Is it me??

[Skevich]

I have had three top-tier prospects fizzle out in less than two years. Two were 70/80 potential and the third 65/80. I had them in the development lab both off-season, then called them up when the game recommended, and with 18 months OOTP time they are now sitting at 45 potential. I never experienced such sharp drops especially that fast in the previous versions of this game. I know OOTP25 is more intricate apparently. What am I doing wrong?

[Skevich]

Oh and my farm system went from #1 ranked to #26 in the time in those 18 months because all of my prospects keep crapping out on me. I am not trying to point fingers at this iteration of this game. I truly am asking what I can do differently in this version to keep this from happening to my prospects, (which I never experienced in versions '23 and '24.

[CWess12]

I would suggest not listening to the game's recommendations as to when to promote people and make your own decisions based on a combination of ratings and performance. If you have relative ratings turned on, I would suggest adjusting them to show your player's ratings relative to the level you are thinking of promoting them to and see if it looks like they will be successful or not. It's also important to get an accurate reading of a player's statistical success. Too often I see people promote guys because they think he's lighting a league up, but he's had 100 PA and has a BABIP ~.500, which is inflating his overall line. Make sure the success they are having looks real.

It is almost always better to have players continue to succeed at a lower level than to promote them too quickly and have them fail miserably. This is especially true when promoting guys to MLB. You really need to make sure your guys have reached most of their potential before promoting them. I find more players drop potential and/or fail to continue developing if you put them in MLB too soon. They need to be close to a finished product before you bring them up.

Granted, there are exceptions to this, and some players will respond and develop no matter how you manage their promotions. On the flip side, some guys will just never hit their potential no matter how perfectly and carefully you manage them. They will hit a wall at a certain level of development. That's just baseball and the nature of prospects.

Baseball IRL is full of guys who had all the potential and 70/80-grade tools in the world and "only" ended up becoming solid regulars or average players -- some straight-up bust. A toolsy player reaching his 60-70th percentile outcome is a success! The Mike Trouts and Bryce Harpers are the 1% that hit their 99th percentile outcome and fulfill all of their potential. That type of outcome should honestly never be your expectation. Most of your guys are going to come up short of their potential.

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[OutS|der]

If any of them where HS players or pitchers then it's normal for them to flame out. Could also just be your scout has a better idea of the player and adjusted their ratings.
Also remember displayed ratings are a combo of offensive/pitching, defensive and baserunning ratings based on league talent. Any change in those 4 factors can affect the displayed rating.

[Bobfather]

Originally Posted by Skevich

Oh and my farm system went from #1 ranked to #26 in the time in those 18 months because all of my prospects keep crapping out on me. I am not trying to point fingers at this iteration of this game. I truly am asking what I can do differently in this version to keep this from happening to my prospects, (which I never experienced in versions '23 and '24.

Once prospects spend enough time in the majors, they no longer count in the farm system rankings, no matter how good or bad they are. So if your top prospects are now in the majors and you have not replaced them with another top prospect, your ranking goes down. I only look at the prospect pipeline myself to see where individual prospects stand not only within my minors but also compared to the rest of the league.