Things I'm interested in for season one

The effect of different stadiums

My hope is that right from the start the teams in this league start building their rosters drastically differently. Especially in a league that’s starting out with four teams, I think it would be a cool way to give each team their own identity and would make being the home team in any given game a pretty huge advantage. Have a team with astro-turf and a never ending outfield so that they can recruit the best fielders and pitchers in the game while focusing on speed for offense. Have a team that makes the porch in right field 320 feet that exclusively focuses on left-handed power hitters. It would be a good way to give GMs a plan to sell to their team and a focus that they can take to the draft and free agency, so I hope the different stadiums end up being a big part of the diversity of the league.

How are the games going to be presented?

I have very minimal experience with OOTP, but I think there are a few styles that would work well for presentations. One would be providing updates on PBP via text after every half inning, which I think would be fun to follow. I also think this could be a good league to do live-streaming of the sim to a channel on twitch or youtube.

What positions becomes valued in the league?

Will it be better to build around a strong rotation or a strong lineup in the early stages of this league? How much value in the draft are catchers going to hold when there’s 3 of them created so far? What about a potential left-fielder, a position that nobody has signed up for yet. There’s some interesting thoughts that I’d bet GMs are considering in the first draft.

Are batting orders going to be relatively clean?

Typically the best OBP and high speed guy goes leadoff, the best overall players bat 2 and 3, and the high power guy bats 4th in the lineup. If players aren’t very different from one another in the early stages of this league though, figuring out who gets slotted into what spot could be a mess to figure out. I’m building my guy with the intention of him being a leadoff hitter in the league, but I’d have to guess I’m not the only one working towards that goal and there’s only 4 spots for it. Could lead to some interesting in-house decisions between GMs and their teams.

How does it stay interesting?

With only 4 teams there’s going to be some pretty repetitive matchups in the first season, so I’m interested to see how the admins are going to try to keep the games interesting. Is it going to be a 2 team playoff series? Is it just going to be determined on best record with no playoffs? Will there be any rivalry games or all-star week implemented? I’m interested in seeing what’s planned to keep the league going.