Sim Complete, vote on draft date and player generation

League Date: February 14, 2028

Transactions:

• I completed the two Brick trades (with Highland and Seattle) that were forgotten the past few sims -- sorry guys!
• Major league contracts: None
• Major league extensions:
• Highland - MR Carlos Velazquez - 4 years for $2,950,000 (total)
• Highland - RF Enrique Moreno - 4 years for $3,000,000 (total)
• Minor league contracts:
• Houston - MR Dan Eggleston
• London - SP Jack Knapp
• Atlanta - SP Larry Lger (international)
• Shackamaxon - SP Sione Kaleba (international)
• Brick - SP Vicente Rivera (international)
• Waiver claims:
• Highland - RF Jose Garcia from Atlanta

League news:

We may have a new owner for the London franchise.

The draft pool for the upcoming draft has been announced.

The following voting measures received at least six YES votes (out of 11 possible) and have passed:

• Turn on minor league free agency (turned on now)
• Limit minor league rosters to 35 players (will be enforced on Opening Day, 4/1/2028)
• Create rookie league for just drafted, international promotions, and un-drafted free agent signees (will be created on the day of the draft (3/1/2028)
• Adjust media revenue to normalize budgets (will be modified on Opening Day)

Start trimming down your minor league rosters in anticipation of the 35-man limit (which will be turned on at Opening Day).

Since the measure to add a rookie league has been enabled, we should vote on the discussion to (VOTE #1) move the draft to 6/1 each year (from the current 3/1 date), and (VOTE #2) whether to change the number of game-generated eligible players from the current 20 rounds to 30 rounds worth of players.

This proposal would be for changing the draft starting in 2029, not this current season. Please vote YES or NO to either or both of the options as a comment to this thread. Please save your discussion to the original thread.

Next sim: Next Saturday night. The draft and spring training are coming soon! 

Trade between Brick and Highland :after weeks of negotiation Brick  GM Fred Goldfarb and Highland GM John Corrano agreed to the following trade..Bricks sends pitchers George Lacenaire and minor leaguers Hung-joon Kim  and Manny Sanchez both pitched at triple a Regina last year...Highland sends Cliff Bowen CF  and Julio Quintana RF and 1B Dave O'Brien all from single a Avon  ....Brick also receives Highland's second round pick that was given up by Brick in a previous trade(Archuleta trade) originally reported as coming from Seattle incorrectly...both GM's were happy John felt his team needed more pitching depth and Fred was happy with the position  prospects he received to bolster his system

Oops! Supplemental voting thread

I forgot to include the vote for the minor league free agency in the thread for the other minor league options. Oops, sorry about that.

So, please use this thread to vote yea or nay on whether or not we should turn on the minor league free agency option. (See here on the online OOTP manual for more information about this option.)

Sim's Done!

Game Date:  Feb 7 2028

Signings:
Antelope Valley signed C Manny Murillo (Norfolk)  3 yrs/$7.3m
Maui signed SS Miguel Martinez (London), 1 yr/$909k

Please note that there are open voting threads on:

• Changing the media revenues
• Adding a minor league and setting minor league roster limits

If you have not voted on these issues yet, please go to those threads and vote.

In addition, there is a discussion thread on expanding the playoffs.  Please join in the conversation.

Next sim:  Saturday night.

Discussion: Playoff expansion

In the 11 seasons since we moved from 2-to-3 divisions, and added a Wild Card 4th team to the playoffs, only one non-Zotti Division team has won the Wild Card spot. That team was Hickory (now Highland), back in 2023.

I think it's high time to give more teams the chance to make the playoffs, and also reward the best teams in the league.

My proposal is simple:

• Expand the playoffs to add a third round, with two additional wild card teams, a best-of-five, giving the top two seeds (which must be division winners) a bye in the first round. The structure of the playoffs will be thus:
• Seeds one through three will be the three division winners, as decided by who has the most wins that season.
• The three wild card teams will be seeds four through six, seeded by the number of wins that season.
• Seeds one and two will have a bye in the first round. 
• Seeds three and four will have home field advantage in a best of 5 series (two home, two away, one home) against, respectively, seeds six and five.
• The teams will be reseeded after each round, with the lowest seeded remaining team playing the top seeded team, and the other playing the second seeded team, both in best of seven series as current.

If we had done this last season, for example, Seattle and Antelope Valley would have had a first round bye, and London would have played Maui, and Brick against Atlanta, in the first round. Going back five seasons, the teams that would have been the #6 seed had 86, 85, 79 (two teams, actually, which would have necessitated a play-off game), 85, and 82. And, I didn't even look at the teams that would have been the 5th seed and were left out of the playoffs.

Voting: Minor league roster and adding a rookie league

It's time to vote on the proposal to limit minor league rosters to 35 players, and add a rookie league for first-year drafted (and promoted from International Complex) players. Please reply YES or NO to these two proposals:

1. Limit all three current minor league rosters to 35 players.
2. Create a rookie league that only the following players may join, for one season only, before they must be promoted to A or higher:
1. Just-drafted players (the rookie league will start play immediately after the draft)
2. Players who were 'aged up' on their 20th birthday from the International Complex teams 
3. Un-drafted minor league free agents (players who were undrafted that season, but have been signed to a minor league contract)

Please make two votes, one for each proposal (unless you are specific about voting YES or NO for both proposals). Also, re-read the discussion thread and its comments if you have trouble deciding.

Sim is completed; vote on financial proposal

League Date: January 31, 2028

Signings:

• Maui Mashers - SS Norberto Dominguez (international minor league contract)
• Houston Armadillos - SP Guillermo Gallegos (international minor league contract)
• Antelope Valley Raptors - 1B Juan Gomez (Maui) - 1 year / $700,000
• Antelope Valley Raptors - SS Esteban Ordonez (Shackamaxon) - 1 year / $800,000
• Seattle Monarchs - 2B Narahiko Nakamura (extension) - 5 years / $3,600,000 total

Administrative Note:

In the last sim, Carlos Placeres was not traded to Brick from Shackamaxon as part of the blockbuster trade between Fred and myself. I corrected that in this sim. 

Budget Proposal:

Please use the comments to this thread to vote yes or no on the proposal by Zev to adjust the media revenue as a means to normalize budgets in the league. 

Other Proposals:

Separate voting threads will be created in the next day or so for the draft and minor league roster issues. Please save your votes on those topics for when they are created.

Next Sim:

Saturday night (or Sunday morning)

Further delay

One owner had a roster issue so the sim could not be completed. Hopefully we'll finish the sim by Tuesday night (tonight). Also look out for voting threads for the budget, minor league, and draft issues some time this week.

Sorry about the delay, folks.

Rain Delay

I'm sorry, everyone, but I did not get a chance to run the sim this weekend.  I will do it on Monday evening.

Division Rivals Swap Prospects

Two good prospects changed organizations today. Brick sent outfielder Tomas Fernandez to Seattle in exchange for starting pitcher Guillermo "Ugly" Romero and Seattle's fourth-round pick in next year's draft.

"Ehh. I like to make a trade every month or two," said Seattle Owner/GM Mack Shultz. "It helps keep everyone focused and on their toes." When asked for a further explanation of the trade, Shultz just shrugged his shoulders and wandered off in search of liquid refreshment.

Discussion: The Draft

This was meant to be part of Sunday night's discussion on the minor league rosters, as the two are related, but that thread was getting long, so I wanted to break it out into its own discussion.

I have two suggestions to make for the draft. One goes hand-in-hand with the proposed rookie league that was proposed on Sunday night, and the other will increase the quality of drafted players.

First, I propose to move the draft from its current date on March 1st until June 1st. At present, the amateur feeding high school and college seasons run in the spring, and end in late May. If we keep the current draft date of 3/1/2028 for the next draft, the players who will be drafted have not played since May 2027. Sitting around for 10 months does nothing for their development.

Moving the draft to June 1st will also allow our proposed rookie league to start then, and also add a wrinkle to the trading of draft picks, as the season will be underway as the draft happens, and teams will have two months to assess their situation before deciding to unload or trade for draft picks.

I can't think of a reason why we would not want to move the draft back three months.

One reason why teams trade draft picks is the value of those picks is greatest before they are turned into actual tangible "prospects". I did about ten seasons (shameful, I know, compared to Zev's testing for budget purposes, but I was limited on time, sorry!) and tweaked the number of rounds in the draft, as well as the number in the Generate Players for X Rounds setting, and counted the number of 3 star-or-greater prospects (as judged by the OSA) that were available when the draft pools were announced.

For the record, our league currently has a 15 round draft, and will generate players for 20 rounds. We use the feeder leagues (high school and college) and additional players. In the league settings screen (which only Zev and I can access, I believe), it tells me that 42 additional players will be created for the next draft class. Having players available for 5 extra rounds means that 60 players will go undrafted each year.

I tested various configurations, and found that when the number of rounds is half that of the number of generated players, the quality of draft-eligible players increases. With 15 rounds and 30 rounds worth of players (360 eligible players), there were 24 3-star-or-higher prospects available. That's enough 3-star prospects to cover the first two rounds. When I increased the number of rounds of generated players to 50, there were 43 3-star-or-higher-prospects. And, with both increased draft pool sizes, there were still plenty of decent 1.5* guys left undrafted to be signed as a free agent.

I propose increasing the number of rounds of players generated for the draft to be increased to 30 from 20, and keeping the number of rounds as 15. However, if we need to populate the new rookie league that may happen, then we should go to 25 rounds with 50 rounds of players. I think though, that creating an unsigned draftee free agent frenzy after the draft would be fun, also there are always quirks with drafting that a team might end up with seven shortstops and no pitchers (Something like that once happened to me.)

So, in conclusion, I have two proposals tonight:

1. Move the draft date back from 3/1 to 6/1 each year.
2. Change the number of rounds of generated players to be twice that of the number of rounds we draft.

Any comments, or other draft-related suggestions?

Discussion: Minor League Rosters

The next topic for discussion relates to amateur and minor league players. The primary topic is the construction of our minor league rosters. I was going to also write about the draft, but this post is getting overlong, so we'll save that, and my related suggestions, for another night.

To begin, the structure of our league currently is to not limit the minor league rosters, or to allow minor league free agency. As such, the only check on minor league rosters is the Rule 5 draft. I think this needs to change. Here's the current roster count for each team in the league, listing their AAA / AA / A rosters:

• Antelope Valley - 32 / 38 / 40
• Atlanta - 37 / 22 / 44
• Brick - 24 / 27 / 39
• Brooklyn - 26 / 26 / 46
• Highland - 44 / 19 / 98
• Houston - 27 / 28 / 104
• London - 22 / 27 / 30
• Maui - 37 / 38 / 52
• Norfolk - 45 / 27 / 50
• Ohio - 31 / 38 / 63
• Seattle - 23 / 27 / 40
• Shackamaxon - 33 / 32 / 35

I highlight the single A roster counts for Highland and Houston. Between those two teams there are over 200 single A players, which is at least 100 too many. No one is served having that many players on a roster. Players develop faster when they get a chance to play. Sitting on a bench just makes a player age, losing value. Having (for example) seven catchers means that four or five of them will never see action. Ditto for having 20 relief pitchers. We need to put checks into the game to force owners to manage their rosters properly. 

I don't know what the "right" number should be, but my thinking is that it should taper down as the rosters are more advanced, so maybe 30 / 35 / 40 for AAA / AA / A? We're open to suggestions.

Additionally, there is no minor league free agents. If never promoted to the majors, or never selected in the Rule 5 draft, then a player will only leave a team's minor league system via retirement. I think we should turn on the Minor League Free Agency setting (more information about that here). 

Finally, and leading to the discussion about the draft, one of the reasons why so many teams have oversized A-level teams is that there are so many new players coming onto them each year via the draft, and they may need more than one year to progress to AA level. This is especially true of 18-19 year old kids drafted out of high school. We can, and should, set up a short-season low-A team for drafted rookies to develop in. Perhaps we should age-limit it to under 21 years old? Set the roster limit to 25? I don't have a firm idea on how it should be regulated, but the general gist of this discussion is to give minor league players the right environment to develop. 

While we have already discussed (and voted down) the idea to limit the trading of first round picks, there are many more draft-related discussions we should have. This post is already getting long, so I'll write about those on Tuesday night. 

These are my proposals:

1. Enable minor league free agency
2. Set roster limits for the minor league teams
3. Set up a short-season low-A level rookie league

Comments?

Sim's Done

Game Date:  Jan 24 2028

Signings:  None

League Finances:  I haven't yet had a chance to dive into the spreadsheet that Mack sent with adjustments to the idea I proposed.  However, it did not sound like there were any major objections to my idea in the previous thread.

Assuming that none of the changes in Mack's spreadsheet were major and assuming no one has any objections here, I will consider it enacted.  If anyone does have an objection, please let me know in the comments here [or by email if you wish to remain anonymous] and I will put it to a formal vote. 

Michael or I will post the next discussion thread either later today or tomorrow.

Next Sim:  Saturday Night

Shackamaxon sheds stud closer in Brick blockbuster

The Brick Barracudas, fresh off acquiring Jake Glenn in a trade from Atlanta, added to its offseason haul today with a monster deal with division rival Shackamaxon Lenape.

Heading across the Benjamin Franklin Bridge from Shackamaxon to Brick is stud closer Carlos Placeres and two prospects, AA 2B Carlos Madrigal and A LF Tomas Fernandez. For the trio of young present- and future-stars, the Barracudas have agreed to part with stud reliever Hector Estrada and AAA SP Todd Davis, who was in the Brick bullpen last season as a Rule 5 selection.

Shackamaxon will also receive Brick's first two picks in the upcoming 2028 draft, its first round (#11 overall) and a second round pick originally acquired from Brooklyn (#15 overall).

"Our trade for Jake Glenn gave us the flexibility to trade Davis," Brick GM Fred Goldfarb explained. "We had wanted to get Placeres back since last season, after originally trading him to the Lenape when he was still a farmhand. I knew we would have to pay a steep price for an elite closer, but the additions of Madrigal and Fernandez helped sweeten the return."

Shackamaxon GM Michael Weintraub explained his perspective on the deal: "We love Carlos, but feel that Hector Estrada will step in and help solidify the back of our bullpen this season. Todd Davis will be useful as we build our next-generation rotation and bullpen. The draft picks will be additional ammunition in rebuilding our prospect base.

"We'll miss both Carlos Madrigal and Tomas Fernandez, but we had a surplus of young second basemen, and we also have a young outfield core that Tomas would have had trouble cracking in a few years. I wish them both luck."

Prospects move in the SDMB

In a trade of possible future superstars in the SDMB, Brick and Atlanta have made a deal.

Brick sends AAA OF Duncan 'Donuts' Swanson and A SS Jesus Souza to Atlanta in return Brick gets AAA SP Jake Glenn and a 6th round pick.

Glenn had been a target of many a GM in the SDMB, but  no one was able to put together a deal that could pry him away from Atlanta.  realizing that the door is closing on their current playoff chances, Atlanta GM realized that he needed to make a move to improve his team's offense and Swanson give him the immediate help he needs and power that Atlanta lacks. "Souza was the icing on the cake that helped get this deal done. He will help us, but in a few seasons," said GM Goldman when asked about the younger player.

Fred Goldfarb, GM of Brick was very happy to get another SP for his rotation. "You can never have too much pitching," quipped Goldfarb, "There is always need for one more great player and we have him with Glenn."

As always with prospects it is tough to tell who has the best of this deal, but in the coming years it will be fun to see who makes it and who does not.