[benitovo]

After a lot of testing, dead ends, and creative solutions, I finally got my dream universe set up. It's big but has moved along fine so far and gives me what I wanted.

I started with the MLB Quickstart (should mention I'm playing 10). I wanted all teams to have 1 short-season Single-A team and 2 rookie-level teams. I added a short-season Single-A league called the Eastern Canada League; my Twins affiliate is Prince Edward Island. I also added a rookie league in Ohio. Between these two leagues and moving Kansas City's 3rd Rookie team to SSA, I had the setup I wanted.

I then added the standard Japanese, Mexican, and Cuban leagues. Early testing resulted in too many players going to Japan and Mexico, so I changed the setting to not allow FAs from other leagues. A few still end up in the Japanese AAA, but they are fringe players and I'm okay with that. Cuba has no free agency but each offseason I'm going to pick 10-12 players to be defectors. Not entirely sure of the criteria, but loyalty, ambition, and age are factors. The Mexican leaguers created initially are too good, so when they become free agents, I retire the best of them. Eventually, the lowered modifiers I set up will take effect and there won't be a lot of stars.

I created a rather large feeder system, consisting of the following:
-NCAA Tier 1 - 64 teams - Enter draft at 21, Intended to have powerhouses and larger D1 schools
-NCAA Tier 2 - 64 teams - Enter draft at 22, Intended to have smaller, lesser D1 programs
-NCAA Junior College - 16 teams - Enter draft at 20
-Minnesota Division 3 - 12 teams - Enter draft at 22
-United States HS - 60 teams (all HS/academy enter draft at 18)
-Canada HS - 12 teams
-Puerto Rico HS - 4 teams
-European Academy - 10 teams
-Asian Academy - 8 teams
-Latin America Academy - 32 teams
-South American Academy - 10 teams

The academy leagues were compromises with my goal of having international amateur free agents. I could never get it to work like I wanted, so I decided to create a world draft and have academies set up around the world. Each team is designated by country, but have players from all countries in that academy league.

Finally, I wanted independent leagues to soak up excess players. I needed to make sure these indy leagues didn't create too many of their own players. I set them all to have a 5 round draft, but with all draft eligible players created at 40 years old. These players retire shortly and create room for excess players from the feeders, MLB organizations, and foreign leagues.

Here are the independent leagues, in order of salary cap, and notable players:
-East Coast Baseball League - R. Sexson, T. Armas, M. Redman, C. James
-Western Baseball League - J. Dillon, A. Melhuse, P. Byrd, M. Mulder
-United Baseball League - L. Rivas, S. Traschel
-Southeast Baseball League - P. Stockman, E. Loaiza
-Southwest Baseball League
-Rocky Mountain Baseball League
-Dunder Mifflin Baseball League
-Central Baseball League
-Ontario Baseball League
-North Texas Baseball League
-John Henry Baseball League
-British Columbia Baseball League

The ECBL has 12 teams; the OBL, NTBL, JHBL, and BCBL have 6 teams; the rest have 8.

I'm halfway through the 2009 season and enjoying the leagues. From my tests, I know that eventually former major leaguers will end up all the way down to the lesser indy leagues.