with all home/away reversed.
#
#
# Because of odd number of teams per division
# cannot have all division games at any given time.
# Division games when they occur are nearly exclusively weekends.
# Early week series nearly all interdivision or interleague.
#
# No cases of more than 20 straight days without offday
#
# Homestands and roadtrips stretch as long as 14 games
#
# Teams play 13-14 weekend series at home
#
# All game times set at 7:05pm
#
# Season begins Friday before first Monday of April
# Season ends late September/early October
# Spans 185 days
#
# All-Star Game set for first Tuesday on or after July 9th (day 103)
#
# Posted 2020/02/08

#
# 20 team schedule, 162 games
# Designed for the following configuration:
# 2 subleagues each with 2 divisions of 5 teams
#
#
# 18 games against 4 other teams in division (9H/9A)
# 12 games against 5 other teams in subleague (6H/6A)
# 6 games against 5 teams in one division of other subleague (3H/3A)
#
# This schedule has a sibling that switches in the interleague matchups
#
#
# All games are in only 3-game series
# Two series per week with an offday either Monday or Thursday
#
# Homestands and roadtrips may be as long as 12 games
#
# All teams play 14 weekend series at home
#
# All game times set at 7:05pm
#
# Season begins Friday before first Monday of April
# Season ends early/mid-October
# Season spans 192 days
#
# All-Star Game first Tuesday on or after July 9 (day num 103)
#
# Built 2020-02-08
#

AFBL Commish (https://afbl.slack.com/team/U0B4WGPDK)

<p>Working on getting more than the 3 versions of our schedule generated/created.<br><br>We currently have the following setup for our schedule:<br>• 162 total games<br>• 18 (9H/9A) against your division (72 total)<br>• 10 (5H/5A) against your league's other division (50 total)<br>• 4 (2H/2A) against the other league's opponents (40 total)<br>I'm considering the following change to allow more schedule variations:<br>• 162 total games<br>• 18 (9H/9A) against your division (72 total)<br>• 12 (6H/6A) against your league's other division (60 total)<br>• 3 (3H or 3A, flips each year) against the other league's opponents (30 total)<br>The proposed change would be adding 2 more games against your league's other division and playing 1 less game against each interleague opponent but home/away would alternate.<br><br>Any thoughts? @channel</p>

Original URL: https://afbl.slack.com/archives/CFTUYEZDZ/p1580581983005100

Slack Conversation

I remain neutral to all changes. What we have is fine. Changing it is fine.

Whatever. Just get all these good teams out of our division . lol

Become a bad team 😂

I actually thought about it...

I suspect we all have (thought about it)

The West was a combined 94 games over .500 and had a combined RD of +469. If I added correctly.

Pretty good division

Another topic I'd like to open to discussion since we as a league haven't had any ballpark change requests in a long time (or ever? haha).

Currently I have it in our posted League Rules page (outdated and on my list to get current 😬) that:

1. ballpark factor changes are limited to +/-0.150 per offseason


2. new stadiums require 2 offseasons before they are available to replace the current stadium

I don't think we've had a new ballpark since our teams were founded in 2013 or 2017 for our 4 expansion teams so all of our stadiums are 30+ years old lol.

Maybe amend the rules to allow park factor changes once every 5 seasons. The new stadium thing makes sense - you can’t build a stadium in 3 months...

Yeah the rules as I intended would be announce the new park during the season (2047 for example) then you'd be able to play beginning in 2049. But if you posted after the playoffs in the offseason, you need to wait until 2050.

2 full offseason as it stands

Don’t forget its 2047. Can probably build a lot faster in the future with quantum computing and advanced digital printing etc. Either that or we’re back to the stone age and it will take decades. 🤯

Haha

the only issue I have with mass changes to ballparks (looking at you @Richard Hager) is that given we have so many in division games rivals may have built their teams or part fo their teams to play in those other parks too

I like the idea of building a new stadium, but having it take a full 2 years to complete (safety audits) and only being available after 25 years in the old stadium have passed... or applying to relocate, with a 2 year period to pass while the new stadium is built at the new location and allowing only 10 years to pass before a relocation can occur

ultimately 2 season won't be too long to wait...I'd figure given how far into the future we are that it would be a bit faster...but I can wait. 🙂

Is any change to a PF a new stadium?

No you can adjust your park factors in the offseason before the season they go in effect. Rules say no more than 0.150 in either direction.

NY's case is their current stadium has extreme factors and would take longer to get where Richard wants it than just waiting the 2 offseasons for a new stadium.

I don't even remember what my park factors are, or know if anybody changed them while I wasn't running the team

I haven't had anyone request changes in a long time, if not ever?

Fresh from 2013: https://afblbaseball.com/forum/index.php?topic=27.0

If so it was early on in our first few seasons

real park in 2016: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Providence_Park#/media/File:Providence_Park.jpg

Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/)

Providence Park

Providence Park (formerly Jeld-Wen Field; PGE Park; Civic Stadium; originally Multnomah Stadium; and from 1893 until the stadium was built, Multnomah Field) is an outdoor sports venue in the northwest United States, located in the Goose Hollow neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. It has existed in rudimentary form since 1893, and as a complete stadium since 1926.<br>Two professional soccer teams, the Portland Timbers of MLS and Portland Thorns FC of NWSL, use the facility as their home pitch, as do the PDL's Timbers U23s. The NCAA Division I FCS Portland State Vikings football team uses the park during the Big Sky season. The stadium has been host to several major sporting events including Soccer Bowl '77, the 1999 and 2003 FIFA Women's World Cups, the 2009 Triple-A All-Star Game, the 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup, the 2014 MLS All-Star Game and the 2015 NWSL Championship Game. The stadium capacity was expanded to 25,218 in 2019.<br>Originally, the park was owned by the Multnomah Athletic Club and used by their amateur sports teams. In the 1950s, the PCL Portland Beavers baseball team moved out of Vaughn Street Park into what was then known as "Multnomah Stadium." In 1966, the city purchased the stadium and renamed it "Civic Stadium." It was renovated in 2001 to accommodate the Beavers, who had not played at the park since the early 1990s. The naming rights of the stadium were purchased by Portland General Electric and it was renamed "PGE Park." In 2010, the park underwent renovations again, this time so it could accommodate the Portland Timbers MLS franchise and a year later the rights to the stadiums name were sold, this time to Jeld-Wen. In 2014, the name was changed again to "Providence Park" after Providence Health &amp; Services bought the naming rights. The stadium sits on a rectangular block bounded by Southwest Morrison Street, Southwest 18th Avenue, the Multnomah Athletic Club building and Southwest Salmon Street, and Southwest 20th Avenue.

Original URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Providence_Park#/media/File:Providence_Park.jpg

the stadium in question has been there, more or less, since 1926

That's awesome

I did find this OOTP utility for ballparks. Input the location and wall distances/heights, then it calculates what the ballpark factors should be based on a formula. http://www.ootputilities.com/parkgen/

OOTP Board post on it: https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/showthread.php?t=255577

I see no reason to change my park (at this time, at least).

That's totally fine. I had just realized that no one in the league as messed with their parks in awhile or ever 😄.

I have been meaning to but I was bad and never got around to it

Now I’m good again and I don’t want to lol

I like the field mow pattern options on that web park utility (the Colorado park in my playing with this)

that os cool

is

I believe we have schedules for the new proposed setup (2 more games against intraleague division opponents and 1 less game against interleague opponents with Home/Away swapping each other). I need to look at them a bit and probably tweak the times so they're not all starting at 705pm. https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/showpost.php?p=4586018&postcount=14

question re: the Washington team moves - are we no longer doing the "rookie league is in florida" thing?

Oh yes I haven't had a chance to notice that but yes our Rookie League teams all play in Florida. Sorry @John_Washington I missed that.

I updated the Portland stadium - slight change to left field dimensions to get the straight wall effect I'd always intended; otherwise more or less left things as they were. Not sure how these factors compare to the original.

For the PF changes - I can change multiple factors right? just not by more than .15

Do our minor league stadiums all have wacky factors too?

I think a few GMs specified their minor league affiliate stadiums when the franchise was created but if not, they're just randomly generated by OOTP

@AFBL Commish is the image above sufficient for a park factor/dimensions tweak for you?

done

so many channels

ya not my favorite but it keeps stuff organized somewhat

especially trying to get rid of the Forum

I would suggest starring/favoriting the main channels so they stay at the top in Slack.

Here's how I have mine

I'm still doing more testing to confirm but I believe I have a solution to finally move our Amateur Draft out of the offseason to help cut down on our 2 week or so offseason down times.

Here's my current plan:

1. move Ammy Draft from Nov 20 to Jul 1


2. Draft Pool and IFAs revealed 60 days prior (May 2)


3. start drafting during May and June (approx 2 weeks real life time which is roughly how long it takes us to draft currently)


4. adjust College and High School feeder leagues to more realistic schedule and so it ends beginning of May


5. College to 54 games from 100 starting March 1


6. High School to 30 games from 50 starting April 1

Sounds excellent. I don’t remember, has there ever been talk of shortening the time for making selections? I would be in favor of shaving a little time off early rounds to see if it makes a difference. Maybe 18 instead of 24, 10 instead of 12, 6 instead of 8 and leave the rest?

I think we have to move it to speed stuff up. Don’t love picking 20 again though... 😀

If not the 2047 order (if this happens), maybe a 3 year aggregate or something to determine this weird transition year oder?

Could we snake it?

I wouldn't be opposed to that. Would be another option.

Snaking for the next draft, if moved, sounds good. But then back to normal for ‘49?

Correct only the first transition draft would potentially differ than our normal alignment

Descending alphabetical order by team name for the first five rounds works for me.

Yeah Lol

If the draft occurs during season at what point do non-drafted players make a decision about going back to school and therefore not show up in free agent list if they do go back? Is it immediately after draft ends?

One of the last things I wanted to check. I would assume the next day or shortly after?

I remember trying to sign one guy after the draftees had been added to teams but before advancing to ST where the guy had decided to go back to school but he was still on free agent list. Can’t find that in free agent claims though so maybe I imagined it . 🤷‍♂️

if the draft occurs then, will we change to short season minor leagues in the future?

Another item I'm looking at regarding minor leagues schedule lengths. They definitely need at least a slight adjustment as when I picked the 140 game length back in 2013, I didn't notice the non-balanced schedule. Looks like 126 or 144 games might help that part.

I think at least AAA needs to start around AFBL start since it's our Reserve roster essentially.

I could see wanting to have possibly having Rookie League start later with a shorter schedule?

Well I wouldn’t mind the Rookie league schedule starting if we’re going to have the draft in the middle of the year right after the draft

Also like having most/all end in late Aug or early Sept with the AFBL roster expansion

I’m big time against snaking it. Aggregate works

My preference would be the 3 or 5 year aggregate honestly then 2047 order then snake between the 3 options

I am fine with aggregate.

Five year aggregate is good.

After not having first and second round picks I just want to pick pick pick in whatever way I can.

Yeah however many years is fine by me

my 2 cents worth, given it's a transition draft I'd consider a 3 or 5 year aggregate, and then split the draft into 3 or 4 groups based on aggregate positions and then doa lottery for positions within each group

Done my voting

Actually some kind of lottery system (weighted by record) makes a lot of sense

That is a good idea

I don't get why we're giving already good teams a chance to draft higher than teams worse than them

I'd think you take the 2046, 2047 and partial 2048 records - sort em up and that's the order. It's simple, doesn't involve any random luck factor, and the fairest

The lottery option would be more work than I'd want to do haha. So likely it'd be an aggregate of likely the past 3 seasons for the transition/move year Draft Order.

In my experience, the only time a lottery is really a good idea is when you're trying to dissuade any form of tanking. But that isn't the case here since no one had any idea this situation would be truly possible until like 12 hours ago

Getting the draft moved out of the offseason as been something I've been looking to do for some time. Our offseasons just drag on waiting for the draft to finish where everyone ends up feeling rushed for the later rounds.

To me a lottery defeats the whole purpose of a draft which is to promote long term balance. Just punishes genuinely bad teams who have bad luck in lottery and rewards better teams that have good luck.

Yeah - to show the evils of a lottery - my other league uses a lottery. Well this past season I was on the playoff bubble, and moved a decent SP (young 4/5 type) to a team battling me for a Wild card for their 1st and a prospect. We got hot, made it all the way to the World Series (lost), they missed the playoffs entirely. Then against all odds, their 1st round pick with like a handful of chances out of 100's wins the lotto, and I get their #1 pick. So now I'm a decent team holding the 1st pick, which shouldn't happen

Nice example. In a related issue, I’m not sure why there is so much objection to tanking. How often does it really happen? There are so many legit ways to lose one can almost always find a way to explain it, making it really hard to prove. The solutions for discouraging it seem worse than the tanking. And if you can prove it penalize the perp by taking away draft picks etc. 🤔

Oh I'm in one league (not the one above) where people were tanking so hard they were playing catchers in CF and SS, etc. Yeah they had to make some rules to discourage that nonsense

I'm in favor of a lottery precisely because it would make more work for Matt and I'm just not sure he's proven his commitment to this endeavor yet. 😜

Lol party_parrot

there don't seem to be issues here or in NPBL (the only other league I've been in remotely recently) with tanking

Are we talking about aggregating w-l record or draft positions? I’d be more in favor of using three years of draft positions since it takes into account playoff results as our normal drafts do.

Good point. Hadn't considered that detail. My gut would be to just use the draft slot position.

But fine with win loss record as well

draft slot is probably ok, although I guess it could penalize a team that missed the #1 pick by 1 win 5 years running, but all to different teams

(it probably wouldn't matter tho)

We will move the 2048 Ammy Draft from November 20 to July 1.

Still need to decide on the draft order for just this 2048 Draft (following drafts will follow our normal season/playoff results for order based on last played season).

Currently my preference would be to use the last 3 seasons in an aggregate based on win-loss record but will consider draft slot. Playoffs are such a crapshoot so regular season win-loss record might be the most fair.

I would vote for drafts slot as well for Aggregate but I guess WL Record is OK

I vote for draft slots as well. Neither way is perfect so might as well be consistent with system we usually use.

the main argument I can see for using won/loss is that we could incorporate the first-half results from next season as well

Well you could also just create draft slots from that standings

Good points on draft slots over win-loss record

We would start drafting beginning of May up until we get to July in the game so using the standings after just April doesn't seem like the option

why not? my team usually is real slow out of the blocks. lol

i could tank the first month.

My division is bad enough I could still Clearly win it even with a horrible month

Oregon also tends to be slow out of the blocks. 😉

but honestly, since it kind of amounts to an extra draft, it's probably better to have it only be based on past performance anyway

no temptation for anybody to tank a little bit in the spring that way

Lol

I think since 2042 Idaho has been around 10-15 every year in April. No clue why. And every year i think about tearing it down. Just haven’t gotten offers to do so...

same thing has happened repeatedly in oregon

something about cold damp pacific northwest springs?

Could be

File up yet?

Not yet. Just got to the Preseason in-game and will start the updates for the Ammy Draft. Probably not until later this afternoon.

No worries. Just bored. 🙂

I'm going to do draft slot average over the last 3 drafts (2045, 2046, 2047) for the 2048 Draft Order.

Better to use 2039 and 2040. Only won 50 odd games those seasons.

Actually probably will go out to 5 years since there were too many ties for draft slot order for 3 years worth.

Only 2 sets of ties for 5 years of draft slot orders which I'm thinking I would go to H2H between the 2 teams.

and if H2H is tied, honestly, a coin toss is fine

Scratch that. 3 year total will work (only 1 more tie group) and if there's a tie, I went to the 5 year total. Preview of what this looks like..

That looks really good

yeah that works

So looks like NM should be the wildcard loser with the second worst winning % in ‘48. 😎

And either WV or NC is moving to FL! Cool.

boy, NY/IL/GA have been a triumvirate of awful

We should’ve done five year totals Lol

while I'd love to stump for 5-year...yeah, 3-year looks right. Basically last year, but tweaked a tick

yeah same. 5 year is better for me. 😉

Going to see if we can't get NY turned around.... yikes

Another future item that's on my mind for AFBL would be to add an Independent League(s) for our huge pool of FAs to play for until claimed by an AFBL team.

Maybe a mid reputation Independent league playing during winter (Dec til Feb) for one potential IND league. Then another Independent league playing during the summer that has a slightly higher reputation.

You got to figure those 2000+ FAs need to keep their "skills" developed somehow haha. Any thoughts? I know @chappy has a summer league similarly setup for NPBL.

That would be useful and interesting. Could see continuing stats on guys instead of just relying on ratings and old school stats.

Yes indeed. I'm still testing this possibility but it does seem to be a nice option for us. Also like you said, you can get more continued stats then just whatever stats from the feeder system and/or previous AFBL org.

I think it is a great idea. I haven't used that much in Chappy's league, but guys just wasting away as FA seems silly

I'm a big 👍 for indy leagues. Are you going to try to set up the winter league so the same guys play in both?

I might be able to have them be feeder leagues to each other for that? Something to look at as well.

not sure feeder leagues would work, but the winter league could be a "tournament" that functions kind of like the arizona fall league, where players from, say, a division are "loaned" to a team

(alternately we could explore our own fall/winter league for minor leaguers)

Ya I need to play with the Winter League tournament setup more. Seems like slightly more work than it's worth but do want to mess with it more.

Tournaments are interesting. I’ve been playing around with setting up a solo game where there is an 80 game season to determine seeding for an all-team tournament in the second part of year. Seems like a likely end result of continually adding teams to playoffs. 😃

Talk about a journeyman

That happens all the time in my solo league with Indy, Players will bounce around And play with the same team like seven times during a 12 year stint.
Also I think it would help that some players might get that Talent randomness strike from actually being on a team so paying attention to Indy league might be Beneficial

Yes for sure!

Can't find where @chappy suggested it but with the draft being midseason now, should we increase the RL roster limit from 35 with the 8 draft picks coming to their orgs in July for the final months of the AFBL season?

I already reduced my roster so no 🤭

I would like this option. Maybe starting with next season?

Maybe make the RL roster size limit 40 from 35? I'm also fine keeping it at 35 too.

I always liked keeping my low minors rosters a little bigger but honestly 35 plus DL is pretty big

Fine either way tho

I mean, it’s also not rigorously enforced. I sometimes go multiple sims with minor league roster violations b/c I haven’t had time to deal with them

40 for the lowest level would be great 35 is fine with me because I’m usually light on another level so I promote, But I like the high number because if I forget to pay attention to my minor leagues and there’s injuries I have other players at the same position to play

In my solo game I run all my minor leagues at 26-30 With my low single A & rookie league at 30-35 for that reason

I was mainly suggesting an increase for just this year because we wound up with two drafts close together. It turned out all right though because the game let us go over 35 which allowed me time to figure out who to cut.

From here on out we probably don't need the extra spots, because players will retire in the off-season and we can just save those spots for the draftees

Yeah makes sense. I do like 35 as the roster size and that's already pretty big

I'll probably use those spots to churn at the beginning of the season with free agents and still cut down, but yeah. I don't mind it as long as the game lets me get a sim or two to make cuts.

Yes the game will let you be over (I've been guilty of this myself a sim or two) but I just ask GMs get back to the limit within a few sims. It's not something I'm checking for each sim honestly.

I'm potentially considering relocating the West Virginia franchise away from the east coast. Just a thought I had to try to balance out the league some. Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota would be the options.

I'd be open to moving my squad. I have no attachment to VA and frankly have never liked the Diamond Club moniker

I’d love a more-balanced divisional weighting. (Let me go look at that map you uploaded again)

California - Oregon-Washington-Idaho plus one of Nevada/Arizona/Montana really does feel like a natural division

Move Colorado to FL East in that scenario. Kentucky over your PL south

Rename FL East to central or something

We'd definitely would need to realign some in any scenario of moving a franchise (WV or VA)

Yeah PL south of Georgia-NC-VA-KY-MD works

Or CA could re-locate and we wouldn’t have to move teams. Think we were Iowa before I believe

All former slave states there

League offices really want a team in California lol 😎

Like Goodall lmao

Ha

Nobody needs Iowa

Could do Hawaii or Alaska too

No doubt by 2080 we’ll have some kind of faster transport

I wouldn’t go to Iowa again if I were to move

Could play all your home games at the field of dreams

Luckily we’re not a financials league so the fact that you could only sell like 100 tickets per game wouldn’t be an issue

Lol

Ha true

I'd be down to move to CA if @Jason_Mallards wants to move out of there

Whatever makes things easy. I’m open to moving if that helps.

I'd be cool with VA franchise shifting to CA, CA franchise relocating elsewhere, then WV franchise to VA or next open approved location.

Semi-related to this, I've been developing locations and team names for a 12-team AFBL Independent League that would be available for our huge pool of FAs.

Just let me know a region and I will pick some options.

Indy league would be delightful

Can I suggest some kind of great north woods theme in Minnesota-Wisconsin-Michigan?

All totally subject to change and such

I'm open to whatever honestly

We do have a ton of options

Full states could work. I was envisioning something like NYSL in NPBL - contained within a state or two

Or we could not have a team in Virginia so I stop being confused.

Haha I suppose. We don't want you to be confused 😄

I'm open for the Indiana Vipers franchise to also relocate like I have planned for the West Virginia franchise. One of these franchises would move to Virginia (preferably 😄).

Would you like Virginia to have a new nickname?

Whatever team potentially goes there, will not be the Hollers 🙂. I'd be fine with them keeping the Virginia Diamond Club name if they wish although I'm not attached to that either.

Do you want the new owner to pick? I'd love to create a virginia team identity and see what you guys think

Totally down to see that

Awesome

I’ve always liked the Diamond Club name. Second favorite next to Aviators.

It is very unique

Alrighty, check it out! Here are 3 potential options for a new Virginia team.

Created by @Zach - KY with /poll

I voted for Rockets, but still think diamond club is cool. Classy and down-to-earth at the same time. Makes me think of the origins of the game and a desire to be the best in modern times.

I agree with Jeff but diamond club could use a new logo

I always thought diamond club should have strippers are a logo

As not are

Yeah I wish I hadn’t done a google search on diamond club. Well my illusions are shattered. Go with rockets. Hmmm well now I can’t come up with any good names. 🤓

🤣🤣

Did you really search that? That’s like the time my oldest son was looking for catchers gear and typed dicks into the google

I wanted to see if it was used by any current teams. But it’s more widespread than I thought in other areas. Lol

VDC

VDC sounds like an STD

Lol.

I always thought of it as “a club of guys who plays on the diamond “

But 🤷‍♂️

I do that like logo

See the logo is great got to keep the team now lol 😝

I still like the name. Just requires a bit of effort to maintain my original view of it.

I now understand why all my “crack and hookers” nicknamed guys kept wanting to be traded to Virginia.

Small change

Crack and hookers was rob ford’s nickname / then the game recycles it

😂😂😂

Hehe. I requested Matt set that up

I had a couple early on. Can’t remember who they were now.

Just promoted frank ‘coke boss’ Lopez

/player Rob Long

Remembered one lol

i had one early and another one now

There's a nickname database it pulls from that I can add/remove available ones from iirc

Can you
Pull ‘the’ out of the database

I do every time a new version comes

All this realignment/relocation talk has me thinking... 🤔

I'm not a big fan of the Isotopes nickname for Texas. What is the policy on team name changes?

I am initially considering:

Texas Star (as a singular nod to the lone star moniker)
Texas Spurs

I actually had planned to message you about at least updating the logo so I'm totally all cool with a rebrand of the Texas franchise @Matt Y - Texas Spurs

Texas Chainsaws for me please!!

I never quite understood why Texas was the Isotopes.

He must have liked the simpsons

I would like to change our name to the Texas Spurs, whenever it makes sense (off season?).

Would anyone have a great way to incorporate/complement the current Isotopes uniform colors into a logo like this? https://images.app.goo.gl/qdPZAjXcwL9EJ9Bm7
I'm not very handy with logo design. 😄

@AFBL Commish is there a way to preview how this option looks on our current hat?

Thank you @John_Washington

I can generate a preview tonight for sure!

I'll get this preview for you this morning @Matt Y - Texas Spurs

Here's a preview from my test AFBL environment @Matt Y - Texas Spurs

Hard to tell from those the differences

There is an OOTP utilities page someone created that has a park generator, cap maker, and jersey marker if anyone is interested http://www.ootputilities.com/

That logo is not going to look great on a cap of the same color as the logo. Maybe change to a white cap with a maroon brim.

Or use this instead

Mostly as a checklist for me but here's what I have on my agenda for our Winter Meetings. Let me know if there are other items to address.

For this offseason:

1. New York ballpark update (need to confirm details with @Richard Hager)


2. Texas logo update (need to work with @Matt Y - Texas Spurs)


3. Addition of United Baseball League (12-team Independent level association) for AFBL FA development


4. Addition of Winter Development League at end of 2049 season (8-16 teams located in Gulf Coast and/or Southwest)

1. California Mallards relocate to Minnesota as Mallards


2. Virginia Diamond Club relocate to California, team name and logo TBD (need to work with @jeheinz72)


3. West Virginia Hollers relocate to Virginia, team name and logo TBD


4. Indiana Vipers relocate to Nevada, team name and logo TBD


5. AFBL needs to realign slightly:

• FL West: WA, OR, ID, CA (formerly VA), NV (formerly IN)


• FL East: CO, NM, TX, IL, MN (formerly CA)


• PL North: ON, NY, NJ, PA, OH


• PL South: MD, KY, NC, GA, VA (formerly WV)

all we need now is for NY to move 😄

mexico would be nice 😉

Lol two FL Wests

FL West and FL Kinda West

Oops lol it was late and habit haha

I’m almost tempted to call it “central” but either way works

ya that might make some sense

Wanted to go “plains” but Colorado and New Mexico aren’t, really.

That or the "Midwest" but that's such a broad term too lol

Also possible option is we can keep IN and WV where they are until GMs are found then the realignment could be:

• FL West: WA, OR, ID, NM, CA (formerly VA)


• FL East: CO, TX, IL, IN, MN (formerly CA)


• PL North: ON, NY, NJ, PA, OH


• PL South: MD, KY, NC, GA, WV

I think it’s reasonable to urge teams into specific states

New Mexico really feels like it belongs with Texas and Colorado to me

Can we add this option into AFBL?

Please don’t

I think I one point early on we did but turned it off iirc

there are things I like about that feature and things I don't.

Why don’t you like it?

It makes it easier to manage moving guys up and down.

i like the uncertainty.

but every now and then it is a nice crutch. lol

For me it makes me completely unable to Properly do my minor leagues, And I like actual ratings Stats will tell me if he’s not doing well

Ya I like the absolute ratings myself

Fair enough. I just don't know what an average player looks like at AA, figured it would be easier to find out that way. I use it solo quite a bit.

Are we going with the same schedule next year? I liked the new schedule even though the off days were not realistic. Non-financials, so not a big deal.

Yes that was my mistake last season. Good reminder.

Still working with Taylor and Josh but rumors are that West Virginia will relocate to Alabama and Indiana will relocate to Arizona.

might i suggest swapping maryland and ohio in that alignment?

Actually that might make more sense with Kentucky bordering Ohio

yeah that’s exactly what I was thinking. OH-KY and MD-PA are natural rivalries

OH-PA is too, but then Kentucky and Maryland are lacking a border rival

Yes good point

That means we get to play North Carolina more.... 🥴

But I like that plan with Ohio in the south

Potential Updated 2050 AFBL Realignment

• FL West: WA, OR, ID, CA (formerly VA), AZ (formerly IN)


• FL East: CO, NM, TX, IL, MN (formerly CA)


• PL North: ON, NY, NJ, PA, MD


• PL South: OH, KY, NC, GA, AL (formerly WV)

I’ve grown fond of the FL West, but I like it. Can we do it for ‘49? 😁

Nobody wants to have a border war with me? I guess Georgia barely

AFBL is proud to announce a partnership with a new Independent League that will begin play this coming 2049 season. The United Baseball League will consist of 12 teams, play 126 game schedule, league will have a 7 reputation, follow AFBL rules mostly.

The league will be consist of current AFBL Free Agents and I'll run a FA Draft to distribute players this week. Players on these teams will still be available for normal FA claims but they'll be getting playing time and hopefully developing.

Logos are in but the team's jerseys, ballcaps, and such still need work.

If anyone wants to help me develop the UBL team's uniforms, that would be awesome 😄.

👍 do you just want concepts or the actual file?

Love the Louisiana Admirals logo

Either and thanks! I've been digging through logo sets for a bit to find some unique ones.

I'll do Missouri and Tennessee jerseys and caps today.

For Tennessee - Missouri later today

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@John_Washington do you have a template you use?

jersey creator and ballcap creator and pickoff (logos) - standalone programs created by justafan on OOTP boards. I'm sure you can find them if you search the ootp boards. There's also another set of programs that you run in a browser, but I have never used them.

Cool! I was thinking maybe it was in photoshop

Thanks for letting us know John

Looks like no support for a mac 😞

use the browser version. it's called something different and should work in safari.

Found it. Pretty cool!

Louisiana Admirals Cap

Louisiana Admirals Jersey

Here's Tennessee - a little different than normal.

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Is there an easy way to do the player preview?

It's part of the jersey maker program.

@AFBL Commish Can you switch Texas' name from Isotopes to Spurs sometime this week (during spring training)?

Yes sorry I forgot again. I will tonight!

Here's the logo again if you need it @Matt Y - Texas Spurs for Slack and elsewhere. Adjusting Texas to be the Texas Spurs with this logo currently.

Great, thank you @AFBL Commish! Excited about this new chapter in Texas - especially as we try to bring in a new winning culture with all this young talent.

Wisconsin Berserkers UBL Jersey & Cap

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Kansas Monarchs

Kansas Monarchs Player Preview

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Wisconsin and Kansas jerseys and caps updated. Thanks @Zach - KY

Oh almost forgot to scroll up. I'll get these all loaded and then upload Sim 2's new file.

Tennessee and Missouri updated. Thanks @John_Washington

Anything to talk about?

Only thing I was planning on for AFBL was potentially adding that Winter Developmental Independent league.

I'm in no rush to upgrade to 21 unless there's a big desire to upgrade.

at least the ootp 21 bug for waiver claim order wouldn't affect afbl

Let me know if @JohnWashington @Zach - KY @mikenew_jersey or anyone else that can assist with logos and uniforms for the Vipers franchise. Only had the incomplete new AZ Vipers logo from Josh so not set on anything.

I can tomorrow morning!

I'll let Zach do it. 🙂

I'm busy with NPBL MIchigan Miracle. 🙂

We have 3 openings (Georgia - in the playoffs, Illinois, and New Jersey - slated to relocate) if anyone not already in NPBL would like to join 🙂

@mikenewjersey NJ is open?

Different league

ah ok

oops

Ya come join us both of you two 😁

2 is enough for me 🙂

for next offseason can we look at minor league stats and normalizing them a tad? For instance my AAA Fresno Grizzlies lead their league in starters ERA...at 4.68. One of my guys has an ERA over 6 and that gets him an ERA+ of 97. AA and A seem a bit more normal, but in Rookie average ERA is still over 5.

wow that's crazy. how would we go about doing that?

Nooooo don’t change anything. OC (NM lite) is enjoying things the way they are. Btw isn’t Fresno supposed to be in the West now?

Crap ya forgot to move the minor league affiliates to their AFBL's corresponding moves

One season season won’t kill anyone

Lol true

And you probably have to check The minor-league modifiers

Somethings are probably a little too high

tbh I don't really want to mess with that stuff especially since we're never messed with adjusting those modifiers or similar

probably should first look at the league's ballparks? aren't those a big factor?

I think there’s actually a thread on the form about ball park factors and how much they mean. I’m not sure but yeah if they factors are wildly different Or offence heavy they should be looked at first.

It may be just the ebb and flow of batter vs pitcher. Maybe there are just a lot of good hitters in AAA. I have several guys that can still hit in ML but I don’t have room for them and haven’t been able to trade them.

AAA has always been a bit juiced, but not this bad. I'd think just a little tweak on some modifiers would do it. Doesn't need to be crazy and make it a pitchers league, but a tick towards sane would be nice

rookie ball concerns me more than AAA honestly, since by AAA most guys are developed

I don’t see it as good or bad. It is what it is. It’s interesting to watch insane stuff happen sometimes. And if the modifiers don’t change it makes it easier to compare years.

well, that's where ERA+ and OPS+ come in, so you can compare years

But the fact that one of my AAA SP's is 2-4 with a 5.52 ERA and that's an above-average ERA for AAA, just ain't right

but AAA is the lesser concern, since those guys are typically at or near developed. I don't think it's great for our Rookie ball'ers to have the extremes though from a dev-standpoint

Agreed on ERA+ and OPS+, but I was thinking more about comparing teams or leagues from year to year in various categories. It’d be a pain to compare something and have to stop and think about how changing modifiers might be skewing the numbers.

How do the extremes affect a players development? Or do you mean it makes it more difficult to evaluate development?

Noting here so I can try to remember for the offseason haha but might be good to have the draft date be June 10th instead of June 5th to make sure both COL and HS league title series are completed. Worked out that HS was a sweep lol.

Tell me if this is a bad idea - but I was thinking about having 2 rookie level teams per franchise. I always find myself with lots of guys who sit on the roster for a season but never get to play down there and then are 21 years old without any experience. Thoughts?

I guess I could just release them… but when they are that young there is plenty of reason to wait it out!

You’re not wrong about the amount of players!

I'd love it as a guy rebuilding.

Would love another R or even another A level teams, like the MLB had until this year. Its hard with 35 roster spots to get guys playing time.

I kind of like it the way it is. I don’t even try to give everyone playing time. I treat spots 30-35 (approx) as an injury reserve and try to ignore them until someone gets hurt. If I had another team it would get filled up and treated the same way. And it would probably create a tighter bottleneck in the higher levels.

That said, I would love another team to play with. 🙃

I'd rather see another level with smaller rosters. 26 at every level perhaps.

Yeah, I'd be in favor of maybe cutting down to 30. I do like more than 26 at lower levels for pitching though since the kids shouldn't be throwing 100+ every game.

Good point!

I wouldn't want the minor league rosters to be smaller than 30

I still need to do some more testing to see what/any impact but I think it'd be cool to have a Winter Developmental League of some sorts

I've been playing around with winter (and summer!) development leagues in solo leagues

The biggest issue I see is if we wanted to pick the players who went Matt would have to enter them all manually

I like the winter developmental league for intl complex/rookies. I don't know if I'd care for another R or A ball unless we cut down the roster sizes for the other leagues. We've already got a ton of guys in our systems if you want to be active on FA claims.

I'd be in favor of cutting roster sizes to 30 or 32.

OOTP recommends not making the lowest level roster smaller than 35 but we could certainly cut down the higher ones

The real world limits these days are, I think, 28-28-30-35

AAA-AA-A-R

Yes rookie league would be the exception.

Double the 30 because there's two A levels

Anyway I'm game to mimic the MLB system or something else entirely

It would be cool to see the IC and rookies get a boost in fielding training. That's about the only thing I'd be excited about with a change. Let some of these 16/17/18 year olds get some run a year or two before they get R league or a few months before their first season.

We could definitely do that with summer or winter leagues

I like when my minor league teams have 3 C, 2 1B, 6 other infielders, 6 outfielders, 6 SP, 8 RP and 1 DH (backup DHs drawn from other positions.)

Which I think adds up to 32. Could easily drop a couple to get to 30. It would be great to be forced to do this with a lower limit rather than depend on myself to get there. 😃 because I never do and the teams always seem crowded.

Do you use minor league disabled lists?

Yes

A good thing about the 35 max is you usually have enough guys to cover quite a few injuries. But I would rather have a lower limit and sign temporary replacements if needed.

I think I'm going to experiment with 28-28-30-35 this next season. It likely won't much matter but maybe my system is a bit less of a mess with dead-end guys

Yeah if nothing else it will be easier to make sense of. The 35 in AAA is hard to cut back on, usually hard to trade extra guys and also hard to release them haha. I don't know if I could get down to 28 very easily at any level.

I've been eager to again work on getting to 32 as a start on every level but should probably wait until off-season is over in case someone gets a potential boost.

I'm also leaning toward self-imposing maximum ages of 22 - 24 - 26 for R - A - AA

like if you're not out of AA by 24 you're probably never making the show

Anything we want to look at while we’re here?

I'm still intrigued about adding a Winter Developmental/Independent League along with possibly adding 4-8 teams to our independent FA league, UBL.

I'm not too keen on adding a 5th minor league level unless that's something a good chunk of the league would like to see.

Not sure of any other items or proposals brought up in the past weeks/months?

I'd love to figure out some type of winter developmental league. Maybe like each team gets to send at most 5 prospects or something. Thats sort of how MLB arizona fall league is.

Yeah, anything to get the IC guys some work

Maybe some type of age limit on that too. Because i view it more for the iC-A guys, than the AA & AAA guys but thats my opinion.

Or it's just like automatically everyones top 5 prospects at seasons end or something.

I would love to try this out!

That would be sweet. I'm not sure there's a way to reassign players back to the team's International Complex unless the game would know to place them back.

Can you enter it in as a “tournament”?

I’ve not tried that but I’ve seen the option

I'm curious to test when I have some time. Might need to try this week when I'm traveling 🙂

I like this!

Maybe just the top 5 prospects that are not in IC? If that makes it easier to reassign players...

I'm pretty sure IC guys will go back there after a developmental league.

I've been using winter leagues a lot in some solo leagues; I'll check and see how it goes

anyway there are two types of winter leagues: tournament and developmental. player development only happens in developmental leagues

one thing to note: there is no way for us, as owners, to set the rosters directly. Matt could go in and do it as commish, but that's a lot of work.

alternately, we could set it up so we know that 5 or 10 or whatever players are coming from each org, but the game would take who it takes

ok I've got a summer league going for int'l complex players. I just checked and the players in the summer league still appear on my int'l complex "roster"

so I think they exist in two places

if I were to promote one of them to rookie league, they'd leave the int'l team though I believe. but if I don't touch them, they'll go off and play and come back to the complex after the season

you can set limits to the teams based on player talent level, or the actual level players are at

so we could set up a league that only takes IC players. or IC + R, whatever

Very interesting. Thanks for checking. I'll try to test some in a test AFBL environment too.

FWIW my summer development league is still a “winter league”, it just starts on July 1 and plays 60 games

so I think I find myself definitely in favor of a developmental league for IC players, or perhaps IC and R. I don't much care if it's winter or summer or what.

I'm open to a fifth minor league (either a second rookie league team or a low A team), but I don't feel so strongly that I'd push for it

I did have a question about whether it's possible to change this setting (I believe it is turned off for AFBL right now)

having it checked allows you to look at the players at a level rated compared just to their level, which would be really helpful in sorting out which same-y rookie league guys get playing time or which IC players to send to a developmental league, that sort of thing

but if it breaks something else, I don't need it

here's a comparison with the same guy showing ratings vs MLB and vs Rookie league

I’d vote for developmental for IC, R and low A (with addition of low A). I'd rather have another level than duplicate a current level (R).

Yeah I think I agree on the additional level if one is added. I’d prefer it be full-season I think

Do we want to expand the draft (but have it be auto after a certain point)? OOTP recommendation is 5 rounds per level of the minors, but we’re nowhere close to that. (Not that I’m terribly interested in making a 22nd round pick either)

Yes agree that low A should be full season if added.

I don't like auto drafting at all. We seem to do okay with rounds we have, but maybe go to 10 or 12? Always seems to be a decent number of guys to sign from ind. league.

Will developmental league push guys through lower levels faster? I know that's the idea, but does it work do you think? If it does that might affect how many rounds we need to keep Rookie league replenished.

If it’s a winter league (so they’re playing more games), it will, but it’s a pretty small effect

If it’s an international-complex-only league, it will depend

Right now those guys develop at the average rate, allegedly, because they’re in practice every day or something

I still like having some stats to look at tho

I'd rather it just have an age cutoff to keep it simple.

Are pitchers and batters set at different development rates in our game? Seems like I have a lot more batters advancing than pitchers. @AFBL Commish

Don't believe any of the dev rates have been adjusted at all for AFBL

I wouldn't want more than 10 rounds in the draft, and im not sure I even want that. Arguably my least favorite part of NPBL is having 12 rounds in the draft, because the quality of players in those last few rounds is typically awful.

Especially dont see the draft needing more rounds, if were not adding another team to each org.

We need to crank up the clock if we add rounds

We're never had to delay sims due to not finishing in time in fact we've been early the past few drafts iirc

I'm about to post 3 polls related to the various topics in here just to help gauge interest.

I voted yes to ten rounds, but if we don't add another level then eight rounds is fine.

Also, developmental league would be my first choice if we do just one thing. See how that works and go from there.

Not to add another thing necessarily for this offseason, but have we ever considered making the minors longer than 138 games? Like 145 but maybe with more off days built in. Wouldn't that in theory also help development?

These are all still items I'd like to discuss further / test this season

I'd almost rather have something like IC but for US players during the regular season. Drafting 16/17 year olds and sending them straight to Rookie ball is tough.

Would there be enough young players for that? Is there a league classification below rookie in ootp or would it end up being just a second rookie league?

Well in my head it's like IC, where they just practice and develop? I assume since we dont get stats for IC, that they're not actually playing games?

So you're mainly looking for a way to have younger players accumulate stats?

I'm looking for a way for 16-18 year olds to develop without getting rocked in Rookie ball. I dont need to see stats, just seems like there should be a way to have a rookie complex lower than rookie ball.

Whatever IC is, but stateside.

Ah okay. They do develop in IC.

I check dev for my organization in StatsPlus almost every sim and my sense is that development in IC is probably on pace with the minor league teams.

remember, guys in the IC are developing.. development is not only linked to playing time

there's not a classification lower than rookie. the way to achieve this would be to add a "low A" type league in between R and A

I have just grown to accept that the pitchers in R are going to get rocked as the hitters are always well ahead in development.

The plan is to upgrade to OOTP24 after we conclude the playoffs.

If you haven't gotten a copy of it yet, it is currently 50% off making it $20. Note that you can install a single license on two systems.

If this is an issue for you, let me know so we can figure something out. Thanks guys!

Another topic..

Any desire to expand the playoff field from 4 total (2 division winners plus 2 wildcards) to add an additional 1-2 wildcard teams?

IMO it would be either:

1. keep status quo


2. add 2 wildcards then division winners get first round bye (like NPBL)


3. add 1 wildcard but drop divisions and move to a single division/conference so that division winner gets a first round bye bottom two seeds play in opening round with top 3 seeds getting a bye


4. some other variation/option; I like the reward for winning division/conference with either a bye or playing lowest seed

I like option 2-3-1 in that order.

I’m ok with any changes as long as the number of teams that get into the playoffs is less than the number of teams that don’t.

I think i like 3. But i am fine with whatever.

I vote for 2 - 1 - 3 in that order but ok with any option

2 or 3 is fine. Whatever everyone wants!

2 or 3 is ok... but 1 is also fine

I'm 3-1-2

2-3-1 for me

Can you clarify 3? If you have three wildcards and one division winner with bye who does the third wildcard play first round?

That option in my mind would drop the two divisions and make one conference/division for the league

or some variation. just was spitting some ideas.

It makes sense without the bye, like ABL, but I don’t think one team getting a bye works unless you have either two or six wildcards. But I think I’ve confused myself now haha.

You're right for option 3. It'd be adding 1 playoff team per league to make the 4th and 5th seeds play each other in the opening round with the top 3 seeds getting a bye. Probably was thinking of how the NFL moved to 7 per league.

I'd prefer to reward the winner of the division(s) so I think my preference is either (1) status quo or (2) adding two more wildcards so division winners get a bye. Not sure I like top 3 teams getting a bye but maybe in this option the opening series is a 3-game one or something.

I like however we have NPBL.

I used to like it for NPBL, but to me, it seems too many teams make the playoffs relative to size of league now that it has contracted from 24 to 20 teams. Not in favor of AFBL having 12 out of 20 teams make the playoffs.

Ya that's where I'm leaning too

12 of 20 way too much... 9 of 20 is ok, 8 of 20 is a nice spot to be in though... maybe two leagues of ten and top 4 makes it through... 🙂

Ya agreed. Basically it'd be the question of keeping two divisions of 5 teams in each league or going to two leagues of 10 teams.

I kind of like the two divisions of five teams, because it gives two teams the chance to win a division. Also enjoy the history of the divisions and would like to see it continue. But no strong preference either way. What are the pros for a single division?

Not sure there's a specific pro. I do like the divisions myself but also fine with either.

One thing would be if one division is really really bad, with the division winner having a record worse record than four teams in the other division that team wouldn’t make the playoffs in a single division.

Another might be that all the teams in the single division would play each other an equal number of times.

That is the pro for the single division to me

You could change the setting for all teams to play against each other an equal number of times even with two divisions so I guess that’s not a pro after all.

so the big question, IF there is to be a change? why/what is broken/not working? I get the sense nothing, so then 'stay as is' would be the ideal

Well if more teams are in the hunt for the playoffs, does that increase our ability to keep people engaged with the league? Or is it a non factor? I think we have an engagement problem across multiple leagues. No idea if it’s just “life” or what and if more teams in the hunt helps us at all.

Just spitballing - could we add some sort of World Baseball Classic / Olympics event into our universe? Is there interest in that?

That'd be interesting to see how it'd work with our universe.

We also have the potential to add a Winter League for another way to build on our universe.

I’m up for either way!

Do we have anything to bring up before the rollover to 2068? I don't have anything on top of mind.

Curious about the Liberty league - seems like we’ve got some absurd stats in the league. Is this a lack of pitching talent, extreme park factors, hitters being way ahead of pitchers?

I’ll try to do some digging.

Screenshot 2025-05-17 at 9.59.29 PM.png

Park factors don’t seem crazy

Team ERAs

Screenshot 2025-05-17 at 10.08.38 PM.png

Seems like a lot of talented hitters and some very not talented pitchers pitching a lot

Do we have ghost players down there too?

I’d be curious how it compares to last year. Prior to pitching going to hell with the move to 25.

Looks like HRs/9 and BB% went up significantly.

IMG_0097

And therefore ERA as well.

Yeah, pretty significant!

I was really excited about my young batters until I went to evaluate my pitching staff 😄

I'm not really sure what to do either. I'm not too keen on adjusting modifiers or anything. We are just on the defaults. I'm hoping it's going to average back out.

I’d say just leave it. It’s an interesting shift that totally sucks imo but it affects everyone 😃

Going to miss the ‘63 thru ‘68 era though.

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Agreed - don’t need you to do anything about it, just an observation.

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I did not change anything

There is risk associated anytime we switch OOTP years. Unfortunately for all of us, there was big (negative) impact on pitching moving to 25. Certainly not something that seems within Commish control.

Yeah it’s not something Matt did, just a shift with the version change

We are in 25 aren’t we? The change was the update from 24 to 25. Ootp was trying to “normalize” pitching because they thought it wasn’t realistic enough irc. Wasn’t a settings issue it was a change they made to the software.

Would be worth checking.

We did have crazy good pitching from ‘63 to ‘68. I think 43 of the top 50 single season team ERA records are from those years. So if pitching was adjusted it would have had a big impact on hitting as a result.

I should also correct the fact that this same issue is occurring in Commish's other league NPBL

Matt has been a great Commish in both leagues. Suggesting otherwise when you’ve been here for like a season or two is pretty crazy

Excerpt from a perplexity search on the issue (fwiw):

“One key factor behind the ratings drop is a shift in the percentile distribution of ratings. In OOTP 24, a rating of 7 for Stuff was at the 38.4 percentile, meaning it was better than only 38.4% of pitchers. In OOTP 25, however, a rating of 7 corresponds to the 86.4 percentile, placing it in the top 14% of all pitchers. Similar adjustments are seen in Movement and Control ratings, where a rating of 6, previously slightly above average, now places a pitcher in the top 12% for Movement and superior to over two-thirds of pitchers for Control. This recalibration means that ratings have been compressed or redistributed, often resulting in lower numerical values for many players to reflect a more stringent scale where higher ratings are rarer and more elite.”

The way to go about it though is not suggesting that our longstanding commissioner made unauthorized changes. Am I happy with what moving to 25 did to my pitching? No i'm not. But I have zero reason to believe or think this has anything to do with Matt, and isn't just the risk moving from 24 to 25. We see changes every single time we switch years. Yes, this was more extreme, but it sounds like an OOTP change.

Im just asking to see the settings so we can understand what needs to be reset back to normal

and as previously mentioned... i raised this issue in a DM to Commish back in April and never got a response on it. I posted here because this seems to be the place to post those kind of things and am hoping to get his attention on it

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as a note, I have also seen curly things happen to league modifiers and league totals when converting from one version to another, always good practice to check these on conversion

Might be two of the busiest weeks this and last week sorry all.

So have a little bit tonight and it looks like OOTP did adjust the modifiers in the "Stats & AI" section of the league settings. For comparison, looks like all of these modifiers were at 1.000 (Baserunning XB% was at 40, middle of the range). These screenshots are the major league, NPBL. The other leagues look to have their modifiers adjusted on us.

Not sure how/why this happened for this conversion compared to previous version upgrades.

My vote is to reset the modifiers all back to 1.000 where they were in OOTP24 based on my old OOTP install.

Any thoughts? Obviously I don't want to just change things without communicating with the league or impacting the league as a whole. Thanks everyone.

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I trust your judgement as I’m not smart enough to understand what all this means.

We all deal with the changes - to me it’s your league and i enjoy it - whether my team is good or dog shit.

Yeah I am fine either way.

I’d vote for having the league itself be as neutral as possible, leaving all the variation to come from ballparks and player ratings.

Whatever is best for you is best for me. I have enjoyed being part of your leagues for wow, 5 years now! Appreciate what you do

Yes, I'm good with the update.
Question - will those same factors affect the minors, or are they league based?

I've gone through and made sure the modifiers are back to 1.000 for where it looked like the modifier got changed on us. The minor league affiliate team's League Total modifiers are all the same as the major league setting. Any of the other modifiers for the leagues in our universe got adjusted if needed.

Thanks man

Hey all. If you know of anyone that would be interested in our league. Please send them my way. We have 3 vacancies to fill otherwise it might be worth discussing Contraction by 2 (or 4) teams to get to 18 (or 16) total teams. This scenario would send them to the UBL.

Vacant Team(s): Alabama, Washington, Ontario

I’ll put a word out!

Are we comfortable posting this on the OOTP subreddit?

yes definitely!

It’ll be Alabama, Ontario and Illinois right?

Yes correct on the current openings. Not against relocating the Blue Pirates too.

It's been quite awhile since we've been full for seasons consecutively I'd guess. I'd love to find 3 more so we can stay at 20 (with me as one of the teams).

Yeah I would really hope we avoid it in either league!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 🦁 ➡️ 🪶
October 2070

Kentucky Lions Announce Departure of GM Zach Larson; Will Join Illinois Warhawks

LEXINGTON, KY – The Kentucky Lions today announced that longtime General Manager Zach Larson will be stepping down to accept the same role with the Illinois Warhawks, returning to the franchise where he briefly served as GM in 2014.

Larson departs Kentucky after an extraordinary 42-season career in the Federation, including 41 years at the helm of the Lions since 2029. Over that span, Larson guided the club to a 3735–3191 record (.539 winning percentage), 26 playoff appearances, and three Federation Cup championships (2043 in the Frontier League, 2050 and 2066 in the Patriot League). His Kentucky clubs became synonymous with consistency, including a 13-year playoff streak from 2039–2051 and a 10-year streak from 2055–2064.

In addition to championships, Larson’s tenure was defined by his ability to identify and develop talent. Under his leadership, Kentucky drafted and scouted some of the Federation’s all-time greats, including:

• Hall of Fame infielder Roger Peck (2033 Draft Pick), a 584-HR cornerstone.


• Raul Arvelos (Scout Discovery, 2049), who went on to become the third most productive pitcher in Federation history by WAR.


• Iván Morales, Ron Dixon, Chris Bermudez, and Judite Aldeinha, each of whom became franchise pillars with over 50 career WAR+.

Welcome to the FL East!

Upcoming AFBL Ownership Changes:

• Richard (NY) moves to take over Washington


• Steven (IL) moves to take over New York


• Zach (KY) moves to take over Illinois


• Alex (AZ) moves to take over New Mexico