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Originally Posted by kq76
Wow, this is awesome. I wish I had stumbled onto it years ago. Thank you!
I have some question maybe you can answer.
So I'm used to only using 3 levels (I'd rather just use reserve rosters, but without minors for rehab stints I found that long-injured players are too likely to immediately get re-injured), but I'm starting to think I need to use even more levels.
I looked at the MiL teams for default MLB in OOTP24 and I noticed they all have AAA, AA, A, A+, and 2-4 R teams. None have a A- team. I understand the minor league system was completely overhauled IRL not long ago and Wikipedia says short A and advanced Rookie were eliminated. Do you still use them or have you adapted?
My bigger question however is, while I understand your opening post details all the leagues you like to use, what do you think is the bare minimum one should use? I was thinking of adding an R (maybe 2 like MLB) and an A, but reading your post I'm wondering if I really should have more.
Why do I want to use the bare minimum? Well, I don't love managing my minors and I'd rather keep the file size down. Having so many minors would really ramp up both I would think.
How many draft rounds are you running? I'm currently running 12 and I think even that is more than necessary. I might cut it down to 9. I imagine that would greatly impact everything.
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Hi, thanks for enjoying!! I updated this guide a little bit in the OOTP21 forum (see my signature for the link), but the gist is the same.
Both guides were written before the unfortunate minor league restructuring, which definitely changes a lot of things. To answer your first question, I've since adapted. However, I do sometimes re-add rookie advanced and short-season A for old times' sake.
When I'm playing a real-life save set-up with just the 20 rounds, I will normally leave all my drafted players in the complex for the rest of that first season except well-developed college players, which will go to single A after a week or two in the complex.
To answer your bigger question, it depends on the number of draft rounds + international amateur player finds I would even factor in the percentage of high school vs college players in your draft pool. Essentially, you always want to have enough roster spots for all incoming players. You're using 12 rounds, but I don't know about international amateur players.
A very broad rule of thumb is to plan to replace 5 players at each level, each offseason (That's 5 for each team if you have multiple teams at one level). Your ML roster is replenished in free agency and AAA callups. If you desire to only have 9-12 rounds, two levels are enough assuming that your international amateur finds are at a normal level. I would consider a low percentage of HS players in your pool. Only two levels means that at the lowest level, you'll have well-developed players and any player just drafted out of high school will be very over-matched.
But since you have three levels, you definitely don't want to go lower than 12 rounds. If you really want to go lower, you probably would want to cut a level.
As for what I think the minimum amount of levels is, I say 5. But that's because I want to see drafted HS players move up levels every year. In my opinion, legit prospects should never repeat a level. In a 2 or 3 level system, HS players almost certainly will have to repeat levels. If you're intent on a small system, I don't think it will harm anything because every other club will have the same restraints.
I hope this helps. Please feel free to ask any follow-up questions. I love talking about this kind of stuff