Handling Day-to-Day injuries

[pgjocki]

Has anyone seen any impact in performance or likelihood of long term injuries by playing a guy with a Day-to-Day (D2D) injury?

My starting SS has a strained oblique that has a recovery time of 3 weeks but only rated as minimal for impact to hitting, throwing, and running. Part of me thinks I should just power through it; but, the other part of me realizes I just gave this guy a 10 year $350 million dollar contract and that this could backfire on me in ways that I'll never recover.

So, do I just ship him off to the IL, I can do 10 days then have him rehab to cover the 3 weeks, and get my 2B/SS sitting in AAA some major league At Bats?

Thoughts or concerns?

[Syd Thrift]

If you play someone through injury they have a heightened chance of getting another injury and it’s that that can cause the permanent performance hits. That said, I pay attention to what the injury is and from there determine whether it’s going to affect things. Like, there’s no way I’m using a pitcher through a throwing injury, no way, no how, and the same goes for catchers and third basemen. I’m pretty sure the game uses the individual proneness ratings for this and so playing a 3B through a sore arm is a great way IME to create a first baseman. On the other hand I tend to ignore Minimal injuries to, say, first basemen and catchers because why would I care if a guy who used to steal three bases a year now steals one? Also I think generally speaking harder defensive positions (and especially pitchers) just get more “injury chances” and so you want to avoid them, whereas you could even just move some guys to DH while they’re hurt and the chances of reinjury are minimal.

I will say that this is based on personal observations, not any study of the game.

[Brad K]

If you're in contention, star player like this I'd probably start him every second day, maybe every third day, and list him as the #1 PH.

[Pelican]

I have a great prospect in AAA who is hitting around .370 with power, and stealing bases, despite having an injury described as day-to-day (pulled muscle). I tried resting him for a couple of days, with no change. Now, with September roster expansion, he is making his major league debut. I don’t usually intervene; but after four weeks of “day-to-day” with no discernible effect, I felt enough was enough. So I went in as Commissioner and eliminated the injury. I don’t understand how a “day-to-day” injury like that could not heal or get worse for a month, through sitting out. And, his play was completely unaffected, so far as I could tell from the stats. No idea what was going on there. His injury propensity is actually quite low.

Ordinarily, if given the choice, I would rest a guy in the minor leagues with a minor injury, maybe even put him on the IL for ten days, to avoid the risk of a more serious injury. I missed this one at first, and his performance was so eye-popping, I didn’t want to take him out of the lineup. When I did, no change. Curious.

[Syd Thrift]

The unknown DtD injuries are just a pain, although they do map real life pretty well I think. If a guy’s playing well through one, especially if the effects are Minimal, sure, keep them in the lineup. The main thing those affect, aside from the sometimes small effect on ratings, is their chances of being injured in the future. But yeah they can linger on and on and on. It’s frustrating but they do happen in the actual game too: how often do you hear about a guy who’s got some sort of hand injury he’s just going to play through before getting it worked on at the end of the year, for example, or the guy who is sitting out with something innocuous like a strained hamstring that just won’t go away? Resting does help but I think it just increases the daily chance that the unknown duration will expire or (occasionally) turn into a known length injury (I think more often it goes the other way around - playing a player through a week long injury turns it into a chronic one).

I get that it’s nice to know these things but I think as it is we know way too much about how long an injury is going to last tbh.

[Pelican]

One more curiosity is whether having an "All-Star team doctor" would make any difference in prevention and rehab from minor injuries, permitting guys to play on a DTD basis with less risk of injury and better performance. OOTP lets us choose a trainer (known today as "athletic trainer" in redundant-speak) of high reputation, with known skills like prevention and rehab. Does anyone have a feel for whether finding such a gem makes any difference in injuries and time lost?

[Brad K]

I assume manager, coaches, and trainers have a significant effect in games with fictional players and, for managers and coaches, a lot less in games with historical players. With trainers and historical players, I assume they have a greater effect than managers or coaches and possibly as much as they have with fictional players.

I don't have any proof of this or even evidence to support it. But if personnel has too great an effect historical players are less likely to perform within plausible distance of their historical performance.