Work ethic

[Dr. Strangelove]

Playing mostly historic games I think that those who have reached majors should have less variable work ethic/intelligence. Having many major leaguers with work ethic of 50 is odd as they had to work tremendously to reach the majors. The same with guys like Ted Williams getting less than 100.

Shouldn't the guys who have reached the majors quickly and remained there have work ethic of more like 150+, the legends around 180+, while those who reached he, briefly and/or late around 100?

[Dr. Strangelove]

Another thing - how does it influence my historical players if I'm using OOTP player development? Is it possible that with low work ethic they will develop significantly slower than in real life?

[joefromchicago]

Originally Posted by Dr. Strangelove

Shouldn't the guys who have reached the majors quickly and remained there have work ethic of more like 150+, the legends around 180+, while those who reached he, briefly and/or late around 100?

Short answer: no.

Long answer: some players work really hard to get into and stay in the majors. Others, with an abundance of natural talent, don't, just like some players run to first base on a walk and some jog halfway to first on an infield grounder before heading for the dugout. Being in the majors is no guarantee that the player got there through hard work and it's no guarantee that the player continues to work hard once he has made it. This story from today's Chicago Tribune provides something of an insight:

As the Cubs concluded their last workout at their spring training complex, Maddon was reminded about the “cavalier” effort put into cutoff and relay drills that forced him to install some remedial drills in 2015.“You always have those one or two dudes (thinking), ‘I’m a big leaguer. We don’t need to do that stuff anymore,’ ” Maddon said. “There’s not a more annoying phrase out of anyone’s mouth when they don’t think they have to do anything anymore because they think they’re beyond that.
“Players today don’t have a lot of the fundamental base they need, and it has to be taught on the major-league level. So for the group that always has fought that, I would be wary of that person fighting it. Because more often than not, they were lacking in some of those areas.”