Hello, I recently setup my first OOTP league and it was basically the following: MLB Quick start + Feeder leagues - trimmed minor leagues to 4 teams each.
Based on the research I did the proper amount of feeder teams was 5*4=20 --> 20x30 = 600 -->
100 feeder teams. This is from the feeder league guide/manual...I set my league rules to
20 draft rounds & "feeder league players only".
I've been playing and managing each game and playing
'stats only', and I just had my first Draft Class "published" so the draft is in 30days. I took a peak and saw
100% fictional created players..630 players (none of them are my feeder league players), even though I had told the game "feeder league players only". (I guess the game decided to make fictional players even though I asked it not to, or else it would have been 0 players available)
I now realize that when setting the age ranges as suggested to 14-17 & 18-21, and set the creation age of the players to 14-14 & 18-18. It results in all of the feeder league players being age 14/15 & 18/19 currently (year 1 of feeder league = all freshman)....which is why none of them are entering the draft....
What's the best work around for this? and how do people normally approach this situation?
If I were to do this over again tomorrow (or fix it in the off season) my best idea to address this would be to make the initial players for year 1 have the full creation range at player creation(before making minimum age range = player creation age). So it would be closer to 25% freshman, 25% sophomore, 25% junior, 25% senior etc...instead of my current 100% freshman. Also I'd imagine that if I didn't make any changes then the following years will be 100% sophomore --> 100% junior --> 100% senior --> new batch of 100% freshman created!! BAH...I could've swore I saw in the feeder league guide that it suggested to set the minimum age range to equal the player creation age for best results...maybe I misread something.
Sorry for rambling, but this is complicating for me as a first time OOTP'er! Should I have made a couple 'temporary feeder leagues' that I would delete after the first 1-4 seasons (when my actual feeder leagues would start pumping out players with 4 years of statistics??).
Example:
-my current/permanent 100 feeder teams (with evenly distributed INITIAL age groups for the inaugural season, but age creation minimum-->all newbies will become freshman/4yr of stats)
-add temporary col+hs league with all seniors (delete this after 1 season/draft)
-add temporary col+hs league with all juniors (delete this after 2 seasons/drafts)
-add temporary col+hs league with all sophomores (delete after 3seasons/drafts)
So during the 1st draft I'd only have 1yr of stats, 2nd = 2yr stats, 3rd = 3yr stats, 4th = full 4yr of stats...and from then on being good to go, but that's better than my current setup I think (my assumption is 0 players for yr 1-3 then all players come out in 4th yr with 4 yrs of stats, then rinse/repeat). Or maybe I wouldn't have to do that at all if I had the evenly distributed ages rather than 100% freshman...UGH I give up right now!
Can some feeder experts please help me with any advice on how to
best address/fix this for next season/following years...or completely starting over my franchise if I absolutely have to. (or
what the negative repercussions would be in the big picture if I just ride it out or apply a tweak in the offseason to alleviate the issue).
Not sure how I'm going to evaluate for this draft with 'stats only' and having absolutely no stats at all and 'very low' in scout accuracy, lol.