More Questions

[bly08]

1. Do most people play with the default aging modifiers and TCR for 14?

2. I'm not sure how to interpret Fenway's ballpark factors. It's barely a hitter's park but almost exclusively because of doubles. I've been getting groundball pitchers with a great infield but it seems my staff's G/F has almost no correlation with their performance. This is over 3-4 different saves of 5 seasons or more.

3. Do changes in potential rating have anything to do with performance? If a player performs well above average for 1-2 seasons, will that positively affect his talent or ratings? I seem to have seen prospects with good potential drop off after posting great numbers in the minors, but also ones with average potential increase after overperforming.

4. Any advice on how to predict reliever performance? This has always been a crapshoot for me. Are stats more reliable than ratings? If so what stats? How do get relievers to perform consistently over multiple years?

5. Any advice on trading for prospects? Players who are on the 40 man roster but playing behind an everyday player seem easiest to trade for regardless of potential. Throwing in an aging player with a bad contract along with the prospect you want also has worked. Any other tips?

6. Is there any actual danger to not setting a pitch count for younger pitchers? Do they get hurt more often, etc? What kind of pitch counts do people generally set for prospects/young starters?

7. What are the effects of the manager sliders regarding favor pitching/hitting, offense/defense, and prospects/veterans? Is it purely for AI setting lineups?

8. Are there any signs whatsoever that a player's potential may increase or decrease? Do players with more well-rounded ratings have a better chance to exceed their potential, etc? If changes in potential are truly random, then essentially there's no way to discover a diamond in the rough unless by pure chance?

Thanks

[JMDurron]

Originally Posted by bly08

1. Do most people play with the default aging modifiers and TCR for 14?

2. I'm not sure how to interpret Fenway's ballpark factors. It's barely a hitter's park but almost exclusively because of doubles. I've been getting groundball pitchers with a great infield but it seems my staff's G/F has almost no correlation with their performance. This is over 3-4 different saves of 5 seasons or more.

3. Do changes in potential rating have anything to do with performance? If a player performs well above average for 1-2 seasons, will that positively affect his talent or ratings? I seem to have seen prospects with good potential drop off after posting great numbers in the minors, but also ones with average potential increase after overperforming.

4. Any advice on how to predict reliever performance? This has always been a crapshoot for me. Are stats more reliable than ratings? If so what stats? How do get relievers to perform consistently over multiple years?

5. Any advice on trading for prospects? Players who are on the 40 man roster but playing behind an everyday player seem easiest to trade for regardless of potential. Throwing in an aging player with a bad contract along with the prospect you want also has worked. Any other tips?

6. Is there any actual danger to not setting a pitch count for younger pitchers? Do they get hurt more often, etc? What kind of pitch counts do people generally set for prospects/young starters?

7. What are the effects of the manager sliders regarding favor pitching/hitting, offense/defense, and prospects/veterans? Is it purely for AI setting lineups?

8. Are there any signs whatsoever that a player's potential may increase or decrease? Do players with more well-rounded ratings have a better chance to exceed their potential, etc? If changes in potential are truly random, then essentially there's no way to discover a diamond in the rough unless by pure chance?

Thanks

I can only answer a few of these, just so you don't get too excited.

1) I play with default settings. There are tons of threads across versions discussing various the "right" TCR and aging settings. I basically shrugged and stuck with the defaults, I haven't gotten deep enough into any non-recalc league to see if there aren't enough players who remain competent past age 32 as a result of the default settings. I'm pleased with the prospect development speed, though.

2) Fenway Park will hurt your team's defensive efficiency results, but a high G/F ratio staff with a good IF should still be making the situation less bad. It may be that the combination with Fenway and your defense/pitching staff is making for a neutral result, whereas Fenway alone would be making your staff look quite poor otherwise. I've found that I can't get into the top 5 of EFF playing in Fenway without a top-notch OF, despite the G/F ratings of my staff.

3) I don't believe that these two things are related. Performance is a result of ratings, ratings are not a result of performance.

4) HAHAHAHA. No. I have found that ratings (real ratings, not scouted ratings) are more predictive than stats for reliever performance, because relievers perform in such small sample sizes that a few balls finding holes or bad wind conditions in a 2-inning effort can skew their numbers significantly. If you're going to use stats, I'd suggest FIP and WHIP instead of ERA. Year-to-year reliever performance is a complete crapshoot for guys not named Mariano Rivera in the real world, so you shouldn't expect anything different in OOTP. Highly-rated, young pitchers in the bullpen with a solid defensive unit behind them is the best combination that I can recommend.

5) No help here. I generally trade for draft picks instead of prospects because I'm trying to build an "all-drafted team."

6) I can't help you here, I play my MLB-level games myself, and leave the defaults in place in the minors. I also play with a lower injury setting, so these defaults might not be as safe in your league as they are in mine.

7) No idea.

8) If you play with player personalities on (I don't, personally, as I believe most of these guys should be rated "Philandering, drug-abusing, drunken, narcissistic sociopaths who sometimes have variances in work ethic relative to each other" if we really wanted to be realistic, which is not really all that fun), I've read that high intelligence/high work ethic might make potential more likely to be reached or increased. I haven't noticed any correlation in my no-personality world.

[bly08]

So basically aside from age, there's absolutely zero predictors to changes in potential? As in no matter how much a guy over/underperforms, his potential rating swings will still be completely random? I understand work ethic/intelligence affect development, which only means current rating?

[JMDurron]

Originally Posted by bly08

So basically aside from age, there's absolutely zero predictors to changes in potential? As in no matter how much a guy over/underperforms, his potential rating swings will still be completely random? I understand work ethic/intelligence affect development, which only means current rating?

Well, there may be other predictors to changes in potential, but I haven't noticed any consistent patterns. I'd say that age has more of a direct correlation to the current rating approaching potential than the potential rating changing on its own.

I believe that work ethic/intelligence can impact both the development of the current rating and the improvement in potential.