[chucksabr]

For the league I am thinking of creating, I do not want to have any minors or feeder leagues, because it will become just too big and unwieldy, and I don't care what happens on the field down there enough to put it into an almanac anyway. Instead, I may just go with a reserve roster.

My main question is, do you need to concern yourself with a scouting and player development budget when you go the reserve roster route? IOW, does the game still have scouts beating the bushes looking for good player to stock in the reserves for the various teams? Or does the game just create fictional players of all stripes to stock the reserves without regard to what it might cost? Seems as though franchises would end being random crapshoots if none of them had a development or scouting budget, and that there should be qualitative differences between ho teams find and develop young talent based on how much they invest in it. Or isn't there?

Also, is there a noticeable difference in the quality of a league using only a reserve system versus a league using a minors/feeder league system? Not just quality of play, but quality of franchise management?