OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post - An Un-Official Guide to Minor League Management

Timofmars · 09-05-2020, 10:56 AM

Like some others here, I don't think age is important for sorting your minors. Age is just an indicator of how much time the player has to develop toward their potential before their development slows down and stops. There are players that are almost fully developed at even 20 or 21 and should be in or around AAA, for example.

I just go by the player's ratings, or what the AI thinks is the right level (which also seems to be based on ratings). So I have no problem even putting a 23 year old in a rookie league. But my best prospects get priority on where they play. So the 23 year old will get pushed out if the space is needed for a better prospect.

Determining who are the best prospects isn't based only on potential. For me, that is a combination of age and potential. Older prospects with high potential but who are still a long way from reaching that potential are less valuable than the prospects who are most surely going to reach their potential with time to spare. And even more so when you consider that potential can randomly increase, and younger players that are already close their old potential will have much better chance of reaching the new potential.

So yeah, age isn't really important to me for what level a player plays, but it is important for trades. I'll look to trade prospects I think are unlikely to reach their potential in exchange for some ones that probably will end up being better players in the end, even if their potential is currently lower. The sooner you do this, the better, it seems. The longer you wait, the more the AI (or other online managers?) will start to devalue the player. You may have noticed this using the "make it work" button in trades, where you may see the AI will accept your age 20 SP with 60 potential, but thinks your age 23 SP with 70 potential isn't enough because he probably won't reach that potential.

The OP's method of forcing promotion through the minors based on age seems to be a kind of indirect, abstract way of measuring whether players are on track to reach ML levels of ability. For example, it may lead him to trade away players earlier who are not likely to reach at least minimal ML potential, and maybe get a better deal in that trade compared to waiting until later.

But I feel it's very imprecise, especially for the best players. The best players should be ML-ready at an earlier age, since they will still have a lot of growth ahead to go from weak ML player, to average, to elite. They should be at higher minor league levels earlier, so keeping them at a lower level because of age may hurt their development. But OP's method may do well for players who are far behind in development but have high potential. You might get the most value out of these players by trading them as early as possible in exchange for more reliable prospects, which is what OP's method seems to do, although elite potential players probably will still perform well enough at their age-appropriate league levels, but that wouldn't indicate to you that they are off-pace for reaching their own high level of potential (so you may miss the chance to trade them while they are still highly regarded).

There is also the problem that OP is depending on stats to determine if a player is able to handle the level they are at, but bad players can do well and good players can play poorly, so you probably shouldn't put much confidence in the stats of a rookie minor leaguer, especially considering how short the seasons can be.

09-05-2020, 10:56 AM	#50
Timofmars Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Feb 2018 Posts: 251	Like some others here, I don't think age is important for sorting your minors. Age is just an indicator of how much time the player has to develop toward their potential before their development slows down and stops. There are players that are almost fully developed at even 20 or 21 and should be in or around AAA, for example. I just go by the player's ratings, or what the AI thinks is the right level (which also seems to be based on ratings). So I have no problem even putting a 23 year old in a rookie league. But my best prospects get priority on where they play. So the 23 year old will get pushed out if the space is needed for a better prospect. Determining who are the best prospects isn't based only on potential. For me, that is a combination of age and potential. Older prospects with high potential but who are still a long way from reaching that potential are less valuable than the prospects who are most surely going to reach their potential with time to spare. And even more so when you consider that potential can randomly increase, and younger players that are already close their old potential will have much better chance of reaching the new potential. So yeah, age isn't really important to me for what level a player plays, but it is important for trades. I'll look to trade prospects I think are unlikely to reach their potential in exchange for some ones that probably will end up being better players in the end, even if their potential is currently lower. The sooner you do this, the better, it seems. The longer you wait, the more the AI (or other online managers?) will start to devalue the player. You may have noticed this using the "make it work" button in trades, where you may see the AI will accept your age 20 SP with 60 potential, but thinks your age 23 SP with 70 potential isn't enough because he probably won't reach that potential. The OP's method of forcing promotion through the minors based on age seems to be a kind of indirect, abstract way of measuring whether players are on track to reach ML levels of ability. For example, it may lead him to trade away players earlier who are not likely to reach at least minimal ML potential, and maybe get a better deal in that trade compared to waiting until later. But I feel it's very imprecise, especially for the best players. The best players should be ML-ready at an earlier age, since they will still have a lot of growth ahead to go from weak ML player, to average, to elite. They should be at higher minor league levels earlier, so keeping them at a lower level because of age may hurt their development. But OP's method may do well for players who are far behind in development but have high potential. You might get the most value out of these players by trading them as early as possible in exchange for more reliable prospects, which is what OP's method seems to do, although elite potential players probably will still perform well enough at their age-appropriate league levels, but that wouldn't indicate to you that they are off-pace for reaching their own high level of potential (so you may miss the chance to trade them while they are still highly regarded). There is also the problem that OP is depending on stats to determine if a player is able to handle the level they are at, but bad players can do well and good players can play poorly, so you probably shouldn't put much confidence in the stats of a rookie minor leaguer, especially considering how short the seasons can be.