Description: The minor leagues are where unskilled players can work on their game and hopefully progress to the major league level.
Topics
Sending Players to the Minors
Skill Levels of Minor Leaguers
Maximum Minor League Designations
Minor League Budget
Player Increases in the Minor Leagues
Draft Picks and the Minors
Minor League Salaries
Related Topics
Sending Players to the Minors: Each team has a minor league system. This is an abbreviated system. The exact minor league team names, games, coaches, etc. are not itemized. Essentially, what you have are your 'top prospects' in the minors. The exact number of prospects that you may have in the minors is league specific, but, the default is 10. You may therefore have 10 players in your minor league system (in most leagues) learning the ins and the outs of the game. To send a player to the minors, all you have to do is check the player on your roster and then click on "Demote to Minors". The player will then be added to your minor league system. That is provided your team has enough minor league spots left, the player has not exceeded his maximum number of demotions, and his skill level isn't too high.
Skill Levels of Minor Leaguers: As mentioned above, there is a limit to how good a player can be to be demoted to the minors. Players who consider themselves to be major leaguers will decline a demotion to the minor leagues. Also, as a player progresses in the minors, there will come a time when he is as good as he can get in the minors. Playing against the inferior competition there isn't improving his skills any longer. At that time, although he doesn't come up to the minors, he won't be increasing in skill due to being in the minor leagues.
Maximum Minor League Designations: A player has (by default) 3 minor league options each time he switches teams. Minor league options are the number of times a player may be sent to the minors. Once a player is out of 'options' he must stay on the major league roster. When a player switches teams (by trade, free agency or other means) his minor league options are cleared. For example, John Smith is a major leaguer. He is sent to the minors by his current team, the Dallas Blast. That counts as one minor league demotion. He is recalled to fill in for an injury mid-season. After the injured player comes back, he is once again demoted to the minors (demotion #2). At the end of the season, he is again called up for an injury, once again, he is demoted at the end of the injury (demotion #3). The next season, the starter is traded. John Smith is promoted to the major league team. He is now out of demotions with this team. He has been demoted to the minors 3 times, and cannot be demoted any more. If he were traded to another team, he would be able to be demoted three more times by that team, but, as it stands, he cannot be demoted by Dallas.
Minor League Budget: The main reason to place players in the minor leagues is to steadily increase their skills without going through daily training (also to increase multiple skills at the same time). The results that your minor leaguers enjoy are directly related to your minor league budget and your ability to actually have the money to spend when the time comes to pay each day. Owners may set their minor league budget to various levels between $0/day and $100,000,000/day. How good of a chance each of your players has to increase each day (and how many skills they may increase in) depends on that budget. In other words, if you are spending a lot of money on your minor league system, the players are going to get better faster. Results (as mentioned) also depend on your ability to PAY the budget. If you have and pay all the money, your players all have a chance to get better. If you have and pay between 50-100% of the budget (but not all of it) your players will stay the same (they won't improve that day, but they also won't decrease that day, either). If you are not able to pay at least 50% of the minor league budget in a given day, your players have no chance of getting better, in fact, they have a chance of getting worse. The game will always take as much money is available. So, for example, if your budget is $1,000,000/day and you only have $450,000, the game will take the $450,000 to pay for some of the minor league system.
Player Increases in the Minor Leagues: The game is designed to require players to stay in the minors for a while. So, you often won't see huge increases even over a full season, especially if your budget is low. Most players are on a 3-5 season minor league plan. Also, players cannot exceed their current potential in the minors. So, although they may be getting better, they might hit a ceiling until the next season. Finally, there is only so much that the minor leagues may help some players. At a certain point, a player will hit a wall in the minors and need major league experience combined with major league training to advance.
Draft Picks and the Minors: All draft picks are initially sent to the minor leagues. Because of this your minor league system MAY hold more than the maximum 10 players. Draft picks will join your minor league squad no matter how many slots you have open. None will be released due to lack of room. This also saves one minor league demotion for draft picks. Since they start in the minors, that doesn't count as a demotion.
Minor League Salaries: Players who are in the minor leagues have salaries that do not count against your teams salary cap. In addition, unlike major league players, you do not have to pay the salaries of those players out of your daily revenue. You are responsible, however, for honoring the player's contract if he is released (see guaranteed contracts). The minor league players are paid by their respective minor league teams, not by the major league club.
