how chrondon handles the minors

[chrondon84]

Hello!

Just got done with a great thread on managing your minors. Really great stuff. Lots of info! This will not be as good but maybe helpful to someone.

An Un-Official Guide to Minor League Management:
https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...d.php?t=316759

I have a different approach to things and would like to share how I do it.

Im not that great at organizing my thoughts or writing but I'll do my best.

I handle all of my minor leagues and never let the AI touch my roster.

Also I play through a lot of seasons so I try to keep things moving at a fast pace.

So far for OOTP 21 I have played default franchises with Oakland, Miami, Baltimore, NYY, Wash, and LAD. I have also ran a 1925 league until 1940 and a 1990 league until 2000 to see how historical seasons play different than current. Probably have over 100 seasons simulated all together. This is my process.

One of my main focus is always getting a draft pick or two into the HOF. I have found that the best way to do that is to get players to the majors as fast as possible!

The goal is 19 for highschool/Int free agents. 22-23 for college players.

At the end of every season, Off Season Starts, I do these things:
1) move all of my 40 man roster to the active roster.
2) move all of my AAA, AA, A players to AAA.
3) move all of my rookie and 18 year old INT players to AA.

Should look like this

[chrondon84]

Go through the off season, salary arb, free agency, new years auto save, winter meeting, rule 5 draft, pre-season, all the way to the spring training.

You should try to scout all of your minor league players during the off-season so when the season gets here you know what you have.

For spring training I bring up my 60 highest players based on Potential. I dont care if they are 16 or 36. I use OVR/position need as a tie breaker.

Then I sim through spring training, trading players throughout to shape my 40 man roster for the season. I also play players out of position during spring training so they can learn new positions to add some versatility to my roster.

After spring training your roster should still look like the first screen shot.

Heres where the work comes in. I then start at AAA and move down all of the players that are not yet ready for AAA. They players with the read arrow. I move them all down to AA. Anyone without an arrow stays.

Then I do it for AA. Move down all the red arrows and keep anyone who is not red.

Proceed to do it with all of your teams until you have them all NOT red.

It takes a few minutes but its worth it.

What you are left with is every player that is capable of playing at each level.

When your done it should look like the second screen shot.

[chrondon84]

I keep everything ordered by position from here out so I can see what each level needs.

Notice that the major league team still has 60 players (screenshot 1).

Move them all down to AAA, all 60. The players that cant move will stay in the majors. That gives you a bare-bones look at your major league roster and its easy to see what you need to add or trade. I have 11 of 26 players that must be on the 40 or shipped out of town (screenshot 2).

I start at catcher and work my way down to OF moving up my starters at each position. Then I move up the best AAA players that I want as backups in the majors. This is all judgment on who you want in the show.

After I have my 13 hitters I add my pitchers getting to 13. Yay! We have our 26 for opening day!

As you move players up to the show, move down the players that are now in AAA with red arrows to AA.

When you are done you should have your 26 active ready to go, minors still a mess (screenshot 3).

[chrondon84]

Now I start working on AAA. I keep the highest potential at each position to be starters and keep one back up at each postition. Plus the 15 best pitchers. Some players stay in AAA as major league backups. Depends on where you are as a organization with depth.

If I have two prospects that need PA with the same potential Ill send the younger to AA. But I dont see AAA and AA as being much different at all. I use both as an extension of my MLB roster and hope to only have three star potentials in both (takes time to build to).

Some of these starters in AAA will be 18-20 years old. I know thats young. They only spent a half season or two in the low minors. But those are the guys that we will call up to the majors later in the season to give them an early start to their careers.

One rule that I try to follow is to not allow any one star overall players in AAA and no half star OVR in AA, even if they are not red arrows and have the most potential at their position. I rush them but try not to break them.

Keep 15 hitters and 15 pitchers at all levels. Two at each position, 4-5 in the OF. If you are short on players at any position dont worry.

I ordered these players by age so you could see the younger guys at AAA and AA. Termarr Johnson is a 1st overall pick SS that is 18 and I hope to have in the majors by his 19th birthday in June. He is the 1st player that I plan to get to the HOF in this play-through.

[chrondon84]

I also see A+ and A as almost the same level, giving you two rosters to get your highest potential at each position playing time.

If you have a player that is too old for that level, mid minors my limit is 25 years old, dont cut him just drop him down because you might need him later if you dont have enough players at a position. Depth baby!

At A+ I found one more player, SS Raul Sanchez, that is super young that I would like to see in the majors by September but he might not make it. AAA would be more realistic. Hes only 18 and could be my HOF guy if he improves his potentials.

After moving down the players from A+ to A there are only 10 pitchers in A+. Thats okay for now. The hitters are set.

After moving down the players from A to A- there is only 1 pitcher in A. And no 2B. That is okay for now. The rest is set.

Do the same thing with A-. Keep the best potentials and drop anyone that is red arrow or that is too old. When I was done the team had all 29 players needed to play.

Now you have your top 6 minors done for the season, except for the missing pitchers/2b in your A+ and A teams. The Rookie team should have well over 100 players. Thats too many. First you order by age and send all of your oldest half star pitchers to A+ and A to get them to 15 pitchers. If you have an older 2B you can move him to A to fill that spot or you can move a SS over and throw him up there.

Those teams should be finished now.

All minors should have 29-30 except the Rookie team. Cut anyone that is 24 or older from the Rookie team, they are too old. Cut anyone that is 23 and half a star potential.

Your two lowest Rookie teams will be empty until the draft. Thats fine. If you want to spread out the 100 players left in the high Rookie team that is fine but unnecessary (screenshot #3).

The last thing that you need to do is make sure that the players are starting that you want. I go find the top prospects and make sure that they are in the lineup. I use the right-click, Set Game Strategy, and Force Start/Use at Position for those players.

Play Ball! Get that season going. I set and forget. I dont look at stats or look at who improves during the season with any of my minor league players. Let em cook!

Ill shuffle some players between majors and AAA but thats about it. Having 30 at each level should keep your minors running smoothly through injuries.

Rock on.

[chrondon84]

Make sure to scout the draft class the day it comes out. I try to scout as many of the top prospects as I can. Open that draft pool and order all players by your scouts potential. Then hit the tag all and right click and Request Scouting Report. It will do the top 255 prospects. By the time the draft rolls around your scout should have reported on most all of those players.

Draft time! This is going to be the first point in the season when Im going to re-evaluate the minors and see how guys are doing and move them around a little. But first finish the draft to see what ya got.

Draft. Sign. Once they are all under contract go to your roster see where the new players are gonna start the season.

I move all of the Rookie level players from the preseason and the newly drafted rookies to the A- team.

Once again you will move all of the red arrow guys that are not ready back down to the Rookie team leaving only players that can play in A-. Sometimes you will have two or three guys that can start in A-. Is it worth the work to find those three guys? Sure! Termarr Johnson was one of those guys. This draft I did not have anyone that was ready to start in A-. Those are the breaks.

Good time to request your scout to look over your minor league players is after the draft. By the time everyone signs your scout will have had a chance to check out some players.

Set up your three rookie teams so that all of your best prospects are getting playing time. Spread out the wealth!

This is also a good time to promote and demote some guys. I start at AAA and look for anyone that I want on the major league roster for the rest of the season.

I had an injury at 2B so Tamarr Johnson is going to the show at 18! He had the green arrow but was not hitting well. Its okay. Hes a SS. His bat will come later as he gets some big league at bats.

Sanchez is now at AA after hitting .180 in A+. Its okay. Hes a SS. His bat will come later as he gets some AA league at bats.

That means that all of my top potential SS have to move up one level.

I dont have an exact science to who moves up and who stays. Pretty much if a player has improved his potential during the season and now he has better potential than the guy ahead of him, ill move him up. I dont care much about stats in the minors.

I moved up all of my best SS and that was it. Everyone else played a whole season at whatever level they ended up on opening day.

Play out the rest of the season and do it all over again next season

[chrondon84]

Here is Sanchez stat line at the end of the season (Bottom, last pic, my bad.) and why I dont pay much attention at all to minor league stats. He hit way better in AA than at A+.

Johnson and Sanchez after the season. Didnt break them yet.

[ClayK]

Good stuff ...

I also try to rest my minor leaguers to avoid injury, especially pitchers. I'll have position players sit every fourth day, and I have at least five-man rotations. I carry lots of relievers because I don't want anyone pitching tired.

I'm also very conservative with DtD injuries, even at the MLB level. I've had some get worse when I've tried to play through them, and so I'm especially careful with knees and arms.

I don't have any hard and fast rules about moving people up and down, but as you say, generally the older guys go up. I also try to combine potential and performance in decision-making, which adds a touch of realism to the game. So a 35 potential guy who's having a great year might get promoted instead of the 41 potential who's struggling.

[chrondon84]

Here is a look at the top young guys at the start of the next season.

[chrondon84]

Here is an example of how I use spring training to teach players new positions.

Jelfry Marte is a SS. During the last spring training I made him play 3B and now hes a decent 3B.

This season we want to teach him 1B. Lets see how it goes...

[chrondon84]

Not bad.

[chrondon84]

Raul Sanchez

[chrondon84]

Raul Sanchez (cont.)

[chrondon84]

Tamarr Johnson

[chrondon84]

Tarmarr Johnson (cont.)

[chrondon84]

Ryan Clifford RF