Minor league teams - roster limits?

[gadorg]

Do minor league teams have roster size limits? I've been diligent at keeping my AAA/AA/A teams at 25 on the nose, but I wonder if I can have rosters > 25 players at those levels....

[jlredsox]

You can set the roster limits to whatever you would like. Go to league setup and go the rules tab of the minor league you want to change.

[Simmo13]

In previous versions it was suggested that lowest minors had a minimum of 35 players (In my league that's "A" Ball). I have a feeling that still applies.

[Tony M]

If you do set the limit above 25 make sure you manage the roster as there is a reported bug (BZ 1759) that causes the AI to limit all but the bottom level to 25 players if the Active Roster size is above 25.

[Bagpipes5]

I posted this in another post and thought it applied here...

I run into the same problems all the time and it's very frustrating. It takes all the fun out of playing the game as a manager, starting at A-ball, and working your way to the majors. I remember once I just didn't have enough guys to fill out a rotation and have anyone left in the bullpen. Very disheartening. I don't believe there is any work around for this right now either. Hopefully in the future the game will implement the 7-day DL and etc., it would add to the realism of my MLB-based fictional universe.

From and MSN Baseball article (I think it sums it up well):

The Minors

In the minor leagues, the rosters are managed in quite a different manner than the standard 25-man rosters in the majors. Minor league teams keep two separate lists of players. The first is the Active List which, like in the NFL, denotes which players are eligible for the current game while the second list, the Reserve List, is the entire roster of the team.

AAA and AA clubs are allowed to put 24 players on the Active List for the first 30 days of the season, 23 players on the Active List from the 31st day until August 10th and then 24 players again for the rest of the season, including the playoffs. The Reserve List limit, however, is always 38 players for AAA and 37 players for AA teams.

For A teams, the Active List limit is 25 players, for Short-Season A teams, 30 and for Rookie Teams, 35. All levels below AA allow clubs a Reserve Limit of 35 players. Below A-ball, only 25 players may actually get into a single game.

Players may be loaned to other minor league organizations, but must be returned by September 30.

As in the majors, there are two disabled lists. The normal disabled list only has a 7-day minimum as opposed to the 15 days used as the limit for the majors. The 60-day DL, or Emergency Disabled List, works the same as in the majors; the player doesn't count against any roster limits but cannot be reinstated until either 60 days have passed or the season ends.

Notes:

The active reserve list at the top, 40-man MLB rosters work like this from September 1st until the end of the playoffs. Playoff rosters are 25 men picked from the 40-man roster, or from those actually getting a September callup. Players have to be on the active roster once by September 1st in order to be eligible for the playoffs. That's why you usually see players from the 40-man roster in uniform in the dugout during playoff games.

It would be cool to see OOTP implement an active/reserve roster system with a 7-day and 60-day DL.

I didn't know minor league teams could loan players to other teams, interesting...

[gadorg]

Originally Posted by Tony M

If you do set the limit above 25 make sure you manage the roster as there is a reported bug (BZ 1759) that causes the AI to limit all but the bottom level to 25 players if the Active Roster size is above 25.

I see that the option for roster limits at the minors for my league is "No limit", which I assume is the default setting since I never knew about it. So you're saying that if I have say, 30 players at AAA, then the AI will only use 25? I'm in my draft right now (50 rounds), and I'm wondering where to put all these people once the draft is done.

[plannine]

As long as the minor league season ends before the major league season, i stick with only 25 for AAA and AA. A ball has 35. Thats 10 more players then i can keep track of !!!!!!!!

[Le Grande Orange]

The article Bagpipes5 posted is somewhat out-of-date. The current active limits in the minor leagues are:

AAA: 24
AA: 24
A-Advanced: 25
A: 25
Short Season A: 30 (but only 25 of whom are eligible to play in any given game)
Rookie Advanced: 35 (but only 30 of whom are eligible to play in any given game)
Rookie: 35 (but only 30 of whom are eligible to play in any given game)

If you look at earlier years, the player limits in the minors were a lot smaller. For example, in 1951 the active player limit for each classification was:

Class AAA: 23
Class AA: 19
Class A: 19
Class B: 17
Class C: 17
Class D: 17