This post got a lot of views in the ootp 20 forum, so I'm posting it here since it also applies to 21. This was written with the intent of being in an online league, but it applies to solo games too. When I refer to exporting, know that it's an online function.
An Un-Official Guide to Minor League Management
Intro
Before I start with my guide to minor league management, I have to state the obvious. This is not a science and just because I do it this way, does not mean that it’s the best way. It’s just the philosophy that I use and is my opinion only. The easiest way to win at the ML level, is to ensure you’re winning at the minor league level. Winning breeds winning, so if your minor league players have success, they will have success when they get to the major league level. This doesn’t mean to place your players at a level that they will dominate in, but it’s really just having a systematic approach to your minor league management. To follow this approach, you must have all aspects controlled by you and you alone. Even lineups should be controlled by you. It seems overwhelming at first, and it can be, but this guide will help you manage that.
Chapter 1: Principles of Minor League Management
There are a few quick rules that I stand by, but of course there are exceptions. First, draftees will always start at the lowest age-appropriate level after they sign. I’ll get into this later, but it may be tempting to starting the high school kid in A+ but he’s got to get his feet wet first so be patient.
Next, don’t promote too soon. Players should, for the most part, spend an entire season at the level they were assigned to. Let them experience the high and lows of the long season. If you’re doing things right, players are not going to dominate their league anyway. If they are, they were likely not placed in the right league to begin the season. Also remember this, if you promote a 2B from A+ to AA in May, there is a cascading effect where you have to move up a 2B in every level below, many of which may not be ready. Patience is key, but of course, if a player is simply dominating to the effect that he’s not being challenged, it’s probably best to move him up. Also don’t promote just because of ratings. Ratings can be flawed and sometimes misinterpreted so you have to look at stats. Even if you're playing without scouts, ratings are still going to have some variance. Let the stats be your guide with ratings only serving as a tiebreaker.
Players should never be demoted, skip levels, and very rarely should repeat levels. If you promote a player and he is struggling so hard that you think you should demote him, you might want to reevaluate the criteria in which it caused you to promote him in the first place. Players sometimes struggle. Most players will not be ML regulars. If a player was promoted on merit and is legitimately struggling at the next level, accept that he just doesn’t have what it takes. Don’t panic and send him back down after a few bad weeks. Let him ride out the season as minor league fodder and then reevaluate the next spring to see if he’s going to repeat the level or get cut. Remember though, if a player has to repeat a level, you are preventing a player down the line from being promoted, which will then prevent another player the next level down from getting promoted. For the most part, use an up or out philosophy. Also, avoid holding a player back just to limit service time. You risk ruining his development as he will not be challenged. The stunt in development can be more damaging to your organization than simply a year of control. You can always resign him in that case.
Don’t be afraid to cut players. I’ve seen it too often where GMs don’t want to release players for the fear that the player will magically turn good. Yes, there’s a small chance that can happen but it’s very unlikely. What ends up happening is that the GM is left with an unmanageable, bloated system that then becomes too much so the GM will have to set it to auto. KEEP TIDY ROSTERS! Your system will benefit as a whole.
Don’t overreact to injuries. It can be an instinct to want to promote a player to replace an injured guy, but unless you have 3 or 4 batters injured at once, let the backups start. They got to that level for a reason so let them play. The team will not suffer if they don’t have a backup 3B for a week, or better yet, assign the backup 3B to some other player on the bench. The goal is consistency. You don’t want to be moving your players up, just to move him down two weeks later when the player recovers. Remember that “don’t demote” rule? Another method is to keep a few “taxi” players on hand. These are guys that will not ever help at the major league level but are around AA quality. What I do is keep them on my DFA list until I need them to fill in for an injury. Since I’m not concerned with their development, they will bounce around and fill in as backups on the depth chart when there’s various injuries throughout the system. When they are no longer needed, they go back on the DFA list. Be careful that you don’t let their DFA time expire.
Finally, players will need to follow a linear development path. It’s important to keep players in an age appropriate level. Younger players can go up, but older players should never go down. The next chapter will hopefully explain that linear path.
Chapter 2: Where should my players play?
To begin, let’s talk about all levels of the minors and the type of player you would typically find there.
DISCLAIMER: Not all MLB organizations have teams in every level. Some organizations only have complex rookie teams and short season A teams. Some have multiple complex teams and/or DSL teams. I wrote this with the assumption that my organization has a team at each level.
International Complex (IC): International players younger than 18. Once they turn 18, they need to play in a league. I’m a big believer that players are always better served playing in the minors than being left in the complex. However, a player must play, so if you promote a player younger than 18, make sure he can get playing time in the DSL.
Dominican Summer League (R): All international players should go here for their first league. Consider promoting them to a stateside league when they are 18-19.
Complex Rookie (R) (GCL, AZL): 18-year-old players just drafted and players graduating from the DSL. Some holdovers from the previous draft that didn’t get playing time.
Rookie Advanced (R+) (APP, PIO): 2nd year players drafted out of high school that are not ready for full-season ball(A). Some advanced HS draftees can be placed here as well as 19-year-old JUCO draftees.
Short Season A (A-) (NYP, NWL): College players just drafted and 3rd year high school draftees not ready for full-season ball.
Single A (A) (SAL, MID): College draftees in their first full season and either 2nd or 3rd seasoned high school draftees. Players should not repeat this level since there can be as many as 5 rookie league teams feeding into this league for some organizations.
Single A Advanced (A+) (FSL, CAL, CAR): Players having completed the prior season in Single A and one or two A+ repeats.
Double A (AA) (SL, EL, TEX): Players having completed the prior season in A+ and a handful of AA repeats.
Triple A (AAA) (PCL, IL): A mix of AA promotions and ML 40-man players. A player repeating AAA without being on the 40-man roster should either be used as a taxi squad player or released.
Now let’s identify the 2 main types of players and their typical development path. The 2 most common are the 18-year-old high school draftee and the 21-year-old college draftee.
When a HSer is drafted, the first place he must go is to the rookie complex league. Very rarely will I begin a high school player in R+, unless he’s an advanced high draft pick or one of those annoying 19-year olds. A high school player’s typical development will look like this:
Year 1: (18) Drafted then placed in Rookie
Year 2: (19) Start at R+
Year 3: (20) Start at Single A
Year 4: (21) Start at Single A+
Year 5: (22) Start at Double A
Year 6: (23) Start at Triple A with a cup of coffee
Year 7: (24) Begin year in ML
There are a few things you may have noticed. Where is Short Season A? Well, A- is the year one for college guys. I have moved guys from R+ to A- before because you have to remember that Single A is fed from 2 different levels (R+ and A-), not to mention any repeats. I say two levels because rarely will I move a player from a complex Rookie team to Single A. You may also think that 24 is old to start the first season in the majors, but it’s actually very appropriate if you look at historical numbers.
However, some players do develop quicker and may only need a half season at a level. Those players will then get placed on a mid-season promotion cycle. As long as you keep it linear and don’t promote too fast or based just on ratings, you are doing fine. Here is a development path for a quick learner:
Year 1: (18) Drafted then placed in Rookie, finished at R+
Year 2: (19) Started in Single A, finished in A+
Year 3: (20) Started in A+, finished in AA
Year 4: (21) Started in AA, finished in ML
Year 5: (22) Begin year in ML
Sometimes hot prospects don’t really need AAA to develop in. The talent level in AAA is not so far off from the ML. If a player is ready for AAA, he might also be ready for ML. Don’t think that you have to give them time in AAA before an ML callup. If the stats and the ratings are there, call him up.
College players are mostly going to be either 21 or 22 and they will ALWAYS be placed in Short Season A, never lower. There is a perception that players need to be succeeding in order to develop so one might think that it’s appropriate to place a low round college player in rookie level. He will never develop quick enough to be of any use if he needs rookie ball. Place him in A- and see if the Single A team ever needs him. Since college players are more advanced, they can progress a little quicker so here is a typical path:
Year 1: (21) Drafted then placed in A-
Year 2: (22) Start at Single A+
Year 3: (23) Start at Double A
Year 4: (24) Start at AAA with a cup of coffee
Year 5: (25) Begin year in ML
Or
Year 1: (21) Drafted then placed in A-
Year 2: (22) Start at Single A, finish in A+
Year 3: (23) Start at Single A+, finish at Double A
Year 4: (24) Start at Double A, finish at AAA with a cup of coffee
Year 5: (25) Begin year in ML
Again, that is typical. Your team needs and player evals will determine if you’re going to start a 2nd year college draftee at A or A+. Your more advanced college players might be ready much sooner. An accelerated path would go like this:
Year 1: (21) Drafted then placed in A-, finish at A or A+ (Skipping A may be acceptable)
Year 2: (22) Start at Double A, possibly finish at Triple A
Year 3: (23) Start at Triple A, finish at ML
Year 4: (24) Begin year in ML
If they are even more developed, they may skip AAA and reach the majors in year 2, but that is rare and should be reserved for players dominating AA with the ratings to back it up.
Chapter 3: How to Keep it Organized
Now that we have talked about the most basic principles and have a better idea on where players should be playing, we can over how the hell to keep it all organized. The initial set-up can honestly take an hour, but once it’s set up, it begins to work like a well-oiled machine. The easiest way to go about it is to keep a schedule. A basic framework is this:
1. Start of Spring Training: Move all players that you want to call into camp to the ML ST roster and begin promoting the players that you know are moving up. Depending on how you manage your spring training, you can begin the next step early.
2. End of Spring Training: Consider this day a national holiday. It’s the most time consuming, but also the most rewarding aspect of managing your system. It can take you up to an hour or more. SAVE OFTEN and don’t forget to export if you're in an online league(and verify the export uploaded)! Now begin to organize your system from the bottom up. I prefer to do all hitters through the system, then pitchers. I am going to assume that now, we are no longer promoting guys based on age since we already know what levels players should be in based off their age.
a. Start from the Rookie/DSL leagues and begin promoting all the players to R+ that had significant playing time and had average or better production last season. Average meaning things like 1 or more WAR and/or >100 OPS+. Don’t worry if you only have a few players left because the draft will restock the team and games don’t even start until June.
b. Once you’ve moved all those players, go to R+ and identify players that should play in Full-Season Single A and move them. Remember that you now have to filter to show stats from the selected league only. You do this by clicking on scope. Select it by league, not level.
c. Next go to A- and do the same thing that you did with R, but send them to Single A. It’s important to get Single A filled with new players since that’s the first full season level and most of the Single A players from the prior year will be moved on.
d. Go into Single A, promote the average and better performers as stated in step one.
e. Now it is time to cull the roster as it is likely overfilled. Look at players that are repeating and decide if you’d rather keep him and return a promoted player to A- or release him. At Single A, you have the luxury of holding back a player at A- but when you go up levels, there isn’t room anymore in the league below.
f. Once you have your 13-15 batters (12-14 pitchers), identify and place your starters at their position. It’s fine if you want the AI to fill out your BP or the depth chart after you set your starters. I honestly will copy the exact same depth chart and paste it into both RHP and LHP, and then have auto lineups. Batting order really has no effect in the minors, but you do want to pick your starters. Your call if you want to schedule subs.
g. Move up to the next higher level and do the same thing all the way to AAA. Don’t forget that you can always DFA players that you may want to keep on as taxi squad members. I’ll usually keep a C, 2 IF, 2 OF, and 3 SP on the DFA list. Again, ensure their DFA time doesn’t expire.
3. After every 7 days: Click on the “Rosters & Transactions” tab and cycle through every level and check for injuries. Anything for just a couple weeks or less probably doesn’t need a replacement, just a backup. If you do need a replacement, consider how it would affect all players down the chain.
4. After the draft: You should also have most of your draft picks signed so you can now get your short season clubs set up in the same bottom up method as you did for your full-season teams. You will again have to make some cuts. This is also the time you would move guys up that are already on a mid-season promotion path.
5. After the Minor League All-Star games: After the minor league all-star game (will be different times depending on the league) is an outstanding time to re-evaluate your players. See if you have any players that warrant a promotion. Be mindful of the fact that if you promote someone, you have to make playing time at the next level which sometimes means a release has to be made. If you decide to promote someone midseason, consider who would fill in at the lower level. Sometimes the team can take the loss without needing another player from a lower level. Sometimes you can just use a taxi player.
And that’s pretty much it as far as keeping it organized. There’s only 2 main promotion/release days in the whole calendar year. There’s no need to be monitoring every player every day to see if he needs promoted. When you do that, you typically start a bad habit of promoting too soon and then demoting.
Closing
I hope this guide helped you get an idea on how to manage this large task. Was it needed, maybe not, but if every GM took an active role in maintaining their whole organization, your league will have more parity and would be able to compete with any online league out there. GM’s that manage their system themselves typically are able to trade more effectively (since they have a better grasp of their players), they feel more immersed, and their teams perform better. All are great things for the long-term health of your league. Again, I did not write this thinking that I have all the answers. This is just my system that works for me. I hope that it works for you.
Joe Peters
Notes:
If anyone has any suggestions, questions, or comments about this guide, please share them so that we can continue to refine this for new members. It doesn’t have to be just my word for it.