Draft and Farm System Improvements

[cookjn]

1) I would like to see a team's farm system fully represented. Many teams have more than one A level squad and all teams have 1 or 2 rookie level squads. And since some people do not like to have long drafts or mess with a bunch of prospects, I would make this feature optional to the user.

2) A more realistic draft would also be nice. Draftees should be distinguished by their classification (high school seniors, college juniors, etc).

3) Draftees should also be allowed the option of being able to go to (or return to) college if they have eligibility left. Teams should have to pay bonuses.

4) 28 year olds released from the minors should not be put back into the draft pool. Heck, any minor leaguer released from the minors should not be put back into the draft pool. They should be free agents.

5) AAA players ready for shot in the majors should be represented with a green arrow just like AA and A players ready for the next level.

6) Minor league stats should be tweaked. They seem random at times.

[DiversionX]

As for classification, don't forget about those Latin American players, they might not even HAVE a classification . . .

I also think there is an option to turn off the minor leagues or have the computer auto manage the minors for you . . . or maybe I'm thinking of another game.

[Steve Kuffrey]

5. I don't see this changing as part of the challenge for the "human GM" is knowing when to have a guy in the major leagues and when not. Having this would remove that challenge.

6. Minor sim using the same engine as the major league level, just against what we would call "worse" talent in the minor leagers. Real ratings are never seen so hard to make'perfectly clear" judgment.

[cookjn]

As for classification, don't forget about those Latin American players, they might not even HAVE a classification . . .

You could simply classify them as "foreign" or "foreign player".

I also think there is an option to turn off the minor leagues or have the computer auto manage the minors for you . . . or maybe I'm thinking of another game.

There is an option to auto manage the minor leagues. My suggestion was that there should be an option to have either the standard A, AA, AAA farm system or the more realistic R, (R), A, (A), AA, AAA farm system.

I don't see this changing as part of the challenge for the "human GM" is knowing when to have a guy in the major leagues and when not. Having this would remove that challenge.

I think the user should at least be given the option to have it. But I will admit that this suggestion was probably my weakest and least neccessary one.

[cookjn]

I thought of another improvement to make the draft more realistic.

7) Teams should be given compensatory draft picks for free agent losses. And if that means throwing in the "bs" arbitration system, so be it.

[DiversionX]

I fully agree. I can't imagine this would be horribly difficult to implement. There's nothing worse than running a team in a small city and losing your players because you can't afford them.

[YankeePride]

while i love the idea of compensating teams for lost free agents...

dont you all see a problem with this IF we only run small draft rounds (ie: 5)

but, i guess now thinking about it, if a team can afford to take your free agents, then they really dont need to worry about losing their only draft picks.

[cookjn]

while i love the idea of compensating teams for lost free agents... dont you all see a problem with this IF we only run small draft rounds (ie: 5)

This is a valid concern, but I think they could at least implement the "sandwich rounds". Teams losing free agents could at least get added compensatory picks at the end of each round.