FAQ · FTG Sports: Baseball
Answers to the questions people actually ask before starting a league: cost, real players, solo vs multiplayer, how the sim works.
Is it free?
Yes. No cost, no ads, no subscription, no paid tier. If we ever add anything paid, the current game stays free.
Do I need to download anything?
No. It runs in any modern browser on desktop or phone. There is no app to install.
Does it use real MLB players?
It uses real player names and career-derived stat profiles from the public-domain Lahman baseball database. It does not use MLB team names, logos, uniforms, or player likenesses. Faces are procedurally generated, and franchises have fictional names and crests. FTG Sports: Baseball is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or licensed by Major League Baseball or any MLB team.
Can I play solo?
Yes. The other 29 teams in your league are run by AI general managers. They draft, trade, sign free agents, manage rotations, and try to win their divisions on their own.
Can I play with friends?
Yes. The commissioner shares an invite link and friends claim a team. Any seats you do not fill are handled by AI GMs. You can mix humans and AI in any ratio, from 1 human up to all 30.
How long does a season take?
It depends on the league's pace setting. On manual pace, the season waits for you. Click Advance whenever you are ready to play the next day. On scheduled pace, one in-game day advances on the cadence the commissioner picked, usually one real day per game day, so a season runs about six months of real time. The commissioner can change the cadence any time.
How does the sim actually work?
Every player carries two eight-outcome rate vectors: one for hitting and one for pitching. Each tracks K, BB, HBP, 1B, 2B, 3B, HR, and balls put in play for outs. Plate appearances are drawn from those distributions, with fielding, baserunning, platoon splits, and rest / fatigue folded in. The engine is deterministic. Run the same seed twice and every pitch, plate appearance, and final score comes out the same. Ratings like OVR, tools, and position grades are derived from the underlying rates, not the other way around.
Can I control my lineup and rotation?
Yes. Set starting rotation order, bullpen hierarchy, and a lineup philosophy (traditional, sabermetric, or balanced). Advanced controls cover platoon preferences, spot-start share for a swingman, and per-player handedness overrides. The defaults are good; every knob is optional.
How are trades evaluated?
Every AI GM values players independently. Scout grades are private, so there is no single trade-value number every club follows. The trade shop shows a fair-value gauge and a proposed counteroffer, so you know roughly where a deal lands before you send it. Whether an AI GM says yes depends on their budget, competitive window, and current needs.
What is the salary cap?
Every team has a per-season cap and a floor. Contracts count against the cap for their full length. Extensions, arbitration, and dead money all behave like the real thing. Overspending is a hard constraint during the season; some AI GMs still push right up to the ceiling in aggressive windows.
Is there a minor-league system?
Yes. Every team has a 26-man active roster plus a 30-man minor-league group. You can promote a prospect, demote a slumping vet, and stash injured players on the IL. Prospects develop toward their potential across seasons.
Do players age, develop, and retire?
Yes. Every player has an age, a development curve toward their potential, and eventually a decline. Veterans decline with age and retire when their careers run out. The rookie draft each offseason pulls from real historical debut classes on an advancing era window.
What about injuries?
Players can get hurt during games. The trainer assigns a recovery timetable, and longer injuries put the player on the IL. The IL frees a 26-man roster slot so you can call up a replacement without cutting anyone.
Is there a Hall of Fame?
Yes. Retired players get a Hall of Fame vote based on their career, with a five-year waiting period. You can browse enshrined players across every season of your league.
Can I edit my team name, colors, or crest?
Yes, on the public edition. Owners can rename and recolor their franchise from the team page. New leagues in the public edition also accept a custom roster / branding JSON at creation time if you want a specific look on day one.
How do I import a custom roster?
On the "create league" screen, paste the URL of an `ftbl-rosters-v2` JSON file. The app validates it before writing a single row (no half-seeded leagues), then seeds every franchise from that spec instead of the random draw. The public edition ships with a build tool that produces the JSON from Stats API rosters + the Chadwick crosswalk.
Where does my data go?
Everything lives in a self-hosted Supabase instance we run. We do not sell data, do not run ad trackers, and only email you when your league needs your attention (you can turn that off per league from the notification settings).
Is the source open?
Parts of the game (roster build tool, share formats) are public-domain-friendly and documented. The engine and app itself are not currently open source.
How do I report a bug or request a feature?
The best channel is the punch list link in the footer once we publish it; until then, email us through the address on the home page. Every reproducible bug gets triaged.
Does the game work on mobile?
Yes. The UI is responsive down to phone widths. Dense tables scroll horizontally inside their own containers so a page never scrolls sideways as a whole.