AI Minor Leage Madness

[dolfanar]

At this point I'm sure everyone has noticed the seemingly random minor league assignments from the AI. Some personal favorites of mine include when the AI sent Willy Mays down to Rookie ball after a hall of fame career, or signing Carl Yastremski after him not having played for 3 years and sending him straight to A ball.

The thing of it is that the logic the AI uses is pretty bewildering. 18 YO Players rated 44 in current ability are sent to AAA, while 34 year olds with 8-10 years of Major league service are sent to AA.

The problem is the way the assigments are made. The AI ranks players and seemingly factors in other elements beside age and overall current ability in making minor league assignments, and then tries to evenly distribute the players amongst the 4 levels.

IE if you have 16 position players, all of whom a human would logically place in AA or AAA, the AI will still try to assign 4 to R, a to A, 4 to AA, and 4 to AAA. If the same team has 8 pitchers, all of which are freshly drafted and should go to Rookie ball, the AI will AGAIN try to spread them out evenly. Keep in mind that position never seems to weigh in as to who goes where (so you could end up with 4 Cathers in AAA, and 2 RF in Rookie, depending on where they were ranked). Every time a player is added or subtracted, the AI will re-rate all the players and move them around again, which is whyu you see players playing at 3 or 4 levels every year.

IMO, that is the *biggest* flaw in the system, in that it tries to keep everything balanced. Since BBM does not attempt to recreate whole minor league teams, with the filler and bench players and true career minor leaguers and busts (ie guy's who retire after 2 years of Rookie ball), it actually makes sense for the organizations to be "top heavy", with many more guy's in AAA than Rookie Ball.

The solution to this, and the only way to atleast give the illusion that the AI is gradually developing players and calling them up, is to institute a rigid schedule so players on AI teams appear to be "coming up through the system". Also the AI should simply not be concerned with "evening out the teams" if there are 15 AAA caliber players, and only 3 AA, then that's where they should play.

I have posted the scheme before, but here is is again. I truly believe that the minor league stats situation would be infinitely better with this kind of system. Attached is also an example of the crazy player development and assignment s we see in BBM.

Age 17 or below.
Overall rating <= 75 go to R
Overall rating > 75 go to A

Age 18
Overall rating <= 70 go to R
Overall rating > 70 OR <= 80 go to A
Overall rating > 80 go to AA

Age 19
Overall rating <= 65 go to R
Overall rating > 65 OR <= 75 go to A
Overall rating > 75 go to AA

Age 20
Overall rating <= 60 go to R
Overall rating > 60 OR <= 70 go to A
Overall rating > 70 OR <= 80 go to AA
Overall rating > 80 go to AAA

Age 21-22
Overall rating <= 50 go to R
Overall rating > 50 OR <= 60 go to A
Overall rating > 60 OR <= 70 go to AA
Overall rating > 70 go to AAA

Age 23-24
Overall rating <= 50 go to A
Overall rating > 50 OR <= 60 go to AA
Overall rating > 60 go to AAA

Age 25-27
Overall rating <= 60 go to AA
Overall rating > 60 go to AAA

Age 28+
All players 28+ should go to AAA

[Clay Dreslough]

This is a good idea. I'm redoing the minor league AI along these lines for the next patch.

Clay

[dolfanar]

Originally posted by Clay Dreslough
This is a good idea. I'm redoing the minor league AI along these lines for the next patch.

Clay

That's fantastic news.

Here is a supplementary bonus of doing this. Major League "eligibility" AI.

Only players that atleast qualify for AAA should be elligible for Major League roster. In other words the AI should ONLY consider players who based upon the ratings/ages above would atleast qualify for AAA when choosing major league lineups/rosters. That way no R, A or AA players would get major league playing time until they have "paid their dues". Timing may cause some players to have relatively short AAA stints, but that happens IRL as well. This would definitely stop players from getting major league playing time out of college for the most part.

Ofcourse if there are simply not enough positionplayers or pitchers in AAA to fill up the roster, the AI should dip into AA, but in all other instances the AI should basically do everything it can to use only AAA caliber players or better, even if it means playing people out of position.

[SkyDog]

Originally posted by Clay Dreslough
This is a good idea. I'm redoing the minor league AI along these lines for the next patch.

Clay

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!

[SkyDog]

Age 28+
All players 28+ should go to AAA

...or get cut.

I'd add one other thing: 18-year-olds should very, very, very rarely play in MLB.

[SkyDog]

Clay:

I mentioned a couple of other things regarding this issue, as well as a couple of other issues, in this thread: http://forum.sportsmogul.com/showthr...threadid=74498

[robinhoodnik]

Also try to trade 28+ plus before cutting. Ask for reasonable trades too ie my garbage for yours.

[adam]

With this thread, I'd like to copy an existing MLB rule and make it so you can't trade draft picks for one year after drafting them.

Particularly when you're playing historically, it's far too easy to pick up players you know are generally superstars for junk, because the drafting team doesn't realize Mickey Mantle could be MICKEY MANTLE.

[dolfanar]

Originally posted by SkyDog
...or get cut.

I'd add one other thing: 18-year-olds should very, very, very rarely play in MLB.

IMO, 28 year olds shouldn't be automatically cut or traded. IRL you will see 28+ year old players in AAA who still have an outside shot at making the majors within the next couple years, particularly pitchers.

EDIT: Players well into their 30's at AAA are another matter all together, though age alone shouldn't be the determining factor into who gets cut. A team with a depleted farm system may well play several minor league veterans in AAA. I'd like to see how the new system ends up so we can see how many veterans end up clogging up teams AAA lineups.

As for the 18 year olds, if you follow the logic I laid out, an 18 year old would only get the call if no players were left at AAA and he was the best player available at AA. Likely a very rare event.

[SkyDog]

Originally posted by dolfanar
IMO, 28 year olds shouldn't be automatically cut or traded. IRL you will see 28+ year old players in AAA who still have an outside shot at making the majors within the next couple years, particularly pitchers.

That's why I said "OR" get cut. Cutting them should be an option, but not an autotmatic. If the guy is rated 62/62, is 28, and is hitting .203 in AAA, it is time for him to find another way to earn a living. On the other hand, if there are still a few signs of life and no younger players at the same position ready to move to AAA, then he should stay in AAA. Basically, I'd like to see three basic options for a 28-32ish-year-old minor leaguers:

1. If his ratings are below 60something AND his most-recent AAA OPS is below .680ish, (or his ERA is above 5.50 or so...) then he gets cut.

2. If he's above whatever ratings and stats baselines are set AND no younger player at his position in the organization is ready for AAA, he stays in AAA.

3. If above whatever baselines AND younger player is ready for to take his AAA spot, then try to trade him for younger prospect or similarly-aged prospect at a position where no younger player is available.

[dolfanar]

Originally posted by SkyDog
That's why I said "OR" get cut. Cutting them should be an option, but not an autotmatic. If the guy is rated 62/62, is 28, and is hitting .203 in AAA, it is time for him to find another way to earn a living. On the other hand, if there are still a few signs of life and no younger players at the same position ready to move to AAA, then he should stay in AAA. Basically, I'd like to see three basic options for a 28-32ish-year-old minor leaguers:

1. If his ratings are below 60something AND his most-recent AAA OPS is below .680ish, (or his ERA is above 5.50 or so...) then he gets cut.

2. If he's above whatever ratings and stats baselines are set AND no younger player at his position in the organization is ready for AAA, he stays in AAA.

3. If above whatever baselines AND younger player is ready for to take his AAA spot, then try to trade him for younger prospect or similarly-aged prospect at a position where no younger player is available.

Honestly I think there is a much easier way to do it.

If there are more than 11 pitchers stationed in AAA at any given time, the AI cuts the oldest pitcher(s) on the AAA roster until you are down to 11.
If there are more than 14 position players stationed in AAA at any given time, the AI cuts the oldest player(s) on the AAA roster until you are down to 14.
EDIT: If you have 2 players of equal age, and only 1 needs to get cut, overall rating is the tie breaker.

That way you end up with never more than 25 players in AAA, and you have a straight forward system that doesn't require alot of processing. No team ends up hoarding players, but no player gets arbitrarilly cut from a team that is in need of bodies. Simplicity should be a cornerstone of anything Mogul, imo.

There is still the question of minor league playing time (ie if you have 2 LF at AAA, or 2 RF and no CF, etc...), but that's another completely unrelated issue, and shouldn't be mixed with this.

[adam]

Another thing that might help would either set up true minor league free agents (at $10k/year, not $316k/year), and/or a rule 5 draft.

[dolfanar]

Originally posted by adam
Another thing that might help would either set up true minor league free agents (at $10k/year, not $316k/year), and/or a rule 5 draft.

Actually what you'd need are two-way contracts of some kind. I'd love to see a rule 5 draft, but then you;d also have to change the way players are put on the DL AND you'd have to implement a 40 man roster.

[Clay Dreslough]

Here's an unofficial patch (Version 8.25).

It improves the way a player progresses through the minors (no more players touring the entire system every year).

It also increases the old AAA players that are released or retire (BUT -- there is still a lot of kruft leftover here, so it's something I need to work on -- I just don't want to overdo it and force injured journeymen or declining stars into retirement too early).

Clay

[dacman]

I ran a quick 30-yr test of 8.25, and I must say this is a vast improvement aesthethically from previous versions. There are a few guys who bounce around a bit (I'd guess injuries might cause this so it's not out of the ordinary), but for the most part players are making very logical progressions.

I am seeing a few too many guys go straight from A to the majors, but it's not too bad.

Oh, and Skydog, this one's for you: