Entry Draft changed market size?

[DonMattingly]

Why would that happen? My team went from being one of the biggest market teams with the highest budget to one of the lowest.

Seems like it was re-adjusted because I took a lot of young players in the draft. That should have nothing to do though with a city's market size and a team's ability to spend. If anything it should mean that for a couple of years they'd just be operating way under budget.

[DonMattingly]

Had some questions from a PM so I'll answer as best as I can here:

1. do you draft all levels? that would be over 200 players and with a 30 team league would make it over 6000 players drafted

You can, but I drafted through about AAA only and let the AI sim the rest. I had a couple of prospects that I assigned below AAA before I was done, they were higher ceiling guys I thought were worth taking. Once I wasn't too excited about what was left I just I stopped making manual picks.

2. if it is all levels, do you draft all 200+ players or pre-rank them and let the automated system handle the draft?

As far as pre-ranking, to get a rough idea of where the AI rates players I ran a couple of automated drafts before I did my real one. I displayed the results of those drafts in web browser windows to have as a guide to where players might go. For some it's fairly predictable, but in general there are no guarantees and some players can be drafted much earlier or later by the AI.

3. how are contracts handled? do you just take over the players existing contract or are new ones generated based on the players actual value? Meaning if I draft Miguel Cabrera am I stuck with his $30M contract for the next 4 or 5 years.

Seems like all contracts are reset and a new one is assigned after you draft the player. Players who haven't hit FA yet either get the minimum or a one year arbitration contract. So I did see some of guys with really bad contracts come out of the draft with better ones.

Edit: I will also say I found the AI's ability to draft was improved in this version. In all the earlier versions I can remember, there would always be a round up until which the AI would completely ignore relievers/closers and then all of a sudden would go crazy and take them all. You could very reliably predict when that would happen and snap up the best bullpen arms a couple of rounds before the AI binge began. That stopped happening in OOTP 21 and in general I think the AI is smarter now in the draft.

[DonMattingly]

Also it is possible to edit your team's financials (in Commissioner Mode), so I did that to reset my team back to its original market size and budget.

Just think those values should not change at all after a full entry draft - but they can be fixed afterwards.

It makes no sense for say the Dodgers to be in the Pittsburgh range of market and budget. Also would make no sense for the Marlins to be like the Yankees if you drafted a lot of expensive veterans.

[Rain King]

When you do a Fantasy/Initial draft it sets your market size based on your payroll.

[DonMattingly]

Originally Posted by Rain King

When you do a Fantasy/Initial draft it sets your market size based on your payroll.

Yeah I don't think it should do that, unless maybe you've created a fictional league.

It gives way too much incentive to draft overpriced vets to pump up your market size and budget. And can result in some cities having those values no where near reality.