Help - Minor League Age/Experience Limits?

[Dodger1]

I basically let the ai handle my minors. Well, first I select my top 20 or so prospects, lock them to an appropriate level, and force start them. Then I let the ai take over. But I’ve seen some ridiculous things, like assigning a 25 yr old with 5 yrs experience to the rookie league. So I’m thinking about assigning limits to each league.

I was thinking, for age limits, 21 for low rookie, 23 for advanced rookie (to allow for college draftees), 25 for A and 27 for AA. Or alternatively for experience 2 yrs for low rookie, 3 yrs for advanced rookie, 5 yrs for A and 7 yrs for AA. I’m afraid setting these limits any lower would make it hard to field complete rosters.

In any case, I would set no limits on AAA to allow veterans to be optioned, or minor league free agents to be signed.

Have you guys had any experience with minor league limits? What would you recommend?

[jimmysthebestcop]

Milb I set roster limits and service time limits based on real life
https://www.milb.com/about/faqs-business#19

They don't use age limits so I don't.

[One Post Wonder]

IMO the problem with leaving it as it is in real MiLB is that the AI will stack the lower leagues with 25 and 26 year old ringers, and it's hard to tell who is ready to move up because all the 18 and 19 year olds, the players you're interested in, are hitting .118 and have eras of 7. Plus they get awful morale because they're stinking up the joint, which makes them stink more.

I often do something similar to OP and it works. On top of that I'll put roster size limits on (35 for upper league minors, 40 for rookie and SA) to stop AI AAA rosters from having 60 players.

This will also help with parity in your game, since a guy not good enough to move up to AAA in one organization will be released and picked up by a weak team who can use him.

The one thing to keep in mind is that you'll need a big draft pool to get enough guys at each age bracket to fill all the teams. That or allow ghost players.

[Vegas Vic]

I play with all of the leagues enabled, and this is what I use. It's worked fine over many hundreds of years.

[BIG17EASY]

Originally Posted by One Post Wonder

IMO the problem with leaving it as it is in real MiLB is that the AI will stack the lower leagues with 25 and 26 year old ringers, and it's hard to tell who is ready to move up because all the 18 and 19 year olds, the players you're interested in, are hitting .118 and have eras of 7. Plus they get awful morale because they're stinking up the joint, which makes them stink more.

I often do something similar to OP and it works. On top of that I'll put roster size limits on (35 for upper league minors, 40 for rookie and SA) to stop AI AAA rosters from having 60 players.

This will also help with parity in your game, since a guy not good enough to move up to AAA in one organization will be released and picked up by a weak team who can use him.

The one thing to keep in mind is that you'll need a big draft pool to get enough guys at each age bracket to fill all the teams. That or allow ghost players.

This is my experience, as well. If age limits aren't used, you get guys who were drafted out of college dominating at Rookie level and short-A when they are 24, 25 and 26 years old, even if their ratings suggest that's the level they should play at.

[jumpin_james]

Originally Posted by One Post Wonder

IMO the problem with leaving it as it is in real MiLB is that the AI will stack the lower leagues with 25 and 26 year old ringers, and it's hard to tell who is ready to move up because all the 18 and 19 year olds, the players you're interested in, are hitting .118 and have eras of 7. Plus they get awful morale because they're stinking up the joint, which makes them stink more.

I often do something similar to OP and it works. On top of that I'll put roster size limits on (35 for upper league minors, 40 for rookie and SA) to stop AI AAA rosters from having 60 players.

This will also help with parity in your game, since a guy not good enough to move up to AAA in one organization will be released and picked up by a weak team who can use him.

The one thing to keep in mind is that you'll need a big draft pool to get enough guys at each age bracket to fill all the teams. That or allow ghost players.

Dumb question, but I can't find it...where can you set these age/roster limits?

[Vegas Vic]

Originally Posted by jumpin_james

Dumb question, but I can't find it...where can you set these age/roster limits?

It's under "League Settings", then "Rules", for each one of your Minor Leagues.

[jimmysthebestcop]

If you have service time limits you don't need age limits. Its almost impossible to be high 20s age and in rookie ball.

This will keep the AI steadily promoting individuals.

It will increase the time you spend on your minor leagues. Adding service time and roster limits increases human time spent. If you don't touch your roster you still have to make about 30-40 cuts every year because of the new draft class.

[SirMichaelJordan]

I use service time and age limit

It keeps player from moving downward and college players out of rookie ball.

[endgame]

Originally Posted by SirMichaelJordan

I use service time and age limit

It keeps player from moving downward and college players out of rookie ball.

SirMike, are your settings very similar to those posted eariler?

[BIG17EASY]

Originally Posted by SirMichaelJordan

I use service time and age limit

It keeps player from moving downward and college players out of rookie ball.

This is spot on. As I stated earlier, with only service time limits, you'll get guys who are 23-25 dominating in rookie ball, which you don't want. Adding age limits forces those players to move up or be released.

[SirMichaelJordan]

Originally Posted by endgame

SirMike, are your settings very similar to those posted eariler?

Not in front of the game to give exact numbers but I take service time and average age in each league as consideration.

DSL has a 19 year old cap and I believe rookie ball have a cap at 21

High A might be 25 but not sure atm.

I also give AA a service time cap of 6 years to make room for the better prospects and push older guys to AAA if they resign as minor league free agents.

I’m confident in letting the AI handle the minors with these settings. I don’t have to baby sit as much.


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[Vegas Vic]

Sir Michael, with your setup do you have to use ghost players to avoid getting error messages for incomplete rosters, or do you jack up the number of draft rounds to make sure there are enough players to fill out the rosters?

[SirMichaelJordan]

Originally Posted by Vegas Vic

Sir Michael, with your setup do you have to use ghost players to avoid getting error messages for incomplete rosters, or do you jack up the number of draft rounds to make sure there are enough players to fill out the rosters?

I use ghost players specifically because of DSL. Even before the setup, the incomplete roster message would come up for that league. The AI don’t promote players from its complex fast enough often leaving their fodder in the complex until they reach 20 instead of just placing them on the DSL team when they hit 18.


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[Vegas Vic]

Thanks. I noticed the same thing, so I increased the international scouting discoveries from 11 to 22 per year, and increased the international complex size from 50 to 60. That cured the problem of incomplete rosters. I don't like to use ghost players.

[Vegas Vic]

I think one of the downsides of forcing exact service time and roster size limits on the minor leagues is that the AI doesn't know how to assign the appropriate numbers for each position. You set the roster limit at 25, and the AI obeys, but when you take a closer look you see that you have 7 catchers and 6 first basemen.

Any thoughts on how to improve this?

[jimmysthebestcop]

Originally Posted by Vegas Vic

I think one of the downsides of forcing exact service time and roster size limits on the minor leagues is that the AI doesn't know how to assign the appropriate numbers for each position. You set the roster limit at 25, and the AI obeys, but when you take a closer look you see that you have 7 catchers and 6 first basemen.

Any thoughts on how to improve this?

I've never noticed it happening on other teams. My teams I pretty much set my entire starting lineup in every minor league so my AI is really only moving bench players and taking care of injuries.

If you enabled this in the middle of the year it could have gone wonky. I start my universe off with these rules so the computer teams will basically have the right people/positions already.

At the least implement it at off season after the service year ticks by.

But I don't use any age limits and I haven't noticed a problem.

My AI could never balance my minor leagues because I lock and force start so many of my prospects. And I don't really care about position either. I want whoever is ready for whichever level of development to get all the at bats. Even if that means playing completely out of position. I don't care if my A+ has 5 CF. If they are valuable to me at another position then I still want those bats to develop because they will be traded for things I can use.

So if you are locking any in your organization the AI will have an impossible time managing the your minors. Once you lock a couple dozen players in the minors the AI's brain breaks if their is roster limits.

[PSUColonel]

AAA 25 man roster; no service limit
AA. 25 man roster; no service limit
A+. 35 man roster; 5 year service (which acts like under 6 because a player can have 5 years and xx days)
A. 35 man roster; 4 years
A- 35 man roster; 3 years
R. 35 man roster; 2 years
DSL. 35 man roster; 3 years