Can we please get some way to tell who the trouble causers are!?

[NotMuchTime]

Originally Posted by curt

That won't work for me. I am the manager.

You should do the right thing and resign gracefully.

[Hammercraft]

Originally Posted by curt

That won't work for me. I am the manager.

I had a problem last night with the Brewers and they had a lot of positive players on the roster but still had team chemistry problems. Two things:

First, I did a league-wide player search for the players with the highest leadership and found one that was an older 1.5-star player who had the "real team leader"-type description (Justin Morneau, in this case). I traded away a pitching prospect for him and despite my roster having a number of guys who were positive, I got that special message saying that the clubhouse really appreciated his new leadership.

Second, I sought out the guys with terrible morale and looked at them in the editor in commissioner mode. After every game, even if we lost, their morale began to improve. It was significant to note that the problem was established and even the right conditions would take time to fix it. I got a message from one player *after* the trade saying "do soemthing!" but when I looked at his morale numbers after every game they were continuing to improve. Eventually the situation got better and by the end of the season we were playing .500 ball and people were pretty happy - just in time to build the team again for next year.

[SlinkyTWF]

I am compelled to agree with the original post. I had a team self-destruct on me over two seasons because of this. While I absolutely love the intent of the mechanic, and want to play with it on, the simple inability to figure out who the serious problem players is ruins the game when it happens. In the end, I just quit the team out of disgust. Fortunately, I'm legendary, so I was hired again by another first place team the next day. Still... This mechanic is buggered up. It doesn't have "simulation value" when, in real life, the manager could simply interview the players or just listen to their banter since he lives with them most of the year.

[Hammercraft]

Originally Posted by SlinkyTWF

I am compelled to agree with the original post. I had a team self-destruct on me over two seasons because of this. While I absolutely love the intent of the mechanic, and want to play with it on, the simple inability to figure out who the serious problem players is ruins the game when it happens. In the end, I just quit the team out of disgust. Fortunately, I'm legendary, so I was hired again by another first place team the next day. Still... This mechanic is buggered up. It doesn't have "simulation value" when, in real life, the manager could simply interview the players or just listen to their banter since he lives with them most of the year.

Maybe you should be able to send your bench coach out to assess the clubhouse (or a minor league team) the same way you send a scout to evaluate a player

[Matt Arnold]

We're always looking at ways to improve this. I do agree right now we don't have quite enough easy access to info about this, so we'll look to tweak things over the course of the summer and next year to give you the right information that you need.

[sentry85]

i agree there shouldn't be an exact team chemistry rating, and that sometimes it might not be clear where the morale problem lies. sometimes though it is painfully obvious such as a Terrell Owens situation, and if it is that obvious a team leader or bench coach should be able to alert the manager or GM. in a similar line of thought it would be interesting to get occasional updates as far as coach effects on players. for example: hitting coach Joe smith took struggling rookie first baseman under his wing and improved his contact rating by 2.

[jpeters1734]

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

We're always looking at ways to improve this. I do agree right now we don't have quite enough easy access to info about this, so we'll look to tweak things over the course of the summer and next year to give you the right information that you need.

Music to my ears!

[Hammercraft]

Originally Posted by sentry85

i agree there shouldn't be an exact team chemistry rating, and that sometimes it might not be clear where the morale problem lies. sometimes though it is painfully obvious such as a Terrell Owens situation, and if it is that obvious a team leader or bench coach should be able to alert the manager or GM. in a similar line of thought it would be interesting to get occasional updates as far as coach effects on players. for example: hitting coach Joe smith took struggling rookie first baseman under his wing and improved his contact rating by 2.

That would be interesting, if you could send your staff out on assignment to work with players who have character issues and try to improve them

Assign to Work With > Bench Coach > 2B Miles B. Yond

"We talked about what's bothering him, and it's lack of playing time. If we gave him a few more starts it might help"

Assign to Work With > Pitching Coach > RP Grow Aspine

"Some people are just plain mean. i might have made the problem worse."

[AlpineSK]

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

We're always looking at ways to improve this. I do agree right now we don't have quite enough easy access to info about this, so we'll look to tweak things over the course of the summer and next year to give you the right information that you need.

Thank you! Some level of interaction like a "closed door chat" with a player or "team meeting" having an effect based on the personality of the manager or players would be HUGE.

[Greenbay]

What has worked for me is to look for players who are angry and have a "me first" attitude. Then try to trade them. I've done this twice were other players have thanked me for getting rid of that player. Now, before I sign or trade for a player I pay close attention to his personality. If he's a potential trouble maker I think twice.
Of course winning solves most problems. The A's of the early 70's had a zoo for a clubhouse and won 3 straight championships.

[dcd111]

Originally Posted by Hammercraft

Maybe you should be able to send your bench coach out to assess the clubhouse (or a minor league team) the same way you send a scout to evaluate a player

I like this idea, it feels realistic and parallels other existing game mechanics. After all, a GM probably wouldn't know why team chemistry is terrible without input from the coaching staff, and even the manager might not fully recognize what is going on without some input from his coaching staff. There's no reason we should have to wait until mid-season, like the staff is prohibited from speaking with each other in the meantime.

Some other ways of handling it would be through news stories. A news story here and there about troublemakers saying obnoxious things about their teammates, either publicly or privately, or reported rumors that certain players are causing problems.

Not to go too far off topic, but I think more interaction back and forth between the GM, manager and/or coaching staff (and team morale could be one area where this interaction could be useful) would make the GM-only role or manager-only role more interesting. As GM, I should have the option of giving the manager some heat over who he is using on a day-to-day basis without having to actually take over the team. I don't want to fill out the lineup card, finding a manager who fits the team I'm trying to build is an interesting part of the challenge with the GM role. But if I sign a big free-agent closer in the off-season and the manager decides to keep the clearly over-the-hill veteran in that slot way longer than he should, I should be able to say something about it. Maybe the GM should be able to set some goals or give general direction to the manager the way the owner sets goals for me.

And in reverse, a manager only should be able to say to the GM, look, this player is causing problems despite his output, I really need him out of here. Or, I desperately need another usable arm out of the pen to compete for the division, etc.

[endgame]

Can we please get some way to tell who the trouble causers are!?

I think if we cull the list of users in this thread, we'll be halfway to identifying them.