More Demanding Positions
 

Do we have any evidence that playing someone at a less physically-demanding position will improve their longevity? As players get older, it seems like we might want to help them out, even if their skills aren't yet fading, maybe moving that CF to RF or SS to 3B. If there's no evidence that it makes a difference, then it's not worth doing (assuming their defensive skill stays high enough).

Speaking of longevity, barring injuries, do we know if a player's career arc (how long he'll last, when he'll start to fade skill-wise) is 'scheduled' for a period of time by hard-coding at creation or if it's a constantly-evaluated process. Obviously, injury changes all that; I'm just wondering what the underlying truth is at player creation.

In the aggregate, yes, I believe playing someone at a less demanding position is expected to increase longevity.

A DH has no chance to get injured in the field, and also doesn't get fatigued from games. I don't know if fatigue increases injury chance but I wouldn't be surprised if it did. For a 1B or LF, I also would expect them to get injured less than a 2B or CF for example. I've seen a few times while watching games that a CF will get injured making a diving catch.

I'm only alluding to injury because I doubt there's any factor in the game that decreases ratings more or less over time based on what position you're playing. For pitchers, I've heard that Knuckleballers last longer, and I also suspect Power Pitchers have their Stuff decrease more quickly as they age based on their velocity ticking down.

Completely anecdotal, but LFers/RFers definitely seem to have range be more stable than CFers.

I'm 99% sure that I read it does before

You might want to move an OF to 1b or even move another infielder there. Pete Rose and Willie Stargell both added several years to their careers by shifting to 1b from another position.

I can't say that I have compared the injury rate of "up the middle" guys to guys that play corner positions but I have had a lot of success in getting the most out of even "wrecked" players by starting them at first versus righties and having them DH against lefties. I play modern day sims with the injury setting at "high" and can still often get these guys over 150 games started using this strategy.