Rounds in Draft?

[tjfla]

How many rounds in the draft does everyone use?? I tried 40 but way to many players.

Is 25 better or??

[OldFatGuy]

I asked the same question, and I'll use the quote given to me by 1998 Yankees (BTW, I think you'll find 1998 Yankees is always very helpful). Anyway, the answer to your question is......it depends. Below is some guidance.

Draft Rounds and Feeder System Size

There are a number of threads in the OOTP forums complaining about the ability of the game to manage the talent coming into leagues through feeder leagues. In a nutshell, the game seems to generate highly talented players as a more-or-less fixed percentage of all players generated. The more draft rounds and feeder teams that you have, the more players will be generated, and eventually the league will go through 'talent inflation'. That is, if you have a lot of draft rounds and a lot of feeder teams, you will sooner or later have a highly-talented league with a lot of free agents.

The accepted formula for draft rounds is (5 x number of minor-league affiliates), with a minimum of 5 rounds for a league with no minors because if you aren't using minors you still need to fill up your reserve roster. That ratio appears to keep talent in the league fairly consistent. Now that you can use ghost players, too many draft rounds is worse than having too few because with too many you end up throwing out too many 2nd and 3rd year players. That is, if you have a large draft and try to put new players on a team that is already full, that's where the draft and release "bug" comes in. Teams are already full and may have more than the 25 men on the lowest minor league team already. You then try to add a whole new set of players and the AI doesn't handle it right. It starts cutting players, sometimes the player who was just drafted. A smaller draft helps prevent this.

When the feeder system is used, the game generates players for the draft pool rather than the game merely creating a complete draft pool whose size you can fix before the draft. You can create a smaller feeder system and go with the Feeder + Additional Players strategy; any players needed to fill your draft above what the feeders provide will be created the "old fashioned" way -- that is, out of thin air just before the draft.

If you want your parent league’s first-year player draft to be fed completely by feeder leagues, you will need to do some math to determine how many feeder league teams you will need to fill out your draft class completely. So, using the default of a 5-year age range, we calculate as follows:

Feeder leagues with 5-year age ranges (18-22, for example) typically feed 6-9 players per team to the parent league each year. Smaller age-ranges result in more players entering the draft each year.

[Number of teams in your parent league] x [Number of rounds in your first-year player draft] = total # of players needed in first-year player draft

[total # of players needed for draft] / 6 (rounded up) = minimum # of feeder league teams required

For example, let’s say you have a 30-team major league, and a 20-round first-year player draft (AAA, AA, A, and Rookie = 4 minor league levels x 5 = 20 rounds). You need 30 x 20, or 600 players in your first-year player draft each year. We divide 600 by 6 and round up if necessary, getting 100. If you have 100 feeder league teams, you should get enough players from your feeder leagues to populate your first-year player draft entirely with feeder league players.

Also remember - after your league starts to set the player creation age for your league back to 18 for both max and min age (or whatever your freshman age is) - this way you only be creating incoming freshmen into you college feeder. This will help stabilize - in a year or two- the size of your draft class. It also seems to be the case that feeder leagues take a few seasons to get up to "full production."

IMPORTANT: A feeder league cannot be constructed separately and added later to a template or started game; the affiliation to the major league does not work as intended and it functions as a minor league instead of a feeder league. Instead, a feeder league has to be added to the major league using the Add League button, and saved with the major league as part of the template or game. The ways to check whether this has been done properly are: 1. There will be an option in the major league game setup under Amateur Draft rules called Draft Feeding Mode for how the draft pool should be populated, feeder system only or feeder system + additional players, and 2. The feeder league will show the important age minimums and maximums under its roster rules, while an affiliated minor league does not show these settings.

EDIT: I think the key is if you're NOT using feeder leagues, it should be about 5 x the number of minor league levels you have, with a minimum of 5 if you use the reserve roster and NO minors. Hope this helps.

[blackrussian]

please note that most feeder league are set to 18-21 now, so adjust accordingly. but as always, i recommend making test league and running a few seasons to see how things pan out. its all too easy to end up with a ton of players in the FA pool b/c they have no teams to sign with. im usually for erring on the too many players side of things but with some fine-tuning, you should be able to hit a good number of rounds depending on yr setup. what OFG quoted (the 1998 yankees post) is what i use to plan my leagues.

[tjfla]

Guys got me more confused now lol

What u mean by feeder teams?? I just simmed the MLB season and at the end got guys on the screen for the draft?


If i do the feeder league- they just pick guys off the 100 teams or what? or does the league play too


So a 25 round draft should be cool? Give me a few extra guys every year

[blackrussian]

Originally Posted by tjfla

Guys got me more confused now lol

What u mean by feeder teams?? I just simmed the MLB season and at the end got guys on the screen for the draft?


If i do the feeder league- they just pick guys off the 100 teams or what? or does the league play too


So a 25 round draft should be cool? Give me a few extra guys every year

if youre using a full complement of minors, MLB style (AAA - rookie leagues) then 25 rounds should be sufficient as the recommendation is 5 rounds per level of minors you have in yr universe.

feeder teams are an alternative or additional way to generate players for your draft. there are both college and high school feeder teams. in your league rules, if you add feeder leagues, you will see an option for the draft that will allow you to choose "feeder league only" or "feeder league and additional players." that means that you can have your draft filled entirely by feeder league players if you choose the first option. so you could have an NCAA style setup for example. however, you have to be somewhat careful to setup the appropriate number of teams in the feeder league to ensure you have enough players to fill your draft every year. if its a large league, youll end up needing quite a few feeder league teams. if you choose the 2nd option, you can have a smaller feeder league system and the game will just generate additional players as needed to fill however many rounds you have selected.

the relationship between feeder leagues is fairly simplistic right now, that is b/w high school and college. high school players dont "graduate" into the college leagues. they simply become available for the draft when they finish HS.

[Corsairs]

Originally Posted by blackrussian

please note that most feeder league are set to 18-21 now, so adjust accordingly.

What exactly would be the proper adjustment to account for this? For feeder leagues with 5-year age ranges you expect about 6 players to graduate each season. How many should you expect to graduate with a 4-year age range?

Our league is currently experiencing the "too many players in the pool" problem in our second year of existence. We're a 24-team ML system with 4 levels of minors (we just added the 4th level this season) and a 10-round draft. Our feeder system boasts 60 teams (20 HS / 40 college). It seems we need to trim that number and/or increase the size of our draft.

The accepted formula for draft rounds indicates we should be using a 20-round draft. That might be a bit much for an online league, although I suppose we could always auto-draft the second half. I'd certainly be willing to make the change if it meant the feeder leagues wouldn't be over-saturating our free agent market. And if a 4-year age range feeder system should be expected to graduate 8 players each season, that would mean we'd be spot-on with our 60 feeder teams (480 players needed for draft / 8 = 60).

[tjfla]

Thanks for Help!!

The feeder thing still is little weird to me but sounds cool.

So i am gonna have a MLB league and a 25 rd draft- with 125 feeder teams 62 college and 63 HS teams.

Now I don't have to simulate these games or anything-- Just can check the stats and then draft them right?

Do you all think a 750 players per draft plus the hidden signings will be ok NOT TOO MUCH??

[OldFatGuy]

Originally Posted by tjfla

Thanks for Help!!

The feeder thing still is little weird to me but sounds cool.

So i am gonna have a MLB league and a 25 rd draft- with 125 feeder teams 62 college and 63 HS teams.

Now I don't have to simulate these games or anything-- Just can check the stats and then draft them right?

Do you all think a 750 players per draft plus the hidden signings will be ok NOT TOO MUCH??

The feeder leagues intrigue me as well, and I intend to use them when I feel more comfortable when the game. But to answer one of your questions (and I'll probably answer it wrong), but I thought ANY and ALL leagues you create in your universe are simmed when you advance a day. This would include feeder leagues I think. Hopefully others smarter than I will confirm (cause that's been a concern for me considering my 6 year old puter), and they can also answer your question as to whether that's too many players.

[Corsairs]

Yes, feeder leagues sim their games automatically when you advance a day, so no need to mircomanage that.

[blackrussian]

Originally Posted by Corsairs

What exactly would be the proper adjustment to account for this? For feeder leagues with 5-year age ranges you expect about 6 players to graduate each season. How many should you expect to graduate with a 4-year age range?

Our league is currently experiencing the "too many players in the pool" problem in our second year of existence. We're a 24-team ML system with 4 levels of minors (we just added the 4th level this season) and a 10-round draft. Our feeder system boasts 60 teams (20 HS / 40 college). It seems we need to trim that number and/or increase the size of our draft.

The accepted formula for draft rounds indicates we should be using a 20-round draft. That might be a bit much for an online league, although I suppose we could always auto-draft the second half. I'd certainly be willing to make the change if it meant the feeder leagues wouldn't be over-saturating our free agent market. And if a 4-year age range feeder system should be expected to graduate 8 players each season, that would mean we'd be spot-on with our 60 feeder teams (480 players needed for draft / 8 = 60).

id say youre indeed spot-on with the assessment. though 20 rounds may be pushing it, its still a better alternative than a bloated FA pool.

[Corsairs]

Thank you for the feedback, blackrussian! So I guess I was about right with my guesstimate of 8 graduates per team in a 4-year age range feeder league. I'll run some tests using a 20-round draft. If it looks like it will solve the FA pool bloat then I'll make the change for our 2009 season and leave the feeder league at its current size of 60. Like you said, it'll be better to have to conduct half the draft on auto than to have too many players sitting in free agency.

[Curtis]

Originally Posted by OldFatGuy

(BTW, I think you'll find 1998 Yankees is always very helpful).

Yes, he is. I can't for the life of me figure out why he isn't the moderator, administrator or whatever-you-call-it of the 'New to the Game' section of this forum.

[tjfla]

Another question--- Are the college or HS that the player went to listed on the player profile or just the place of birth??

[Honolulu Blue]

I do things a bit differently. My favorite setup is as follows:

* 3 minor leagues (A-AA-AAA)
* Ghost players allowed
* Feeder league generating enough players for 10-15 rounds, but...
* 5 round draft

This generates plenty of talent without overwhelming the league. And the short draft makes me feel as though each pick actually means something, rather than just having the guys late in the draft being "organization men". I also don't like having to constantly manage my low level minors, so this helps with that. It also gives the AI teams a free run at the minor league free agents (which, by my house rules, I am forbidden to sign) - some of whom turn out to be good players.