Success without an amateur draft

Stealcompany · 09-07-2020, 10:45 AM

I'm looking for some advice.
I'm starting an experiment where I create a fictional universe without an amateur draft and without a farm system.
The plan is as follows. The start year will be 1900. I'll create 16 major league teams in two leagues that will compete for the World Series at the end of the season. The rest of the universe will consist of two unaffiliated triple A leagues, two double leagues, four single A leagues and six short season A leagues.
There will be no amateur draft and the game will use the reserve clause rules. Players can be purchased from the minor leagues and I'm not sure about whether to allow trading between the leagues.
I'm thinking that I'll need to increase the number of free agents that the game creates each season in order to keep a major league talent pool but I also don't want the major league clubs carrying big reserve rosters.

The point to the exercise is to see if it recreates the talent imbalance that existed in the majors where the richer clubs continually dominated the poorer teams. Also, it seems like an interesting thing to do.
My plan is to set it up and let it run on its own for 20-30 years and see what happens.

Hrycaj · 09-07-2020, 02:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stealcompany

I'm looking for some advice.
I'm starting an experiment where I create a fictional universe without an amateur draft and without a farm system.
The plan is as follows. The start year will be 1900. I'll create 16 major league teams in two leagues that will compete for the World Series at the end of the season. The rest of the universe will consist of two unaffiliated triple A leagues, two double leagues, four single A leagues and six short season A leagues.
There will be no amateur draft and the game will use the reserve clause rules. Players can be purchased from the minor leagues and I'm not sure about whether to allow trading between the leagues.
I'm thinking that I'll need to increase the number of free agents that the game creates each season in order to keep a major league talent pool but I also don't want the major league clubs carrying big reserve rosters.

The point to the exercise is to see if it recreates the talent imbalance that existed in the majors where the richer clubs continually dominated the poorer teams. Also, it seems like an interesting thing to do.
My plan is to set it up and let it run on its own for 20-30 years and see what happens.

Just some random thoughts here. I have some experience creating 19th century leagues that do not use the amateur draft feature. I do not think you will manually need to increase the amount of free agents that the game will create at the beginning of the offseason. The internal engine does a good job of knowing what a league needs. At least that has been my experience. My question for you is how do you make the AI purchase players from existing rosters? I have not been able to figure that out but it may be a something as simple as a button I’m missing? In one of my saves I have 2 mlb caliber leagues and 7 independent leagues. I have yet to see a major league club purchase a player from an independent club. So if you know how to make that happen please share! In closing, I love the idea and I think you will have a lot of joy watching the league unfold.

Stealcompany · 09-07-2020, 06:35 PM

Thanks for the feedback.

You're right about both the creation of free agents and the purchasing of players. The controls within the game are more than sufficient to create free agents each season. I've even turned off all International free agents for the lower minors so that they will only see a few free agents from independent leagues each year. Also, despite having done the setting to allow for contracts to be bought - I've simed 15 seasons in order to build some history and while checking the transaction logs each season I have not seen a single contract purchased so far. What I have seen are plenty of trades between clubs, particularly between major league clubs and minor league ones and that seems to be doing the job that contract purchases did in real life.

Fifteen seasons in I am seeing results that look a lot like what the majors did in the early 1900s, a couple dominant teams, a few dismally bad teams but there does seem to be enough percolation that the same teams don't stay horrible forever.

The set-up, if you're interested, is two eight team major leagues, two triple A leagues, two double A quality leagues, four single A quality leagues, and six short season A quality leagues.

The biggest problem I have right now is that the budgets for the minor league teams should be smaller than they are right.

09-07-2020, 10:45 AM	#1
Stealcompany Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 291	Success without an amateur draft I'm looking for some advice. I'm starting an experiment where I create a fictional universe without an amateur draft and without a farm system. The plan is as follows. The start year will be 1900. I'll create 16 major league teams in two leagues that will compete for the World Series at the end of the season. The rest of the universe will consist of two unaffiliated triple A leagues, two double leagues, four single A leagues and six short season A leagues. There will be no amateur draft and the game will use the reserve clause rules. Players can be purchased from the minor leagues and I'm not sure about whether to allow trading between the leagues. I'm thinking that I'll need to increase the number of free agents that the game creates each season in order to keep a major league talent pool but I also don't want the major league clubs carrying big reserve rosters. The point to the exercise is to see if it recreates the talent imbalance that existed in the majors where the richer clubs continually dominated the poorer teams. Also, it seems like an interesting thing to do. My plan is to set it up and let it run on its own for 20-30 years and see what happens.

09-07-2020, 06:35 PM	#3
Stealcompany Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 291	Thanks for the feedback. You're right about both the creation of free agents and the purchasing of players. The controls within the game are more than sufficient to create free agents each season. I've even turned off all International free agents for the lower minors so that they will only see a few free agents from independent leagues each year. Also, despite having done the setting to allow for contracts to be bought - I've simed 15 seasons in order to build some history and while checking the transaction logs each season I have not seen a single contract purchased so far. What I have seen are plenty of trades between clubs, particularly between major league clubs and minor league ones and that seems to be doing the job that contract purchases did in real life. Fifteen seasons in I am seeing results that look a lot like what the majors did in the early 1900s, a couple dominant teams, a few dismally bad teams but there does seem to be enough percolation that the same teams don't stay horrible forever. The set-up, if you're interested, is two eight team major leagues, two triple A leagues, two double A quality leagues, four single A quality leagues, and six short season A quality leagues. The biggest problem I have right now is that the budgets for the minor league teams should be smaller than they are right.