Ratings for Promotions/Development?

[American_Ernesider]

I am guessing what follows has been widely discussed, but I wasn't sure if there were any good threads or thoughts...

With regards to developing talent, are there any norms to follow when placing a player at a specific level? Are there certain rating levels that are generally used to place a player at A, AA, or AAA? For example, if you have player with a lot of potential but pretty low ratings...where will you place him, what causes you to promote/demote (ratings, stats, etc)?

Thanks

[DrSatan]

Here, I copied this from my post in another thread. Hope it helps.

I've been playing with development speeds and promoting minor leaguers to try and find a consistent method for handling prospects and aviod ratings hits. I've tried increasing dev speed to 1.25 up to 1.5. This will speed up the time it takes for a prospect to hit their potential. This also decreases the amount of stagnant time, which seems to invite a ratings drop. In my experience, anytime a prospect is stagnant (no ratings improvement for a period of time) their potential drops. I also set random rating changes to 50. I don't care what anybody says, this setting is skewed towards negative random ratings changes. I also only play with R, A, AA, AAA. I changed the schedule so R and A play 120 games. As most people have experienced, having a player on the field will help his ratings, that's why I increased the season length. I play with a 0-100 ratings scale. I promote hitters based on contact. Over 30 I promote to A, 40 AA, 50 AAA. I also consider power and gap power, so if guy's contact is low but he has a lot of power I'll promote him and keep an eye on his ratings. Sometimes I'll catch a break and these kind of players will improve their contact potential. I use the same approach to pitchers, but I try to have at least 2 of 3 categories meeting the criteria. For example, if I have a pitcher in R and his ratings are Stuff 20, Mov 35, Con 36 I'll promote him to A. This method isn't fool proof, I still get some busts, but far less then I used to. I also check what the AI recommends. If the AI recommends "ready for X" then you should probably promote him even if the ratings are low. The AI has an uncanny way of knowing a guy is going to get a ratings jump if promoted, but beware of the gold glovers with speed. The AI loves to promote these guys before they're ready. Oh, I don't use scouts or managers or moral. I've never liked the system for moral, the scouts can't make up their minds about anything, and I fail to see what effect managers have on anything. I'm not saying my strategy is the best, but I'm getting much better results now.

[Lintyfresh]

Originally Posted by DrSatan

Here, I copied this from my post in another thread. Hope it helps.

I've been playing with development speeds and promoting minor leaguers to try and find a consistent method for handling prospects and aviod ratings hits. I've tried increasing dev speed to 1.25 up to 1.5. This will speed up the time it takes for a prospect to hit their potential. This also decreases the amount of stagnant time, which seems to invite a ratings drop. In my experience, anytime a prospect is stagnant (no ratings improvement for a period of time) their potential drops. I also set random rating changes to 50. I don't care what anybody says, this setting is skewed towards negative random ratings changes. I also only play with R, A, AA, AAA. I changed the schedule so R and A play 120 games. As most people have experienced, having a player on the field will help his ratings, that's why I increased the season length. I play with a 0-100 ratings scale. I promote hitters based on contact. Over 30 I promote to A, 40 AA, 50 AAA. I also consider power and gap power, so if guy's contact is low but he has a lot of power I'll promote him and keep an eye on his ratings. Sometimes I'll catch a break and these kind of players will improve their contact potential. I use the same approach to pitchers, but I try to have at least 2 of 3 categories meeting the criteria. For example, if I have a pitcher in R and his ratings are Stuff 20, Mov 35, Con 36 I'll promote him to A. This method isn't fool proof, I still get some busts, but far less then I used to. I also check what the AI recommends. If the AI recommends "ready for X" then you should probably promote him even if the ratings are low. The AI has an uncanny way of knowing a guy is going to get a ratings jump if promoted, but beware of the gold glovers with speed. The AI loves to promote these guys before they're ready. Oh, I don't use scouts or managers or moral. I've never liked the system for moral, the scouts can't make up their minds about anything, and I fail to see what effect managers have on anything. I'm not saying my strategy is the best, but I'm getting much better results now.

How would one come up with a similar scale for a 2-8 ratings league with only A/AA/AAA farm teams in an online league with only specific ratings to go by and not an overall rating or star system? Should I rely a lot on the minor system report, or try to modify your system to a 2-8 scale which would seem a little difficult because I am horrible with math and I can't figure out the 30/40/50 idea you came up with considering all I get is 2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and not ratings like 2.4 or 5.6

BTW if it helps at all, the color scale is as follows.... red-2 orange-3,4 yellow-5 green-6,7 blue-8

[DrSatan]

Originally Posted by Lintyfresh

How would one come up with a similar scale for a 2-8 ratings league with only A/AA/AAA farm teams in an online league with only specific ratings to go by and not an overall rating or star system? Should I rely a lot on the minor system report, or try to modify your system to a 2-8 scale which would seem a little difficult because I am horrible with math and I can't figure out the 30/40/50 idea you came up with considering all I get is 2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and not ratings like 2.4 or 5.6

BTW if it helps at all, the color scale is as follows.... red-2 orange-3,4 yellow-5 green-6,7 blue-8

In your case I would use the color scale and rely on the minor system report. Since you are using just A/AA/AAA, I would promote to AA at 4 and AAA at 5 (yellow). Since a 4 rating can be a range from 40-49, make sure to check you minor league report for additional advice. I usually don't promote to AA unless the contact rating is around 44. Hope this helps

[American_Ernesider]

Thanks for the posts so far. I'm anxious to read more.

[Syd Thrift]

My experience is that ratings drops and raises appear to be closely tied to how a player performs. In that respect, you want to get 18 year olds in a low minor league system or else they're going to post 10.00 ERAs and die on you. That can be problematic if you're running with a shallow minor league system.

[swishbish33]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

My experience is that ratings drops and raises appear to be closely tied to how a player performs. In that respect, you want to get 18 year olds in a low minor league system or else they're going to post 10.00 ERAs and die on you. That can be problematic if you're running with a shallow minor league system.

This has been my experience as well. Even guys who "stagnated" and stayed at, say, AA until they were 25 or so posting mediocre stats, received ratings boosts and turned into good players at the ML level if they had a year at AA where they had great stats. This isn't the norm, but it's happened often enough to make it part of my strategy.

All in all, I promote/demote based on current ratings (regardless of potential ratings) and stats. I find keeping guys at a level where they are producing increases the likelihood they become useful at the ML level courtesy of a ratings boost. Of course, I handle my top prospects with extreme care when compared to a guy who has middling potential ratings.

[Hazza]

I shoot for the averages, .300 is where it's at for me for the hitters, untill they hit AAA ball, and either: start developing "actual" ratings (Ie: 1-2 stars outta 5) or have better ratings then the guy I'm starting. Once they're reached that I play them off the bench for a while, and with a year on the bench they should develope into a starting hitter.

Pretty much look like a guy like Kevin Youkilis, a year in each league then a year on and off the bench, and then he's in the majors.

As pointed out above, if you promote a hitter too early, his contact may not develope properly so what out for that.

As for the pitcher? I do the same only I shoot for an ERA of 4 or so, and a fair chunk of wins, once they're up to AAA ball and have a stuff of 10, or are nearly maxed out but lack the control I pop them into the bullpen for starters, and then see how it goes from their. Don't start them too early, I had a stud prospect go 2-0 with a 2.00 ERA from the bull pen, and then I dropped him into the rotation and he finshed 2-3 with a 5.00 ERA.

I do the same with Closers, which is easier becuase they tend to get their stuff up quicker which means they're a handy 3-4th bull pen arm.

Relivers? They're cheap as chips so I don't frett too much about blowing their arms out at a young age.

edit: Having used this sysem, I've never lost a pitcher once he's in the bigs. I've lost a 5 star hitting prospect from 5-star to 4-star because I rushed him into the starting spot in like his 3rd year in the league. (After a year of AAA ball.) and he wasn't quite the contact hitter I envisioned, but his power numbers were there. Also remember with power numbers they take a while to kick in, so if you get the kid when he's 18 don't frett if he isn't popping them over the wall with gay abandon.