I haven’t blogged about Out of the Park baseball in a long time, but I figure relying on forums and other places for information sharing when I just keep it on my blog is good, not like anyone is reading this anyway.

The problem with OOTP is that it’s not great at modeling development of those AAAA players or young prospects with a lot of potential who can’t get enough reps or simply aren’t developing in your traditional minor league ecosystem. In my current save which is an old template from when OOTP still had all of the world leagues, I have created (in 2041) a 3rd major league (Federal League) that is surely a step below the majors, but is better than AAA.

It’s good for veterans who are benchwarmers looking to start, solid players do well but don’t tear it up, and best of all, prospects who haven’t managed to thrive are able to get meaningful major league at-bats and develop their on their potential.

One other tactic I’ve done for years and have implemented is a winter international league that runs November-March, as a way to give guys more reps. I know this happens IRL where major leaguers will go to Latin America and play winter baseball, but OOTP doesn’t have those leagues natively, so I just create a international league that’s tailored to paying guys major league-ish salaries for the off-season.

It’s a good way to give free agents who might want to sign better deals a chance to prove themselves, and while I don’t manage a team currently, if I were managing a team, it’d be a way for me to Commish mode a guy into a loan with a winter league team to get more reps before he comes back to us having gotten more work in.

I’ve just started this model in my current save, so I’m still waiting to see what test cases come out as guys who were languishing and become stars because of this setup, but the early evidence is promising.