|
Morale is a thing in OOTP (unless you chose to turn that feature off, I think) and is linked, at least a little bit, to performance on the field. So if you don't play a guy regularly who expects to play regularly it can and generally will affect his morale and low morale can and generally will lead to some performance suppression.
The extent to which this happens is not clear and likely underlying personality traits also play into this. My sense has always been that morale-based performance effects are subtle, but that doesn't mean that they can't be somewhat significant. And, of course, having players with low morale can influence overall team morale as well. Though there are a lot of factors involved there having to do with whether the team is winning, what kind of leaders you have in your clubhouse, etc.
Also, morale for an individual player can suffer even if you are playing them regularly but not batting them where they expect to bat in the lineup or using them in the role they expect and prefer. A common example is when they see themselves as middle of the order hitters and you are batting them somewhere else in the lineup, this can lead to poor morale and poor morale can suppress performance somewhat.
I think it is less clear (for me, at least) with pitchers. But I have certainly recently experienced my veteran potential future Hall of Fame closer express great dissatisfaction with not being used in that role any longer. How much that dissatisfaction led to his great decline in effectiveness as opposed to how much his great decline in effectiveness led me to not trust using him as a closer any longer isn't even that clear to me. But I suspect that both were happening simultaneously.
OOTP does also have built into it players getting rusty, out of game shape or sharpness, with non-use. I think that generally requires much longer stretches of non-playing due to extended injuries and off-seasons and the like, but it has never been clear to me whether a relief pitcher who I haven't been getting enough work lately might experience some temporary decline in effectiveness due to non-use as well. (I have always guessed that it might.)
Perhaps someone else has more definitive answers to offer in this regard.
|