Draft Class

yoyo · 04-21-2019, 01:54 PM

I am starting a fictional league with 12 teams (divided into 2 leagues of 6) with no interleague play - 120 game season and then a world series. Rosters are 25 with no minors - just a 15 player reserve team.

For each years rookie draft I am going to have 6 rounds and would like it to be kind of like the real life NFL draft rather than the MLB draft. I would like teams to be able to draft players who may be able to move into the starting lineup right away for rounds 1-2 and maybe a couple of picks in round 3. The players would not necessarily be fully developed yet - some players may be 2.5-3.5 stars initially with 4.0-5.0 star potential.

What settings would be suggested to get my draft classes this way. I don't want all players current ability being 0.5-1.0 star. Since I am using the reserve clause I want teams to be able to build thru the draft if they draft well but not have it take years for them to be competitive.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

NoOne · 04-21-2019, 08:27 PM

if you don't hve minors on and a reserve roster is in effect, i think they come out a bit more developed, but not sure about starting day one. they develop well on the reserve roster, from what i have heard in past.

if you decide they aren't developed enough, you could make X number of players and create custom draft classes, but that'd be work every single season, and may not be what you are looking for.

6 rounds should be plenty. the amount of talent, at least potential, is mostly dictated by size of the league. so, use any number of rounds that keep sthe league filled. you may even find you can drop it to ~3-5 rounds, because baseball players have a much longer average career than the RL nfl, i bet.

i'd test it out with the reserve roster rules. maybe they are more developed than i expect.

also, could test out raising minimum age of draftee... 21-22+ might make them more developed too.

tklem321 · 04-22-2019, 09:38 PM

I've tried setting up a league like this, more akin to football than baseball. Never could get it to work the way I wanted. As far as NoOne's suggestion for a test goes, I tried bumping up the minimum age for players by a few years but noticed no difference at all in their ratings when they are drafted. They're just older. Even with development turned up to 2.0 or 3.0 the players still came in terrible and took a couple of years to become minimum major league level talent, and very few of those.

yoyo · 04-22-2019, 10:52 PM

I turned development up to 2.5 and also had all players created at age 22 and also did not see any difference. Same as tklem321the players came in 0.5 stars andvstill toom a couple of years to develop.

I searched an old thread on this topic which suggested creating 20 players manually at 75% developed age 18-21. The 20 players should be divided as 4 legend status, 6 star, and 4 good. When I tried that, the players came in 2.5-3.0 stars and were 3-5 stars by the end of their first season.

tklem321 · 04-22-2019, 11:01 PM

That's an interesting idea. I normally prefer letting randomness deal with player creation but something like what you describe might work.

NoOne · 04-23-2019, 10:18 AM

sound like you'd have to make your own draft class each year, if you want them ~nearly developed. there's a few options for that as you create them.

your other post would make a very talent rich league for 12 teams. you could watch the normal draft a bit with 100% accuracy and pick out a similar proportion of various qualities.

4 legends... in a few years nearly all teams are going to have 2-4 legends. if the mlb had that same proportion there'd be 2-4 (60-120) hall of flame players in the league at all times. (guesstimation, but probably not far off... what's average career length of a superstar, not just average? so, i probably underestimated, if anything)

the other thing you'd have to watch is statistical drift... as long as you stay consistent in how you create players, you'll be able to adjust League Total Modifiers to get the statistical environment you are shooting for. as you find a happy medium, expect to tinker with these a bit.

Walsh06 · 04-27-2019, 01:51 PM

why not make an intermediate "college league". The college league has a draft or some other of getting new players around the age of 18. The players stay there for 3/4 years to develop and get game time, then that league acts as a feeder for your majors so they get players around the age of 21 and hopefully some of them are ready to play.

Laser · 04-27-2019, 07:14 PM

That sounds like a great idea. I am looking to do a league also where players are MLB ready when drafted. I will try this idea.

shawnball75 · 05-18-2019, 12:13 PM

I accidentally discovered the way to do this. I am obsessed with making a perfect league and have played around with just about every draft combination. To make a more NFL style draft create an independent MLB League, with at least 14 teams but you could do 18 as well.

Then make the rules of players ages what you want and set it up in your parent league as its feeder league. Just make sure to change the age range of created players as well.

But with an MLB independent league as a feeder it will generate players that are game ready on day 1. I hope this helps.

04-21-2019, 01:54 PM	#1
yoyo Bat Boy Join Date: Apr 2019 Posts: 3	Draft Class I am starting a fictional league with 12 teams (divided into 2 leagues of 6) with no interleague play - 120 game season and then a world series. Rosters are 25 with no minors - just a 15 player reserve team. For each years rookie draft I am going to have 6 rounds and would like it to be kind of like the real life NFL draft rather than the MLB draft. I would like teams to be able to draft players who may be able to move into the starting lineup right away for rounds 1-2 and maybe a couple of picks in round 3. The players would not necessarily be fully developed yet - some players may be 2.5-3.5 stars initially with 4.0-5.0 star potential. What settings would be suggested to get my draft classes this way. I don't want all players current ability being 0.5-1.0 star. Since I am using the reserve clause I want teams to be able to build thru the draft if they draft well but not have it take years for them to be competitive. Any suggestions are appreciated.

04-21-2019, 08:27 PM	#2
NoOne Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2015 Posts: 7,167	if you don't hve minors on and a reserve roster is in effect, i think they come out a bit more developed, but not sure about starting day one. they develop well on the reserve roster, from what i have heard in past. if you decide they aren't developed enough, you could make X number of players and create custom draft classes, but that'd be work every single season, and may not be what you are looking for. 6 rounds should be plenty. the amount of talent, at least potential, is mostly dictated by size of the league. so, use any number of rounds that keep sthe league filled. you may even find you can drop it to ~3-5 rounds, because baseball players have a much longer average career than the RL nfl, i bet. i'd test it out with the reserve roster rules. maybe they are more developed than i expect. also, could test out raising minimum age of draftee... 21-22+ might make them more developed too. Last edited by NoOne; 04-21-2019 at 08:28 PM.

04-22-2019, 09:38 PM	#3
tklem321 Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Apr 2017 Posts: 246	I've tried setting up a league like this, more akin to football than baseball. Never could get it to work the way I wanted. As far as NoOne's suggestion for a test goes, I tried bumping up the minimum age for players by a few years but noticed no difference at all in their ratings when they are drafted. They're just older. Even with development turned up to 2.0 or 3.0 the players still came in terrible and took a couple of years to become minimum major league level talent, and very few of those. Last edited by tklem321; 04-22-2019 at 09:39 PM.

04-23-2019, 10:18 AM	#6
NoOne Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2015 Posts: 7,167	sound like you'd have to make your own draft class each year, if you want them ~nearly developed. there's a few options for that as you create them. your other post would make a very talent rich league for 12 teams. you could watch the normal draft a bit with 100% accuracy and pick out a similar proportion of various qualities. 4 legends... in a few years nearly all teams are going to have 2-4 legends. if the mlb had that same proportion there'd be 2-4 (60-120) hall of flame players in the league at all times. (guesstimation, but probably not far off... what's average career length of a superstar, not just average? so, i probably underestimated, if anything) the other thing you'd have to watch is statistical drift... as long as you stay consistent in how you create players, you'll be able to adjust League Total Modifiers to get the statistical environment you are shooting for. as you find a happy medium, expect to tinker with these a bit. Last edited by NoOne; 04-23-2019 at 10:23 AM.

04-27-2019, 01:51 PM	#7
Walsh06 All Star Reserve Join Date: May 2011 Posts: 545	why not make an intermediate "college league". The college league has a draft or some other of getting new players around the age of 18. The players stay there for 3/4 years to develop and get game time, then that league acts as a feeder for your majors so they get players around the age of 21 and hopefully some of them are ready to play. __________________ The Numbers Game, Sports Blog

04-22-2019, 10:52 PM	#4
yoyo Bat Boy Join Date: Apr 2019 Posts: 3	I turned development up to 2.5 and also had all players created at age 22 and also did not see any difference. Same as tklem321the players came in 0.5 stars andvstill toom a couple of years to develop. I searched an old thread on this topic which suggested creating 20 players manually at 75% developed age 18-21. The 20 players should be divided as 4 legend status, 6 star, and 4 good. When I tried that, the players came in 2.5-3.0 stars and were 3-5 stars by the end of their first season.

04-22-2019, 11:01 PM	#5
tklem321 Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Apr 2017 Posts: 246	That's an interesting idea. I normally prefer letting randomness deal with player creation but something like what you describe might work.

04-27-2019, 07:14 PM	#8
Laser Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Fort Lauderdale, FL Posts: 38	That sounds like a great idea. I am looking to do a league also where players are MLB ready when drafted. I will try this idea. Last edited by Laser; 04-27-2019 at 07:22 PM.

05-18-2019, 12:13 PM	#9
shawnball75 Bat Boy Join Date: May 2018 Posts: 5	I accidentally discovered the way to do this. I am obsessed with making a perfect league and have played around with just about every draft combination. To make a more NFL style draft create an independent MLB League, with at least 14 teams but you could do 18 as well. Then make the rules of players ages what you want and set it up in your parent league as its feeder league. Just make sure to change the age range of created players as well. But with an MLB independent league as a feeder it will generate players that are game ready on day 1. I hope this helps.