Look at the records of my AA and High-A teams

[rink23]

I usually let my minor league teams run themselves, just checking occasionally on players who need to be promoted to the bigs.
But wow, my AA team (Springfield Cardinals) is 1-43 and my high-A team (Peoria Chiefs) is 4-40.
I could run a high school team out there and do better than that.
Especially, if you look at my Low-A team (Palm Beach) is 24-19.

[JerseyPirate]

What is your minor league system ranking? Has to be bottom 5.

[rink23]

Nope, seventh.

[jpeters1734]

i'm guessing you have like 1 pitcher on those rosters

[Curve Ball Dave]

Do you have age and or service time limits in your minors? You may have your kids playing against experienced minor league veterans. Also, as noted, if you don't have pitchers and relying on ghost players you will not win games.

[rink23]

Ii went out and signed a bunch of the better free agents under 25.
Most of them are 25-30 rated and 40 potential.
Hopefully, that will get rid of my ghost players as both those teams had a number of them.

[Sweed]

Originally Posted by rink23

Ii went out and signed a bunch of the better free agents under 25.
Most of them are 25-30 rated and 40 potential.
Hopefully, that will get rid of my ghost players as both those teams had a number of them.

I had been using ghost players all the time with my minor league clubs where it wasn't unusual to have only 10-15 "real players" and the rest of the roster ghost players. My teams put up normal win/loss records. In my post history you can probably find me mentioning how ghosts cut down on the minutia of running one's minor league teams leaving on to only have to concentrate on their actual drafted players and prospects.

I think something changed with ghost players around v21(?). All of a sudden I was getting winning percentages of .100 or even less. My teams that had full or nearly full rosters of "real players" were still putting up realistic winning percentages. The teams with lots of ghosts were the ones putting up the unrealistic records. I don't know if this is a bug, but it certainly doesn't work the way it used to or the way I think it should.

The answer for me is the same one you are trying now, ie bring in real players to get the rosters to at least almost full. Most of my MiLB rosters are set to 30 players and my general rule is to have at least 25 real players, with 5 ghosts slots available if needed. Sometimes if one uses both service time and age restrictions it can be hard to find eligible players for some lower leagues. Having 25ish real players brought my minor league team records back to expected levels.