[actionjackson]

Originally Posted by italyprof

I was getting bewildered by how many players were on the rosters plus the three minor league levels (AAA, AA and A), and how many of those were basically useless, players who had not had an at bat in the majors in 7 or 8 years, or who were never going to be brought up by the main team.

I also noted that there were at the same time, too many good players being stuck in the minors.

So first, I culled the useless players - anyone over 30 who had not played for a long time and who had no real life stats anywhere near their age in the league.

Then I expanded and ran the fantasy draft, and that created a little better distribution of talent, I think, a lot of good players who can now finally get on the major league rosters.

Then I finally realized, after a failed experiment with 40-man roster rules and Rule 5 draft (I don't like, too complicated and does not solve my problem, so after one season I ended that), that there are the age limit and number of pro-season controls available for leagues !!

These solved the problem.

I have set it at A: ages 17-25, max. 8 years pro service; AA: 18-29, max 10 years of pro service; AAA: 21-35, no limit on years of service.

This means that if you haven't been promoted to AA after up to 8 years and by age 25, you will be released or made a free agent - and I will see later depending on how things go, whether I should run an occasional and limited set of rounds of a free agent draft or just delete all free agents every few years - I am playing without the financial system, so no signings should happen. If you haven't been promoted to AAA by the time you are 29, you are done as well, and if you are 35 you should be in the majors, otherwise you are retired. I saw that the minors risk with random debut becoming permanent dumping grounds for ex-players as they age, which I don't want.

So, problem solved. I think. I am still learning this game. But the age and maximums for leagues is a great tool for those of us who don't love dealing with the 40 man roster rules.

I set injuries to "High (Realistic Modern Day)" to help get more players to the big league level, and I use a 5 round amateur draft with enough players for 5 rounds worth, except in pre-expansion seasons (1960, 1961, 1968, 1976, 1992, 1997) when I fill the pool with enough players for six rounds and make the draft five rounds long. It never goes five rounds long due to all the compensatory picks between the 1st and 2nd rounds, but all the players get drafted rather than made free agents.