[battists]

Originally Posted by Fronzizzle

1) How do you "thin the herd", so to speak? After the draft, do you just keep everyone or do you release a bunch of players that maybe are too old for their level or are not performing? How many players are typically on each of your minor league teams, and does it affect development if there are too many? Or not enough?

I play a fictional league, but I keep all of my minors at 25 except for rookie ball, which is 35. (It is recommended to always have at least 35 in your lowest level. Otherwise the AI goes nuts signing and releasing players to try to keep your rosters full when injuries occur.)

By and large I keep everyone through the season, and then after the amateur draft I thin the herd. Essentially, I reorganize my whole organization from the top down until the top levels are all "full". In doing so I rarely keep players older than 25 or 26 unless it's in AAA and I want some "AAAA" players that could come up to the bigs in a pinch.

That process usually leaves me at the end with way too many players in rookie ball, because it will have every player who didn't qualify to move up a level, plus every player who was overmatched at higher levels, plus all of the new rookies (I usually put all of my rookies in rookie ball to start no matter what the coaches think). So that's where the real herd-thinning comes in.

At that level if you're 23 or older and have already played one or more seasons in my system, you're at risk. The more seasons you have played, the more likely you are to be first to go. (If a guy is 24, has played three seasons in my system, and still doesn't qualify to go above rookie ball, he's probably a good target to cut.) I basically proceed like that until I get down to 35.

There are other factors, of course. Any of the following score points towards getting another chance:

• They play C, SS, or CF.
• They are superior defensively and/or have good position flexibility.
• They have an interesting "story" for some reason, e.g. I love their name, they are from my hometown, they were involved in some crazy play, etc.
• There was some indicator that they have the potential to improve, like they had one season where they looked great, but they just haven't been able to be consistent.

Bear in mind, I don't use ratings in my game, so it's all about performance on the field. I don't have any way of saying "Keep anyone with more than 2 stars."

Originally Posted by Fronzizzle

2) When it comes to the lower minor leagues, does the game treat any of them as "higher" or "lower"? For the Tigers, Lakeland is considered High A and West Michigan Low A, but between Connecticut (short season), the GCL, VCL and DCL I have no idea. And at the end of the day, does it matter? If I have a player dominating the VCL, will it better to move him to the DCL or short season?

Yes, some levels are higher than others. Look in Game | Game Settings | League Settings | your minor league | Players and look at the Sabremetric Player Creation Modifiers. The higher these are, the better players usually are at that level. If you compare short season A to regular A ball, you will see that A ball is generally a little better. Although, at the end of the day it doesn't matter.

Generally, my rule of thumb is it's fine to leave a player where they are dominating if I don't have a good place to move him, but I try not to leave players where they are struggling.

Originally Posted by Fronzizzle

3) How often do you guys promote/demote players? Do you do it just in the off-season, or during the regular season, too? When I go to my roster and look at the red down arrows or the green up arrows, the red usually far outnumber the green so if I went by that then I'd have way too many players to demote and not enough players to promote in their place.

I usually look at it monthly. However, in my fictional league I only have 5 levels of minors, whereas the MLB has something like 13. I would definitely do it at least a couple of times a season.

Originally Posted by Fronzizzle

4) Do any of you just let the computer handle demotions and promotions? I've thought about that, but it takes away a big part of what I like about the game. I'm not really looking to make it easier, just more manageable.

While some people do, I would guess that the vast majority of OOTP players here handle demotions and promotions themselves. Because most of us are baseball GM-ey types, many of us are obsessive about our teams/leagues, it's fun, and because the AI sometimes (often?) makes decisions that irritate us.

That said, sometimes, like right now, I like to play as just a manager. So I am managing the rookie level Titusville Barracudas in my current league, and I just have to put up with it when the GM moves my star pitcher up to A-ball.

Good luck man!