Friggin spring training injuries!!!!

[mpbarnet]

Wow. As I'm learning the nuances of the game, I have come to realize that spring training is the most treacherous place on the planet. Roman wars have been fought that resulted in less casulties. Just this year alone, I lost my #2, #4, and #5 hitters (oh, that's at 2B, LF, and C) and my #2 starting pitcher. All to major injuries.

Last year alone I didn't lose this. I would venture to say that no team in the history of baseball has been crippled like this in spring training.

Is this a glitch? I'll be searching for the part of the game that lets me undo some of the craziness!

[1998 Yankees]

Originally Posted by mpbarnet

Wow. As I'm learning the nuances of the game, I have come to realize that spring training is the most treacherous place on the planet. Roman wars have been fought that resulted in less casulties. Just this year alone, I lost my #2, #4, and #5 hitters (oh, that's at 2B, LF, and C) and my #2 starting pitcher. All to major injuries.

Last year alone I didn't lose this. I would venture to say that no team in the history of baseball has been crippled like this in spring training.

Is this a glitch? I'll be searching for the part of the game that lets me undo some of the craziness!

No, not a glitch but a design decision as far as I know. It's supposed to reflect real life, as apparently injuries occur more frequently during ST than during regular season. If it bugs you, try dialing down the injury frequency setting in your game for the duration of ST.

[redranger]

I feel your pain (no pun intended

Which is exactly why I use my known starters (pitchers and field) extremely less

I tend to use them very seldom for the forst 15 games and by the end (last 2-3) have them playing omre.

I absolutely love this feature of the game though.

[Isura]

Try injury log's injury file. It reduces season ending/long term injuries. I just disable ST because there's really no point to it, and it messes up service years for minor leaguers.

[StyxNCa]

Originally Posted by redranger

I feel your pain (no pun intended

Which is exactly why I use my known starters (pitchers and field) extremely less

I tend to use them very seldom for the forst 15 games and by the end (last 2-3) have them playing omre.

I absolutely love this feature of the game though.

I do the same. My starters may play 3 or 4 innings a game with 2 days off each week, including the scheduled day off, until the last week when they play full time.

[PhillieFever]

Originally Posted by mpbarnet

Wow. As I'm learning the nuances of the game, I have come to realize that spring training is the most treacherous place on the planet. Roman wars have been fought that resulted in less casulties. Just this year alone, I lost my #2, #4, and #5 hitters (oh, that's at 2B, LF, and C) and my #2 starting pitcher. All to major injuries.

Last year alone I didn't lose this. I would venture to say that no team in the history of baseball has been crippled like this in spring training.

Is this a glitch? I'll be searching for the part of the game that lets me undo some of the craziness!

Unfortunately,injuries are part of the game,and although you wouldn't think so,the game is actually way low when it comes to injury frequency as compared to real life.When I first started playing the game I felt the same way you did but after checking the facts,I found that I was mistaken.

[conception]

Originally Posted by StyxNCa

I do the same. My starters may play 3 or 4 innings a game with 2 days off each week, including the scheduled day off, until the last week when they play full time.

That's what I do as well. I like to use ST to give my younger players some development time, maybe working on positions. I try and setup positions battles for certain positions that are up for grabs as well. Like in real life, ST isn't always a great indicator of regular season performance, but I'm still much more inclined to go with the guy that did well than the one who didn't.

[sayheykid]

I find I have good years(only a few minor ujuries) and bad years (players lost for the year). I always make sure I have the best team doctor that money can buy, and that helps a lot.

However, some good can come of it. Several times injuries have forced me to bring up a low rated player quite a few times over the course of 3 or 4 years and have had that player become a very good utility man. They may be rated as 1 star potential and end up playing at 2-3 stars rating. I only bring up players with at least one good attribute (good hitting, base running or good defense at several positions).

[TribeFanInNC]

While I believe this is a feature (as described above) and not a bug, I'm not real fond of it either.

Couple things I do to minimize the damage:
1) Call up as many pitchers as possible. Since your starters only pitch 4 innings, the bullpen gets tired very easy. Make sure your pitching depth chart is completely full, including extra setup guys and closers. Also rotate them if need be to make sure they don't get burned out.
2) Manually schedule an extra off day or two - again helps with the getting tired thing.
3) 7-day lineups can be your friend. Set up a lineup where everybody gets off every third day or so. I find this works better than just changing your depth chart.

Good luck.

[injury log]

Out of curiosity, does anyone know if this 'feature' is actually based on any real world evidence? Or is it just to make up for the lack of off-season injuries - pitchers coming to camp complaining of elbow soreness and that sort of thing? I guess I've got a couple of spreadsheets full of this data, so I'll pull them out and take a look at some point - a bit short on time right now.

[conception]

Originally Posted by injury log

Out of curiosity, does anyone know if this 'feature' is actually based on any real world evidence? Or is it just to make up for the lack of off-season injuries - pitchers coming to camp complaining of elbow soreness and that sort of thing? I guess I've got a couple of spreadsheets full of this data, so I'll pull them out and take a look at some point - a bit short on time right now.

My guess would be a mix of both scenarios you mentioned. What happens a lot in ST is that guys don't always get "injured" in one particular instance but instead pitchers have a hard time getting it going and they later find out that the pitcher has some issues.

[Afino]

I disable ST injuries. Solves things rather quickly, realistic or not.

[conception]

Originally Posted by Afino

I disable ST injuries. Solves things rather quickly, realistic or not.

You're missing out on part of the fun though. Sure, its frustrating to see one of your best players get hurt, but there really is no better time to have that happen than ST and solving the problem that has arisen is what makes OOTP enjoyable. For example, one of the best hitters in my league's history also happened to be my leadoff hitter. He had a string of like 8 years in a row with 100+ steals so it was hard to take him out of the leadoff spot. Because he got injured, he decided to start my speed oriented 2B prospect instead of my power oriented prospect because I needed a leadoff hitter. Well he turned in a .330, 20 hr, 70 steal season, and my former leadoff hitter became a great #3. If this had not happened, or had even happened at a different time, I'd be looking at an entirely different lineup.

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally Posted by mpbarnet

Roman wars have been fought that resulted in less casulties.

Hahaha! That made me laugh quite hard

[redranger]

yep...just lost my future star (or as my scout suggest...possible future hall of famer) closer only 4 games into the spring. He wont be back until after the start of the season...I am real curious to see how this affects him early in the season.

[Raidergoo]

Originally Posted by mpbarnet

Wow. As I'm learning the nuances of the game, I have come to realize that spring training is the most treacherous place on the planet. Roman wars have been fought that resulted in less casulties. Just this year alone, I lost my #2, #4, and #5 hitters (oh, that's at 2B, LF, and C) and my #2 starting pitcher. All to major injuries.

Last year alone I didn't lose this. I would venture to say that no team in the history of baseball has been crippled like this in spring training.

Is this a glitch? I'll be searching for the part of the game that lets me undo some of the craziness!

I request that you do me a favor. Please bookmark this link:

MLB Injuries - CBSSports.com

Please check that link on March 31 and then again on July 1, and see what real world injuries look like.

[Curtis]

Like several of the previous posters, I don't give any one guy too many innings during ST. I set the League Strategy to 'six man rotation', then never pitch a starter more than three innings and never pitch a reliever more than one. I also use the DH setting during ST, though I turn it off during the regular season. I have two completely seperate lineups, one for facing lefties and one for right, and no one plays more than five innings in the field or two plate appearances, whichever is longer, when they do start.

How did it work? I only had one injury during St this year. To my best hitter. In the 8th inning of the final game. He'll be out for six weeks.

[kq76]

Thanks for the tips, guys. We're coming to spring training for the first time in an online league I'm in and I doubt many know about this stuff. I'll be sure to point out the thread.

Besides more frequent injuries, the other things about spring training that are important to know are:

-players on the 2ndary roster (40 man) can be moved to the active roster (without the penalty of service time) to participate in ST, but only the active roster participates. So that means you don't have to worry about service time for guys already on the secondary roster, but you do have to decide whether it is worth promoting guys from the minors who are not on the secondary roster. See the 2nd point for why you'd want more players to participate as well as the reasons above to decrease the chances of your starters suffering injuries.

-it's easier for a player to learn a new position in ST than at any other time of the year.

[Curtis]

Originally Posted by kq76

-it's easier for a player to learn a new position in ST than at any other time of the year.

Good point. I started teaching four each of my outfielders and infielders new positions this year, hoping to improve my flexibility and resistance to injury in the future..

[satchel]

Originally Posted by injury log

Or is it just to make up for the lack of off-season injuries...

There are offseason injuries, in the game. Maybe they're less frequent than real-life injuries, but I see players have accidents, get sick, etc., during the offseason.