Minor league structure in MLB quickstart

[Hrbek14]

I'm playing the Twins in an MLB league and was wondering about how the minor leagues are set up. I have one AAA, one AA, two A and two rookie league teams. First of all, is there a difference between the two A or two rookie teams other than their coaches regarding player development?

Second, I have no Short Season A teams and I get a lot of notes from my rookie league that a player is ready to go up to a Short A team. When I've promoted them to one of my A teams I quickly get an "overmatched at level A" note on the player, so I've been waiting for the players on my rookie teams to be declared ready for A before promoting them. This has left me with a situation where every single player on one of my rookie teams and all but 3 on my other rookie teams are listed as ready for Short A. Is there a better way to handle this? Can I add a Short A team to my minor league system?

[Kelric]

Some MLB teams don't have Short-A clubs. In that case I usually switch one of my Rookie clubs or one of my Single-A clubs (if I have two of them) to a Short-A team. Or you can create your own Short-A club in the league setup.

Of course, I almost never play with five levels of minors. I stick to A, AA and AAA for ease of use.

[Hrbek14]

Originally Posted by Kelric

Some MLB teams don't have Short-A clubs. In that case I usually switch one of my Rookie clubs or one of my Single-A clubs (if I have two of them) to a Short-A team. Or you can create your own Short-A club in the league setup.

Of course, I almost never play with five levels of minors. I stick to A, AA and AAA for ease of use.

I think you're right - the best thing would be to convert one of my existing teams to a short-A squad. The obvious solution would be to upgrade the rookie team that has every single player ready for short-A, but at the same time, my gut says that I'd rather have two rookie teams than two A teams.

What is a minor league team's roster limit? I realize that having too many players on a team will result in less playing time for each player and therefore slow down development (and maybe increase dissatisfaction), but is there an actual limit?

[Kelric]

Whatever it is set at in the Game Setup. What that defaults to, I don't know.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by Hrbek14

I'm playing the Twins in an MLB league and was wondering about how the minor leagues are set up. I have one AAA, one AA, two A and two rookie league teams.

As Kelric noted, in the real world some MLB clubs don't have affiliates at the Short Season A level — there are only 22 clubs at that level, which means eight major league teams without a Short A club. Such major league teams have two affiliated in Rookie ball instead.

A couple of years ago there was talk of the lower minors being reworked. The Arizona and Gulf Coast leagues were going to be eliminated, and the Pioneer League advanced to the Short Season A level. This would have given all 30 major league teams there own Short A affiliate, and the schedule was going to be lengthened as well. This would have left the Appalachian League out in the cold, and it would either have been folded or run as a co-op league.

But in the end no changes were made to the existing structure.