[SirMichaelJordan]

Originally Posted by Cluboris

This has been my experience, as someone who plays the game as a GM and tries to build a franchise into a perennial playoff contender.

I think that if all you want to do is wind OOTP up and then sit back and watch your baseball universe play out over time, the testing done by some indicates the program does a good job of creating a realistic spread of talent using modern rating systems.

BUT I am playing the role of a GM. if I hire a legendary scout, my staff is full of guys that are outstanding or better at development/mechanics/aging, I pour money into my development program, micromanage my prospects and lean towards guys with high work ethic/intelligence/adaptability, I feel like I should hit more on IAFAs and be able to more easily identify talent in the draft pool, and as those kids come up through my system they should develop into stars more often than they are doing now.

What I am seeing, and granted I haven't done a ton of testing like a lot of you have, is even though I do all the stuff mentioned above, it seems kind of arbitrary whether the players in my system develop into solid major league ballplayers. And since the inner workings of how all of this stuff plays out is hidden, I feel like no matter what dial I twist or button I push, it has no real effect on how the players in my system develop. The program is going to spit out a few superstars, some higher level major leaguers, and the rest are league average.

Of course guys are going to bust, my scout will get it wrong sometimes, dudes will be late bloomers, etc etc. But if the same numbers are produced regardless of what I do as GM, well that takes away from the enjoyment I get from the game.

At any rate, thank you devs for the game, I have gotten countless hours of enjoyment out of it. If someone in the know could shed some light on whether my GM decisions have an effect, that would be great. Thanks for reading.

Everything you mention should increase chance, not be a formula for success. If developing players were that easy with the right formula, I'm not sure how fun that would be.

And considering you admitted to having a small sample size, I'm not sure those chance increases would even appear.