How many rounds in an optimal amateur draft?

[Stealcompany]

Is there a rule of thumb in terms of how many rounds an amateur draft needs to be in order to keep your minors stocked?
Currently in my fictional universe I have a draft of 30 rounds but each major league team has 9 minor league teams affiliated with it. That strikes me as too few rounds. I am wondering if something like 5 rounds per minor league team makes sense. That would yield a draft with a total of 45 rounds.

What do other players do?

[Bluenoser]

Rule of thumb is 5 rounds per level of minors.

[Biggio509]

Originally Posted by Stealcompany

Is there a rule of thumb in terms of how many rounds an amateur draft needs to be in order to keep your minors stocked?
Currently in my fictional universe I have a draft of 30 rounds but each major league team has 9 minor league teams affiliated with it. That strikes me as too few rounds. I am wondering if something like 5 rounds per minor league team makes sense. That would yield a draft with a total of 45 rounds.

What do other players do?

As the previous post noted it is levels not number of teams. So with the current setup of AAA, AA, A+, A, A-, AR, R that is 30 rounds. I haven't tested this though. I always ran the MLB 40 rounds with 5 extra rounds generated with that set up. With the newer minors system to come that I use where A- and AR are eliminated it is 20 rounds. I always add another 5 round of players generated so there are some extras to sign if teams need them due to injuries. I run 25 and have an additional 5 rounds. It is probably more than I need but with a 35 roster limit in the rookies it allows me to retain 10 players in R a year instead of replacing them all. I don't have to rush potential MLBs up and give them extra time in rookie unless they hit the service time limit which is usually when I put someone too young in my Dominican league (foreign only with high scouting discoveries).

Again not tested with the mins but I have done this since the default gives some orgs more below A teams than others. I am not sure if the rule of thumb assumes 1 team per a level which isn't the case with the default set up.

[mytreds]

In my fictional league, I have a 16 round draft. I have 4 levels of minors. I find this works just fine for me, and haven’t encountered any problems yet in the 20+ years of my league.

[rudel.dietrich]

I usually do 5 rounds per level of minors plus 2 extra rounds so that the FA pool has a bit deeper selection of players.
I play on a higher injury setting than most people so having a deeper FA pool helps even if the FA pool is mostly below replacement level.

[koohead]

Originally Posted by rudel.dietrich

I usually do 5 rounds per level of minors plus 2 extra rounds so that the FA pool has a bit deeper selection of players.
I play on a higher injury setting than most people so having a deeper FA pool helps even if the FA pool is mostly before replacement level.

I always (at least since we've had the option to do so) generated more rounds of players than actual draft rounds. So if I have a 25 round draft, I would generate 30 rounds worth. anywhere from 2-5.