Best Way To Keep AI Teams Stocked?

[chucksabr]

I'm doing a dry run on a league in which all the teams are run by AI. There are no minor leagues and I have been doing no drafts along the way. I figured as time goes along, AI would keep teams stocked with sufficient number of reserves for each team so they could be sufficiently stocked at each position.

I've run about 35 years in the league so far, and as I'm digging back through some details, and I'm finding some teams that had sub-.300 records over the years were completely screwed on the roster. In one 18-player-roster season, one team had 12 pitchers and six position players, so their record was actually sub-.200.

When I set this league live, what is the best way to ensure that there will be sufficient players at each position on each team so that these kinds of imbalances don't happen? I mean, without me going in and micromanaging each of these teams? Should there be some sort of draft every season?

[chucksabr]

BTW, my preference is not to have to maintain HS or college feeder leagues. My professional league is going to be on the order of 100 teams, so maintaining feeders for all of them is going to get unwieldy in a hurry. I would prefer fresh players just show up after the season to replace those who are leaving.

[Fyrestorm3]

Originally Posted by chucksabr

BTW, my preference is not to have to maintain HS or college feeder leagues. My professional league is going to be on the order of 100 teams, so maintaining feeders for all of them is going to get unwieldy in a hurry. I would prefer fresh players just show up after the season to replace those who are leaving.

To the best of my knowledge, that's exactly what should happen if you don't hold an amateur draft.

[chucksabr]

Originally Posted by Fyrestorm3

To the best of my knowledge, that's exactly what should happen if you don't hold an amateur draft.

OK, maybe that's true, and perhaps that even works in most cases, but I still have the problem of teams occasionally being improperly stocked the way I described. Is it that, in a way, AI is only human?

[jaysdailydose]

Originally Posted by chucksabr

OK, maybe that's true, and perhaps that even works in most cases, but I still have the problem of teams occasionally being improperly stocked the way I described. Is it that, in a way, AI is only human?

May I ask why you have decided against using the Amateur draft? I only ask because when you use the draft you are easily able to define how many players get generated.

It just sounds to me like the game is not creating enough players to make up for retired players so the rosters are short... and since I'm guessing this is a fictional league, you don't have the luxury of ghost players when the teams aren't filled.

[Bluenoser]

Originally Posted by jaysdailydose

May I ask why you have decided against using the Amateur draft? I only ask because when you use the draft you are easily able to define how many players get generated.

It just sounds to me like the game is not creating enough players to make up for retired players so the rosters are short... and since I'm guessing this is a fictional league, you don't have the luxury of ghost players when the teams aren't filled.

Ghost players aren't restricted to real leagues, they work in fictional as well.

[jaysdailydose]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

Ghost players aren't restricted to real leagues, they work in fictional as well.

Hmm... I just created my huge fictional last week and don't remember it being an option in the fictional setup, and I've just looked through league setup (I am in the regular season, however) and the option is not available.

I thought this was strictly for historical games... I wouldn't have used it in my fictional, regardless, but I honestly don't even remember being given the option, and its definitely not available to me now.

[Fyrestorm3]

Originally Posted by jaysdailydose

Hmm... I just created my huge fictional last week and don't remember it being an option in the fictional setup, and I've just looked through league setup (I am in the regular season, however) and the option is not available.

I thought this was strictly for historical games... I wouldn't have used it in my fictional, regardless, but I honestly don't even remember being given the option, and its definitely not available to me now.

That's... odd. Are you positive? I can access it in the middle of the season in my fictional league. It's right between the Rule 5 draft and Minor League Option Years settings.

[jaysdailydose]

Originally Posted by Fyrestorm3

That's... odd. Are you positive? I can access it in the middle of the season in my fictional league. It's right between the Rule 5 draft and Minor League Option Years settings.

I must have missed it.. it is there now that I look directly at it. LOL thanks.

Still not for me, personally. I have a sick feeder setup.

[Bluenoser]

Originally Posted by jaysdailydose

Hmm... I just created my huge fictional last week and don't remember it being an option in the fictional setup, and I've just looked through league setup (I am in the regular season, however) and the option is not available.

I thought this was strictly for historical games... I wouldn't have used it in my fictional, regardless, but I honestly don't even remember being given the option, and its definitely not available to me now.

The only time it's not available is when you play with no minors (reserve rosters). Other than that it can be enabled/disabled at any time.

[jaysdailydose]

I'm just not getting why he doesn't want there to be a draft -- and he did ask if having a seasonal draft would solve the problem and it absolutely would.

I'm almost under the impression that you think you must have feeders to have the draft, Chuck, when you just tell it how many rounds of players to generate. I do feeders by personal preference but it is absolutely not necessary.

[Fyrestorm3]

Originally Posted by jaysdailydose

I'm just not getting why he doesn't want there to be a draft -- and he did ask if having a seasonal draft would solve the problem and it absolutely would.

I'm almost under the impression that you think you must have feeders to have the draft, Chuck, when you just tell it how many rounds of players to generate. I do feeders by personal preference but it is absolutely not necessary.

I can understand wanting to not have a draft so that teams have to constantly bid on free agents, rather than getting good picks through a draft. I've done this in a fictional league that had a salary cap in place (so all teams always had a shot at any marquee free agents, and therefore I saw no need to give the worst teams the best players through a draft).

But, you're right, from what Chuck's said, it does sound like he might assume that feeders are necessary for a draft. But the game will automatically generate enough amateurs for a draft if you don't have feeders set up.

[jaysdailydose]

Originally Posted by Fyrestorm3

I can understand wanting to not have a draft so that teams have to constantly bid on free agents, rather than getting good picks through a draft. I've done this in a fictional league that had a salary cap in place (so all teams always had a shot at any marquee free agents, and therefore I saw no need to give the worst teams the best players through a draft).

But, you're right, from what Chuck's said, it does sound like he might assume that feeders are necessary for a draft. But the game will automatically generate enough amateurs for a draft if you don't have feeders set up.

Not necessarily. For instance, if he added minor leagues after the fact, but had his draft starting with 5 rounds pre-minors, he would need to add to have 5 per minor league level added... nitpicky, just saying.

And yeah, I get the angle you're coming from, but it didn't sound like he was trying to do that.

[chucksabr]

Originally Posted by jaysdailydose

May I ask why you have decided against using the Amateur draft? I only ask because when you use the draft you are easily able to define how many players get generated.

It just sounds to me like the game is not creating enough players to make up for retired players so the rosters are short... and since I'm guessing this is a fictional league, you don't have the luxury of ghost players when the teams aren't filled.

Because in the fictional league I am setting up, there is no amateur draft. there just ... isn't. Unless there's no way I can keep teams properly stocked without one. Then I would be forced to do one, which I suppose I could keep in the background and out of the narrative (i.e., almanac) I'd share with people. I suppose that's a possibility. But if I couldn't keep it out of the almanac, I couldn't use it.

[chucksabr]

Originally Posted by jaysdailydose

I'm just not getting why he doesn't want there to be a draft -- and he did ask if having a seasonal draft would solve the problem and it absolutely would.

I'm almost under the impression that you think you must have feeders to have the draft, Chuck, when you just tell it how many rounds of players to generate. I do feeders by personal preference but it is absolutely not necessary.

Well, now that I know that an amateur draft wouldn't even show up if I don't have any minors, choosing whether to have one won't be an issue, then.

At first I was going to do one major league and successively lower unaffiliated minors, but now I am leaning heavily toward four separate major leagues with no minors. If I can't have an amateur draft at all under that setup, then that "solves" my issue, although if it cannot keep teams properly stocked with a reserve player system, that's another, and potentially huge, problem for me.

So in short, I want no feeders, no minors and no draft. I want new players to just show up year after year, as old players retire, and the reason is because I don't want to bog down my hard drive with 100-200 feeder teams for 100 major league teams, and I don't want to pollute my almanac with details about feeder leagues, minor leagues or amateur drafts. It will (hopefully) make more sense to you once I launch my league live.

[RchW]

Originally Posted by chucksabr

Well, now that I know that an amateur draft wouldn't even show up if I don't have any minors, choosing whether to have one won't be an issue, then.

At first I was going to do one major league and successively lower unaffiliated minors, but now I am leaning heavily toward four separate major leagues with no minors. If I can't have an amateur draft at all under that setup, then that "solves" my issue, although if it cannot keep teams properly stocked with a reserve player system, that's another, and potentially huge, problem for me.

So in short, I want no feeders, no minors and no draft. I want new players to just show up year after year, as old players retire, and the reason is because I don't want to bog down my hard drive with 100-200 feeder teams for 100 major league teams, and I don't want to pollute my almanac with details about feeder leagues, minor leagues or amateur drafts. It will (hopefully) make more sense to you once I launch my league live.

You can determine what goes into the Almanac.

[chucksabr]

Originally Posted by RchW

You can determine what goes into the Almanac.

Is there a part where I can keep any mention of an amateur draft, or of players being brought up from the minors or from a feeder league? I can't find anything like that. I'm not sure simply deselecting the minor or feeder leagues will be enough.

[jaysdailydose]

Like RchW said, you can keep it out of the almanac.

But, each player will have their draft position and the like mentioned in their history files.

I get what you're trying to do... you just want new players to appear to fill in the rosters. One thing I can think of is just to manually fill the rosters after each offseason. The "Fill Teams with Fictional Players" option. This would just add players up to the roster limit each time you run it. Seems like it would accomplish what you want. (No mention of a draft whatsoever, and new players filling in the vacated roster spots.)

There would be mention of the draft in the news logs as well, but unsure if you'd be saving those, if that "workaround" doesn't do it for you.

[chucksabr]

Originally Posted by jaysdailydose

Like RchW said, you can keep it out of the almanac.

But, each player will have their draft position and the like mentioned in their history files.

I get what you're trying to do... you just want new players to appear to fill in the rosters. One thing I can think of is just to manually fill the rosters after each offseason. The "Fill Teams with Fictional Players" option. This would just add players up to the roster limit each time you run it. Seems like it would accomplish what you want. (No mention of a draft whatsoever, and new players filling in the vacated roster spots.)

There would be mention of the draft in the news logs as well, but unsure if you'd be saving those, if that "workaround" doesn't do it for you.

I am saving almanacs and news, so mention of a draft would undermine my world, yes.

If I have players already on the teams, and some guys end up retiring and I fill teams with fictional players, I guess you're saying I would not overwrite my current players, correct? That makes sense, but a problem might arise if by filling with fictional players, I get players who (a) came into the league with phony big league years of service already, and (b) who come in up to 40 years old. That would be a no-no.

I will say that in terms of how it's working now, without a draft or minor or feeder leagues, it's been working pretty good for the most part. The reserves coming in to replace the retirees are generally young (79% are 22 and younger, only 6% 30 and over) and they're coming in with zero time on their clock. so I guess it's working mostly right.

I just see these examples where some teams' rosters are all out of whack. Maybe it's not as bad as all that.

[Bluenoser]

Originally Posted by chucksabr

Well, now that I know that an amateur draft wouldn't even show up if I don't have any minors, choosing whether to have one won't be an issue, then.

At first I was going to do one major league and successively lower unaffiliated minors, but now I am leaning heavily toward four separate major leagues with no minors. If I can't have an amateur draft at all under that setup, then that "solves" my issue, although if it cannot keep teams properly stocked with a reserve player system, that's another, and potentially huge, problem for me.

So in short, I want no feeders, no minors and no draft. I want new players to just show up year after year, as old players retire, and the reason is because I don't want to bog down my hard drive with 100-200 feeder teams for 100 major league teams, and I don't want to pollute my almanac with details about feeder leagues, minor leagues or amateur drafts. It will (hopefully) make more sense to you once I launch my league live.

You still get an amateur draft without minors. Your reserve roster needs to be stocked, just like minors do.

Of course you do have the option to disable it.