[OmahaReynolds]

So the real question is how to best simulate new players coming into a league prior to the amateur draft. On retrosheet I see 3 types of transactions:

1. Players are drafted via minor league draft. I've tried to do something like this by using affiliated minor leagues with unafilliated teams and turning on the Rule 5 draft, but it seems like players will only be eligible if their team has a parent team in the majors.

2. Contracts are purchased, usually minor leaguers going to majors. This one is the trickiest. Maybe in a future version there can be an option in league setup that only allows one-way trades with other leagues, and you have to trade cash for players between these leagues. This would simulate the purchasing of contracts from minors.

3. Players are signed as amateur free agents ( a handful per season).


My idea for simulating the pre-war era, at least in a fictional league, is to have the amateur draft in November and populate the draft pool with "Young and Slightly Established" players, modeling the original rule 5 draft. This draft would only be two rounds or so. Then each team would also get two or three "Draft Eligible Prospects" added to their rosters, modeling the way teams would go out to various minor leagues and purchase contracts. The second part only sucks in that teams would have no control over the players they are getting.

It beats having a team in 1909 drafting a player on June 15th from Cal State Fullerton or whatever. That's what I'm trying to avoid.