How many draft rounds if no minors?

[BBGiovanni]

I'm setting up a promotion/relegation league with reserve rosters... how many draft rounds should I use? I think by the book I'd use 5 rounds, with creating players for 6 rounds (there are lots of lower levels to soak up.the excess).

I do want to have good-sized reserve rosters, like 30 or more... should I have a bigger draft?

And I'm thinking of staggering the drafts so that the premier league drafts first and the scraps stay around for the lower leagues. Will the scrubinis show up in the next lower league draft or stay as free agents? Either way is ok, I just want to know how it will go.

[Coltrane]

I've been using five rounds in my new reserve roster only league and it seems to be working out fine.

Just a quick fyi...The new version of this game is only about two weeks away and is supposed to have a built in promotion/relegation system. It might be worth waiting a little bit before diving into a new league setup.

[actionjackson]

Originally Posted by BBGiovanni

I'm setting up a promotion/relegation league with reserve rosters... how many draft rounds should I use? I think by the book I'd use 5 rounds, with creating players for 6 rounds (there are lots of lower levels to soak up.the excess).

I do want to have good-sized reserve rosters, like 30 or more... should I have a bigger draft?

And I'm thinking of staggering the drafts so that the premier league drafts first and the scraps stay around for the lower leagues. Will the scrubinis show up in the next lower league draft or stay as free agents? Either way is ok, I just want to know how it will go.

How many players do you get per team in the inaugural draft for this league? I ask because I play random debut historicals, and with those you always get 44 players per team to start, which is good enough to get through that initial season.

I then set up five round amateur drafts for every season thereafter, importing enough players for five rounds. I add in a couple of Spritze Database players (I'm still on OOTP16 as I have a long running random debut historical that I don't want to export/import lest I screw it up), so it's 82 players in each draft right now for me (16 teams * 5 rounds + 2 Spritze guys), and that seems to be plenty. With all the comp picks, it never comes close to a five round draft anyway.

By the time I get to the end of the season (on my 46th season right now), there's usually about 50 to 60 players (3ish to 4ish per team) left in the Free Agent pool, which is important to have for injury insurance, as I play with Injuries set to "High (Realistic Modern Day)", with Position Player Fatigue set to "Average".

At the end of the 1946 season (46th season), I have an average of about 43 players on each reserve roster. That runs from a low of 29 (Pirates), to a high of 58 (Cardinals). Those numbers are in addition to the 25-man roster of course. There are also 54 players left in the Free Agent pool (close to 3.5 per team), which as mentioned above is more than enough to cover off injuries. The Pirates are the only team that doesn't make your "30 or more" on the reserve roster stipulation, and they have 29, so I would say five rounds is enough. You don't want to get too many players because then a lot of them won't play.

[BBGiovanni]

@actionjackson: purely fictional setup, I think the premier league will have a 50 player limit on the secondary roster.

@Coltrane: thanks on both counts, I AM waiting for 18 I may wait for a couple of updates too, as I usually do when I buy a new version at release.