Minor League Options

[JTSMOOTH]

Was asked to repost this is a seperate thread rather than lump the bugs all in one post, so here goes...

Issue/Bug #1- Game does not properly handle minor league options.

As the title states, the game does not properly handle minor league options for players at the minor league level.......Here is a comparison of how things work in the MLB and OOTP.

Lets take player A and player B

Both Player A and Player B are drafted in the 2000 season.

After 3 solid years at the minor league level, both player A and Player B are added to the 40 man roster to avoid being drafted in the Rule V draft.(Not sure if OOTP2007 has incorporated the new changes in the CBA signed last year, so I'll just assume for now its still using 3 years for those who were 19 and older when they first signed a pro contract)

So the following spring rolls around, both Player A and Player B do not make the big league club and are optioned back to the minor leagues during spring training. They repeat this same process for the following 2 seasons, so they are now left with no options remaining.

So here is where OOTP and the MLB rules differ, one IMHO takes away a huge amount of strategy....

The following spring, both Player A and Player B are out of options.

Under the MLB rules, Player A and Player B both players are required to make the teams 25 man Big League roster, if they do not, the team must first expose the player to irrevocable waivers before being able to send the player to the minor leagues once again.

In OOTP, as long as Player A and Player B are sitting on a 40 man roster, they can sit at the minor leagues for as long as the team wishes, despite being out of options.

So in summary, the 40 man big league roster should be active from Sept. 1st through Opening Day of the following season. Any player who is on the 40 man roster that does not make the 25 man big league roster in Spring Training, should use an option. Any player who has no options left, should be exposed to irrevocable waivers. If the player clears waivers, the player can then assigned to the minor leagues.


JT

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by JTSMOOTH

So the following spring rolls around, both Player A and Player B do not make the big league club and are optioned back to the minor leagues during spring training. They repeat this same process for the following 2 seasons, so they are now left with no options remaining.

Not necessarily. One further twist on the real MLB rules is that a player who uses up three option years before acquiring five years as a professional gets a fourth option year. Note that 90 days' of service is considered a year of service in the minor leagues, which means time spent in Short Season A or Rookie level leagues don't count towards professional service since their seasons last less than 90 days.

Another aspect to the real MLB rules is that any player added to the 40-man roster after August 15th of a season is automatically draft-excluded, and can only be removed from it by being unconditionally released - he cannot be outright assigned to the minors. Such a player can only be optioned to the minors starting 20 days before the start of the next regular season.


As to the larger issue you pointed out, it came up frequently during beta. The problem is that OOTP doesn't just have a 40-man roster in the off-season, it has both the 25-man and 40-man limits. The issues this causes were raised several times but it seems to change this was something of a complicated nature to implement. I suspect it's not something that can be changed in a patch either. However, there will be several folks behind-the-scenes beating the drum for a more proper implementation of the off-season roster rules.

Past (and present) major league rules are definitely an area of interest for me and something I intend to campaign hard for to get incorporated to some degree in OOTP2008.

[JTSMOOTH]

Understood that there are many little nuances to the rules, I most certainly do not expect them all to be included in the game...


But OOTP uses the basic 3 years on the 40 man roster and your out of options formula, so all I'm asking is that is actually enforces the rules on the players who are out of options rather than let them stay at the minor league level.

If Markus and the gang want to get really deep into things and add all the other twists to the rules, I'm all for it. But for now I'd be ecstatic if they just fixed what was already in the game.

[disposableheros]

this has been logged in TT more than once.

ive got you covered, JT, and it looks as though we are gaining support

[battists]

DH, do you have the TT #?