Display information about option used

[jmknpk2]

The game currently displays how many options are remaining in the player's career. The reports can show how many options have been used during a player's career.

The game does NOT tell me whether or not an option has been used by a player earlier during the current season. This is important, because I need to know whether sending a player will burn an additional option, or whether he has already expended his option for the season and can move freely to the minors. This is very important information to manage a team properly.

The game has this information easily available, because it is able to take the correct action when I do move a player down to the minors. The information needs to be displayed somewhere on the player profile.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by jmknpk2

The game does NOT tell me whether or not an option has been used by a player earlier during the current season. This is important, because I need to know whether sending a player will burn an additional option, or whether he has already expended his option for the season and can move freely to the minors. This is very important information to manage a team properly.

I think you are misunderstanding options.

Whether an option has been used or not in the current season is easily determined by answering the following question: Has the player spent any time with a minor league club during the regular season while on the 40-man roster? If the answer is yes, then the player will be charged an option for the current year. When the season is over he'll have one less option available for use in future seasons. If the answer is no (that is, he spent the entire season on the active 25-man roster), then an option was not used.

A player can only use up one option in a year regardless of how many actual times during the season a player is sent to a minor league club.

Example: a player on the 40-man roster goes into the 2012 season with all three options available. He spends the entire 2012 season with the minor league club. One option has been used, and the player goes into the 2013 season with two options left. In the 2013 season the player starts the season with the major league club. But then in July he is sent down for two weeks, then is brought back onto the 25-man active roster for the rest of the season. Because the player spent time in the minor leagues during the season, an option has been used. So he goes into the 2014 season with one option year remaining. In 2014 the player spends the entire season on the major league club's 25-man roster. Since he did not spend any time in the minors, no option is used. The player goes into the 2015 season with one option still remaining.

Note that OOTP uses a different standard for measuring option usage than real life. In the game if the player spends even one day with a minor league club during the regular season while on the 40-man roster, an option is considered used. In real life, the standard is 20 days—that is, if a player spends 20 days or more in the minors during the season an option is considered used. If he spends 19 days or less in the minors, an option is not considered used.

[jmknpk2]

Hey, thanks for the reply LeGrande Orange.

I think I do understand the way options work. I had made a prior forum request for help on this issue, but did not receive indication that what I was ultimately seeking was readily available in the game.

If I am closely following individual players and keep track of who has been in the majors or minors for my team each season, there is no issue. I can recall from my own memory or independent (e.g. paper and pencil or spreadsheet) tracking system which players have already used options during the current season.

But sometimes I don't follow players that closely. Sometimes I am rapidly simming leagues, running 5 universes simultaneously, or I set a league aside for 6 months or a year before I pick it back up again. In these cases, relying on my memory is insufficient. I need something to tell me whether a player has used an option.

I can look at the player profile and see how many options are remaining. But that doesn't tell me whether one has already been used this season and another won't be expended or whether one has not yet been expended and the remaining options count will indeed be decreased.

If a player is in the major leagues, I cannot easily determine, for sure, whether or not he has also been in the minors this season. If a player is in the minors, I cannot easily determine, for sure, whether or not he had been on the 40 man roster at some point earlier in the season (he may have cleared waivers for example). If the player has both major league and minor league stats during the current season, I know he has burned an option year, because I know he was in both the majors and minors. Short of that, there is uncertainty which the game does not directly answer.

If I were able to see promotions/demotions between the majors and minors in the player history, it would tell me a lot. Also, if I could see when a player was added or removed from the secondary roster in the player history, it would also tell me a lot. But unfortunately, that information is not included in the individual player history.

To find that information out, I need to search the team log, trying to find amongst all player transactions for an entire season, those which apply to the specific player in question. It is possible to research this information. However, doing so is neither trivial nor easy.

The game has this information (whether an option has already been burned this season or not) available. I believe that information should be displayed somewhere on the player profile or html report.

I'd like to hear from you, LeGrande, whether you still think I'm missing something or there actually is a deficiency.

[Le Grande Orange]

As far as I'm aware OOTP accurately keeps track of the option usage. So if it says the player has one option year remaining, then he has one remaining.

When you head into spring training, just check the options remaining status for your players on the 40-man roster. Whichever players have no options remaining will have to either be kept on the 25-man active roster when the regular season begins; if you want to send him to the minors, removed from the 40-man roster and pass through waivers. (This is how it works in real life.) Or you could trade or release the player.

Heading into spring training is the only time you really need to worry about how many options a player has left since it impacts whether you have to expose him to waivers if you don't want to have him on the active roster when the regular season starts.

[jmknpk2]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

As far as I'm aware OOTP accurately keeps track of the option usage. So if it says the player has one option year remaining, then he has one remaining.

I agree that OOTP accurately keeps track of the remaining number of option years.

The game does, additionally and internally, keep track of whether or not an option has been expended during the current season. Unfortunately that additional, and important (in my opinion) information, is not displayed for the user.

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

Heading into spring training is the only time you really need to worry about how many options a player has left since it impacts whether you have to expose him to waivers if you don't want to have him on the active roster when the regular season starts.

I find two additional cases, after the regular season has started, that I frequently need to know whether or not a player has used an option during the current year.

a) In the case that someone on the active roster becomes injured. I need to bring someone up from the minors. At this point in time, it is important to know which minor league players have already used an option.

For example, if two similar players could be brought up to the majors for injury replacement, the option usage can become the deciding factor. If one of the players has already used an option for the current year, and the other has not, I would call up the one who has already used the option (because he will not waste an additional one) and leave the other player in the minors (so he does not burn an option).

b) I need to move a player from the active roster down to the minors. This can become necessary for any number of reasons, including that a player has been acquired by trade that I want on the active roster, or a player finishes his stint on the 60-day DL, for example. I need to send someone down to the minors to make room for the player being added to the active roster.

If there are two players on the active roster who could be moved to the minors, the option usage could be the deciding factor on which player is sent down. If one has already used an option year, I'd move that guy to the minors (because he won't waste an additional option). If the other guy had not yet used an option this season, I would leave him on the active roster so that he will not burn an additional option year.

When I manage teams, it is not uncommon for a player to be called up from the minors for a week or two of injury replacement, never actually play, and then get sent back down to the minors. On my teams, it is common to have several players who have made trips back and forth between the majors and minors several times in a given season. When I'm looking to promote or demote someone, I like to choose these guys who have already used their option this season, because nothing is lost as they go back and forth. The problem is that the game does not easily tell me which of the players on my team fall into this category. I need to rely on my memory, keep an external tracking system (e.g. paper and pencil) or scour the team transaction logs (which I find too cumbersome and time consuming) to extract the necessary information.

I think this is how things work in real life MLB also. Some players are called up in September and remain up till the end of the season. But others are called up and sent back down from the minors several times during the season. I'm pretty sure the major league organizations prefer to send guys up to the majors or down to the minors who have already used their option when that is feasible. I know I have heard the local sports radio hosts discuss this is as part of the reason that one player was chosen over another for a roster change.

[Ktulu]

I see your point. It would definitely be useful to show whether someone has been optioned to the minors in the current season. This should be available in the contract information and their should be an entry in the player history.

[jmknpk2]

Just remembering another case where it's important to know whether or not a player has already used an option during the current season. When the roster expansion occurs, I might as well bring any guys who have already used an option this season and are still on the secondary roster up to the majors.

If a guy in the minors has not used an option this season, I might not want to bring him up to the majors to avoid burning an option.