MiLB Players Disappear When 200+ players on Team
 

I'm playing a historical game with real minor leagues, 1871 to present, with all fictional players.

I don't pay attention to the minor league teams though, letting the AI take care of that for me. Managing all of the minor league teams on top of the major league team is just too much for me. So it took me a while to figure out something was going wrong and unfortunately it cost me 5 years of draft picks.

I understand that even when roster size limit is set to "no limit" there is still a 200 player cap. But what I've found is that when you send a player to a team that has 200 players, a player on the team will get booted to what I can only call a "ghost team". A player on a "ghost team" will appear to be on the real minor league team, as the correct team, league, and affiliation shows up on the player page. However, the player will not show up on any roster or lineup, not even on the teams "All Players in Minor League System" page. The player can only be found via searching or through the History Index. The AI will not do anything to a player on a "ghost team", they will not get promoted or demoted, and they will not play. As this is a historical minors game, the real team is likely to become defunct eventually. Despite this, the "ghost team" will still display on the players' page and effectively still have the player. Once a real team no longer exists, the "ghost team" can sell its players to any other team via the purchase fee or simply release its players to the free agent pool one way or the other.

So there we go, my minor league players will vanish for a few years only to sign with another team. And yes, any player regardless of rating can get booted to a "ghost team". For 5 years straight my top 5 draft picks have disappeared this way, only to sign with another team out of the blue.

I let the AI manage my minor leagues. For some reason it keeps the number of players at the lowest minor league team at 200 players and will continuously send more players to the team, making more and more players go to a "ghost team". I have tried releasing dozens of players from the team to free up space but the AI will eventually sign free agents to replace them.

I don't wait to take full control of the minor leagues, I don't find that way of playing the game fun at all. But I also don't want the AI to keep giving away my prospects, which also ruins the game. I was really enjoying playing a fictional historical sim (I've played 1871 to 1961 so far), but now the save is broken. And the same thing will happen if I restart.

Is there any way to fix this?

Sent OOTPBugRptDat.zip via FTP

Any help?

This is simply a hard limit in the game - every team only has 200 spots for roster players, so cannot display more than that at any level.

The AI shouldn't be trying to fill teams to that level. The only reason I can imagine is that it tries to fill each level to only about 30-35 max, and then all excess players will go to the last team. And if you don't allow the AI to release players, then they will all pile up at the lowest level, so you might need to make sure that players get released as you go.

We'll have a look at the file as well once we get a chance and see if there's something else the AI can do to avoid this, but the best strategy is obviously making sure that you clear out the excess players

Minor League signings and releases are set to AI.

And I have tried releasing a majority of the players at the lowest level, but the AI will continue to sign free agent players and the problem comes up again and again. And once that lowest level is filled again it is nearly impossible to figure out what players have now vanished.

I've noticed that a large majority of the players in the minor leagues, at least in the Phillies organization, are old for MiLB. Most are around 30. Every team is filled with these minor league journeymen fodder and the AI will rarely, if ever, release them. And they take forever to retire.

Just to quickly clarify, have you noticed in what way the AI is adding players to the team with 200 players? Is it through signings, drafting, demoting, etc.?

Drafting and demoting.