Develop a Franchise Teams Farm System

[chuckp25_XBL]

So I’m now in my 3rd year of MLB 22 the show and I can’t really figure out the development of the rookies and young players I got is it a certain type of coach I need or do I just got to kinda tweak they attributes I have Joe Maddon as manager Tommy LaSorda and Sparky Anderson as base coaches and David Bell as Farm Director but no matter what I seem to send down to AA or AAA my teams be horrible please share any tips

[Spin_Doctor01_PSN]

I think it would be hard to talk about all the ins and out of a farm system in an internet post, but some of the things that I do is always have good starting pitching in the pipeline.

During the amateur draft, look for pitchers with high k numbers, like in the 60s or higher. TheBB/9 doesn't matter a whole lot.

If you're looking at free agents or trading for players for your farm don't pick guys who are already on a 40 man roster, OVR less than around 65 of you're sending them to AA, or 70 if going to AAA. Also no older than 23 if you can help it. Your goal is to stack your farm with the best guys you can get your hands on, while providing them time to develop their talent. When I started my last franchise I managed to find Julio Rodriguez in the free agent pool when he was 20. That was a seriously lucky break.

If you have guys who have already burned all their options and are not getting the job done or getting old, trade them to other teams who may be able to use them. Also during the amateur draft, you want your position players to be able to hit so try to pick guys who have contact greater than 55 and hopefully 60 or higher from at least one side. Occasionally you can pick up a power guy where you might have to sacrifice contact, but I don't make power a priority. It's just more important to get on base consistently.

Is good to have effective coaches so you want guys with good contact, power or K/9. Speed is good to have but negative bunting and stuff like that doesn't matter.

Knowing when to bring up guys and when to send them down is important. AA guys can stay until they hit 70-75 OVR, and I tend to keep AAA guys down until they hit 80. But all that depends on how badly you need the people to come up. The last pitcher I brought up to the MLB, I cultivated for a pretty long time till he was up to around 84 because I didn't really need him for a while, but he was always a great pitcher and progressed pretty quickly. After three MLB starts he has a 0.0 era and will possibly end up being the Brewers Ace at some point. Two of my starting rotation came from the farm and I have others coming behind them.

Playing time is the key to having your guys develop. Don't log jam your positions. Look at other positions that players can go and if you're stacked in a certain position for example, if you have a bunch of center fielders look to see if you can put somebody in left or right. I try not to have more than two guys competing for the same position.

That's the most basic way I handle my farm system. The rest is just experiencing paying attention to what's going on. Also if there is a pitcher or position player that I take a shine to, I personally play as many of their starts as possible. So I end up playing a lot of games, and don't really sim a whole lot. I probably play more Minor League games than MLB games, because if you build a good farm, the MLB will take care of itself. It's like that old saying, if you watch your Pennies, the Dollars take care of themselves. To me franchise is not about getting through the seasons as fast as possible, but creating a universe of guys that I actually care about.

So this turned out to be a pretty long post, but the farm system is a big subject and as far as I'm concerned it's one of the most important aspects of the franchise. In real life, teams with poor farm systems are always losers.

I'm interested in hearing how other guys handle their farms, because I'm sure there's always something I can learn from somebody else.

[halfbutt_PSN]

I find it interesting that you don’t promote guys until they are in the 80’s!

I tend to start giving guys innings at the mlb level once they get to the low 70’s (assuming there is room).

My #5 starter got the job out of spring at B76. It’s past the all star break and he is a B79 with a 3.05 ERA and 130 k’s.

[Spin_Doctor01_PSN]

I'd say the timeline for bringing guys to the show depends on the needs of the team, how far along in your rebuild you are, and personal preference. My only requirement is that they can contribute once they get there. 80 is just an average value.

For me, the low 70s is too low for them to have developed properly. And I don't tend to bring guys up just to see how they might perform.

[halfbutt_PSN]

Fair enough.
Yeah, I think the age of the player is a consideration too. I have had worthy contributions from guys off the bench or in the pen in the low 70’s.

Generally, the young guys at that level struggle to hit, but as long as they keep developing, I don’t worry about it too much.

As for the older guys, I’ve also found their trade value can go up after they start playing well.

[Spin_Doctor01_PSN]

Well, I'm gonna try to stir up some chat in the dead forum. There has to be at least a few people here working on a franchise who are having good success or need to figure what direction to go in. I'm no expert, which is why I started building the Brewers team of which is probably of easy-medium difficulty.

I'm in July of 2025 of the build and because the pitching rotation was already pretty good from the start, i only had to focus on offense. Sadly we are ranked 30th in defense and fairly low in speed, but apparently since I'm 1st in pitching, most of the defensive plays we have to field are pretty routine, so defense isn't an issue. However, the first thing I did on day one was to trade Josh Hader to the Padres which ended up being kind of prophetic. He was coming up on free agency and I wasn't about to pay him $25 mill a year when I already had a good closer in Devin Williams. The first year of the franchise, we lost the NLDC but the went to the WS the second year where we lost again.

This third year we are first in our division and am expecting another deep run. As we came up on the trade deadline, I had to drop a few people so that I wouldn't be stuck with a huge payroll bill next year. Our payroll isn't all that deep, so I can only afford a couple of big contracts. That Yelich deal that was already in place is a huge money sink and not giving much production. Nobody wants to take him off my hands.

I dropped Brandon Woodruff last year, and I just traded Corbin Burnes when he stepped to me and said $70 mill for a 2 year contract would keep him around. I'm like, I don't think so... I ended up trading him to the Marlins who were pretty low in ranking, but I couldn't tell if they were rebuilding or just thirsty for a great pitcher. The older version of the game used to tell you the status of the franchise goals, but not this year, apparently, unless I'm missing something.

I traded him even up for Sandy Alcantara who is a great pitcher in his own right. I chose him because he has "A" potential, a year younger, 4 quirks (compared to Burnes 6 quirks) and a primary pitch outlier with a 102 mph fastball. Nobody's hitting that. Marlins were happy with that trade, so I hope they have enough dough to keep him around next year. I wanted to trade Burnes to a team that had obvious playoff chances, but I couldn't find another pitcher worth his value that I could afford. So even though I've rebuilt the pitching rotation with 2 farm hands and a trade, we are still ranked first in pitching. I have some good farmhands in AAA and coming up through AA, so we should be ok. I had to pay Freddy Paralta a fair sized contract even with Ace status, but not nearly as big as the one Burnes wanted and I got Alcantara for about a third of what Burnes wanted.

I also traded Willy Adames for Keston Hiura, who I'd traded a couple of years ago, and a couple of prospects. Hirura had developed nicely over time and I had already replaced Adames with another SS who I'd cultivated on the farm, who hit for higher average, nearly matched him in defense, but couldn't match Willy in HR production. Adames hits a lot of homeruns, but he was about to be a FA and he wasn't currently happy platooning with a younger guy or being at 1st base, which is why I picked Hiuira to fill that 1B role. I needed the money. Both of them seems happy with a change of scenery.

I can't remember who I got during the amateur draft, but I remember the ones I signed looked good. I had 6 picks but only signed 3 because I don't like deadwood laying around.

So that's how things are looking as the Trade Deadline approaches.

P. S. I'd never really heard of Sandy Alcantrara except in passing until I saw him in the game a couple days ago. Just read he won that NL Cy Young. Good on him.

[MattrickBT_MLBTS]

I'm only in my second season, but my farm system is stacked right now. Discounting the couple created prospects I put in there, my pitching is killing it...AAA starters have approx combined ERA of 2.20 and combines WHIP of 1.15. My AA starters have combined ERA of approx 2.90 and combined WHIP of 1.25. I'm pretty decent offensively and I'm versatile in my positions. I've got 7 or 8 guys who can effective if needed to fill a MLB hole.

Basically what I did was the first thing I did in my first season was looking through the free agents for depth players. I picked up 2B Mike Freeman who was a solid utility player. I found another utility player in my system that could be on the main roster. And I bolstered by bullpen by picking up FAs SP Foltynewicz to by my longman, RP Ryne Harper as my middle inning guy, and RP Rosenthal to by my setup man. This allowed me to put arms from my MLB bullpen down in the minors to bolster those pens, plus give me good depth.

I focused on scouting and hiring better scouts. I released a few low-levels players and signed new FA prospects with decent Potentials and stats. Whenever I made a trade, like Reese McGuire and Hyun-Jin Ryu last season, or Kikuchi this season, I try to get multiple prospects for them. Foltynewicz proved so reliable as a longman and temp 5th man that in Season 2 he's my 5th man. This made Kikuchi expendable (even traded up when CWS offered me Dylan Cease for a song) and so him and Kirk were traded for prospects. Also moving Folynewicz to #5 opened up a spot so I signed FA Will Smith, who is putting up ridiculous numbers.

After my first season I lost a bunch of my system players because I didn't resign so then I just signed like 20-25 replacements with mostly B/C potential, and some As (who were usually like 50-60 OVR) from the FA pool to go along with my drafts picks (my first round pick went right on my main roster). I'm at the All-Star Break and AAA team is 56-28 and my AA team is 45-36. So what I'm doing is working.

I think the simple advice I have for anyone is this:

• If you have a weak position (like me with 2B) STOCK UP on 2B. You want a lot of options to choose from over the next few seasons.

• Decide you who want to keep going into free agency well beforehand i.e. you can't afford to sign two guys, pick one, stock up in the other's position.

• Comb the Free Agent list for players with good potential. Honestly, anyone with a B/C potential is good value. Check out their attributes to find ones that best suit your needs. I myself concentrated 2B and Outfield (and pitching, obs) and the stats I cared most about were having decent speed, left-handed or switch, and that my 2B had good fielding and my outfielders had good arms. Then I sign say 3 OF with good arms and decent speed (50+), but one specializes toward contact, one toward power, and another toward defence.

• Use Training to bulk up deficient stats on your prospects.

• Pay close attention to your scouts and their assignments being up. Upgrade your scouts over time.

• Take the time to construct your AAA and AA lineups. If you're just auto-fixing it constantly, then you have no control over the playing time your guys get or optimizing them. You don't want someone with 65 Contact and 70 Power against righties only in the line up against lefties, when he has 35 contact and 30 power against them. ---Make sure your bullpens have at least 1 Starting Pitcher in your bullpen and you have high velocity set up/closers---monitor your pitchers month-to-month...if your #4/5 starter is floundering, move him to the pen and replace with the SP in your pen.

• Make sure you sign versatile players. Someone who can only play 1 or 2 positions needs to have some really good stats for me to justify it. Signing players who can play 3+ positions is great. And you want a few of these guys on your MLB bench and all throughout your system. It makes plugging in injuries and balancing playtime pretty easy to manage.

• Look for catchers who can play a secondary position...I have a catcher in my minors...he's only a D potential and 61 OVR, but he plays 1B/2B/3B secondary, making him very valuable in terms of injury replacement. I have a second catcher who is a D potential and 62 OVR, but he can also play LF/RF. These guys will never make my MLB roster, but are godsends when it comes to team system management.

• Really evaluate your players in your system. When I started up this season, I found Samad Taylor in my system. D potential, I think he was like 68 OVR when he started. I needed a utility bench player and evaluating him as such, I realized he had a lot to offer...he had 80ish speed 50ush steal, 50 BR AGG (I needed speed and stealing so now he's a good pinch runner too). His fielding stats were all decent with pretty high reaction speed. He's around 40 for POW and 50 for CON, so I put him on my MLB Roster. Now he's a 73 and is basically and every day player since he can play the entire field except 1st. He's added so much depth to my roster, that combined with Berti and Biggio between the 3 of them I have every OF/3B covered 3 ways, SS covered twice, and 1B covered once. My main utility guy in my system 2B Mike Freeman (was on my MLB Roster last season) can play all 7 positions---Having guys like this are perfect injury callups since they can fill any roll whenever, and don't leave a huge gap in the system, since they are replaced by another guy this that.