International Free Agents (Not Scout Finds) - Is This Intended?

[JMDurron]

So, finally having finished my first season in my modern MLB franchise, I have hit my first crop of International Free Agents. I took a look at a couple of the FAs in the Editor using Commish Mode, and I saw something rather odd to me in several cases.

The first case is a 30-year old catcher.



Note that he is 30 years old, but has an absolutely HUGE spread between his current and potential ratings. For a normal player, this gap would presumably not exist by age 30, but is there some kind of different current/potential mix in play here for International FAs, so that they end up progressing somewhere between their worthless current ratings and awesome potential ratings, even when they are long past their development times?

I'm not sure whether I'm looking at a clever way to keep an international FA with great potential from tearing up the league from day 1, or some kind of design issue where the player's lack of a real development curve has led to a permanent gap between the current and potential ratings. The potential is so awesome, yet the age is so far past normal development time...I'm just stumped here.

[JMDurron]

I should probably add that this player is not alone. Out of a class of 7 International FAs, 2 have crazy potential ratings, and another has legitimate star potential. All 3, along with the 4 low-ceiling guys, have lousy current ratings.

I guess my real question is whether this potential rating is still meaningful at such an advanced age. Any insight here?

[Pacoheadley]

Originally Posted by JMDurron

I should probably add that this player is not alone. Out of a class of 7 International FAs, 2 have crazy potential ratings, and another has legitimate star potential. All 3, along with the 4 low-ceiling guys, have lousy current ratings.

I guess my real question is whether this potential rating is still meaningful at such an advanced age. Any insight here?

I honestly don't know for sure, and I have always assumed it was either a bug or a logic error by Markus, but haven't said anything about it. These players have no chance of playing up to their potential, so I see no point in them having high potentials but low ratings. Maybe this was intended to create an extra fog-of-war by having a wide range of ratings the player could actually have (from them playing overseas), but it doesn't work that way in practice unfortunately.

[jmount78]

I have had these types of international players as free agents. I think it is the same concept as scouting a Japanese player from the Nippon League and scouts believing that the league is really at the Triple A level. Maybe this has an affect on the potential ratings.

[JMDurron]

Originally Posted by Pacoheadley

I honestly don't know for sure, and I have always assumed it was either a bug or a logic error by Markus, but haven't said anything about it. These players have no chance of playing up to their potential, so I see no point in them having high potentials but low ratings. Maybe this was intended to create an extra fog-of-war by having a wide range of ratings the player could actually have (from them playing overseas), but it doesn't work that way in practice unfortunately.

So, in practice, none of these players ever move towards their potential ratings, nevermind all of the way to them?

[Cinnamon J. Scudworth]

Considering the age, I would assume he is on the downward slope of his development curve. Potential represents where he might have maxxed out earlier.

[JMDurron]

Originally Posted by Cinnamon J. Scudworth

Considering the age, I would assume he is on the downward slope of his development curve. Potential represents where he might have maxxed out earlier.

Since he is an International FA who, I believe was created for the sake of being such at age 30, would OOTP have created a player at the end of his development curve, with going from maxed out to a completely worthless player at age 30? I feel like no simple explanation fully explains this, at least not with 3/7 of the international FA pool from the MLB Quickstart.

[Pacoheadley]

Originally Posted by JMDurron

So, in practice, none of these players ever move towards their potential ratings, nevermind all of the way to them?

I haven't seen any of them reach their potential once yet, and most go unsigned, unfortunately.

[Pacoheadley]

Originally Posted by Cinnamon J. Scudworth

Considering the age, I would assume he is on the downward slope of his development curve. Potential represents where he might have maxxed out earlier.

I would believe this if it weren't for the fact that every single international FA comes in like this.

[JMDurron]

Originally Posted by Pacoheadley

I haven't seen any of them reach their potential once yet, and most go unsigned, unfortunately.

This is what makes me think that this might be a design error, as opposed to being how they should develop. I thought it was worth bringing up in here, just in case.

[Cinnamon J. Scudworth]

Originally Posted by JMDurron

Since he is an International FA who, I believe was created for the sake of being such at age 30, would OOTP have created a player at the end of his development curve, with going from maxed out to a completely worthless player at age 30?

Why not? I don't think international FAs were intended to always be potential stars.

[JMDurron]

Originally Posted by Cinnamon J. Scudworth

Why not? I don't think international FAs were intended to always be potential stars.

Completely agreed, but there's a big difference between "always be potential stars" and "always so far under their peak potential despite being at or near their peak age as to be worthless."

I signed a couple of them to minor league deals to see if they improve at all in AAA, but from the sounds of it, they are what they are. My sample size is all of one offseason, but the gulf between current and potential ratings being so huge at such an advanced age just throws me for a bit of a loop.