My First Impressions of International Amateur Free Agency and Enhanced Owner Goals in OOTP24

I fumble my way through a couple of OOTP 24's updated features while quickly simming through a season as the New York Yankees.
If you don't have time to listen to my ramblings, I'll get to the point right here - I really like both of the changes, particularly the much more engaging experience involving international amateur free agents!

[@hammerpgh]

Excellent walkthrough of the IFA process 👏 Really informative and extremely useful to see. Looking forward to getting involved in this myself.

[@oldschoolsports]

Thanks, hope you enjoy it!

[@jaybird2585]

The one thing that you really didn't get into that I was hoping for is that I BELIEVE you can trade for extra bonus pool money with other teams. I'm just starting to set up my first game so I haven't gotten that far yet but was hoping to figure out if you can actually do this (like teams can in real life). And is it the start of the signing period that you can trade this bonus pool money or some other date? I wonder how hard it is to get it from other teams! Thanks again for your videos OSS - wish I had found you sooner.

[@oldschoolsports]

Thank you for watching, and glad you found the channel now! I have looked at that international amateur money a few times (but not on video) and it had always been greyed out as part of trades... I just checked it now though (I am just past the start of the IAFA signing period) and it is no longer greyed out and a drop down is available! So I think you are right that it starts around then.

[@Chuckthulu]

Thanks for going through this process. Was good to see how it is working in the new version.

[@oldschoolsports]

Thanks, I think it definitely adds a new level of strategy around international amateurs.

[@patrickdebonis6493]

I am actually considering doing a playthrough as the Yankees GM. The only thing holding me back is that I am usually drawn to a rebuilding effort. Curiously, when I did my Red Sox playthrough, I traded away Bogarts. Eovaldi, Martinez, Sale, Paxton, and Vazquez at the 2022 deadline. I went into rebuild mode. As time passes, it is obvious to me that the Red Sox should have done likewise. Now they need to rebuild and have no bargaining chips left. I'm not sure if they even realize that they are in need of a rebuild yet.

[@oldschoolsports]

Red Sox are playing great in the Yankees playthrough I just started in 24! But I think your point about needing a rebuild IRL is probably spot on!

[@patrickdebonis6493]

I could do a fictional Yankees playthrough with equal budgets to start with. That would at least provide some challenge.

[@stanleyrosella7042]

Noticing that pitch count on Rodon. That is an issue I have seen over the years in minor league teams. The AI love to run up the pitch count on many starters in those lower minor leagues. I often forced to take a look and put pitch count on most of the starters in low ball. Think it's not realistic to see this, and your case with Carlos show the game still handles pitcher a bit weird sometimes. This game has it's flaws of course but this I think should have been ironed out how AI handles the minors. Not only on pitch counts. Often I see stacking up a lot of players in some organizations in those lower minor leagues too. It has always irritated me to find out teams running around with +50 players in some A or low A leagues. Tried many times to adjust with both max years or max experience for those leagues but the issue looks to just move up or down those organizations. A limit of players on the roster in minors actually creates more problems, so always look at a new version what has been done. So sad to see Carlos overused and that one has to go in and fix that. That should have been taken care of by the manager-AI in that team.

[@oldschoolsports]

Totally agree... and it seems like that should be a pretty easy fix to me. It's ridiculous for a player coming off of an injury to throw well over 100 pitches in their first rehab start in the minors... not sure something like that would have even happened 50 year ago. It definitely would not today!

[@patrickdebonis6493]

It could just be an off year for IFAs. You can tinker with the number of players generated if you want. I've just stuck with the default settings. The cool thing about 24 is that you need to court the IFAs during the off-season and build relationships with them. That makes a scout who is strong with internationals, all the more valuable

[@patrickdebonis6493]

I like the new IAFA system except for the first round of practices conflicting with the playoffs. The ability to sign multiple draftees is far more realistic, but there is nothing preventing a team from shoving all in on one of the top prospects. That may even be preferable still.

[@jonkeezer2847]

International free agency is great now this was one of the best changes to the game this year.

[@oldschoolsports]

Totally agree, I am excited to get going with it!

[@dylanblomme4679]

I’m actually loving the IFA experience. I appreciate the variety of prospects available. It makes it feel like you can go all in for a top-level guy or get a bunch of solid prospects with your cap space.

[@oldschoolsports]

I agree, I think there will be a lot more potential optionality and decision making compared to offer $5,000,000 and pray...

[@three-quartersbadger2929]

Isn't there a way to enrich the draft class? Some slider or setting. I would have sworn that someone told me that.

[@patrickdebonis6493]

I wish they would do something like this for the historical version with the Negro Leaguers. As it is, they just become free agents and you can simply draft them at will.

[@patrickdebonis6493]

The owner goals are really stupid to begin with. I have a team where I have a lot of slow walk and homer guys. My owner wants me to improve (actually means become a top six) my stolen base totals. This is so contrary to the type of team I built, which is admittedly no my favorite type of team either, but there is no way in hell that I'm going to dismantle this team to satisfy some whim. Likewise, I'm not going to adjust my strategy to run into more outs and cost the team games. This is just one prime example of how arbitrary and capricious these goals are. Having the ability to pick an alternate goal would work well here, but disabling owner goals might be best.

[@oldschoolsports]

I hear you... I think the optionality this year is a step in the right direction, but better programming to avoid the arbitrary and capricious nature of some of the goals that you noted would be several giant steps in an even better direction!

[@three-quartersbadger2929]

It was a tutorial, but just for an audience of one.

[@oldschoolsports]

Ha!

[@METALBUG999]

yeah not a big improvement over 23. graphics are basically the same.

[@oldschoolsports]

I rarely play out an individual game, so for me the graphics don't really matter. I honestly hadn't even looked to see that they were basically the same.