Feeder League Strategies

[lungs]

I really like the addition of feeder leagues into the game and after playing around with it, I'd like to see how others are utilizing them. I haven't gotten too deep into things so maybe somebody could give me some good ideas.

My first question is in regards to how many total teams should actually feed into a league to provide a sufficient amount of players to the league? Maybe a guideline like for every team in your major league you should have X amount of feeder teams is what I'm looking for. Then I could adjust it up to help stock any amount of independent leagues I may want to have.

My next question is in regards to foreign feeder leagues. Basically, I'd like to setup a universe in which American, Canadian, and Puerto Rican feeder leagues feed into the actual draft while Venezuelan and Dominican feeder leagues do not. Is this plausible? If I set a Dominican feeder league to have an age maximum of 18 or so will the players simply become free agents that major league teams can fight over?

My last question is in regards to the default values for feeder leagues. Are people finding these sufficient? Are there enough players with high potential being created using the default values?

Anyway, I'm not looking for feeder league to mirror the real world perfectly, I'm just trying to set things up so my universe will work in a sensible way. With the faster sim speeds, I'd love to create a universe with upwards of 1000 teams but I also want the leagues to interact in a sensible way.

Any ideas are appreciated.

[albatross11]

Originally Posted by lungs

I really like the addition of feeder leagues into the game and after playing around with it, I'd like to see how others are utilizing them. I haven't gotten too deep into things so maybe somebody could give me some good ideas.

My first question is in regards to how many total teams should actually feed into a league to provide a sufficient amount of players to the league? Maybe a guideline like for every team in your major league you should have X amount of feeder teams is what I'm looking for. Then I could adjust it up to help stock any amount of independent leagues I may want to have.

My next question is in regards to foreign feeder leagues. Basically, I'd like to setup a universe in which American, Canadian, and Puerto Rican feeder leagues feed into the actual draft while Venezuelan and Dominican feeder leagues do not. Is this plausible? If I set a Dominican feeder league to have an age maximum of 18 or so will the players simply become free agents that major league teams can fight over?

My last question is in regards to the default values for feeder leagues. Are people finding these sufficient? Are there enough players with high potential being created using the default values?

Anyway, I'm not looking for feeder league to mirror the real world perfectly, I'm just trying to set things up so my universe will work in a sensible way. With the faster sim speeds, I'd love to create a universe with upwards of 1000 teams but I also want the leagues to interact in a sensible way.

Any ideas are appreciated.

For starters, from page 103 of the manual:


Feeding First-year player drafts Completely through Feeder Leagues
If you want your parent league’s first-year player draft to be fed completely by feeder leagues, you will
need to do some math to determine how many feeder league teams you will need to fill out your draft
class completely. So, using the default of a 5-year age range, we calculate as follows:

Feeder leagues with 5-year age ranges (18-22, for example) typically feed 6-9 players per team to the
parent league each year. Smaller age-ranges result in more players entering the draft each year.

[Number of teams in your parent league] x [Number of rounds in your first-year player draft] = total #
of players needed in first-year player draft

[total # of players needed for draft] / 6 (rounded up) = minimum # of feeder league teams required

For example, let’s say you have a 16-team major league, and a 5-round first-year player draft. You
need 16 x 5, or 80 players in your first-year player draft each year. We divide 80 by 6 and round up,
getting 14. If you have 14 feeder league teams, you should get enough players from your feeder
leagues to populate your first-year player draft entirely with feeder league players.

Of course, it’s always better to err on the side of more teams. If you end up with more players than you
need for the draft, then the undrafted players will simply enter the free agent pool.

[Curtis]

Originally Posted by lungs

My next question is in regards to foreign feeder leagues. Basically, I'd like to setup a universe in which American, Canadian, and Puerto Rican feeder leagues feed into the actual draft while Venezuelan and Dominican feeder leagues do not. Is this plausible? If I set a Dominican feeder league to have an age maximum of 18 or so will the players simply become free agents that major league teams can fight over?

It is not plausible. Feeder leagues MUST feed parent leagues. You might achieve what you're looking for by creating independent minors with age restrictions.

[andymac]

Originally Posted by Curtis

It is not plausible. Feeder leagues MUST feed parent leagues. You might achieve what you're looking for by creating independent minors with age restrictions.

He can create an independent High School league instead of a feeder league for the countries he doesn't want feeding the draft though, so the setup should definitely be plausible.

[darkcloud4579]

Yup, it's plausible and makes sense if you want them to develop in their home countries before coming here to play, but want to keep them out of pro leagues in said countries.

[Curtis]

The question was whether or not he can set up a FEEDER LEAGUE that dumps its players into free agency rather than into the draft. The answer is that he cannot, but he can set up an age-limited independent minor league that dumps to free agency.

[lungs]

Originally Posted by Curtis

The question was whether or not he can set up a FEEDER LEAGUE that dumps its players into free agency rather than into the draft. The answer is that he cannot, but he can set up an age-limited independent minor league that dumps to free agency.

Yeah, that was a terminology gaffe on my part. It's hard to call something a feeder league when it doesn't feed into the draft. What I meant was creating something that is essentially a feeder league but doesn't feed into the draft but feeds prospects into free agency.

[andymac]

Originally Posted by Curtis

The question was whether or not he can set up a FEEDER LEAGUE that dumps its players into free agency rather than into the draft. The answer is that he cannot, but he can set up an age-limited independent minor league that dumps to free agency.

Meh. He was asking for a feeder league that didn't feed anything so he wasn't really asking for a feeder league. More like using that word because he didn't know what else to call it.

*Edit* - Which he just stated directly above me.

[Curtis]

Okay. I'm thinking this is not just a matter of terminology, though.

During universe creation, if he tried to go through the feeder league creation system would he be able to get what he wanted, or would he have to go through the minor league creation system?

[Cras]

Just be careful to not create a massive feeder league. Or else watch your sim speeds slow down to a rock's crawl.

[SSG Troyer]

Originally Posted by Curtis

Okay. I'm thinking this is not just a matter of terminology, though.

During universe creation, if he tried to go through the feeder league creation system would he be able to get what he wanted, or would he have to go through the minor league creation system?

Both. He wants true feeders going into his ML system, and he really wants an age-limited, unaffiliated international league whose players would automatically enter FA when they got old enough.

[andymac]

Originally Posted by Curtis

Okay. I'm thinking this is not just a matter of terminology, though.

During universe creation, if he tried to go through the feeder league creation system would he be able to get what he wanted, or would he have to go through the minor league creation system?

I think he was using "feeder league" when he should have been using "high school league". Many probably don't realize there is a difference quite yet.

[Mikekem]

Originally Posted by Cras

Just be careful to not create a massive feeder league. Or else watch your sim speeds slow down to a rock's crawl.

What's massive? If you have 30 teams and 10 rounds in the draft you are going to need 50 feeder teams, correct? Would splitting them up into different leagues help (HS & College) or will you still suffer?

[PerfectMisnomer]

Would 32 college level teams and 12 high school level teams be enough to feed a 20 team league with a 10 round draft?

20x10 = 200 players

I don't know where the "6" comes from, so this is the point I'm stuck.

[Mikekem]

Originally Posted by PerfectMisnomer

Would 32 college level teams and 12 high school level teams be enough to feed a 20 team league with a 10 round draft?

20x10 = 200 players

I don't know where the "6" comes from, so this is the point I'm stuck.

Should be more than enough. If you follow the formula that is in the help section of the game and listed here earlier you for your league you would need 34 feeder teams to support your draft.

20 teams in league x 10 round draft = 200

200 players needed for draft / 6 (approx numbers per feeder team that would be worthy of drafting) = 33.33 so you round up to 34.

Did I do that right?

[SSG Troyer]

The 6 is the minimum number of players one could expect a feeder team to contribute to the draft each year.

[lungs]

I probably should've used the term 'High School Leagues' instead of 'Feeder Leagues' earlier.

I'm pretty sure I'm able to accomplish my Dominican high school league by setting the league to a high school league and not having it feed into any particular league. Then set all the creation modifiers and such that to create players that will have enough talent to be signed by a major league team when they are free agents after they reach the maximum age.

I haven't tested to see if everything works as planned yet, but in theory this should work, no?

I could then determine the size of my high school leagues in each country by figuring out the percentage of players I want coming from each country and allocating teams to the leagues accordingly.

That may be the most plausible way to simulate how American/Canadian/Puerto Rican prospects must go through the draft while Latin American prospects are signed.

Or another interesting possibility would be to eliminate the amateur draft altogether and have a free-for-all with the prospects from all countries. Maybe I'll try it both ways.

[SandMan]

In simple tests these numbers worked for me.

To determine feeder teams I use this:

8 rounds - MLB teams * 1.3
9 rounds - MLB teams * 1.5
10 rounds - MLB teams * 1.7
11 rounds - MLB teams * 1.9
12 rounds - MLB teams * 2.1
13 rounds - MLB teams *2.3

My MLB has 24 teams and I want 10 rounds so I should have 40 feeder (24*1.7) teams.
40 teams with approx 6 per for draft would give me 240 players and I need exactly that (24teams*10rounds).

Works good for me so far.....

[jerrycapo]

Originally Posted by lungs

I probably should've used the term 'High School Leagues' instead of 'Feeder Leagues' earlier.

I'm pretty sure I'm able to accomplish my Dominican high school league by setting the league to a high school league and not having it feed into any particular league. Then set all the creation modifiers and such that to create players that will have enough talent to be signed by a major league team when they are free agents after they reach the maximum age.

I haven't tested to see if everything works as planned yet, but in theory this should work, no?

I could then determine the size of my high school leagues in each country by figuring out the percentage of players I want coming from each country and allocating teams to the leagues accordingly.

That may be the most plausible way to simulate how American/Canadian/Puerto Rican prospects must go through the draft while Latin American prospects are signed.

Or another interesting possibility would be to eliminate the amateur draft altogether and have a free-for-all with the prospects from all countries. Maybe I'll try it both ways.

Have you or anyone else tried this with any success yet? If so, how did you set up the highschool leagues in the Dominican etc.