A bunch of general strategy questions from a newbie

[Fronzizzle]

Hello all,

I have completed 2 subpar seasons in OOTP 14, I would like to get some feedback/information on some things going on. I plan on joining an online league sometime soon, but I'm afraid I'll get crushed unless I can figure out what I'm doing wrong...or at least understand how certain things affect others. Thanks in advance for any replies.

First of all, some quick information: I'm the GM of the Tigers, I do not manage any games at any level. I have not changed any default setting/strategy/rules. The two seasons I played, I set the pitching rotations & lineups for all of my minor league teams as well.

Now, on to the questions:

1) My pitching in the minors is horrific. I understand the Tigers don't have a good minor league system, but 7+ ERA for my Single A team across an entire season is excessive. I tried peaking at the modifiers but didn't change anything. I posted previously on this, but just wanted it here, too, in case what I'm doing is the culprit.

2) Is it better or are there any advantages to letting the minor league managers set the lineups and pitching rotation? It's certainly easier/less time consuming, but not sure if its better or worse. Do they do a reasonable job with it? Am I okay letting the computer AI do this?

3) What causes a players mood to become angry and what affect does that have on his performance? In MLB, Iunder performingerperforming starter and he got mad - I get it. But in the minors, I have a ton of players with horrible ERA's or low batting averages that are angry because (I think) their expectations are to be in the major leagues or whatever. Are they performing worse because they are angry?

4) Sort of related to above, but how much does my manager & coaching staff have on mood & performance? In hiring minor league coaches, I tried to (1) save some money and (2) be a bit more realistic so the lower the level, the more inexperienced of a person I hired - it didn't seem very real to hire Buck Showalter to managed my crappy Single A team. But maybe I should? If I hire good coaches, will my players perform better or progress better?

5) How do you go about setting your minor league teams, especially the pitching? I try to use their current ratings, potential ratings and age to determine where a pitcher should be, but I end up with four squads of starting pitchers that have ERA's north of 5 or 6. I try to promote & demote based on their performance numbers, but it's tough when everyone in Double A and Triple A have bad numbers - I don't want to grab someone out of Single A that isn't doing great & throw him to Triple A.

6) Throughout the two seasons, I found that I've had a ton of prospects decrease in their potential while only a few have increased - and the ones that increased were very minimal (from like 0.5 stars to 1.0 stars). At any given time, my manager home page tellsplayershave like 9 playes that should be demoted and none or maybe 1 that should be promoted. Many of the ones they want demoted are already too old for their league, i.e. I have a 26 year old starting pitcher that the game is telling me to send back to Single A from Double A.

7) My lowest level team always has a ton of players, like 50 or so. I try to keep my other squads right around 25 or so - is this normal? Do I need to cut some dead weight or move more players around? I would promote some but as I said above, nobody on this squad ever has good numbers so promoting seems pointless, but the flip side is there are so many players that many don't ever get in the game - and I have no room to promote from my International Complex.

Though I would appreciate specific answers to the questions above (if there are any), what I'm really after is how to maximize my minor leagues - get players to the proper level, develop them, hopefully some into actual quality major leaguers, etc. Thank you.

[TGH-Adfabre]

1) I do not pay any attention to minor league stats. I play with scouting off so I see accurate ratings. I promote and demote based on ratings increases and decreases, this is what the games uses to create stats.

2) All I care about is playing time. There are a number of players in my systems that have the POT to be useful ML players. Most minor league players will never see the bigs. I make sure my minor league managers are playing the players who have POT ratings that will be useful at the ML level. The rest are long shots that they might get a POT boost and possibly become useful. POT is not just reffering to Stars, it is mainly refering to the POT of individual ratings.

3) I have no idea why these players are so moody. lol In the Player Profile, on the bottom left is the players mood. Usually there is a reason, the reason does not always make sense. I pay very little attention to their moods unless I am trying to sign them to a contract.

4) I do not play with coaches much, I just assume good coaches are better then bad and will probably make a better influence. Someone with more experience may come along and answer this one. Or try an asvanced search with coaching in the Topic, you should get dome hits.

5) I use the same info. I especially look at their Control rating, it seems to be the slowest to develop. I put more weight in that rating than any other when deciding to promote. I look at stats in AA and AAA, below that they are irrelevant to me.

6) I would cut the 26 year old pitcher. I am not 100% true to this but I promote based on age 1st. Players 25 and above should be in AAA. If thye cannot hack it there then my AAA is awesome or they suck. If my AAA is stocked with talent then it is probably trade time, if they are 25+ and cannot hack it in AAA then I will probably cut them.

7) I like to keep my minors around 30, that way I can easily compensate for injuries. Like I said above, my main concern is playing time.

[slugga27]

For the solution for #1, see this thread:

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...ilb-stats.html