UNITED LEAGUE OOTP 2006 CONVERSION PAGE
Download the quickstart file here
ROSTER & FINANCIAL RULES
ON: Contract Extensions, Free Agency, 40-Man Rosters, Rule V Draft, Draft Pick Compensation for Lost Free Agents
OFF: Waiver Rule, Salary Arbitration, Minor League Free Agency (a completely radical concept for the reserve clause era).
Contract Extension
GMs will now be able to offer contract extensions to players during the season
Free Agency
For the first time, we will enable full free agency. Minimum service time for free agency will be eight years, eventually switching to six years.
40-Man Rosters
GMs will maintain secondary "40-man" rosters. Players not protected on secondary rosters are subject to the Rule V Draft.
Rule V Draft
Teams with space on their 40-man rosters may draft "unprotected" players from other organizations. Rule designed to prevent teams from stockpiling talent. If we want, we can adjust the secondary roster to 35 players, to encourage more player movement.
Draft Pick Compensation
Teams who lose players to free agency will be compensated with "sandwich picks" after rounds 1, 2, or 3, depending on the class of the free agent.
Things That Won't Change
§ 25-man rosters
§ Expanded rosters in September
§ July 31 trade deadline
§ Allow draft pick trading
§ Media contracts vary by market
§ $50 million cash maximum
§ Revenue sharing of excess cash
§ Ratings still 1-10, Potential 1-5
I tried to set these tendencies to historically accurate settings, though some of them might need some tweaking. We will eventually transition to 5-man rotations, probably around 1969. I don't think there was much pinch hitting for position players in the 1960s. "Small ball" is starting to become more fashionable around 1962, as pitching became more dominant and scoring decreased, but I have these set to "normal" for now.
I've test imported several leagues, and it looks like we will be able to run a fully-modeled Triple-A level league below the United League (but not AA or A leagues). Unlike OOTP 6.5, 2006 will produce detailed stats and game results, and minor league stats will accurately reflect player development.
Based on my tests, the import process will generate about 70 fictional players to fill out rosters. These will be scrub players who will eventually be displaced from the league by ever-larger rookie drafts. You will notice in the test league that all fictional players are named "X X" to make them easy to spot.
We will make an effort to evenly disperse fictional players among the 12 organizations to further minimize their impact. We will try to keep all 12 rosters roughly the same size by Opening Day 1963, probably around 48 players per team. Free agent and/or rookie scrubs (ie. 5th-7th round picks) may be moved around to equalize roster size.
To make the IL distinctive from the UL, I decided to split it into three divisions of four teams: North, South, and West. (Original plan was to have an IL and a Pacific Coast League.)
I named the Minor League awards after the best players from the inaugural season (1951), and the league championship after the real International League's.
I moved Chicago's Triple-A team from Milwaukee to Kansas City to better fit the West Division. (Hope that's okay with you, Lance.)
I've come up with nicknames and a few logos for the minor league teams, though I'm certainly open to other suggestions, especially those with historical or regional significance. Here is some background on the nicknames:
MINOR LEAGUE NICKNAMES
Buffalo Bisons
3 major league teams from 1879-1915, current minor league team
Philadelphia Keystones
Union Association, 1884; PA is the Keystone State (alt: Quakers)
Pittsburgh Maulers
Great USFL nickname and logo
Toronto Marlies
Minor league hockey team with a great logo, named after the Duke of
Marlborough
Atlanta Crackers
Minor league team from c. 1900 to arrival of Braves
Baltimore Terrapins
Federal League (1914-15)
Havana Diablos
Spanish for devils (pre-Castro minor league team: Sugar Kings)
Houston Generals
Wanted something related to Mexican-American War or early Texas, not
too happy with this one
Denver Grizzlies
Was runner-up to Colorado Rockies Minor league team was the
Bears.
Kansas City Monarchs
Most storied team in Negro League history.
San Diego Admirals
I like Admirals as a nickname, and I have a good logo for it
Seattle Thunderbirds
Have a cool bird logo (alt: Totems or Rainiers -- PCL team)
SCHEDULE & PLAYOFFS
§ The
league will play a 130-game balanced schedule.
§ Division
winners plus one wildcard team will advance to the playoffs.
§ Both
series will be best of five (standard length for minor leagues)