Individual Pitch Ratings

[storm427]

Could someone point me to a guide or explain in a reply how to interpret individual pitch ratings? I don't really understand how I can have guys in the minors with what appears to be the same pitch mix as guys who are performing well in the majors. I KNOW that there are other factors, I just don't understand how to use the information in the individual mix section of their profile.

[Pelican]

Hmmm first question would be if the ratings for your minor league guy are compared to major leaguers, or to the minor league he is in. If the latter, it’s apples to oranges, so to speak, and setting it to MLB will reduce the ratings substantially.

If that’s not it, the ratings may be saying the guy has great stuff; but that’s only one of the three main ratings. He could have lousy control and/or no movement on his pitches, and that could be keeping him in the minors, despite the great stuff. There are plenty of examples of this IRL.

I would check the scouting reports on the guy. They may suggest a weakness. Or they may say he is ready to face major league hitters.

What do his past stats look like? I have seen guys with excellent ratings, but their performance is lousy. Not sure why that happens, except that ratings are based in part on scouting, and counting can be wrong.

Others will have more to say on this, based on greater experience, I am sure.

[luckymann]

The makeup of pitchers is arguably the most intricate and hard-to-understand aspect of the game engine. So many different factors go into the final profile, so many elements play a part in how they perform.

I basically create most of the NeL players using their basic import as a shell only and stats according to my own methodology, and it is super tricky to get them right. Era (as in chronology, not Earned Run Average) plays a huge role in their final makeup, with pitchers from the earlier years profiling almost invariably as finesse pitchers with lower stuff and individual pitch ratings and higher movement and control, and the opposite becoming more prevalent as time progresses. At first I sought to try and correct this, but then realised you have to work with the AI not against it and just accept that this is how things are. The pitchers still seem to come out with appropriate levels of performance, which in the end is what counts.

With regard to your specific enquiry, you'll most likely find that you're seeing what you're seeing because of the first point Pelican raised, namely their point of reference. Sounds to me like these MiLB pitchers' ratings are being referenced against the level they are currently at and will drop as they move up.

You can usually see a player's true / raw ratings by toggling off the All player ratings are displayed relative to box in global settings.By leaving this ON but choosing the various levels in your save, you can also go into the player profile and you'll see how it changes their ratings with each level selected.

Not exactly a solution, but I have found the more I am familiar with the inner workings of the game engine, the better I understand how these end results are settled upon.