Newbish question: How to develop minor leaguers?

[Fenway]

I have three general, newbish questions about managing younger players.

1. I'm unsure how to develop minor leaguers, including amateur draftees. I gather that an average MLB player might spend 3-4 years in the minors before being called up. That implies a year each at Short-A, A, AA, AAA? I understand that one shouldn't promote too fast, to avoid zapping a guy's confidence, but I still have all sorts of trouble figuring who to promote when -- or even keeping track of who I've promoted when.

2. Another problem I have is minor league rosters. OOTP doesn't seem to enforce roster limits as rigorously, at least not at certain minor-league levels. That's okay, but I'll have some minor-league clubs with 35 players, or 8 SPs, or 6 SSs, and guys aren't getting a lot of play-time. How much attention do you all pay to the size and composition of minor-league team rosters?

3. Finally, I'd appreciate any thoughts about managing the financial side of younger players. I know the idea is to pay them a minor-league salary as long as I can! Er, just how long is that, exactly?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

[Bobble]

Hopefully someone smarter than I will answer your questions more fully but here's my take:

1. I trust my staff to show me. If there's an up arrow on a AAA guy, then I assume he's as ready for The Bigs as he's going to be and call him up.

2. In my manager options, I let my minors managers promote and demote to try to get players to the right level without micromanaging. I turn on ghost players so they aren't so constrained. If they have too few players at a particular level, they'll use ghost players. If they have too many, hopefully the cream will rise to the top and be promoted to a higher level soon.

3. I have no set formula. As long as possible.

[Fenway]

Thanks for taking the time to reply. A couple follow-up questions and comments:

1. I've read that the AI isn't so great at recommending when to promote or demote players. It take it you find its recommendations reasonable?

2. I've always resisted ghost players on role-playing grounds, but I admit they would reduce micromanagement. Do most people use them? Also, do most people use the default rules on minor league roster size (i.e., no limits)?

3. I looked more closely at the manual on minor-league contracts. Once you put a minor-leaguer on your secondary (40-man) roster, he automatically gets a 1-year minimum major league contract. Yikes, I didn't know that. So the decision to put a guy on the 40-man has some financial consequence, even if it's still a minimal salary ($300,000 or so?).

[blasek0]

Default ML minimum is 490k or so. If you go into your League Setup, under Financials, you can see how long a player needs to be a professional for minor league free agency, or the Rule 5 draft. Until a guy has enough professional time to be Minor league FA eligible, or has the # next to his name saying he's eligible for the Rule 5 draft, you can safely leave him off your 40 man roster.

Once he's eligible to become a minor league free agent, you can still offer him a minor league "extension", ie attempt to sign him to another year of a minor league contract, but he has to right to refuse at that point.

Putting a player onto the 40-man makes them like any other player on the 40-man, with option years and major league service time for arbitration and free agency.

[bwburke94]

Originally Posted by Fenway

2. Another problem I have is minor league rosters. OOTP doesn't seem to enforce roster limits as rigorously, at least not at certain minor-league levels. That's okay, but I'll have some minor-league clubs with 35 players, or 8 SPs, or 6 SSs, and guys aren't getting a lot of play-time. How much attention do you all pay to the size and composition of minor-league team rosters?

OOTP14 allows you to customize the number of batters/pitchers carried by teams in each league. Perhaps you should set a 30 man roster limit and 6 starters/9 relievers/15 batters at each minor league level.

[TGH-Adfabre]

Originally Posted by Fenway

1. I've read that the AI isn't so great at recommending when to promote or demote players. It take it you find its recommendations reasonable?

I do not use it, I have 1 online league and 1 solo league with reserve rosters so promotions and demotions are not a major hassle.

Originally Posted by Fenway

2. I've always resisted ghost players on role-playing grounds, but I admit they would reduce micromanagement. Do most people use them? Also, do most people use the default rules on minor league roster size (i.e., no limits)?

I love ghost players, I do not want to role play Incomplete Minor League Roster Manager or Minor League DL Manager. For me, I like the convenience they provide.

Originally Posted by Fenway

3. I looked more closely at the manual on minor-league contracts. Once you put a minor leaguer on your secondary (40-man) roster, he automatically gets a 1-year minimum major league contract. Yikes, I didn't know that. So the decision to put a guy on the 40-man has some financial consequence, even if it's still a minimal salary ($300,000 or so?).

Real Life
Sort of, a player on the 40 man but in the minors receives a percentage of the ML minimum salary in real life. When a player is placed on the 25 man roster they receive a ML contract.
OOTP
OOTP does not exactly replicate this. If they are demoted to the minors in the same season they are payed, I am 90% on this, their ML wage. If they are on the 40 man and are not promoted to the 25 man active roster they are not payed, basically.

The third post in this thread (from OOTP12 but I think it is still applicable) explains a lot of what I do with my minors.

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...ng-system.html

Keep asking questions and feel free to ask any clarifying questions.
Good luck,
Tom

[BeancheBlanco]

Originally Posted by Fenway

1. I'm unsure how to develop minor leaguers, including amateur draftees. I gather that an average MLB player might spend 3-4 years in the minors before being called up. That implies a year each at Short-A, A, AA, AAA? I understand that one shouldn't promote too fast, to avoid zapping a guy's confidence, but I still have all sorts of trouble figuring who to promote when -- or even keeping track of who I've promoted when.

I usually just promote players when they perform very well. If it looks like a guy is tearing up his league, I promote him to the next level. If a guy is really struggling at a league, I might demote him (but I usually play him through the struggles. I rarely demote guys). If I get a guy who is not playing well but he is becoming too old for his league, I usually just promote him and see if the change of scenery helps him. If not, then I'll usually just bench him.

Originally Posted by Fenway

3. Finally, I'd appreciate any thoughts about managing the financial side of younger players. I know the idea is to pay them a minor-league salary as long as I can! Er, just how long is that, exactly?

As far as I know, a player will stay under his minor league contract (free) until you promote him to the 40-man roster. Then he receives a minimum salary until he has 4 years of service in the major leagues. Then he goes to arbitration for 3 years. Then he hits free agency.

[olivertheorem]

Originally Posted by Fenway

1. I've read that the AI isn't so great at recommending when to promote or demote players. It take it you find its recommendations reasonable?

I don't listen to the AI in this regard. Before July or so, I don't promote unless necessary due to injuries. After July, I'll promote a couple guys a month based on performance, demoting or releasing the guys from the higher league.

2. I've always resisted ghost players on role-playing grounds, but I admit they would reduce micromanagement. Do most people use them? Also, do most people use the default rules on minor league roster size (i.e., no limits)?

I don't use ghost players. I want the PA/IP going to guys who can actually use them to develop. I keep a 25-man roster at each level (except my lowest, which I cut down to about 50 after the amateur draft, to allow for promotions/injuries at higher levels).

3. I looked more closely at the manual on minor-league contracts. Once you put a minor-leaguer on your secondary (40-man) roster, he automatically gets a 1-year minimum major league contract. Yikes, I didn't know that. So the decision to put a guy on the 40-man has some financial consequence, even if it's still a minimal salary ($300,000 or so?).

Yeah, costs to put him on the 40-man. I would recommend not putting a prospect on the 40-man unless (1) you're putting him on the active roster, either as a cup of coffee or to stay, or (2) he's just gone Rule 5 eligible and you don't want to risk losing him.

[Fenway]

Thanks for all the replies. Very helpful! I've learned quite a bit from this thread.

[Ghetto Anthony]

Players tend to develop better when they are happy. So if you're playing with morale on it's best to make sure they're in good spirits. That's really the only factor that you can control when it comes to player development. Everything else is more or less random.

You don't have to promote them unless they're unhappy. You can get a good prospect pretty well developed in Single A.

[Fenway]

I didn't realize that. I just re-read the manual section on player morale. It looks like it's a function of player performance, transactions, and whether the player is happy with his role. So what can I do to keep that minor-league player (or any player, really) happy, apart from granting him his desired role and not jerking his contract around?

Along the same lines: I just had a 19-year-old in Single A retire abruptly, without any explanation. (And on the next day, Ryan Dempster retired at the end of the 2013 Red Sox season, again with no explanation.) Do players usually retire this way -- without a word of explanation? Should I have done more to make them happy too?

[Ghetto Anthony]

Originally Posted by Fenway

I didn't realize that. I just re-read the manual section on player morale. It looks like it's a function of player performance, transactions, and whether the player is happy with his role. So what can I do to keep that minor-league player (or any player, really) happy, apart from granting him his desired role and not jerking his contract around?

Win games.

[Fenway]

Heh. Does that imply I should be managing minor-league games? Or perhaps at least paying more attention to my minor-league depth charts and rotations...

[olivertheorem]

Originally Posted by Fenway

I didn't realize that. I just re-read the manual section on player morale. It looks like it's a function of player performance, transactions, and whether the player is happy with his role. So what can I do to keep that minor-league player (or any player, really) happy, apart from granting him his desired role and not jerking his contract around?

Along the same lines: I just had a 19-year-old in Single A retire abruptly, without any explanation. (And on the next day, Ryan Dempster retired at the end of the 2013 Red Sox season, again with no explanation.) Do players usually retire this way -- without a word of explanation? Should I have done more to make them happy too?

Check their histories for news stories, in case there was a storyline-type event that caused them to retire. I think there's a slim chance in any given year for any player to retire, so sometimes you have guys retiring early. That's just speculation on my part though.

So far as the minors go, I don't worry about upset players much. If a guy doesn't pan out because of it, I justify it as "he didn't have the work ethic/makeup". But that's just me.