2019 Off-Season Timeline
To help you all navigate the off-season schedule, I’ve created an a graphic with the 2019-2020 Off-Season Timeline.
Cashing in your 2019 Incentive Points (IP$)
Information about cashing in your points.
Incentive Points must be used by December 1st (game). These points can be used to better your team.
UPDATE: Be aware a max of 50 IP$ can be used to purchase $10 million in Cash or to offset buyouts.
Ratings Updates
The March Update process has changed. Read below.
I created a list of players updated at the end of 2019 Season. If a player doesn’t appear on this list he will be updated in March when OOTP 21 is released. At that time players not already updated will be updated 50%-50% with their ratings at that time and OOTP 21’s ratings.
Current ratings (OVR) will not be touched. Potential ratings (POT) will be updated. Additionally, player personality ratings will be updated.
What this essentially means is OVR for minor leaguers will be governed by the game’s development engine until players reach real MLB. Their POT ratings will be capped by their year-to-year OOTP POT ratings.
This will greatly help the AI teams and will provide us some off-season stability of ratings for our minor league players.
EDIT on 11/16/2019: Besides updating POT ratings, I will also update the following personality ratings: greed, loyalty, play_for_winner, work_ethic, intelligence, leader ability. When players enter the game very little is known about them, it makes sense then, if the game updates any of these rating (some of which impact player development), they should be updated as well.
To recap, essentially we update all MLB major league players with 130 or more PA or 30 or more IP at the end of the year to OOTP’s end of year live ratings. Everyone else gets his POT ratings and personality ratings updated in March when the new game comes out.
Updating potential ratings, which is the same as FV (or Future Value) on scouting sites, essentially adjusts a player’s long-term ceiling. So in WLB, OOTP’s development engine will control our minor leaguers’ OVR based on when they entered into our league and how they develop in our league copy of the game until the player reaches the real major leagues. Once the player makes the real major leagues, he’ll be rated in our league to OOTP’s end of season live update ratings.
Lastly, real-life major league players who get injured and don’t meet the playing time guidelines to get updated at the end of the year will be updated as minor leaguers, which means their OVR in the upcoming season will be the result of their previous year’s ratings update and whatever development that took place during the most recent WLB season .
Download the list of players who have been updated.
Contract Renewal Overview
Autorenew Contracts
Players listed as (auto) on the in-game Rosters and Team Salary Pages will be automatically renewed on December 1st in the game. If you don’t want to keep/pay these players next year you need to Release them by the November 25th (real) Non-Tender and Arbitration Deadline.
Arbitration Contracts
Player listed as (A) are arbitration eligible. Arbitration takes place in the game on November 29th.
If you don’t wish to keep an arbitration eligible player, you need to visit your team’s Salary Arbitration page (which is highlighted in red on the game’s League menu), and click Withdraw to withdraw your arbitration contract offer before the November 25th (real) Non-Tender and Arbitration Deadline. Alternatively, you can release the player. (Players released may then sign with another team.)
If you wish to keep these players you need to either negotiate an extension or participate in the Arbitration process.
Check the Free Agent Lists Weekly
Although veteran players don’t become Free Agents until after the Non-Tender Deadline (December 1st in the game), teams are already releasing some players earlier to manage their 40-Man Rosters.
If a player is listed as an Upcoming Free Agent and gets released, any team which claims him on waivers will have the right to offer him a contract.
Upcoming Free Agents
Players listed as an Upcoming Free Agent can be negotiated with before the December 1st deadline. The players ccan also be traded. The team receiving such a player may then negotiate with the player. Of course, though, he may refuse to negotiate with the new team too and may declare free agency on December 1st anyway.
Players now have a right to refuse minor league assignments.
Players with five or more years of service in our league can now refuse to be assigned to the minors. They have ^ symbol next to their name on the Rosters page.
Minor League Systems have been Contracted
As I mentioned, I’ve simplified our minor league setup. I’ve removed two minor leagues. We now have AAA-AA-A-R.
These rosters are currently set for 50 players. At the non-tender deadline (December 1st in the game, November 25th in real life) I will reduce AAA-AA-A to 30 players. R will be set at 35. So, if you manually control your minor leagues, you might want to start pruning your rosters now.
Waivers and DFA
I’ve changed the Waiver and DFA periods to adjust for the off-season weekly schedule. Waivers are now 8 days. DFA is now 9 days. (3 and 7 days during the season.)
Warning about Using the AI
People on AI are reminded that your Ast. GM might release players you like. A few decent guys have already been released. A few more were lucky to clear waivers before I adjusted the settings.
All GMs should check their DFA and Waiver lists on a weekly basis during the offseason.
As a reminder, I release all players when they get to 0 days, when DFA time expires.
Miscellaneous Money
A list of each team’s miscellaneous money owed follows. The totals consist of Expansion Fees and contract buyouts. If you buyout any players with long-term contracts your total will increase.
You can use your Incentive Points to pay this money down.
2020 Divisional Alignment
Seattle makes things funky. Since I didn’t want to put two expansion teams in the same league and division, I made the second expansion team Colorado. That Colorado is also the biggest open market also impacted my decision.
Keep in mind the addition of Franchise Financing, as outlined in the following:
https://whaleheads.com/2019/07/03/2020-wlb-roadmap/
You can see a map of our teams in Google Maps.
OOTP 20
You need OOTP 20 NOW. The $9.99 sale has expired. You’ll need to pay full price now. Save us both problems by buying it on Steam.
OOTP 20 has some nice enhancements, including the Opener, setting starting position players as backups at other positions, and a few other things.
https://manuals.ootpdevelopments.com/index.php?man=ootp20
If your game still says October 27th you can import the league into OOTP 20 and then import the updated league file.
Otherwise, save yourself some hassle by giving me assess to your computer using Google Remote Desktop. Then I can do if for you. Message me when you are ready.
Winter Leagues
Arizona Fall League
The Arizona Fall League will start on November 11th. The league settings are as follows:
I haven’t tested exactly how the player selectei
Caribbean Winter League
Right to Refuse Minor Assignments and Rule 5 Draft Eligibility
(Added 11/17/2019)
Just a reminder about a rule change for this year. Players with a ^ symbol can choose to become free agents if they are sent to the minors. So, in this example, Yasmani Grandal would be locked on my Active Roster all year. Keep this in mind for bubble players when you are doing your non-tenders. Unlike last year, veterans can’t be on the WLB/AAA shuttle. Unlike real baseball, if these players elect free agency they still get paid.
Also, and this is mainly for our new GMs, players with # symbols are eligible for the Rule 5 Draft if they aren’t placed on the Secondary (40-Man) Roster.
This is a test.