Player Development

[D.Nukem]

Hello folks.
New to OOTP and loving it. I played Sports Illustrated Baseball, with the cards and three dice, for years and years.
I got my dream team here, early twenties New York Yankees and thought my dynasty would reign for decades. Until I ran into Father Time.
My four time World Series champs have apparently aged considerably. something I wasn't paying attention to. My starting line up now has over a century of combined experience lol.
So I urgently need to know how do I affect or at least influence the development of players with great potential. Do I keep them in the minors or bring them up and play them? Any other tips?
Is there anyway to slow or delay the degradation of my former stars?
HELP?

[BirdWatcher]

Originally Posted by D.Nukem

Hello folks.
New to OOTP and loving it. I played Sports Illustrated Baseball, with the cards and three dice, for years and years.
I got my dream team here, early twenties New York Yankees and thought my dynasty would reign for decades. Until I ran into Father Time.
My four time World Series champs have apparently aged considerably. something I wasn't paying attention to. My starting line up now has over a century of combined experience lol.
So I urgently need to know how do I affect or at least influence the development of players with great potential. Do I keep them in the minors or bring them up and play them? Any other tips?
Is there anyway to slow or delay the degradation of my former stars?
HELP?

The short answer is there is no short answer.

As for developing minor league players there are many things to keep an eye on. First of all, it helps to have good coaches at the minor league levels, especially ones whose focus best aligns with your top talent. For instance, if you have a great pitching prospect who is a power pitcher and your AA pitching coach specializes in finesse pitchers, he might not bring out the best in your power pitching prospect. Secondly, you want to try to find a good balance between promoting too slowly (prospects need some level of challenge to fully develop) and promoting too quickly (an unhappy prospect- and this is particularly an issue with players who place a premium on their own performance and become frustrated when they fail- can eventually become a stagnant or even devolving prospect.)
It's always good to have winning minor league teams to ensure that your highly competitive top prospects don't become discouraged playing on a bad team.
Now another way development can stall is by not playing. You don't want your talented prospect sitting because there is some more veteran player getting all the starts. Or even worse, you don't want two top prospects competing for the same job and neither getting the playing time he wants and needs to develop. When it makes sense to have two top prospects at a single position play at the same level (if you must), can one of them use this opportunity to get playing time at another position? When it makes sense, it is always good to start getting some positional flexibility for prospects prior to them making the big league club.

It should be noted that the quickest development happens at the major league level. So for the really gifted prospect it is probably better to bring them up sooner rather than later. Even with less playing time at the big league level just being on the big league squad will accelerate development. (Not getting into the financial issues here, which might favor keeping them off the 40-man roster longer.) But again, it is sort of more art than science (or maybe that is just my bias, being more artistic than scientific myself), as you don't want to bring them up too soon and have them absolutely flounder.

Now, as for a more scientific approach, I know that there are many around here who have some pretty specific guidelines they use (in terms of age/plate appearances, innings pitched/WAR, etc. that help drive their decisions in these areas. Perhaps some of them will chime in here. But it would probably also be a good idea to do a bit of a google search to find relevant threads here in the forums.
But ultimately I believe the best way to learn this game is trial and error. You will get the feel by doing it, but likely you will never stop learning and improving. That's how good and deep this game is. There is always room for growth, always more to learn.

Now, as for your question about slowing the decline for aging stars/players: largely there isn't much you can do about this. To avoid injuries, which can become more likely as they age, it isn't a bad idea to give more rest days then you might have when they were in their prime. Generally, players with higher work ethics are less likely to have declines as steep as less dedicated workers. The best way to avoid the decline of aging players is to let them decline elsewhere.

[D.Nukem]

Thanks, something to work on.
As you say the game is very deep, that's it's major drawing point.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by BirdWatcher

Now, as for your question about slowing the decline for aging stars/players: largely there isn't much you can do about this. To avoid injuries, which can become more likely as they age, it isn't a bad idea to give more rest days then you might have when they were in their prime. Generally, players with higher work ethics are less likely to have declines as steep as less dedicated workers. The best way to avoid the decline of aging players is to let them decline elsewhere.

Good answers, BirdWatcher, including this one. However, there is an artificial way of slowing down (or speeding up) player aging and since D.Nukem asked "Is there anyway to slow or delay the degradation of my former stars?" I will point him to these settings:



Caution: A little goes a long way with these settings. The online manual talks of adjustments of only .500 to 1.500 on either side of the default 1.000. Also be aware that this will affect all players on average, not just cherished stars, so perhaps it's not what D.Nukem really wants. I should add here that, in all my years of playing OOTPB, I have never touched these settings and have never felt any need to do so. If interested, read more here:

http://manuals.ootpdevelopments.com/...player_options

[BirdWatcher]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

Good answers, BirdWatcher, including this one. However, there is an artificial way of slowing down (or speeding up) player aging and since D.Nukem asked "Is there anyway to slow or delay the degradation of my former stars?" I will point him to these settings:

Attachment 625002

Caution: A little goes a long way with these settings. The online manual talks of adjustments of only .500 to 1.500 on either side of the default 1.000. Also be aware that this will affect all players on average, not just cherished stars, so perhaps it's not what D.Nukem really wants. I should add here that, in all my years of playing OOTPB, I have never touched these settings and have never felt any need to do so. If interested, read more here:

http://manuals.ootpdevelopments.com/...player_options

Right, of course. Not sure why but at that point for some reason settings didn't even pop into my head.
And the funny thing is, I myself use settings that slow down the decline of aging a bit as I prefer a more gradual descent into decrepitude. (Love it when guys like Jamie Moyer pitch well into their 40's and want my OOTP universes to reflect that as well.)

[D.Nukem]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

Good answers, BirdWatcher, including this one. However, there is an artificial way of slowing down (or speeding up) player aging and since D.Nukem asked "Is there anyway to slow or delay the degradation of my former stars?" I will point him to these settings:

Attachment 625002

Caution: A little goes a long way with these settings. The online manual talks of adjustments of only .500 to 1.500 on either side of the default 1.000. Also be aware that this will affect all players on average, not just cherished stars, so perhaps it's not what D.Nukem really wants. I should add here that, in all my years of playing OOTPB, I have never touched these settings and have never felt any need to do so. If interested, read more here:

http://manuals.ootpdevelopments.com/...player_options

Again thanks for the reply. I've seen those but as you say they are artificial. I'm looking for the strategy to best advance youngsters with great potential. Minors where they play? Majors on the bench? Any other choices? And what could cause a young player never to reach their potential?
I found rotating a trio of aging out fielders like pitchers improved their performance. Now can I cut their salary by a third?

[old fat bald guy]

Originally Posted by D.Nukem

Hello folks.
I played Sports Illustrated Baseball, with the cards and three dice, for years and years.
HELP?

Loved the look of those old SI games in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They were fun to play, too.