[Charlie Hough]

I posted in the historical thread about this, but there are a few potential factors to consider.

1. Are you using development or recalc?

2. Were these games created in OOTP23 or OOTP24, and were they created in an older version of OOTP24?

With development, you're easily going to see a lot of this. Also, in earlier versions of OOTP24, there were major issues with incorrect player ratings calculations for players who had outstanding stats in class A. It also affected players in AA. Players who were great hitters or great pitchers at low levels of minors would sometimes get MLB-equivalent ratings, making them instant major leaguers.

If none of these are factors, some of this might still happen due to what Uruguru mentioned in his second point. We would need to check many saved games to see a true ratio, though. Since the AI always places the biggest emphasis on player ratings, there are many players who had very good historical minors stats who will get a chance to play in MLB because their ratings are good. They also get a look due to roster decisions, injuries, trades, free agency, or players ahead of them performing poorly at the MLB level.

In many cases, unlike how they did in real life, these players will get a shot, and, once they post good stats at the MLB level, that solidifies their position on MLB rosters. They not only have good ratings now: they have good MLB stats too, so the AI treats them accordingly. In addition to looking at ratings and stats, it also looks at ages and contracts too, where a younger and cheaper player might potentially be a better investment in the long run. The OOTP AI has no idea whether a player was a career minor leaguer or not, so it couldn't possibly consider that.

How much alternate history you're willing to tolerate varies from person to person. If you're playing with historical minors, and especially if you're using development, then alternate history is going to be much more prominent. Even if you're using recalc, you might still see quite a bit of it. You could use the option to block players from reaching the majors, but obviously you're not looking to do that. You just want less frequency of this.

But, if you start coding the game to have the AI take into account whether a player ever made it to the majors, then you're artificially manipulating things in an unrealistic way. So, as long as we make sure that MLEs and player ratings are being calculated correctly, and the AI is evaluating player ratings and stats correctly, then I would rather leave the AI alone in this regard. Otherwise, it might make dumb decisions and be more likely to hold a player down in the minors when he could potentially help the team.