Feeder Leagues rework in 15? Or am I at error here?

[HawkyTom]

Will feeder leagues work any better in OOTP 15? It seems like they currently are not working like they are intended to, or maybe the "Feeder League Guide" and the OOTP Manual just need to be updated with how to set them up properly so they don't produce such wide varieties of draftees from year to year...or maybe I'm just doing it wrong.

League Setup for test = MLB Quick Start with AAA, AA, A, R. (30organizations / 150 teams total)...100 feeder teams(50 NCAA & 50 HS). Amateur Draft length is the suggested 20rounds for this league setup. (Amateur Draft is setup to be filled with "Feeder Players Only". This is what's recommended by the Feeder League Guide that everybody recommends. That's a fantastic guide, but I don't think the feeder teams/leagues themselves are behaving how they are intended.


The initial feeder squads for year 1 were created via 'fill rosters with fictional players' with age creation range 14-17 & 18-21. (FR/SO/JR/SR all created). Then immediately afterwards I change the creation ages to 14-14 and 18-18 respectively as suggested for the best results, while keeping the minimum/maximum age limits of the leagues themselves the same. (No roster limits are enforced on the feeder teams, maybe I'll experiment with this next, but I read to not use them or else they create issues)


RESULT/STARTING POINT:
-1250 players for NCAA & 1250 players for HS league (via fill roster w/ fictional players)
-Exactly 25players for each team.
-This should give ~312.5 HS&COL players for a total of ~625 of the needed 600.
[NOTE:] During the Year 1 Amateur Draft(2013) I had 630 non-feeder players in the draft that are from the Real Life Draft Class...but after that I didn't run into any more problems having non-feeder players join the drafts.




Amateur Draft Pool Size: (need 600minimum for 20round draft...~625 preferred to accommodate supplemental draft picks with a few leftovers)


2013 Draft: 751 (121 only from feeders + 630 real life draft class guys)
2014 Draft: 790 (too many)
2015 Draft: 598 (nearly exact minimum)
2016 Draft: 659 (solid number here)
2017 Draft: 1734 (what the heck happened? 768NCAA/958HS)
2018 Draft: 945 (way too many)
2019 Draft: 623 (great)
2020 Draft: 570 (not quite enough)
2021 Draft: 1261 (way too many)
2022 Draft: 1023 (way too many)


After the 2017 draft it inflated the MLB FA from 902players(pre-draft) to 2201 (day after draft) to 2357 (month after draft).


Feeder Teams after starting decide to increase their rosters to sizes ranging from 25 to 51 players PER TEAM...fluctuating wildly from year to year...which is easily seen in Total players playing on a NCAA/HS Team:
2013: 1250 HS + 1250 NCAA (starting point...2500players total)
2014: 1998 HS+1812 NCAA players
2015: 2491+2125
2016: 2137+1792
2017: 2223+1823
2018: 2572+2107
2019: 1894+1712
2020: 1965+1723
2021: ETC...too many


Some players played either 5 YR in highschool or 5 YR in college...a couple I noticed...(all were created in initial 2013 class, ran out of time to see if that would continue to happen down the road or not)


[Feeder players were created on 3/30/14(?) whatever the 1st day of MLB quickstart is]


MLB Draft Class players DOB's ranged from:
-youngest NCAA = 6/5/91
-oldest NCAA = 3/31/91
-youngest HS = 6/6/95
-oldest HS = 3/31/95


BAD SEEDS:
-5YR NCAA Player with DOB = 6/5/95
-5yr HS Player with DOB = 10/2/98 & 2nd player w/ 11/22/98 DOB
-example of 4yr HS+ 4yr COL players DOB = 5/8/98, 7/27/97, 11/7/97



There were a lot of both HS&COL in each draft...about 50-50 or slightly more HS because they had more players per team consistently for some reason. Also there are ~5-10 players from college who either failed to sign when drafted and thus re-enter the draft...or undrafted college player ---> re-enters next year. Also a lot of high school unsigned or undrafted going to college feeder league.


On the bright side...my computer was able to simulate a full calendar year in this league setup in about 5 minutes, not sure how good/bad that is, but good enough for me.


Why am I getting draft classes ranging from 570-1734 players when the Feeder League Guide says this is how I should do it and that I'd get 6-9 players per team and expect about 600-900(?) players.


Sorry this is all I can do for now, going to be late for work!! HOW CAN I FIX THIS???

[HawkyTom]

I've had to resort to scouring all for the forums for every post that every mentioned the word "Feeder" in OOTP 14's 'new to game' and 'general' boards and I found an amazing post that pretty much got shrugged off or ignored...but I think it was a very valid observation into the root problem.

Reading this post was very insightful and I never really considered/challenged the section he quoted, but what he mentioned seems to be spot on to what might be causing issues:

Originally Posted by Khan

I know below is the generally accepted rule, but you might want to rethink it depending on how your feeders are setup and how they interact with your major league. I don't know how others have their feeders setup but for me they are usually a short season, only a couple months.

I say this because right now the game creates new players for your feeder leagues when the draft pool players are released to the draft.

So let's say your in your 1st season of your feeder league consisting of a 18-21 years olds. Feeder league season ends and players are released to the draft, while a new batch of 18 year olds are created.

Unfortunately these new 18 year olds are being added to current crop of 18 year olds already in your feeder. This all depends on how long your feeder season is, but for me I only use short season feeders so the initial guys will have only aged 2-3 months before the new guys were created.

Also if you use a short season feeder, your newly created guys will age quite a bit possibly before they even play a game. ie some of the newly created 18 year olds will be 19 by the time they even play.

Just something to think about and why I asked for more control over feeder league creation of players in the "back to work" thread.

Now I need to just figure out how to apply his thoughts into making the feeder system work better!! My first thoughts are having a nearly full season worth of college/hs (even though unrealistic, to avoid the 18yo's only aging 3months)...I'm hoping this helps keep the size of the draft classes from getting larger than expected. Possibly having to hold the draft in the offseason and just run the feeder leagues concurrently with the MLB/minors. (making college/hs almost like just another Minors, but below rookie ball and ending with a draft)


Although it would also help if I could keep the roster sizes under control.

[Markus Heinsohn]

Feeder leagues in OOTP 15 have been improved. From the new feature list:

- Added option to add full default feeder league system to a league, which calculates the number of feeder leagues / teams needed to function properly
- Added new option to define when players in feeder leagues are draft-eligible (relative to maximum age)
- Added new option to base AI lineup / pitching staff decisions either on potential or current ability, which is useful for feeder leagues

[The Wolf]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

Feeder leagues in OOTP 15 have been improved. From the new feature list:

- Added option to add full default feeder league system to a league, which calculates the number of feeder leagues / teams needed to function properly
- Added new option to define when players in feeder leagues are draft-eligible (relative to maximum age)
- Added new option to base AI lineup / pitching staff decisions either on potential or current ability, which is useful for feeder leagues

These changes are huge. Thank you.

[Cryomaniac]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

- Added new option to base AI lineup / pitching staff decisions either on potential or current ability, which is useful for feeder leagues

Is that available for minor leagues too?

[Honorable_Pawn]

Originally Posted by The Wolf

These changes are huge. Thank you.

True, this helps.

[HawkyTom]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

Feeder leagues in OOTP 15 have been improved. From the new feature list:

- Added option to add full default feeder league system to a league, which calculates the number of feeder leagues / teams needed to function properly
- Added new option to define when players in feeder leagues are draft-eligible (relative to maximum age)
- Added new option to base AI lineup / pitching staff decisions either on potential or current ability, which is useful for feeder leagues

This is fantastic news!! I've only been an OOTP player for a short time, but seeing such great strides in progression of the game from one year to the next is promising! It reassures me that I'll probably be an OOTP player for many years to come.

[dave1927p]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

Feeder leagues in OOTP 15 have been improved. From the new feature list:

- Added option to add full default feeder league system to a league, which calculates the number of feeder leagues / teams needed to function properly
- Added new option to define when players in feeder leagues are draft-eligible (relative to maximum age)
- Added new option to base AI lineup / pitching staff decisions either on potential or current ability, which is useful for feeder leagues

Great changes for feeders. I would really love to see the option to have eligible player age not be based on a league maximium for minor league teams / other "pro" leagues. So if he does not get drafted he continues to play in his own league where he is still under contract.