AI Mismanaging Talent

[bly08]

In the fourth year of my modern day MLB league I've noticed that the AI often does not bother to call up or protect their top prospects. The most recent Rule 5 draft was filled with 5 star prospects that were impossible to trade for a few months prior. This is the current waiver wire where top prospects are exchanged regularly. I'm in challenger mode using normal accuracy and a good scout, running MLB + two international leagues, no ghost players, default modifiers.

[Calvert98]

I don’t use the Stars anymore, but that does seem odd. I did notice you have a great Scout; I wonder how OSA looks at them.

And it might just be an odd year (could happen from time to time). Have you seen other years such as this?

I’d be curious if other folks are seeing this.

[WIUPIKE]

Are you playing with relative ratings on? Are the ratings based off position or overall? Also was there anything in the league with evolution that would cause a reduction in 40 man roster spots?

[Calvert98]

Originally Posted by WIUPIKE

Are you playing with relative ratings on? Are the ratings based off position or overall? Also was there anything in the league with evolution that would cause a reduction in 40 man roster spots?

All good questions.

He mentioned that he is playing in Challenge Mode. Are those items set to default in Challenge Mode? Sort of like, would these be part of a standard setting.

[bly08]

All default; absolute ratings, based off position, no evolution. Eval settings are locked to 65/20/10/5 in challenger mode. I did set lineup selection to sabermetric but I doubt that's relevant.

I just gave away a stud CF who has 91 days of service time and was on pace for ~7 WAR last season. He was hurt at the beginning of the year but the AI has kept him in AAA for the entire season while playing a one star 1 WAR journeyman.

[HonusWagner]

Yea, I had a fictional league expansion draft, where each established team had a protection list of players not to be drafted. The ai left the previous season's ROTY unprotected....

[HonusWagner]

You'll notice the ROTY icon beside his salary and his expansion draft pick status beside "Acquired"...

[bly08]

Francisco Mejia just signed a $75m deal out of minor league free agency with no service time. Four days later he was claimed from waivers by another team. The team that originally signed him did not have a full 40 man roster.

There seems to be a handful of top prospects that the AI refuses to call up no matter what. They all have 0 days of service time and have all been passed around the league through waivers and rule 5. I can't peek at real ratings but I am certain their scouted ratings are fairly accurate. They've all torn up every level over multiple full seasons and their ratings have been stable.

My only non-default league settings are:

- checked disable right to refuse assignment
- checked block fictional player from reaching majors (not sure if this affects modern day MLB leagues)
- checked allow draft pick trading and trading of recently drafted players.

Mejia's contract suggests he's being properly valued in FA at least. This does not happen to every top prospect. I'm guessing it has something to do with GM or manager tendencies?

[pgjocki]

Is Mejia a fictional player? If you are blocking fictionals that could explain it

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[bly08]

Mejia is a real prospect in the Indians system, rated either the top or second best catcher on most pre-2017 lists.

I forgot what my settings used to be in previous OOTP versions but I think I've always had the "disable fictional players from reaching majors" option checked. I never thought about it, but I'm guessing I should turn it off for modern day MLB starts? Don't think it was ever a problem in last year's version iirc. Either way, the affected prospects are all real. Most of them were in the top 100 at the start of the game and were ready by 2019/2020. As of the 2021 offseason, none of them have any service time but all have played multiple seasons of AAA ball where they've crushed.

[Markus Heinsohn]

I guess something is off in your league. Usually the AI does a good job handling its roster, and in my tests the waiver wire never has any good prospects on it etc. Not sure what is causing the issue in your league...

[bly08]

I started a new game with the same settings except with blocking fictional players turned off. Mejia got called up in July 2017. Seems that was the problem. AI is mistaking real players for fictional ones. Will play on to see if anything changes.

[Markus Heinsohn]

I downloaded your league and checked it. The problem is a wrong league setting, you have the "block fictional players from reaching majors" option enabled in the league rules section ("Minor league settings", left side, last setting). When you disable it, the problem goes away the next day.

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally Posted by bly08

I started a new game with the same settings except with blocking fictional players turned off. Mejia got called up in July 2017. Seems that was the problem. AI is mistaking real players for fictional ones. Will play on to see if anything changes.

Yes, that is the problem. Only MLB players are considered "real" from the standard game.