Self-Imposed Trade Restrictions.. AAAGH!

[KG Erwin]

1940. Just for a lark, I made a trade offer for Ted Williams. The Red Sox made a counteroffer. However, due to my house-rule on in-season trades, I can't get Williams.

For the record, my house-rule is that I cannot initiate an in-season trade. I can only respond to AI offers. This helps prevent the human player from gaining an unfair advantage over the AI. Therefore, the Kid is out of my reach. Dang my quest for fairness! [:(]

[DonBraswell]

KG. I say get Williams. The AI doesn't need him. It will waste on a scrub any way down the road.
Don

[KG Erwin]

Don, I got your PM. [;)] Listen, I DO wanna make this game challenging, but I'm finding that I can still make some good deals in the off-season. If nothing else, I wanna make Shaun aware of some loopholes that he can close in DDSBB.

As for getting Mr. Williams, yeah, I'm sorely tempted. He'd look good in Dodger Blue, wouldn't he? (I can see Red Sox lover Shaun squirming at this thought [:D]).

[Wrathchild]

I try to keep things fair, as well, in my own way. For example, in the Amateur Draft I will only draft players that historically were on my team, if possible. However, when I saw that no one had drafted Ty Cobb (with super ratings) by the fifth round I couldn't help myself. He should've been someone's first round pick.

[DonBraswell]

Wrath,
That is what my PM to KG was about. Too many good players go undrafted.
Don

[Wrathchild]

After the season I'm having, I don't think I'm going to feel too guilty about drafting good players that other teams don't want. In fact, I'm pretty sure that I remain with the team I'm managing now, I'm going bring up a 19 year old Ty Cobb who's tearing up the minors right now. I normally wouldn't bring up someone so young, but since he was already playing (I think) for the majors in the real world at that point, I see no reason to keep him in the minors.

[KG Erwin]

So, Wrathchild, are you using early draft entry? Just curious. I have that feature turned off in my semi-historical league. I say semi-historical because after a turbid 1939 season, my Dodgers had a good 1940 draft (getting historical draftees Pete Reiser and Pee Wee Reese and a couple of good pitchers).

Don's right about the undrafted players. Through free-agent signings, my minors are now full of excellent pitchers. Dang, it's too bad we didn't get one more patch for PS before Shaun embarked on his new project. However, it isn't much fun doing GBG with a team that sucks wind.

My reasoning on establishing house-rules forces me to build the team primarily through the farm system. With finances turned off, this allows me the chance to watch my players develop without having to worry about such inconveniences as negotiating contracts. Maybe I've read too much about Branch Rickey's style of building a winner. [:D]

G.E. Higginbotham, manager/GM of the Brooklyn Dodgers

[Wrathchild]

KG,

I am using early entry, as I like to add a little randomness to historically based games, whether they're strategic or sports or whatever. I don't want simply duplicate history, but do an alternate history based on a given starting point. I have Player Affinity on, as well, but I'm wondering if maybe the computer teams aren't sure how to handle that combined with Early Entry. I also play with finances off because I simply don't find the financial aspect of the game entertaining. But I also have some of my own house trading rules. The computer teams are not allowed to trade. However, I am allowed to initiate one-on-one trades, but only under certain regulations. I will initiate a trade under one of the following 2 situations:

1) To gain a player who was historically on my roster at the current time. In this case, I can only trade away a player who also historically belongs to the team in question.

2) To offload a player who is not historically part of my roster and someone I really don't want (for example, I probably won't trade away Ty Cobb unless he really becomes a crappy player). In this case, I can only trade for a player that either belongs on my team or doesn't belong on the team in question.

And to top it all off, I am using the Approval rating as a guide to which team I will be affilitated with, if any. I started this association with the Cardinals and have, for the most part, done better with them each year (now in my 6th season). However, this year things are not going well at all in the latter half of the season. If I don't change things to at least show some improvement, at the end of the current season I'm going to make a d100 roll against the my Approval rating. If the random number is <= the Approval rating, I keep my job. Otherwise, I'm fired. To find another job, I'll have to roll against another team's Approval rating and roll higher than that number. I'm basically playing a game within a game.