With the draft behind us and the All-Star break approaching at a rapid speed, I wanted to take the time to look ahead to 2024 and beyond. I have heard from no one warning of any major red-flags on OOTP24, so as planned, we will be making that switch in the day(s) after our World Series ends.
With OOTP 24 comes in-game improvement and new options. In addition, I have been submitted a couple of things that others would like to see at the very least discussed. I will likely being pushing all of these in some ways to Slack’s #ruleschannel at some point in the near future (TBD if staggered or all at once).
- Coach Hiring From Other Teams: This is something we discussed a couple of seasons ago when it became an option in OOTP 22. I feel it is something that perhaps we should revisit. OOTP has had time to improve the area. I would be in favor of limiting this to the attempting of hiring a manager/hitting coach/pitching coach at the MLB level only for the time being. I would not be opposed to adding compensation (after the third round?) to those teams that lose a MLB coach to another team but could also be talked off of the compensation idea.
- Injury Frequency: In OOTP 22, injury frequency is a singular option which we have set to “Normal (Classic OOTP)” – this includes our custom injury file which lowered some of the long term injury rates. In OOTP 24 there are two injury settings “Short Injury Frequency” and “Long Injury Frequency” with the default having both set to “Normal (Classic OOTP)”. I believe we should 100% keep SIF as is, but would like to hear how others feel on LIF. Keep as is or lower to “Low”? For what it’s worth, the “OOTP Classic” setting is one notch below “High (Realistic Modern Day)”.
- The Ohtani Rule: The ability to leave a SP in the game as DH when removed as pitcher is an option that will be turned on in OOTP 24.
- Spring Training Ties: The ability to have ST games end in ties is an OOTP 24 option that I feel would be best turned on. 12, 13, 14 inning ST games are good for no one.
- Injured List Length: MLB now has a 10-day IL for hitters and 15-days for pitchers, we currently have 10-days for everyone. Perhaps the move to OOTP 24 is a good time to change this for us?
- Draft Lottery: The draft lottery system we adopted last season will be used, my only question is would GM’s prefer we do it in Slack or now allow OOTP 24 to handle it in-game (with our percentages/balls) and have it be revealed in the in-game Winter Meetings?
- Luxury Tax: In OOTP 22 we have gone with revenue sharing and not the luxury tax. In OOTP 24 we gain the ability to have both revenue sharing and a soft cap/luxury tax. I do not think I am ready to go as far as MLB does when it comes to the threshold/multiple time offender penalties, but I want to hear how others feel on say going with a soft cap of 150% of the average payroll and a tax of 7.5%-10%.
- “The Bryce Harper Contract Structure”: [Just to be clear, Bryce Harper’s contract is not in danger of being changed nor did Atlanta do anything that was against any rule!] This is something that has been brought up a handful of times to me over the past few months. Harper, a 30 year-old coming off of a 2nd place MVP season opted out of his deal in Arizona and into free-agency. He decided to sign with a contending team on a 359,000,000 deal over 10 years, BUT that included year one in which he would make less than half of what he is set to make years 2-7 with an opt out ofter year 1. How do others view this situation? Is this a special circumstance kind of thing that happened or is this something that could cause issues with future contracts or something like this becomes a norm?
- The IFA System: There are more than a few new tools with regards to the IFA system in OOTP 24, but I am not ready to implement any changes to our system. This will require some testing. This will be revisited in the future.
- Scouting: The debate on scouting and its use (and setting) is something that has been an MLB Pro debate for many, many, many years now. The League Office has often been split on the topic. That being said, a long tenured GM recently brought up a request to again look into changing this with OOTP 24. The thought was that scouting is a “is it’s a rich get richer situation. Not only financially but also in GM talent/time…where it definitely hurts the less active GMs who I doubt are running continual scouting reports. The final nail in the coffin for me to actually suggest it (been thinking on it awhile) was the draft. Most are using OSA anyhow so it takes that whole facet out of it.” I am happy to listen to this topic from others. Stay as is, go 100%, turn scouting off (VERY slight differences between the two), the one are that I also need to consider with this topic is the financial impact (scouting money). Happy to discuss, not sure what exactly it would take on this one to make a switch just yet.