Reassigning the level of minor league teams

[gord]

Is there a way to rearrange your minor league system, so that if I have two rookie league teams and two A teams, I can move one above the other? The game currently places all of my first year players in the Appalachian League, which is an advanced rookie league. My other rookie league team is in the Florida Gulf Coast League and wins the league almost every year, which leads me to believe that the GCL is a lower level of talent than the Appy League. The same thing is happening with my two A-level teams.

I couldn't think of a good way to explain this, so I hope it makes a little sense. Thanks!

[1998 Yankees]

I think I read someplace in this forum (can't find it, though ) that it is believed the developers hard-coded the level-A minor leagues to coincide with advanced, regular, and short season sub-levels.

See this page on the Minor League Baseball web site for a level-A affiliate ranking by MLB parent team:

http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/a...filiations.jsp

This array of level-A team rankings coincides in OOTP 2006 with these minor level A leagues:

advanced-A: CAL, CAR, FSL; regular-A: MID, SAL; low-A (SS): NYP, NWL.

Hmmm, the exact order in which they appear by default in the game. A definite clue, Dr. Watson.

On the other hand, MiLB gives no indication as to which rookie league ranks above another and I can't recall if I've seen that topic discussed here or elsewhere. I will take your word on it that the Appalachian rookie league is higher than the Gulf Coast League. It could then simply be a matter of "A" coming before "G" in the alphabet to explain your rookie influx in APP instead of GCL if rookie leagues are not similarly hard-coded and you happen to have two rookie teams, one in each league.

Two quick thoughts on possibly influencing things manually:

1) Have you checked to see if the Major League Equivalencies can be used to nudge APP to be a bit higher ranked than GCL? This probably would not work for level-A if that's hard-coded, but if your rookie leagues are not, maybe it would work for them.

2) Perhaps starting the GCL season slightly (but significantly) earlier than the APP season, each subject of course to your MLB amateur draft date, would work? That's no guarantee that there would not be a stampede from the GCL to the APP on their opening day! Again, just thoughts.

[Zeyes]

I don't think the Single-A level is hardcoded to have two tiers of leagues, unless this is a special thing for the MAL default setup. I doubt it, anyway...the MLEs for all five Single-A leagues in the MAL are set to the same values.

Same for the four rookie leagues. Keep in mind the game doesn't know names, only stats, and that's just as true for leagues as it is for players. I suspect you're right and the reason for preferencing the Appy League is something simple, like alpha order, or perhaps the team id #'s that OOTP assigned to the teams upon league creation.

I'm not sure if the game respects the MLEs in its promotion/demotion decisions when you use different numbers for two leagues at the same level, but it's worth a shot.

[Le Grande Orange]

In the real world there are seven classifications of minor league:

AAA, AA, A-Advanced, A, A-Short Season, Rookie Advanced, and Rookie. The game currently does not differentiate between A-Advanced and A nor between Rookie Advanced and Rookie. Those two are lumped into single levels in the game, A and Rookie, respectively.

It will be interesting to see if the plans MLB scrapped for this year, namely to do away both Rookie levels and to increase the number of teams at the A-Short Season level so that every major league club had an affiliate at that level, will be resurrected for the 2007 season.

[ballman]

If you add AA and/or A-level teams AFTER you add the rookie league, then the game will assume your rookie league is whatever level you added last.

[Carplos]

Originally Posted by ballman

If you add AA and/or A-level teams AFTER you add the rookie league, then the game will assume your rookie league is whatever level you added last.

From my experience it seems to go by Team ID. So while you are correct, if you were to expand and add the AA/A teams first, then a rookie league, for the new teams I believe it would work properly.

It's actually quite annoying (and I found it out the hardway.)

[ballman]

Carplos,

True. It would make things easier, but I don't like the way the game doesn't giuve you any clear-cut ways to expand. I add FOUR unaffiliated teams to my AAA and then add the major league level team the following season. The other minor league level teams are added later, the Rookie leagye first because the June draft adds those rookies to the last team created. I supposed i could add those players to AA one year, the A the next and finally rookie. That would make the whole thing work out but it would also cancel the reason I do it this way. I'd like some major leagie-caliber players to get added to the expansion teams rather than free agents.

hope this makes sense.

[Carplos]

I agree with you--it should just recognize the level, I was just pointing out how it seems to work. Or at least organize them as the leagues are ordered (in case you have multiple affiliates on a level and you want one to be higher, i.e. A, Advanced-A.)

I'd like to be able to do as you too. It also makes it impossible to ever switch minor league expansion teams' affiliation to non-expansion major league teams because they would drop below the lowest rank (unless you changed all affiliations for the team to expansion minor league clubs... that paragraph wasn't confusing at all...)

[Le Grande Orange]

Carplos and ballman,

I'm having trouble exactly following what issue you guys are running into to. Could you explain it again, using examples if possible? I want to understand what's happening here. Any clarifications are welcome.

[Carplos]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

Carplos and ballman,

I'm having trouble exactly following what issue you guys are running into to. Could you explain it again, using examples if possible? I want to understand what's happening here. Any clarifications are welcome.

The game doesn't seem to recognize the minor league levels completely: If you add an A league before an AAA league, it will make the A league higher in the organizational structure.

In addition to this, if you expand an affiliated leagues later, and assign the expansion teams to original "major league" teams, they'll be "below" the other teams in an organization.

The game seems to use team id to decide how the teams should be structured. Hence, in my first example, while the transaction screen may list it as "demoted to A" or "promoted to AAA," in actuality, it'll be the reverse.

I would prefer the game recognize a) the level of the league, then b) the "order" of the leagues.

So even if you don't create the leagues in proper order, it will recognize an AAA league is above A, and if you happen to have multiple levels of A-ball, it can also recognize a California League affiliate is higher than a Sally affiliate (as an example.)

IMO it shouldn't use the team ID at all in generating the structure of an organization.

If I'm still unclear--and I know my wording is terrible in places (not to mention I'm babbling)--I'll be happy to try and clear it up some more.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by Carplos

The game doesn't seem to recognize the minor league levels completely: If you add an A league before an AAA league, it will make the A league higher in the organizational structure.

So if you had a major league player and you demoted him, he would go to the A league and not the AAA league?

[Qrusher14242]

I had the same thing happen with a new universe. I created the ML and then the A league, AA and then AAA. On the league dropdown menu, it listed the A under the ML league. Not sure why it would do that.

[ballman]

Expansion, my way

1. Commishioner mode. 30 bucks and you get fired after a year and a half? No way.
2. 1 ML, 2 leagues, each league has 2 divisions, 4 teams each. 16 total teams.
3. setup each league the way I want it.
4. ONLY THEN, do I go back and add a fifth unaffiliated team to each division in each AAA league.
5. Choose one of those unaffiliated team's as mine.
6. Play it for a year or two adding players as your go. There are no limits of which I am aware as to the number of players a minor league level team can have. This helps a lot.
7. THEN add a separate team to each ML division.
8. Resign from the AAA team.
9. Choose one of the ML teams as your own and add your AAA team as your AAA franchise. Move those AAA players to your ML level team.

Here's where the trouble starts.

10. The ML draft will add the rookies you draft into whichever lower level minor league you create. If you create all three lower level teams - I omit the short season A league - then you need players for each level. The ML draft will add those rookies to the minor league level.

HOWEVER.

11. I add only one lower level after my first ML season. The game will add those rookies you draft to that league. If you add the other two levels in the following 2 seasons, then the gamew will continue to add rookies to whichever level your created after the AAA team. Me? I add the rookie league first and then the AA and A leagues the following season.

I hope this helps.

[Qrusher14242]

For affliations, under the league dropdown menu in the top left, its ML-AAA-AA-A. But when i look under 'Affiliated Teams' under a team in the ML, its always different. Sometimes its A-AAA-AA or AA-A-AAA. Does this actually mean anything? or is it the order in which the teams promote players.

[Qrusher14242]

Well it seems like it does keep the minors in the order you entered them in.
If i try and change the League Level of the league, it messes things up. Under 'Action', the Promote and Demote options get screwy.

[ryanivr]

this problem has been absolutely killing me.it just makes things look really unorganized, and if it is messing with where players are being sent, then this whole thing needs to be fixed in the next patch. has anyone logged this in tech support?

[Syd Thrift]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

In the real world there are seven classifications of minor league:

AAA, AA, A-Advanced, A, A-Short Season, Rookie Advanced, and Rookie. The game currently does not differentiate between A-Advanced and A nor between Rookie Advanced and Rookie. Those two are lumped into single levels in the game, A and Rookie, respectively.

It will be interesting to see if the plans MLB scrapped for this year, namely to do away both Rookie levels and to increase the number of teams at the A-Short Season level so that every major league club had an affiliate at that level, will be resurrected for the 2007 season.

If it involves Major League Baseball having to support a smaller minor-league structure, I would not be surprised one bit.

[Curtis]

What I've done to 'simulate' (really work around) the lack of two minor league levels was to create two affiliated leagues at each of the Rookie and Short SeasonA levels. I made the Rookie schedules shorter than the Short A. and had one league at each level start on April 1st and end before June 15th. The other league at each level started on June 16th and ended before the roster expansion (and before A ball).

In my inaugural draft I send players to each of the six levels (ML and five minors) as my scouts indicate is warranted, leaving my 'late season' team rosters empty. When early Rookie ends, its players get dumped onto the early Short roster. This doesn't make the early Short roster too huge, because over half of my Rookie guys get forcibly retired, anyway, and it's only going to be for another week or two.

When early Short season ends, more guys retire, bringing me down to 30-35 players on that club. I bump a few to A, then a couple of A guys to AA, and one or two AA guys to AAA and play with 26-27 man rosters the rest of the way.

After the minor league draft, nearly all the new players go to late season Rookie (early Rookie is done for the year), with a few scattered higher up the system. This makes a huge Rookie roster (40+ guys, since I use a 50 round draft), but a lot of them get quickly released after I do a team scout. Everybody remaining on the early Short roster is transferred to the late Short Season A roster, and early Short is also done for the year. This means that many of the low minors guys get to play 'double seasons'. I hope this won't affect their years of professional experience!

As the roster expansion date nears, late Rookie ends and dumps only its best guys up to late Short, which later ends and similarly dumps up to A, etc. AAA dumps up to ML on the roster expansion date.

I like this system because it's neat and orderly and appeals to my OCD mind. It also gives me organizational stuff to do frequently throughout the season, which I enjoy more than in-game management.

During the off-season I pick up lots of players, then do team-by-team team scouts, starting at the ML level and working down through the organization to Rookie. The late season rosters get emptied and the early rosters refilled, and the beat goes on.

One point, which I hope to clarify for myself after I've played longer: I think I'm both advantaging and disadvantaging myself by using this system. The advantage is that I only micromanage my own organization. This means that the AI teams' players don't get the double season at the low levels and may not advance as rapidly. On the other hand, the AI gets to spread its retirements out over 40% more minor league players. I've already noticed that I'm losing fistfuls of good players to 'premature' retirement. Also, the AI teams can absorb the huge draft much more easily than I can, being able to spread the players out over more teams. I'm cutting maybe a dozen of the guys I just drafted in order to see the rest get sufficient playing time.