NML
Well-Known Member
I want to start by saying I hope everyone remains open-minded about the possibility of the new league. I feel like the response has been overwhelming positive so far, and I do think this can work to keep everyone happy, add some new players in a way that they'll enjoy the league and stick around, and push our OOTP forum closer to its heyday.
I'll also invite all the possible new owners into the discussion - don't feel as though you have to contribute if it feels over ur head, but also want to bring them into the fold.
Finally, while most of them gave me a hard 'yes' I won't hold anyone to anything or label them as they come in, in case they get here and feel like it's not a good fit for them (or, for whatever reason, it falls through).
@whiteyc_77 @Reel @goblue96 @kingssc @Schauwn @nowitsourtime @GatorTD
-----
I'm hoping to operate this league using the structure and the success of the WBL, but with some necessary changes to re-engage owners and add new blood. I've built it on three pillars to hopefully accomplish this. This is also a somewhat srs post that I fully expect to not have srs follow ups, but we can at least start from here and spiral into sarcasm
Here we go...
-----
An emphasis on properly educating, introducing, and supporting new owners.
The reality is that the league has not successfully introduced and maintained a new owner since Tony, which was four years ago. Clearly, as a league, we can do better here.
The first part is the introduction of the game, the league, and in some cases, the sport. I will personally be putting together some videos, forum posts, and as much other helpful information as possible to help newcomers get their feet wet. It’s something various members of the league have attempted at different points, but I would encourage others to participate here if they feel they have useful information to share. It can be as simple as “what is the waiver wire?” to more complicated topics like “how should I evaluate players?” There can also be a learning curve to the league, and while I think the FAQ mostly covers these things, it could also be expanded as the league is constantly evolving and changing.
Secondly, we want to set them up in a way that they can find enjoyment out of whatever it is they want from the league. To start, we will begin the league in a similar fashion to the WBL, which solved a lot of long-term, financial and market instability. All teams will begin with the same market size, fan interest, and budget, which should/will only marginally change during an initial 10-year sim to build a database of players and history.
From there, I fully expect the budgets to begin to adjust as seasons progress. This is the nature of baseball, and part of what attracts some of us to the uniqueness of the sport. However, while we want to reward success and, to a point, punish those who tank, we also want there to be a reasonable path to success as people want it. What we especially want to avoid is how the current WBL sits, with some owners have budgets twice the size of others. I’ll discuss this is more later in the adjusted rules section.
We also want to have the possibility of expansion to new owners without starting them so far behind the rest of the league – I believe this is a path to do so, if we need to cross the bridge. First, there will be an expansion draft – albeit a limited one. All non-40-man players are automatically protected, and we will allow a percentage of professionals to be kept safe as well. We will use a percentage versus a flat number, as some people carry a full 40-man group, while others try to save cost/major league seasons and limit this group. This will not be the primary path for a new team to construct their roster, but it will allow them to add some pieces. Most importantly, we will provide them a $20m injection of cash, in addition to their budget (which will be equal to the 10th percentile of current clubs). With this, I believe new owners will find a lot of freedom in how they want to proceed. They could easily invest in free agents or use it to acquire high salaried players. They could also use it to buy prospects or picks, or invest heavily in their development and scouting. In addition, expansion teams will be given end-of-round ‘compensation’ picks in the draft to quickly build a farm system of us.
At the end of the day, we want new players to have flexibility in building their roster. Whether expansion or simply new to the league, it’s important that we support their idea of how the game can be ‘fun’ while maintaining a level of competitiveness that will ultimately drive the league.
An adjustment of current baseball rules
A few changes I want to run through
While the previous points are all basically getting to the same point (keep owners, and keep them active), this is the final point to that. I’m not sure exactly what this would look like, but I’ve got ideas and would certainly like to hear from others. It works best when everyone is engaged and involved, but I also don’t want people to feel like they’ve got homework. Just a few ideas
-----
All of these would need thorough testing that I'd need to do to be sure that it works as we want. Ultimately, we are at the mercy of the indy devs as to the changes they make in subsequent versions, but I think this is a good starting point.
I'll open it to the floor...
I'll also invite all the possible new owners into the discussion - don't feel as though you have to contribute if it feels over ur head, but also want to bring them into the fold.
Finally, while most of them gave me a hard 'yes' I won't hold anyone to anything or label them as they come in, in case they get here and feel like it's not a good fit for them (or, for whatever reason, it falls through).
@whiteyc_77 @Reel @goblue96 @kingssc @Schauwn @nowitsourtime @GatorTD
-----
I'm hoping to operate this league using the structure and the success of the WBL, but with some necessary changes to re-engage owners and add new blood. I've built it on three pillars to hopefully accomplish this. This is also a somewhat srs post that I fully expect to not have srs follow ups, but we can at least start from here and spiral into sarcasm
Here we go...
-----
An emphasis on properly educating, introducing, and supporting new owners.
The reality is that the league has not successfully introduced and maintained a new owner since Tony, which was four years ago. Clearly, as a league, we can do better here.
The first part is the introduction of the game, the league, and in some cases, the sport. I will personally be putting together some videos, forum posts, and as much other helpful information as possible to help newcomers get their feet wet. It’s something various members of the league have attempted at different points, but I would encourage others to participate here if they feel they have useful information to share. It can be as simple as “what is the waiver wire?” to more complicated topics like “how should I evaluate players?” There can also be a learning curve to the league, and while I think the FAQ mostly covers these things, it could also be expanded as the league is constantly evolving and changing.
Secondly, we want to set them up in a way that they can find enjoyment out of whatever it is they want from the league. To start, we will begin the league in a similar fashion to the WBL, which solved a lot of long-term, financial and market instability. All teams will begin with the same market size, fan interest, and budget, which should/will only marginally change during an initial 10-year sim to build a database of players and history.
From there, I fully expect the budgets to begin to adjust as seasons progress. This is the nature of baseball, and part of what attracts some of us to the uniqueness of the sport. However, while we want to reward success and, to a point, punish those who tank, we also want there to be a reasonable path to success as people want it. What we especially want to avoid is how the current WBL sits, with some owners have budgets twice the size of others. I’ll discuss this is more later in the adjusted rules section.
We also want to have the possibility of expansion to new owners without starting them so far behind the rest of the league – I believe this is a path to do so, if we need to cross the bridge. First, there will be an expansion draft – albeit a limited one. All non-40-man players are automatically protected, and we will allow a percentage of professionals to be kept safe as well. We will use a percentage versus a flat number, as some people carry a full 40-man group, while others try to save cost/major league seasons and limit this group. This will not be the primary path for a new team to construct their roster, but it will allow them to add some pieces. Most importantly, we will provide them a $20m injection of cash, in addition to their budget (which will be equal to the 10th percentile of current clubs). With this, I believe new owners will find a lot of freedom in how they want to proceed. They could easily invest in free agents or use it to acquire high salaried players. They could also use it to buy prospects or picks, or invest heavily in their development and scouting. In addition, expansion teams will be given end-of-round ‘compensation’ picks in the draft to quickly build a farm system of us.
At the end of the day, we want new players to have flexibility in building their roster. Whether expansion or simply new to the league, it’s important that we support their idea of how the game can be ‘fun’ while maintaining a level of competitiveness that will ultimately drive the league.
An adjustment of current baseball rules
A few changes I want to run through
- Removing IFA. I discussed this with a few different owners, but the reality is that IFA is too volatile and too difficult to control to help a league built on consistency. As we’ve seen over the course of the WBL, some versions of OOTP produce elite IFA players, to the point that drafts become almost worthless, and some versions where IFA is simply a way to blow cash on prospects that won’t develop. Further, because they instantly appear as 16-year old’s, IFAs have no history and no development. I think this ultimately hurts immersion, as well as bust frequency, but most importantly it becomes a long turn around on investments. Funneling all players through the draft allows us to better control financial irregularities, provides a more typical balancing system, and prevents high budget teams from (occasionally) also acquiring the best prospects
- Higher revenue sharing – it is my belief that this is a further step to controlling budgets and balance. In reality, teams who vastly overperform with huge seasons won’t see this drastically change anything, as most of what they will ‘revenue share’ is playoff income which doesn’t affect budget anyways. It will hit our high budget, under-performing teams who our living close to the budget line hardest, which ultimately is the group we want to affect to level the playing field. In addition, it’s a great source of income for small market teams to close the gap
- A revamped playoff system. While we want to allow budgets to stay closer to keep owners engaged, we also want to reward successful owners in other ways. We will do that by change the playoff system to reward teams that have great regular seasons. I’ll wait until we have final owner numbers to completely decide this, but, as an example – if we had 16 teams, split into two leagues, league winner gets a bye into the semi’s, with two ‘wild card’ teams playing in a five-game series to decide who else makes it. This makes not only making the post-season harder but puts an emphasis on each spot – first is obviously vital, but even getting second instead of third is important as you now host 60% of the opening round. This is my attempt to balance all the previous talk to keep budgets closer with rewarding success. This should also make World Series winners, more often, the ‘best’ team over the year, versus the randomness we’ve seen before – which, in my opinion, diminishes the value of a World Series.
While the previous points are all basically getting to the same point (keep owners, and keep them active), this is the final point to that. I’m not sure exactly what this would look like, but I’ve got ideas and would certainly like to hear from others. It works best when everyone is engaged and involved, but I also don’t want people to feel like they’ve got homework. Just a few ideas
- Power Rankings
- Forum prospect rankings
- Bring back team thread logs
- Data/’moneyball’ discussion and findings
- A ‘I’ve got a dumb question’ thread for our influx of new owners
- Betting thread
-----
All of these would need thorough testing that I'd need to do to be sure that it works as we want. Ultimately, we are at the mercy of the indy devs as to the changes they make in subsequent versions, but I think this is a good starting point.
I'll open it to the floor...