Arena The Sixth Baseball Draft - The FODEUSS Awakens (Also Featuring the Immaculate Grid!)

Do you enjoy playing Animal Crossing, but wish it included things like wRC+?

Do you just really, really like baseball?

Do you have a lot of free time on your hands and find yourself in desperate need of a hobby to massively consume large amounts of your free time and mental capacity?

Alternatively, do you like to think about time machines, cloning, and the space-time continuum while surfing baseball-reference.com and going down an uncountable number of rabbit holes or possibly even finding historical graves?

If the answer to any of those questions is yes, read on ... this just might be the game for you



Have you ever wanted to answer the question "just how many days in a row can Bob Feller pitch in a playoff series"? Wondered if Ty Cobb could throw out Billy Hamilton at the plate on a sac fly? Wanted to get mad at your third baseman for being out after stealing third base because he jumped off the bag to give the other team the "DX Suck it" sign? Fantasized about watching Babe Ruth pitch to Babe Ruth with Chris Hoiles behind the plate? Dreamt about putting together a team of post-season heroes featuring Joe Carter, Rajai Davis, Orel Hershiser, Luis Gonzalez, and maybe a few guys who played for the Yankees (but definitely not the Marlins)? Maybe you just wanna see John Wetteland or Cap Anson get buried (literally and figuratively)? Or, maybe you just want to see how good Bob Gibson can be ....

If any of those (or something similar) describes you ... good news. This is the Sorta Annual, Dynasty-Driven, basically-year-long game for you.

This is our 12th Sports draft, and the third where we are using Out of the Park Baseball.

But, just like the last few baseball drafts you are invited to build the best fake baseball team in history. But, good luck beating this ultra fake team:



If you're somewhat new to this, I'd encourage you to go back and read (or at least skim) the previous sports drafts. If for no other reason than to understand why the Coveted Tunes Bless is so coveted.

The First NBA Draft, won by @EmpireForever (Able to draft any player any time)
The Second NBA Draft, won by @tom (Limited to only players from the 2012-13 NBA Season)
The Third NBA Draft, won by @tom (Back to any player, any time)
The Fourth NBA Draft, won by @PRENNTACULAR (auction style Franchise Acquisition)
The Fifth NBA Draft, won by @Point Given (all GMs must draft from the same franchise every round)
The First College Football Draft, won by @LloydChristmas (any player from the modern era)
The First Baseball Draft, won by @Point Given (All GMS must draft from the same franchise every round)
The Second Baseball Draft, won by @Point Given (All GMS must draft from the same franchise every round)
The Third Baseball Draft, won by @LloydChristmas (Free-for-all on drafting, mechanisms to carry players through to the next draft)
The Fourth Baseball Draft, won by @LloydChristmas (Free-for-all on drafting, mechanisms to carry players from previous draft and into next draft, first use of OOTP, expansion into the Negro Leagues)
The Fifth Baseball Draft, won by @dp4m (free-for-all on drafting, mechanisms to carry players from previous draft into next draft, expanded uses of OOTP, actual import of Negro Leagues Players, limited international players available)

The Participants:

1) The Commish - That's me. I'm going to keep the draft going by moving along the selection process (see below), posting games, posting results, and generally keeping the game moving forward.
2) The GMs - that's you.Twelve of you? Maybe Fourteen (that's what we had last year)? Maaaaaaybe more? New parties interested can express so in this thread until we announce we've reached the point you cannot. From there, each GM will assemble your team, put together lineups, and rotations, set strategies, and respond to the ebbs and flows in your attempts to win. You're really the owner, GM, and Manager of your team all in one. Or sometimes Shaq cosplays as you filling all those roles.
3) The Peanut Gallery - that's people like @Juliet316. Vital to the game. You do things like make fun of dp, forget Addie Joss exists, and generally enhance my life by letting me know people care about the stuff I'm spending my free time on and reinforcing positive images in my head and helping me to fight off Imposter Syndrome.

The Phases of the Game;

ASSEMBLING YOUR ROSTER

At the start of the game, every team is given the following assets:


32 Draft Picks*
$75 in Intybucks
3 Keeper Slots

*Expansion teams and non-playoff teams are given additional draft picks to help with competitive balance
Expansion teams receive additional draft picks in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd rounds of the draft
Non-playoff returning teams receive additional draft picks in the 4th, 6th, and/or 10th round depending on final position in the standings

These assets are all tradeable, and can be used in each phase outlined below as appropriate.

IntyBucks can be used for the following:

• One additional Keeper slot (75) (only useable once per draft)
• Scouting Reports (1/report) (note: every team will get a spreadsheet with batting, fielding, pitching, and individual pitch ratings once we hit Spring Training at no charge)
• Sign a Free Agent (5/signing)
• Send someone through the time machine (20)*
• Sending Nook (50)
• View in-season team chemistry report (5) (note: I will send everyone a team chemistry report free of charge at the start and end of Spring Training)
• Firing/hiring a new manager mid-season, including interim managers (5)

*a quick clarification on the time machine. Once we break from Spring Training, the year designated to every player is locked in. You can change that year only by paying the fee above, or by trading for the player, at which time a year change can be done free of charge, but only before any games are played. However, if you trade for an injured player, the year change will not be conducted until after the injury has been fully recovered from.

There are Four methods for roster assembly:

1) The Carryover from Previous Draft

GMs who played last year and chose to carry-through were able to use mechanisms to carry over a number of players into this season. These are the foundation of the rosters. If you are new to this season, since you can't carry over players, you'll get additional draft picks. Which brings us to ...

2) The Draft


We are back to just one draft this year!

We will be doing thirty-two rounds of drafting in a snake-style draft. Each player in Major League Baseball History (American League, National League, Negro Leagues*, The American Association, the Union Association, the Players League, and the Federal League) and Minor League Baseball is eligible to be drafted and/or rostered once. (as an homage to the Jedi and Starfighter drafts, and their Anakin/Vader dynamic, we will allow two Babe Ruths - One Pitcher, One Outfielder. No other exceptions)

Note: Select International Leagues are available - check with the Commish before selecting from an international league to verify eligibility.

If you would like to get scouting reports on player(s) you are considering drafting, requests can be placed in thread or via PM to the commissioner. They will be sent via PM, and each scouting report will cost $1 in Intybucks.

Draft Order will be finalized based upon two draft lotteries. Expansion teams will go through a draft lottery and be slotted into the top slots of odd numbered rounds. Non-Playoff teams that return from the previous season will go through a draft lottery for the middle picks. Playoff teams that return from the previous season will be slotted at the end of even-numbered rounds based on final standings, with World Series winner picking last.

Note: At the draft lottery, we will also determine the year / era this season will be played in, and the division assignments for each team.

When drafting a player, please use the following to make things easy on me:

Name - Position (year)

The year is important as the OOTP simulator will look at the current year and two previous years (if possible) as well as player ratings in the database to determine performance level.

Note: you will be able to update the year - see below for timing and restrictions

3) Free Agency

Once the draft is finished, we will open free agency.

For the first 48 hours of free agency, we will use a waiver wire system, with the standard order from even numbered rounds being the waiver wire order for each claim. I will post instructions and timing once we get to this point. Once we are beyond that, it will be declared in the thread, and we will go to a first-come, first-serve claim basis for free agency.

To sign a free agent will cost $5 in Intybucks.

You must have a total number of at least 40 players on your roster; 25 on the active roster and at least 15 on the inactive/AAA roster. There is a link at the bottom of this post with the roster information.

If you are unable to get to a total of 40 players when this phase comes to an end ...

4) Inty Assignment

I will assign players to your roster. Most of them will be on the level of terrible players I thought were good in my naive innocence growing up as a Cleveland fan, or perhaps worse and much worse. So, if you want to avoid Pat Tabler or something on your roster, you should avoid this being necessary. Though, I hope you don't.

If you drop below 40 players at some point during the season (say, a 3-for-1 trade) and are unable to sign a new player with other mechanisms, you will be assigned a player via Inty Assignment.

As the Commish, I also retain the right to do an Inty Assignment to a team with enough players, simply because it amuses me to have you assigned, say, Cecil Fielder to go along with Prince Fielder, or 54-year-old Minnie Miñoso to go along with a prime version of Minnie Miñoso (note: this one will ALWAYS happen)

Once everyone is at 40 (or more) players on the roster, we are ready to move forward with the next phase

SETTING OF BASE STRATEGIES

There are both mandatory and optional strategies:

Mandatory Strategies

• Choosing a home ballpark. You can choose any ballpark that has been used in the AL/NL (current or historical) or design your own, provided it meets MLB guidelines for new ballparks.
• Choosing a location. You can pick pretty much any city on the planet. You cannot be on the moon
  • Please note, if you want to use a location where Altitude might come into play with your stadium effects, please work with me ahead of time.
• Choosing a nickname.
• Choosing a manager. You can use a historical manager, you can retire a real-life player, or you can create your own - see this post in the third game thread to see the guidelines and options.
• Setting a standard lineup vs. RHP and a standard lineup vs. LHP
  • Please note, this year we are using the Designated Hitter
• Setting a standard rotation - you can pick a rotation of any size between a one-man rotation and a six-man rotation. You must also decide whether your rotation is strict order, strict with flexibility to allow higher rested, or to simply always start the highest rested pitcher in the rotation. You must also decide if you want to allow starting pitchers to pitch in relief.

Optional Strategies

• Setting a logo and/or brand colors for your team.
• Setting a capacity and/or ticket prices for your stadium (if custom - historical parks will get their historical capacity, but you can still set ticket prices)
• Naming your AAA affiliate
  • You can also choose to import an entire existing minor league team and place on your AAA roster to "fill it out"
• Assigning Depth Charts for each position (up to two backups, plus a defense-only sub). You can also set the depth-usage strategy, with options of Never, If Starter Tired, or every nth game, with n from 1-10, 12, 15, or 20.
• Assigning a preference order for pinch hitters and pinch runners (in general, or vs LHP/RHP)
• Assigning primary role (Closer, Stopper, Setup, Specialist, Middle Relief, Long Relief, and Emergency SP) and secondary role for any pitcher that can come out of the bullpen.
• Set strategy for the following for general, and for close/late games (if you are interested in this, we'll talk about it, rather than make this post even longer):
  • Stealing Bases, Base-Running, Hit and Run, Sac Bunt, Squeeze play
  • Pitch around, Intentional Play, Use of Infield in, Use of Infield Shifts
  • Hook starters, Hook relievers, Favor L/R, pinch hit for pitchers, setting of max pitch counts, use of the "opener" strategy
  • Situations where you would use defensive substitutions and response to an opponent using an opener.
  • Note: Instead of hand-picking each of these, you can choose an over-arching strategy - traditional, balanced, small ball, moderate small ball, sabermetric, moderate sabermetric, tactician, moderate tactician and completely unorthodox.
  • Note: The setting for this season will be 1993, so all ratings for strategy are "relative" to average in 1993.

For all Optional Strategies, you can simply not do it. In this case, we'll use the sim defaults and that's 100% okay.

Player Specific Strategies

Each team can designate up to five players to have Player Specific Strategies that overrule the team strategies. The strategies you can set are:

• Changes to the strategy around stealing bases, base-running, hit&run, sacrifice bunt, and bunt for hit tendencies.
• Changes to the strategy around hook starter/reliever, pitch around, intentional walk, hold runner, infield in, guard lines, infield shifts, outfield shifts tendencies.
• Ability to use as a two-way player
• Ability to skip using the DH when this player pitches
• Set a maximum pitch count and/or maximum batters faced
• Bench player if DTD depending on severity
• Bench player if a certain fatigue level is hit
• Force a certain position for use
• Force a certain line-up spot (vs. LHP, vs. RHP, or both)
• "never lift for a pinch hitter" strategy
• save for high leverage PH only
• Set a minimum inning for when player can be removed for a PH

Note: for all starting pitchers you can do the optional strategy of "skip DH when they are pitching" and it will not count as one of your five optional player strategies if that is the only optional strategy you use

For all Optional Strategies, you can simply not do it. In this case, we'll use the sim defaults and that's 100% okay.

Once we’re all assembled …

PLAYING THE SEASON

First, we have Spring Training. At the start of Spring Training, you will receive a spreadsheet with batting, fielding, pitching, and individual pitch ratings as well as a team chemistry report.

We will have a five-week Spring Training, with minor updates (including injuries) given at the end of the third week, and each GM allowed to make adjustments to strategies, lineups, etc. for the final two weeks

At the end of spring Training, you will need to have your active roster trimmed to 26, with the remainder of players either on the DL, the inactive list, or at your AAA affiliate.

We will play a 162-game season (plus All-Star festivities), with the league divided into two divisions.

I will be posting 3-6 games at a time (1-2 series between teams; normally two sets of games for each team, but sometimes only one). You can make adjustments or just let it fly with your standard lineups and pitching rotations. I will then do some weekly summaries (IntyCenter on YouTube), probably a game of the week, and provide major updates like injuries (weekly) and stats (monthly).

A note about this sim: I can't control every individual game. I will do my best to ensure that your specific choices for specific games happen, but there is a non-zero chance that the sim/manager will overrule my inputs and go with something else. This happens a few times every season, but by and large, I don’t think it seriously impacted final standings; Just … be aware of it, and do your best to not bust my chops when/if it happens.

At the end of the season .. the best teams will make ...

THE PLAYOFFS

The winners of each division, plus the four teams with the best records will make the playoffs. The four non-division winners will face each other in best-of-seven series, with a 2-3-2 format. From there, a pair of 2-3-2 best-of-seven LCS series is followed by a 2-3-2 World Series. Lineups and strategy can be adjusted for each playoff game.

The winner of the playoffs gets a prize given out by the mods - colors for I don't want to guarantee an amount of time, plus title. Bragging rights for-ev-er. And their name - okay, Star Wars Boards username - etched in the history books.


THE CARRYOVER TO NEXT SEASON

That's right. We're playing for keeps! Again. Still?

Everyone playing in this draft and continuing to the next season gets three keepers. Any three players (keeping in mind, if you have designated a player as your Franchise Player, you must carry them through as your Franchise Player) on your team you want to bring through and make sure you have them next season – they are yours to take. But, you can keep more … if you want to, that is.

Cost of additional keeper slots, in terms of draft capital:

+1: 1st and 2nd
+2: 1st - 5th
+3: 1st-10th
+4: 1st-18th
+5: 1st-31st

Note: Can purchase 1 (one) Keeper Slot for 75 Intybucks
Note: Trading for a Keeper Slot will make it impossible to use another mechanism to get an additional keeper slot
Note: Any player named as MVP, Reliever of the Year, or Cy Young will cost 10 Intybucks to keep. Any player that wins a Gold Glove or Silver Slugger will cost 5 Intybucks to keep. Franchise keepers are exempt from these charges.

You can also keep fewer carryover players. If you want to keep only two, you’ll net an additional pick at the end of the third round in the next draft. Only want to keep one? You’ll net additional picks at the end of the second and third round, and if you don’t want to keep any, you get additional picks at the end of each of the first three rounds.

Keepers is also a tradeable asset (noting the limit above). You can trade another team your right to carry a player (or two or three) as part of a trade. So are future draft picks. You can go to the trade deadline and offer up your first round pick next year to get that ace pitcher at the deadline! (Of course, if you trade away a future pick, you can’t use it to keep additional players … so plan your strategy wisely. Once your keeper train derails, you can’t get it back on the tracks).

You can also keep one player as a "joke keeper" provided the player is on your roster for the lolz of it. This keeper is subject to Inty Approval and costs 0.05 Intybucks and your 32nd round draft pick.

You also carryover any unused Allocation Money to next season, up to a maximum of 150 IntyBucks to start a new season.

Anyone who plays and wants to play again in the seventh draft will be allowed to carry-through, and we will always allow Expansion Teams to join.

And, with that long post out of the way ...




Draft Six Rosters

Box Score Folder

Game Recaps (Recordings, Non-IntyCenter) Folder

 

Suck it, narcs.

Spoiler

 

i am ready.

 

This is your year!

 

Participants

Expansion Teams:

1) @Gemini Joe

Confirmed Returning Teams:

2) @AmazingB (the people's champion)
3) @dp4m (the actual defending champion)
4) @tom (the trade deadline champion)
5) @heels1785 - this year is actually his year!
6) @Point Given (the former two time - TWO TIME - champion)
7) @Wang Chi (the future champion who will have the first Triple Crown of Drafts once he wins)
8) @cubman987 (playing under protest of the DH)
9) @RX_Sith (champion of team naming)
10) @mnjedi (Champion of midseason free agent signings)
11) @LMTShawn (FTW Champion ... or something)

Tentatively Returning Teams:

12) @jcgoble3 - returning if we would otherwise have an odd number of teams

Unknown but probably not returning teams:

@LloydChristmas (rumoured to be signing up with a sock to play as an expansion team and ditch the albatross known as Ted Williams)

If you wanna play, just add your name to the list of Expansion Teams!

 

FODEUSS Draft Lottery et al
Time: Feb 10, 2023 09:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86391737845?pwd=Q3JiSXpTQ3FBT0VtOVZBekVhNzlqdz09

Meeting ID: 863 9173 7845
Passcode: 125291

Deadline to join as an expansion team / declare if you're with us for this season will be two hours prior to the draft lottery. So 7:00 PM Eastern on Friday.

I'm going to wait until Monday to start the draft so that everyone has the entire weekend to think about how the lottery impacts keepers / trades.

 

Alright. Last year was last year and best forgotten. I have a feeling about this one. We'll actually hit some balls with some bats. It's gonna be a thing this year.

 

Yeah, I won't be able to be in it. Sorry, but good luck y'all

 

I should make this my LinkedIn profile.

Amazing.

 

And @LloydChristmas, let's go and declare already!

 

I have listened about the woes of OneDrive and am working to migrate all of this draft's files to Google Drive, even though that will limit my ability to update during the work day. Though, honestly, I probably shouldn't be doing that anyways.

Can a mod type add this link to the opening post?

Draft Six Rosters

So far, it's just the franchise keepers, since everyone has until Monday to declare keepers, and even if you've already declared there's a chance you might switch it up based on the era we get on Friday.

 

Declaring Prime Time as my joke keeper.

 

would like to declare wheezer as my joke keeper if inty approves.

 

Questions for those that declared Franchise Keepers, and since this is just my second year: why did you do so and, if you wish to divulge, why did you select who you did?

 

For me it was about who was my iconic player/face of the franchise guy going to be. My first year was the fist year using OTP and thus the first year anyone could take Josh Gibson. My using the first overall pick to officially open that era, I think it’s pretty cool, so that’s the player I always want associated with my team. (He’s also my best position player which helps)

 

I don't think I did, I think @DarthIntegral just sort of made Big Train my franchise keeper...

 

Long answer: Even though I knew he might not deliver on the offensive end year in and year out (career .284 hitter and only every hit over .320 twice), both the eye test and advanced metrics told me I could at least count on him to be in the Gold Glove conversation every single year at a very critical defensive position. And seeing as how he's won it the past two years (as both his 1997 and 1996 self), I seem to have guessed correctly on that one at least. So far.

Short answer: It's ****ing Ken Griffey Jr.!

 

This but Ty Cobb.

It's also something of a numbers game. With the number of teams and keepers, locking in a top 5 or 10 player was a no brainer.

Amazing.

 

willie is just my guy. it also helps that he's in the conversation for greatest baseball player of all time. that said (i mentioned this before), i did try to trade him to amazing in the first ootp season for ty cobb, so making him my franchise keeper was also a way of saving myself from my tendency to blow things up.

 

@MandaloreYak It's time to burn. Get in here!

 

All their games will be 10+ hours long, because JJJ will contest every strike called against them, screaming at the top of his lungs that "I ain't seen it!"

I suggest the AAA affiliate be named the Prepared Batmans.

 

I'll throw in a free John McGraw scouting report if you sign up in the next two hours, yak!