Important notes for roster building
1.) The simplest way to draft your team is to use the "Load From Historical Team" feature in the draft center. This will give you a starting point, however it is not infallible. You should check to see if any players are missing by doing a manual search for players who appeared for your team. For example, the "Load From Historical Team" method omits 3 players from the 1914 Boston Braves. If a player is in the database with a Full or Partial season for your team, you may use him (and you should in fact ensure that all such players are on your roster.)
2.) However, please note that players with COMBINED seasons cannot be used. If a player appeared for more than one team in a season, you may only use him if he has a PARTIAL season in the database that is associated with your team. When you are manually searching for players, please set the "Season Type" field to Full/Partial.
3.) Some teams will have more than 25 players, such as the aforementioned 1914 Braves. I will set the theme rules for each league to allow enough AAA slots for each team to draft all of its available players. Any players above the 25-man limit may be drafted into your AAA slots and may of course be used in games at any time. The transaction deadline will be set for game 159, so owners will have maximum roster flexibility throughout the season to shuttle players back and forth to AAA as needed.
4.) WIS will fill any unused AAA slots with SIM-generated AAA players. These players may never be used in games and should be kept in the minors all season. This really shouldn't be a problem; as long as owners remember to leave SIM-generated AAA players in the minors, there should be no way for any of them to ever appear in a game. You may wish to go into the GM Center and rename your SIM-generated guys to something like DO NOT USE, or anything else that will stand out for you if you think there is even the slightest chance you will forget about this important rule.
5.) Some teams will have fewer than 25 players, especially teams prior to ~1930, and even up through WWII. Occasionally a more modern team has this issue as well. If you have one of these teams, you may use any $200K player in the database to fill out your remaining slots. However, these players may never be used in games. This is more complicated than the issue of SIM-generated AAA players, because by definition these guys will be on your major league roster. Simply setting them to "rest" will be insufficient to ensure they are never used. So the following paragraphs become very important:
6. Any owner who has a manually drafted $200K player on their roster, who was not actually part of their assigned MLB team, must adhere to ALL of the following protocols.
-- $200K Position players must be set to REST at all times.
-- You should go into your player rest, defensive replacement, and pinch-hitting hierarchies and MANUALLY remove all $200K players from those lists.
-- $200K Pitchers must be set to REST at all times. Their "Use in Relief" box should be unchecked. Set "Inning Available" to 9, and TPC/MPC = 5.
-- Additionally (this is VERY important) every pitcher who was actually on your roster MUST have the "Use in Relief" box checked. This includes everyone in your starting rotation. When the SIM needs a relief pitcher to come into the game, it will choose a player set to "rest" (i.e. one of your $200K guys) BEFORE it will use a SP whose "Use in Relief" box is unchecked.
-- Every pitcher in your starting rotation, in addition to having their "Use in Relief" box checked, should have their "Inning Available" set to ANY.
-- If you adhere to these protocols, the only time the SIM should ever use a $200K player is if in-game injuries or ejections have depleted the bench such that no other player is available. This is VERY easy to check in reviewing a box score.
I have played many seasons in leagues where such $200K players are not allowed to be used, and these protocols, if followed, always work, except in the extremely rare injury/ejection case just mentioned.