Generating New Talent for League without a Draft

[FleetWalker]

My fictional world is a 5 tier Pro-Rel league. There are 32 teams at each level—broken into 4 divisions of 8 teams. Since there is no inter-divisional play, it amounts to having 4 leagues at each level with the best team in each league being promoted and worst team being demoted. There are no minors, just reserve squads.

I intend for all players to be free agents from day one. I'm trying to figure out the best way of bringing new talent into the world.

I think I have the following options:

1. Draft. I could hold an annual draft. I can limit the draft to a single round but generate players for as many rounds as I think I need to make sure there is enough new talent to go around. I would think only the top league would have a draft (or I could hold an association draft). This is the option that gives me the most control over how many players get generated and at which level of talent, but it means I still have a draft (and a faux-draft at that).

2. Automatic Creation of Free Agents. I can just let the game generate free agents, but I don't have any control over how many, so I assume I would need to turn this on for each league. I can add appropriate PCMs for each league, so the lower tier leagues generate a lower level of talent. I'm not sure when these players appear.

3. International Amateur Free Agents. I can have the game generate International Free Agents (since "international" can be set to whatever distribution of countries one wants that part isn't a problem). It looks like I can turn off the Signing Cap amount, which presumably means teams can sign as many players for as much as they want. This gives me the ability to decide very roughly how many players are generated (2, 4, 6 or 8 per team) as well as when signing start date is. I'm assuming the distribution of talent is the same as the free agent option? Does anyone know?

4. International Scouting Discoveries. I can have the teams discover "International" players (either 1, 2, 8 or 16 per team per year). This gives the teams some ability to affect the players they find by spending more on scouting (at least I think it works that way). Teams get to stick the players they find in their International Complex (which maybe think of more like a Youth Training Program), which cuts against the idea of having everyone be a free agent. I've also read that the distribution of talent for Scouting Discoveries is not the same as the other options; the calibre of players is much poorer. Does anyone know?

I'm assuming other players of fictional leagues have tried each of these options, and I'm curious which one (or combination) worked the best.

[snepp]

I did a long running pro/rel league this year, and I went back and forth a bit (a lot) on how to handle incoming players.

I started with an association draft for a while, but didn't like the bottom leagues getting access to top-tier prospects.

Then I moved to having separate drafts for each league, with PCM's that were lower for each league moving down the line. Stopped doing that as well, for various reasons, but primarily because I felt the "premier" league teams should be getting rewarded for first crack at all drafted players.

In the end I settled into a single draft for the top league only, with a limited number of draft rounds (5) with a very large number of generated players (enough to supply all 4 tiers). This gave the teams at the top first crack at all the best prospects and the undrafted ones went to free agency to get picked through by whoever would sign them.

[Dutch Alexander]

I have a 3 tier (12-10-10) pro/reg league without a draft. Players enter my world in 3 ways: As scouting finds (16 per team), International Amateur Free Agents (96 per year) and as established International Free Agents (8 per year). For the first 2 groups I adjusted the nationalities so that they are actually domestic players.

Works well for my league. IAFA are ussually higher potential players but since there are a lot more scouting discoveries there is a good mix between the two among the top players in the league. Having established International Free Agents entering the world means you get the occasional (super)star player enter the league out of nowhere without any history. Some people don't like this but personally I don't mind.

I do use a Minor League system (2 teams per franchise) so I don't know how players would develop without Minors. To avoid high level talent getting stuck at the lowest tiers I set FA at 3 years. This means that star players generally enter FA at the age of 25.

[pauwoo]

Originally Posted by Dutch Alexander

I have a 3 tier (12-10-10) pro/reg league without a draft. Players enter my world in 3 ways: As scouting finds (16 per team), International Amateur Free Agents (96 per year) and as established International Free Agents (8 per year). For the first 2 groups I adjusted the nationalities so that they are actually domestic players.

Works well for my league. IAFA are ussually higher potential players but since there are a lot more scouting discoveries there is a good mix between the two among the top players in the league. Having established International Free Agents entering the world means you get the occasional (super)star player enter the league out of nowhere without any history. Some people don't like this but personally I don't mind.

I do use a Minor League system (2 teams per franchise) so I don't know how players would develop without Minors. To avoid high level talent getting stuck at the lowest tiers I set FA at 3 years. This means that star players generally enter FA at the age of 25.

How do you manage to progress players out of the complex? Are you using age limits or do you create players at 18yo, etc?

[Dutch Alexander]

Originally Posted by pauwoo

How do you manage to progress players out of the complex? Are you using age limits or do you create players at 18yo, etc?

The lowest level Minor League (A) has an age limit of 21. Players in the Complex are between 16-20 years old. High potential players are usually promoted from the complex at age 17/18. Typically they stay at single A until age 21, then a year at the next level (AAA) and then the ML team. Quite often players struggle the first year or two at single A and dominate the last year or 2. I use only 2 levels of Minors to keep it simple and compact. Seems to be enough to develop players. Age limit of 21 prevents young players facing fully developed players and when they reach age 22 they should be developed enough to compete at the next level.

[quillenl]

Originally Posted by Dutch Alexander

The lowest level Minor League (A) has an age limit of 21. Players in the Complex are between 16-20 years old. High potential players are usually promoted from the complex at age 17/18. Typically they stay at single A until age 21, then a year at the next level (AAA) and then the ML team. Quite often players struggle the first year or two at single A and dominate the last year or 2. I use only 2 levels of Minors to keep it simple and compact. Seems to be enough to develop players. Age limit of 21 prevents young players facing fully developed players and when they reach age 22 they should be developed enough to compete at the next level.

I do similar with 4 tiers of minors and it works great.

[Dutch Alexander]

Originally Posted by quillenl

I do similar with 4 tiers of minors and it works great.

I chose to only use two MiL layers to keep the league small and compact. And with only 2 Minor League teams in your franchise it is quite easy to micromanage these teams. With more MiL teams this would quickly become a chore, but 2 MiL teams is manageable I find. Two MiL levels seems to be enough for players to develop normally. More might be better but it works for my league and I like the "compactness".

[quillenl]

Aye, not criticizing at all. Just want folks to know it can be very flexible for whichever structure they want to use it for.

[pauwoo]

Originally Posted by Dutch Alexander

I have a 3 tier (12-10-10) pro/reg league without a draft. Players enter my world in 3 ways: As scouting finds (16 per team), International Amateur Free Agents (96 per year) and as established International Free Agents (8 per year). For the first 2 groups I adjusted the nationalities so that they are actually domestic players.

Works well for my league. IAFA are ussually higher potential players but since there are a lot more scouting discoveries there is a good mix between the two among the top players in the league. Having established International Free Agents entering the world means you get the occasional (super)star player enter the league out of nowhere without any history. Some people don't like this but personally I don't mind.

I do use a Minor League system (2 teams per franchise) so I don't know how players would develop without Minors. To avoid high level talent getting stuck at the lowest tiers I set FA at 3 years. This means that star players generally enter FA at the age of 25.

For some reason, when I set up a save like this, I’m not seeing the scouting discoveries being generated - just the IAFA’s. Not sure what I’m doing wrong.

[snepp]

Dutch has his league template posted on the forum somewhere if you want to look at the settings. I've referenced it a few times for ideas/settings on my leagues.

[jpeters1734]

Originally Posted by snepp

In the end I settled into a single draft for the top league only, with a limited number of draft rounds (5) with a very large number of generated players (enough to supply all 4 tiers). This gave the teams at the top first crack at all the best prospects and the undrafted ones went to free agency to get picked through by whoever would sign them.

This is how I would do it also. The only downside is that the only players entering free agency are undrafted college seniors

[snepp]

Originally Posted by jpeters1734

The only downside is that the only players entering free agency are undrafted college seniors

Unfortunately.

I'd love an option to set the percentage of undrafted players that go/return to college.

[FleetWalker]

Originally Posted by jpeters1734

The only downside is that the only players entering free agency are undrafted college seniors

This totally explains something I couldn't figure out. Why the list of players that have no team on the Player Search screen doesn't match the list of free agents. And also why I can't sign any of them!

I guess this might actually be a use case for "feeders" leagues. Maybe not real feeder leagues, but high school, juco, college leagues each with their own drafts with appropriate age limits.