Finding minor league coaches sucks!

[desertnomad]

Is there anything more time consuming and frustrating to find inexperienced managers to fill your lower minors? The menus give no insight if they'll be any good. You can't scroll from one coach to another. Back to main menu. Click on next guy.

I would love it if the next patch could make this system more efficient.

[malor]

Agreed. The only way I have found to make it work a little better is to turn on commissioner mode and view the coach stats through the editor. Sure it may be considered cheating by some, but you have to have some information to make an informed decision, something not provided by the game at this time.


It would be nice it the coaches had ratings in the various categories like the players do so we can filter and sort by them to narrow the list. Would make finding the proper coach much simpler. Real life management does not hire coaches sight unseen. They conduct multiple interviews and review all past available history.


I've also started offering everyone 5-year initial deals and 5-year extensions just so I don't have to search as often and deal with this portion of the game.


This area of the game definitely needs more enhancements. Hopefully the OOTP 18 will see some updates.

[jdw31158]

Originally Posted by desertnomad

Is there anything more time consuming and frustrating to find inexperienced managers to fill your lower minors? The menus give no insight if they'll be any good. You can't scroll from one coach to another. Back to main menu. Click on next guy.

I would love it if the next patch could make this system more efficient.

I found the easiest way is to not bother with it at all. I just designate hiring and firing minor league personnel to the assistant GM.

[Ron.]

Yeh, I just let the AI do the minor league hiring. Unless you're looking at their ratings you're going to screw it up anyway since the AI knows the ratings and hires accordingly.

[jpeters1734]

I do agree that the coach signing screen is not very intuitive. I would also agree that real teams have more info on hires. I think the overall rep is too vague. But I also believe that there is enough information there, like the different styles, to make a decision. Obviously there's no easy way to compare two hitting coaches with no experience but do we really need actual ratings? I think not.

Does it need work? Absolutely, but only at a low priority

[bwburke94]

Agreed. I shouldn't have to resort to spreadsheets just to figure out my coaching staff.

[catcherjul]

A kind of overall and potential for coach would be nice I think. There is a lot of young coaches in real life that get signed for low ball league and they develop! Would add much depth and it would be nice to follow them

[Hammercraft]

Gonna be honest, I just plain cheat when it comes to coaches. I wait until the Hall of Fame voting is done and anyone who won't be on the ballot the following year is turned into a coach with my commissioner powers. I inspect them to see what they'd be good at, change their preference to match, and give them jobs in my system. Right now Ichiro is managing my AA team, and his pitching coach is Adam Wainwright. It's not playing fair, but I don't care because it's fun.

[malor]

I've tried delegating as a solution and ended up with Pitching coaches with lower teach pitch ratings than the hitting coach had and the reverse was also true. Started using the editor at that time to solve the issue. Fired or reassigned a bunch of coaches and my minor league teams started to actually play better and win more games.

Don't trust the AI to do anything unless you are go along behind it to confirm it is doing what you think it should be doing. If you are happy with poor coaching and the resulting poor prospect development, than continue using the AI.

[Ron.]

Originally Posted by malor

I've tried delegating as a solution and ended up with Pitching coaches with lower teach pitch ratings than the hitting coach had and the reverse was also true. Started using the editor at that time to solve the issue. Fired or reassigned a bunch of coaches and my minor league teams started to actually play better and win more games.

Don't trust the AI to do anything unless you are go along behind it to confirm it is doing what you think it should be doing. If you are happy with poor coaching and the resulting poor prospect development, than continue using the AI.

They may not assign them or shuffle them properly when they need to, but they find the quality coaches in my experience.

I used to have a house rule that I'd only look at the ratings after I had hired a coach and the contract was up. I'd try to find young, inexperienced coaches, preferably with significant playing experience. Turns out my guys were nearly always crap, ~80-100 in their top rating, if that. Then it occurred to me to start looking at the ratings in my minor leagues. Turns out the AI had stockpiled a bunch of super-coaches with 150+ in nearly everything. Even the weakest coaches are 100+ in whatever they're coaching.

[discodude5]

I never use coaches because of problems mentioned here, always wanted to but it's too tedious and frustrating, especially compared to how well the players are displayed.
The coaches/managers could be displayed similar to scouts/trainers which I think are good, rated in teach players overall, rookies etc.
With areas they are better at than others so you need to decide if they are a fit for your team.

Real life a hitting coach with 3 years experience would have shown how the batters improved or didn't in avg/hr/bb. Not be unproven like in the game.

Would like something similar to scouting accuracy where you can set how accurate the ratings are because I'm sure some people would like to have it vague like it is right now for more challenge.

[NoOne]

i don't think the coach ratings have a huge effect -- especially in the majors because development ends by late 20's. i could be wrong about it's effect on the win column, too. i've not done enough looking into it, so this is just a "best guess" based on a sample that doesn't give a high % of confidence.

the following applies more to the majors, than the minors:
when running the same season over 2 times i made the same coaches all 200-rated and all 0-rated coaches each run, and i got fairly similar results (* no other factors changed). so, nothing too drastic is happening since range of results overlap to some extent. Also, the difference between 2 potential coaches for any particular rating is nowhere near a 200 spread. pragmatically it's likely a very negligible difference relative to the ratings of available choices.

maybe well-rated coaches will be a big deal if large portions of your team are poor at handling critics/success/failure blah blah blah... this was a very good team all-around in the test -- that's what i want to maximize though... playoff teams. just like my team is constructed mostly for the playoffs and not the regular season.
_______________________

minors:
i want coaches that enhance development -- all other factors are tie-breakers. so, controlling managers that can handle young'ens, and pc/hc that are good at teaching skills, etc..

results don't affect development - law of independent results. affirming the consequent is a logical fallcy - pretty confident they adhere to this in the code. in fact, elevated frequency of anything to an extreme degree may actually help develop the related skill even if it hurts the team's performance. that is, if game repitition is coded as a factor. not a problem in the minors... development > wins

However, i think if they are on the active roster and getting in games fairly regularly, that's all you need to maximize development as far as gametime is concerned. i don't even think you have to play more than 50/50, but i always have minor leagues starting potential over ability in the settings. so the top prospects in the league are gauranteed to get plenty of playing time. *a few slip through due to scouting innaccuracis, but that's the exception definitely not the norm.

______________________________end of minors section

bit off-topic, but majors vs minors should be a completely different thought process, so i'll throw it out there.

for ML managers, i focus on game strategies and coach style (conventional et. al.). after that, apply other stuff that you value to decide between coaches with similar strategies.

hitting and pitching coaches are a bit tougher to evaluate given the information. i'm less sure as to the best strategy for these guys. i just pick the focus that matches how i construct a team: power pitcher focus and neutral or power hitting focuses.


post note:
we can see "teach baserunning" in the coach editor now. i'm like the other comment above, i just cheat with coaches... i very rarely convert former players. i just shortlist the ones with strategies i like, then compare the numbers in the editor after that as a tie-breaker. this makes picking a hc/pc very easy

lately i've been just making a manager named "Coach Surname," then II, III, IV etc... i pop them into my minors ~5years before i retire the preceding iteration - i make sure their rep grows by managing decent minor league teams - the players are league level or borderline next tier quality. so nothing too crazy or time-consuming. i like seeing how their careers compare and slightly adjust strategy to see if i can figure out something better in a systematic way without putting extra effort into it. same with owners -- "Owner Surname," II, III, IV etc.

[NotMuchTime]

Originally Posted by malor

I've tried delegating as a solution and ended up with Pitching coaches with lower teach pitch ratings than the hitting coach had and the reverse was also true. Started using the editor at that time to solve the issue. Fired or reassigned a bunch of coaches and my minor league teams started to actually play better and win more games.

Don't trust the AI to do anything unless you are go along behind it to confirm it is doing what you think it should be doing. If you are happy with poor coaching and the resulting poor prospect development, than continue using the AI.

Don't trust the AI... Like when you are drafting and there are a ton of 'highly rated' (HOF potential) players, so you ask your scout (who supposedly is great) and he suggest a guy with no brains and/or work ethic and says...

"This guy should try his hand at selling insurance"

[Cinnamon J. Scudworth]

I don't sweat over my minor league coaching staff too much. Actually, one thing I like about the current system is that it encourages me to more or less think about a "coaching pipeline" rather than constantly churn through "free agent" coaches -- and I get to know my staff better as a result. I look for young, cheap coaches for my low minors who have notes like "works especially well with young players" and "his reputation will improve"/"he still has room to grow." As openings come up higher in my system, I usually promote coaches from within, unless there's a truly standout coach available on the open market.

[SirMichaelJordan]

Originally Posted by Cinnamon J. Scudworth

I don't sweat over my minor league coaching staff too much. Actually, one thing I like about the current system is that it encourages me to more or less think about a "coaching pipeline" rather than constantly churn through "free agent" coaches -- and I get to know my staff better as a result. I look for young, cheap coaches for my low minors who have notes like "works especially well with young players" and "his reputation will improve"/"he still has room to grow." As openings come up higher in my system, I usually promote coaches from within, unless there's a truly standout coach available on the open market.

Agree I rather hire coaches based on rep, relationships and style rather than best on the market. The old way encourages you to hire new coaches every year until you find the absolute best.

[Curve Ball Dave]

I actually like hiring minor league coaches. After a few years I like to try fresh faces in my low minors. I appoint the best coaches to teams higher up the chain, and see if some new blood can't produce better prospects from the low minors. Just like draft picks who surprise when they pan out, new untested coaches maybe just the answer I was looking for to develop players, or maybe not. But I don't know unless I try and it that uncertainty of what will come next that keeps me playing.

[daves]

Originally Posted by desertnomad

Is there anything more time consuming and frustrating to find inexperienced managers to fill your lower minors? The menus give no insight if they'll be any good. You can't scroll from one coach to another. Back to main menu. Click on next guy.

I would love it if the next patch could make this system more efficient.

I agree. You are ending your season and going to the playoffs and the season stops due to constant messages of firings.

[MrBojangles]

I like Curve Ball Dave's approach. I spend a great deal of time searching around for my minor league coaches. Between that and investing dollars in my minor league system so that I can groom my prospects.

[marc5477]

The older OOTP versions actually had the ratings listed when you went to hire. They removed that feature because apparently some folks found it unrealistic or something. I dont necessarily disagree with that decision because its hard to measure those thing objectively in real life.

What should have happened is that the rating should have been replaced with something else that was more realistic. Coaches are the most important part of the team, more important than players in many cases, even if the sports themselves have yet to acknowledge this to be true. Things I would look for in a coach are background (did he play? how many years?), education (can he solve problems using knowledge rather than gut feeling?), and did he groom any winning teams, or great players? Those are much more important than personality (which a good coach can change based on need), or management style (changeable), or focus (also should be variable and not static).

[desertnomad]

Can coaches quit at the end of the MLB playoffs? It's so annoying to be in the playoffs and you get a message! Coaches leave. The awful thing is that it changes screens, kills game momentum, and kills a lot of fun for me in the playoffs.