Minor League Pruning

[hellfrozeover]

I know this has been brought up before, but I'm too lazy to find an old post to bump.

But, I think that it would be a good idea for the AI teams to be programmed to cut all the players in their farm system on minor league contracts and where the scout says that the player is "clearly not a big league player" or "doesn't seem to have what it takes to be a fulltime big leaguer". Also, any players over 30 in A or AA that actually belong there.

Perhaps coding could go like this?

if(playerage>30 && (playerlevel==AA || playerlevel==A))
{
release();
}
/*One thing, the computer should check to make sure the player belongs in A or AA and isn't just sitting there to make room for a player somewhere else. Also, if I recall correctly, if the active roster is full and a free agent is signed, the player automatically goes to A-Ball.*/

if(playercontract==0 && scoutingreport==0)
{
release();
}
/*In this case the scouting report would assign a numerical value of 0 to a variable if the scout thinks the player has no chance to ever make the big leagues.*/

Just a thought.

Edit - Fixed up coding a little.

<small>[ 05-28-2002, 02:25 AM: Message edited by: hellfrozeover ]</small>

[Scott Vibert]

Looks familiar I've posted similar things with similar logic in other threads and the old testers forum. This is something that is needed desperately and I'm hopeful that it will make it into the next patch.

But I'd actually change the logic up a bit.

I tend to see the most problems in A ball so I didn't deal with AA.

I set the logic as:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">IF Player &gt; 26 &amp;&amp; Computer has younger player at that position.
THEN release.</pre><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">This was refined and improved upon in this thread started by JPFalcon.

<a href="http://www.400softwarestudios.com/ubb/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=6;t=000336" target="_blank">http://www.400softwarestudios.com/ubb/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=6;t=000336 </a>

<small>[ 05-28-2002, 10:20 AM: Message edited by: ScottVib ]</small>

[Andy]

It takes a little bit of time but I go thru all of the teams at the end of the season and "prune" the minor league teams just so they won't have some srub player taking playing time from a top prospect. But it would be great if I didn't need to!

[BleacherBum]

Of course, what do you do with the guy who is older than 26 (or 30) or whatever, and is sitting in A ball with a big fat contract?

I've been forced to do regular pruning of my league's CPU mismanaged franchises, and have discovered a ridiculous amount of washed-up old timers collecting nice paychecks in A or AA.

Personally, I've been ruthless - these guys get cut, along with all the other 28+ year olds in A or AA that don't warrant a promotion. But the CPU teams do pay a current year penalty when the contract extends past this year. My opinion is they're better off freeing up future dollars and taking the hit now. But others might disagree - this is just one element of the pruning process that clouds the logic a bit.

[hellfrozeover]

My memory must be going, I forgot about that specific thread, although I do remember that this has been rehashed a lot.

As for the oldtimers, I usually let them continue to get paid for the rest of their contract. No point in taking the hit all at once unless I know that I have extra cash right now and I will be in budget trouble next season. In my particular coding example I tried to get around the problem by having the computer only cut players who were also on minor league contracts so it didn't go and cut itself right into debt.

I also tried the minor league pruning by hand, but it was a lot of work, and I did notice some major clogging at the AA level on a couple teams, albeit way less frequently than it was at the A level.