Do you need Rookie Ball / SSA

[Sven Draconian]

This has probably been asked before, but I couldn't get anything to turn up on the search.

Using a MLB setup, can I use just A / AA / AAA? Dealing with the lower levels gets tedious and I don't like how the AI bounces guys round (giving a guy 100 ab's for 4 different teams). I'd rather just a nice and easy A --> AA --> AAA transition.

I already went through and deleted the rookie and SSA leagues and eliminated each teams' extra A ball team (every MLB team has 1 affiliate at each level). I moved the prospects up the ladder on their respective teams so they wouldn't get deleted.

If not having a rookie league is going to mess up player development, I'll restart now before I get into the league. If the game just adjusts and treats A ball at the lowest level, I'll proceed as planned.

[Cinnamon J. Scudworth]

It'll be fine. I use full minors, but lots of people use different setups. If I remember correctly from an online league I was in that had this setup, you may see some recent draftees, especially out of high school, have a rough first year or two stat-wise, but it won't affect their long-term development.

[le receveur]

yes, but remember to increase the roster limit of your lowest level, and reduce the number of draft rounds (3 level should be about 15), if not AI will release guys it should not

[Fyrestorm3]

Reducing the number of draft rounds is very important, otherwise you're going to have a massive influx of undrafted free agents.

I've actually played with a single level of minors, with a 5-round draft and all draftees coming out of college (18-year-olds in a single level of minors would not be good), and it worked fine.

[OmahaReynolds]

Originally Posted by Fyrestorm3

Reducing the number of draft rounds is very important, otherwise you're going to have a massive influx of undrafted free agents.

I've actually played with a single level of minors, with a 5-round draft and all draftees coming out of college (18-year-olds in a single level of minors would not be good), and it worked fine.

I've wondered about playing with ML, AAA, and a college feeder. Did you find your one-minor league/college player setup enjoyable?

[Cryomaniac]

I usually have full minors (well, 5 levels), but as has been said it's quite possible to have only one level and it to be okay.

[Fyrestorm3]

Originally Posted by OmahaReynolds

I've wondered about playing with ML, AAA, and a college feeder. Did you find your one-minor league/college player setup enjoyable?

It was my longest-running league until my current league. Started in 2008, simmed until 2025 (chose an arbitrary year), and then took over for 7 seasons. Didn't seem to have any stability issues with player development, which is what I was most concerned about. Certainly better than reserve rosters, in my opinion, since the players accumulate stats. And with just 50-60 players in your entire organization, you get to know all of them pretty well.

[le receveur]

Originally Posted by Fyrestorm3

It was my longest-running league until my current league. Started in 2008, simmed until 2025 (chose an arbitrary year), and then took over for 7 seasons. Didn't seem to have any stability issues with player development, which is what I was most concerned about. Certainly better than reserve rosters, in my opinion, since the players accumulate stats. And with just 50-60 players in your entire organization, you get to know all of them pretty well.

curious, you don't miss the development part? i'm getting tired of the 6/7 affiliates and will likely go lower in the new world i'm creating, but would be afraid of not seeing the progression.

but I do understand the knowing the guys. once in a while I see on guy for A-ball get a monthly award and wonder Who that is..

[Fyrestorm3]

Originally Posted by le receveur

curious, you don't miss the development part? i'm getting tired of the 6/7 affiliates and will likely go lower in the new world i'm creating, but would be afraid of not seeing the progression.

Guys spent two, sometimes three years in AAA and then got called up; occasionally you'd have the stud who made the bigs in his second year. Overall, since everyone came out of college, there was really no difference in terms of the age of rookies: 24 was the average age for a player to make his debut. My guess is that simming those first 17 years helped out quite a bit. There very well could have been a talent issue in the early years of the league, but as the original crop of players retired, and every player left in the league had followed the same developmental progression to get to the majors, everything evened out.

Granted, this was in OOTP 12/13, before we had those nifty Player Development emails. If being able to watch a guy's progression matters a lot, I might go with three levels.

[Bluenoser]

Almost all my fictional leagues I use only AA and R.

Have had no problems with progression/development.

[TGH-Adfabre]

Does the league you are keeping have an adjusted schedule so that recently drafted players have somewhere to play?

[DelinoDeShields]

The game will adjust to an AAA/AA/A setup.

Schedule isn't even a factor, as borked schedules or fictional leagues with only reserve rosters will still see youth development.

OOTP is smart like this.

[le receveur]

Originally Posted by DelinoDeShields

Schedule isn't even a factor, as borked schedules or fictional leagues with only reserve rosters will still see youth development.

Not sure this is totally true, my first run using traditional AAA/AA/A, i had a flood of releases and FA just after the draft, since the lower level team was filled to play, including many of the just drafted players. (and i had a roster of 40 in A-ball). since then i have moved my A-ball schedule to a Short-A traditional schedule. it might just be aesthetics, but it just feels better, to not have all the new drafted players just released.


Borked???

[DelinoDeShields]

Good catch, le receveur -- it does depend on settings.

Always keep the lowest level minors, "A" in this case, at "No Limit."

League Menu -- "A" League -- League Setup -- Rules -- Roster Size : No Limit.

With that one setting you'll always keep your draft picks and choose your A roster.

[le receveur]

Originally Posted by DelinoDeShields

Good catch, le receveur -- it does depend on settings.

Always keep the lowest level minors, "A" in this case, at "No Limit."

League Menu -- "A" League -- League Setup -- Rules -- Roster Size : No Limit.

With that one setting you'll always keep your draft picks and choose your A roster.

actually i found no limit worse, with AI having some inner limits, and many no limits teams only had 25 players. What other setting do you have? Could you post them and how many players your AI controled teams have in your lowest level. Maybe my settings were wrong.