Farm System

Four affiliate clubs, 132 players

Every franchise operates four affiliate clubs. All 132 players in the organization have a name, an age, a contract status, a scouting grade, and a development curve. None of them are anonymous filler, and every one of them leaves a hole behind when he is promoted, traded, or released.

• MLB (26 active) — the show. Everyone here counts against your payroll and against the luxury tax threshold.
• AAA (30) — the on-ramp. Polished prospects and depth arms, one phone call from the majors.
• AA (36) — the middle, and the level that tells you the most. Fast-moving prospects, breakout candidates, and second-chance veterans.
• A (40) — raw talent. Recent draftees, international signings, and project pitchers who need three years before anyone can say what they are.

The cascade engine

Each level enforces its own composition rules — minimum pitcher counts, position coverage, roster size. The consequence is that no roster move happens in isolation. Calling a starter up from AAA opens a hole at AAA, which pulls a player up from AA, which pulls a player up from A. The cascade engine resolves that chain automatically and keeps every level legal.

If a move would leave a level out of compliance and no legal replacement exists, the simulation pauses and tells you exactly which level is short and what it is short of. It never silently invents a player to plug the gap, and it never lets you sim past an illegal roster.

Prospect development

Prospects gain and lose ratings over time based on age, the level they are playing at, how much they play, and the quality of your coaching staff. Development is not a fixed track — the same 19-year-old will turn out differently depending on how you handle him.

Aggressive promotion is the most common new-player mistake. Push a 19-year-old to AAA and his development can stall outright, because he is overmatched and not learning. Let the same player accumulate at-bats at A and AA until his grades stop improving at that level, and you tend to get real gains before he ever reaches the majors. Age relative to level is the single most useful number on a prospect's card.

Daily minor-league simulation

Every affiliate plays a real schedule against real opponents and accumulates real statistics. Nothing is estimated or back-filled. The daily Farm Report surfaces the signal from that data: who is breaking out, who is slumping, whose strikeout rate is quietly collapsing, and who has stopped being challenged by his current level.

Because the statistics are genuine, they can also be read skeptically. A 24-year-old hitting well at A is not a prospect, he is a player at the wrong level. The report gives you the numbers; evaluating them is your job.

Promotions and option rules

Promoting a prospect is a real front-office decision with several inputs: his readiness, your major-league roster space, his remaining options, and whether burning a year of team control now is worth the wins it buys. There is a genuine cost to calling someone up too early.

Injury replacements are handled cleanly. When a call-up fills in for an injured starter, he is automatically optioned back down when the veteran is activated off the injured list, so you are not left manually unwinding a roster you did not choose to construct.

Where the pipeline comes from

Three sources feed the farm system: the first-year player draft each summer, international signings, and trades. A top-30 prospect list ranks the organization so you can see your own pipeline at a glance and track how it moves over a season.

For a deeper walkthrough, read Reading the Farm System and the draft and prospect development guide.