If I disable the amateur draft...

[Thundercrack]

will the game produce players of the same quality and age range as it does for the draft pool?

[dickysty]

Originally Posted by Thundercrack

will the game produce players of the same quality and age range as it does for the draft pool?

Yes, I believe it will. It has to produce players to replace the retired ones.

[olivertheorem]

It does, but they're all free agents. I believe they're created when free agents file in the offseason, but I'm not sure.

Note that if you DON'T want new players for a league (like an indy league), there is a checkbox for that which appears after you disable the amateur draft.

[OmahaReynolds]

The game produces a range of players that seems to me to be completely different than those generated for a draft pool. The age ranges from 18-27, and the players seem to be a mix of amateur draft-type of players with established big-league types who would have just hit free agency. The position spread is way different, and you end up with lots of middle relievers and first baseman.

The thing that confuses me the most is the number of players generated. If you have no minor leagues, the game will generate about 2 players per major league team. Once you add a level of minors, the game generates 10 players per major league team. I never tested this with a full minor league system, because I was mostly using it for 19th century leagues.

What I've done instead is disable the draft and the free agents and just use the player creator. If you use all the default settings, except age (set to 18-21) and development (set to Raw), you get players that seem to be about what they would be in an amateur draft. The only thing I'm not sure of is the talent curve.

When you have an amateur draft and no minor leagues, you get 5 players per major league team in the draft pool and maybe a rounds worth are 3-star or better prospects. If you add more minor league levels and get more rounds in the draft, the extra players seem to all fall on the low end of the spectrum. Hence going from 5 to 25 rounds of players doesn't multiply the really-talented prospects by five. The game just reaches further down the talent spectrum to fill the draft. The other method doesn't seem to replicate this, which has led me to believe that the draft is the only good way to add new players to the league.

I've been trying to work out a way to generate the draft pool and then just have all the players sent to free agency, but I haven't figured it out yet.

[olivertheorem]

Could you check/change the values for created players for that league to 18-21 or whatever you're looking for?

[OmahaReynolds]

Originally Posted by olivertheorem

Could you check/change the values for created players for that league to 18-21 or whatever you're looking for?

That might work.

[Thundercrack]

Originally Posted by OmahaReynolds

The game produces a range of players that seems to me to be completely different than those generated for a draft pool. The age ranges from 18-27, and the players seem to be a mix of amateur draft-type of players with established big-league types who would have just hit free agency. The position spread is way different, and you end up with lots of middle relievers and first baseman.

The thing that confuses me the most is the number of players generated. If you have no minor leagues, the game will generate about 2 players per major league team. Once you add a level of minors, the game generates 10 players per major league team. I never tested this with a full minor league system, because I was mostly using it for 19th century leagues.

What I've done instead is disable the draft and the free agents and just use the player creator. If you use all the default settings, except age (set to 18-21) and development (set to Raw), you get players that seem to be about what they would be in an amateur draft. The only thing I'm not sure of is the talent curve.

When you have an amateur draft and no minor leagues, you get 5 players per major league team in the draft pool and maybe a rounds worth are 3-star or better prospects. If you add more minor league levels and get more rounds in the draft, the extra players seem to all fall on the low end of the spectrum. Hence going from 5 to 25 rounds of players doesn't multiply the really-talented prospects by five. The game just reaches further down the talent spectrum to fill the draft. The other method doesn't seem to replicate this, which has led me to believe that the draft is the only good way to add new players to the league.

I've been trying to work out a way to generate the draft pool and then just have all the players sent to free agency, but I haven't figured it out yet.

This is what I was trying to determine. I have a league with no minors and no draft and just noticed that many of the rookies of the year were 28 years old. Didn't know if it was some anomaly with my league but I guess not.

[OmahaReynolds]

Originally Posted by Thundercrack

This is what I was trying to determine. I have a league with no minors and no draft and just noticed that many of the rookies of the year were 28 years old. Didn't know if it was some anomaly with my league but I guess not.

Yeah. 26-27 year old 4-star shortstops who have reached their full potential will just materialize out of nowhere the first day of the offseason along with more typical amateur-type prospects. Kind of annoying but setting the age min/max to 18-21 might help, like olivertheorem says.

[olivertheorem]

OmahaReynolds/Thundercrack, can one (or both) of you confirm what your created players settings were? I presume both min/max are set to 0, which would explain the game creating a bunch of older players than you'd expect.

[OmahaReynolds]

Default setting, 0/0. The funny thing is that most of the players generated were typical 18-21 year old prospect types, maybe 20-40% developed in terms of overall/potential ratings. But there would always be a handful of 27 year old players that were fully developed and would sign contracts and instantly dominate.

[olivertheorem]

If you've gotten far enough, did setting those to 18-21 solve the problem?

[mgom27]

I should disable it because every time I change Date I'm getting Fictional People and I have Random from all eras turned on and Import Rookies to Teams that Drafted them on to.

[DreamTeams]

Originally Posted by OmahaReynolds

Yeah. 26-27 year old 4-star shortstops who have reached their full potential will just materialize out of nowhere the first day of the offseason along with more typical amateur-type prospects. Kind of annoying but setting the age min/max to 18-21 might help, like olivertheorem says.

This doesn't bother me so much as I simply pretend that players are discovered in some obscure amateur league, some players quite young, and others older. Although, I have no minor league or independent leagues (love the simplification of just running one league) I do imagine that amateur leagues exist in my fictional country.