With spring training around the corner Sports Interactive, the sports management development specialists, have announced that Out of the Park Baseball 2007 will be available, exclusively via digital download in time for the new season.

In OOTP Baseball 2007 players get the chance to do almost anything a real life general manager can do to guide their team to glory. Players can also create their very own fictional baseball universe, create and import fantasy teams and players or simply compete with other human players in an online league.

"No baseball simulation on the planet offers you this much flexibility and this much fun," said Marc Duffy, Product Manager at Sports Interactive. "OOTP Baseball 2007 is ideal for historical, fictional, and online fans alike".

Available for PC and Mac, franchise managers are able to set their line-ups, replace aging veterans with a rookie from the minor leagues, send their scouts to comb the upcoming amateur draft pool, or get a closer look at that free agent pitcher from Japan.

"We've spent a long time listening to our fans," commented Markus Heinsohn, Lead developer of OOTP Baseball 2007. "The last version was a giant step forward for the good of the game and this year sees the addition of some of their most requested features."

Key Features and improvements

• OOTP Baseball 2007 features some great user interface improvements that make the game easier and more enjoyable, including: a league creation wizard, a simplified navigation model with intuitive icons, a detailed in-game help system, improved in-game screens, and manager and online league commissioner "portals" that centralize the most commonly-used tasks.
• OOTP Baseball 2007's flexibility in configuring a baseball universe is unparalleled. Players have complete control over the structure, rules, and finances of their world, including the new abilities to add or delete leagues at any time, to have leagues "feed" players into other leagues and many other new league options. No simulation game has ever been this flexible.
• Historical leagues now feature an automatic expansion mode, including protection lists and expansion drafts. OOTP Baseball 2007 can also now import the history of a league prior to the selected year, giving players complete historical data and record books! Other new historical features include automatic adjustment of league financials, league strategies and rules (i.e. playoff format, schedule length). Sports Interactive re-introduce the concept of ghost players and the new option to block fictional players from reaching the major leagues. Combined with vastly improved statistical accuracy in historical leagues, the end result is the best possible way to replay the history of baseball starting in 1901, but yet with OOTP Baseball 2007 characteristic flexibility. A historical fan's dream.
• Fictional leagues come to life like never before, thanks to the help of a wider variety of league news & stories, a player morale and popularity system and the ability to create fictional player portraits using the FaceGen technology.
• The online league mode of OOTP Baseball 2007 has never been more user-friendly and functional than in this year's edition. The new commissioner portal will greatly reduce the administrative burden of running a league. Online GMs benefit from new features as well, such as an automatic waiver pullback option and an adjustable draft pool date that will give online leagues much more flexibility in processing amateur drafts. Commissioners can also now add and edit league news items and write game recaps, which will display both in-game and on league HTML reports. Commissioners can also send messages to all users and manually select all-star team members and award winners, including a new custom award of player's choice! These features are available in solo play as well!
• The new league expansion wizard helps you expand your league much more smoothly by scheduling an expansion draft and handling the submission of protection lists.
• The trading model in OOTP Baseball 2007 has been vastly improved. GMs can now mark players as "untouchable" or "on the block," with a corresponding effect on that player's morale! The "shop player" feature allows you to quickly identify desirable trading partners and new trade-related reports put all of the information you need right at your fingertips. A "make this work now" button asks player's trading partners to tell them exactly what is needed to make a deal under negotiation to happen immediately!
• The experience for those players who enjoy playing out each game has improved greatly in OOTP Baseball 2007, including: strategic one-pitch mode, more natural play-by-play text, a "short PbP" option that displays just the outcome of the play and many other improvements to the in-game screens. Additionally, players can now write their own recap of the game that will appear in a game news article and will be saved along with the history of their game!
• The AI does a better job of managing its team than ever before and extensive statistical analysis and testing results in the most realistic player development system in any baseball simulation game.
• Based on popular demand, a number of "fan favorite" features from previous versions of OOTP will return in OOTP Baseball 2007, including: an optional star-based rating system, adjustable AI player evaluation based on statistics/ratings, weather, ghost players, bullpen warm-up, and team focus.

Out of the Park Baseball 2007 will be released on March 23rd 2007 priced at $34.99 / €29.99.