Firing/Hiring Manager & Bench Coach

[daxl101]

My team was 18-38 and my roster was pretty good and pitching was solid so I was running out of ideas. I fired my Manager and Bench Coach and am now sitting at 33-40 with my new manager. Is this more of a coincidence then anything else?

[scott1964]

They prob sucked Now go hire decent ones

[kq76]

Are your new managers/coaches ratings much better than the old ones' were? If not, it probably was coincidence. Teams get on streaks some times, good and bad.

[endgame]

A 15-2 streak is quite the streak.

[daxl101]

Well the 15-2 streak became a 4-17 streak. This is so disheartening I was 25 GB of .500 then won those 15 games and and have no lost 17. I don't know what to do anymore. Roy Halladay is 2-15 A.J. Burnett is 4-11! These are good pitchers, why are they doing so poor.

[kq76]

Originally Posted by endgame

A 15-2 streak is quite the streak.

It is, but the real life Blue Jays just broke a 0-7 streak.

I love this pic of new old manager Cito Gaston and prospect Adam Lind who hit a homer after being called up today:

[daxl101]

I called Lind up awhile ago but he hasn't helped either. I may need to call Cito and ask what the trick is. My starters all have 5+ ERA is this a defense issue? Every starter is getting rocked for 3 runs in the 1st inning.

[bphilipb]

Dax-

Shake it up a little. Send some people down or call some people up. See what is in the farm system. Make a few trades. Shop some players around. What kind of pitching are you looking for? I usually rebuild my teams through the draft. I add a couple veterans here and there but I will usually take my lumps my first couple seasons then see how my players I drafted are doing.

I make the game as hard as I can on myself. This time around I took the Washington Nationals. They are terrible and have nobody in the farm system. So I look at different guys to see who might be of trade value. I add prospects but I usually try and keep a veteran core of starting pitching and a decent closer. Then I try to develop all that through the farm system and bring them up slowly. Hopefully, with a little luck, I will contend for a championship. I had a great four year run with the Nats/Expos on OOTP6/6.5. I slowly developed my guys through the draft, hired the right minor league coaches, made the right trades, and spent a little money on the FA market. Everything came together and I won the World Series in 4 years. It was my first title with such a bad team to start with.

One tip I have for you is make sure your farm guys are playing at the right levels so they develop correctly. The next tip is to check your coaching staff at the lower levels. Make sure they are pretty solid.

It sounds like you need to clean house like the real life Mariners are doing. Get after it.

[daxl101]

Originally Posted by bphilipb

One tip I have for you is make sure your farm guys are playing at the right levels so they develop correctly. The next tip is to check your coaching staff at the lower levels. Make sure they are pretty solid.

I think I'll clean my minor coaches out, when it comes to A, AA & AAA how do you know what level they should remain at. Is it if they're performing well or do you go by there current statistics like someone who's all 1's stays in A mid level guy goes to AA, etc. ?

Also I have an 9-0 pitcher in AAA but he only has one star rating and one star potential, could this be a future ML pitcher?

[bphilipb]

Originally Posted by daxl101

I think I'll clean my minor coaches out, when it comes to A, AA & AAA how do you know what level they should remain at. Is it if they're performing well or do you go by there current statistics like someone who's all 1's stays in A mid level guy goes to AA, etc. ?

Also I have an 9-0 pitcher in AAA but he only has one star rating and one star potential, could this be a future ML pitcher?

Well, this is the beauty and curse of baseball. Nothing is absolute. I will answer your second question first. Could he be a ML pitcher? Sure he can... Is that one star from your Scouting Director or someone else? I would look at his track record, his age, his stats, the coaching staff at the AAA level. Is the pitching coach pretty good? Sometimes, just like in real life players can get mis-scouted. Look at the real life Mike Piazza. He was a late draft pick
by the Dodgers and they did it as a favor. Look what happened. The same can happen in the game. Personally I wouldn't think he would hold up. I have a feeling that when you call him up, he might get rocked but I don't know. Take a chance and see what happens. With your record right now you have nothing to lose.

Now for your first question.... Get the minor league report from your scouting director (which is on the manger screen, right hand side). He will have recommendations for you. Then what I do, is do more investigation of those recommendations. I look at pitching records and batting averages. I will click on the player and look at some past stats. Not to be too time consuming but I enjoy that aspect of the game. For example, if you have a 27 year old right hander with a 2-2 record and a 3.46 era in A ball, cut him right now. Most likely he has one star and way under-performing. But, if you see a guy who is batting .426 with 15 HR's and it is only June, don't leave him in A ball. Get him up to AA and then check back in a couple weeks to see how he is doing. If he is still killing the ball you have the option of keeping him at AA or maybe even sending him up to AAA. That is the beauty of baseball. You never know how things are going to turn out. Just keep an eye on things depending on how you play the game.

You will get better with time on knowing your roster and your minor league system the more you play. You will see trends, hot hitters or pitchers, and you will also see dead weight. Try and keep the dead weight out of your system. I usually try and throw those guys in the back end of trades.

Good luck