I just joined a league with a 25 million dollar prospect cap. I have the first overall pick but we havent seen prospects yet and wont for another 2 days. I have already maxed out my prospect cap at 25 and a crazyy good international free agent just appeared. I know the game makes you keep at least 6 mil for the draft... but my system has a lot of extra minor league guys... my question is when can I potentially offer more than 19 mil (when is that 6 million restriction lifted) and what is the minimum number of players i can sign from my draft? obviously I will be signing the first overall pick but after that I will probably avoid the higher round guys as they usually do not contribute at the ml level and cost too much... so do i just need to fill my rookie team? thanks

I think you just need to have 6M there when budget day sets.  You can spend all 25M on the IFA if you want and just not have any for your draft.  Have not done this, correct me if I am misleading this chap.

I think sculley is correct; before the draft picks drop you have to have some number or other (25? 20?) in rookie league and then you're good to go.

yea anyone know what that number or what the requirement is in rookie league? think  rangerup was right we could technically offer all 25 before the draft...

On seasons where I have spent all of my prospect money prior to the draft, for whatever reason, I usually end up signing a bunch of tryout camp guys to fill rookie league, as they are the least expensive guys to sign.

The #1 overall pick, if readily signable, will cost $4M.

I'd try to hang on to that, if at all possible.

If you have less than 20 players on your rookie team, the AI will start signing your low round draft picks to fill the team a few cycles before the Rookie season starts.

Spend it all, sign tryout camp guys.

EDIT - Just realized you have #1 OVR pick. Don't jump right to $25M on the Int'l - step it up gradually. The goal is to keep him fishing for offers until after you can see the draft class. If you can string him along long enough, draft someone who won't sign with pick #1, offer him what he's asking and get rejected (so you get pick next season) and *then* dump it all on the Int'l market.

Didn't know you had the number one overall pick.  I wouldn't offer more than 20M to the IFA in that case.  You will need the extra 5M to sign the draft pick.  You need to sign him...he will likely be just as good as the IFA or better and that is a much better expenditure of your money.  Once he is signed you may get a break later in the season and nab some IFA for much less

I personally have dropped my entire prospect budget on one IFA prior to the amatuer draft.  I was willing to forfeit my whole draft, but I ended up making a trade to free up a couple mil and I signed my first rounder and a few others.  I definitely recommend signing your 1st overall pick though.  You can bid $21m on that IFA and still have $4mil to sign the #1 overall guy for slot money.  fill out the rest of rookie league with crap *** tryout camp guys and waiver claims

Good point, you get one crack at the IFA, but all season to sign your draft pick.  If it is possible to make trades and free up cap space you could increase your prospect budget and end up signing both, it's a small gamble though.

It was not as risky as it sounds in my particular case.  The IFA I dropped my entire prospect budget on was a guy I think will be in the HOF one day.   Hardball Dynasty – Fantasy Baseball Sim Games - Player Profile: Moises Andujar  I was drafting maybe 26th or 27th that year.  I don't remember, but it was definitely not in the top 25.  I knew whoever I drafted that late would never be good enough to carry Andujar's jock strap.  I would make sure I saved $4mil to sign the #1 overall pick no matter how good the IFA is, because that early in the season you very well could get a very good IFA plus your #1 overall pick.  If I drafted #1 that year I wouldn't have had Andujar, but I would have signed the #1 overall pick plus still had $21mil to go after an IFA who would probably still be very very very good; and it's early enough in the season (pre amatuer draft) that there is a very high liklihood of another solid IFA coming along.