Best way to develop a 2-way player

[wkelly73]

Howdy,

I just drafted a very good college pitcher who has the talent ratings to be an even better hitter. Ideally, I would love for him to start once every five days and play in the outfield the other four days. What is the best way to slot him into the rotation and the lineup to ensure that he gets playing time in both areas? Or will playing him that way ensure that he is always exhausted?

Thanks in advance for the help!

[mitchkenn]

last i knew the game doesn't really support two way players. Ruth and O'Doul pitched, then went to the OF later in career. But for players that both can play field and pitch during the same time span, i believe either you or the AI picks one over the other and goes with that. (Someone can correct me if that has changed.) Hopefully it will be address in near future versions.

[ihatenames]

Originally Posted by wkelly73

Howdy,

I just drafted a very good college pitcher who has the talent ratings to be an even better hitter. Ideally, I would love for him to start once every five days and play in the outfield the other four days. What is the best way to slot him into the rotation and the lineup to ensure that he gets playing time in both areas? Or will playing him that way ensure that he is always exhausted?

Thanks in advance for the help!

The only way to really do this is to do it manually. You can set lineups in advance if you sim only. Slot him into your Rotation or bullpen and it should work. With fatigue probably not a good idea to use him as a starter if you plan to have him play the field unless you DH him.

Honestly though I would have him focus on which ever he is best at for now. Keep an eye on his development and talent gains and loses. You can always convert him later on.

[r0nster]

never played a player 2 way at same time .... However did accidently find a player that had good scouting both as pitcher and outfielder .... in the minors he was decent as a pitcher decided to turn him into a offensive force. He did well as a hitter and outfielder. Never used him as a pitcher in the bigs. could show stats,

[Jupiter]

Originally Posted by wkelly73

Howdy,

I just drafted a very good college pitcher who has the talent ratings to be an even better hitter. Ideally, I would love for him to start once every five days and play in the outfield the other four days. What is the best way to slot him into the rotation and the lineup to ensure that he gets playing time in both areas? Or will playing him that way ensure that he is always exhausted?

Thanks in advance for the help!

I have developed a number of two way players over the years, just because I think it is fun and gives me a bit of an extra way to stay connected to how things are going in the minor leagues of my franchise, which I otherwise would only review 4 times a season. I am happy to share my process, though it is surely not the only way it could be done.

Whenever a player is capable of playing both ways, I always make him a starting pitcher and slot him into the rotation of whatever level he is going to be playing. Then I manually move him into a starting position on offense, based on his defensive skills. And then I turn off all options that would allow the computer to reset the lineup or promote/demote players, so it does mean there will be a lot of extra work on my end in terms of managing the minor leagues, so I will also turn on manager controls to remind me if somebody is injured for more than a week, etc., so that I can move people on and off the roster, as appropriate.

Then, finally, since the AI will not be promoting everybody, I set a schedule of reviewing minor league performance and promote players who are ready to take on the next level every month or two. But that does not have anything to do with the two way player, specifically, it is just the nature of turning off all the AI minors management.

One important note I should make. Even with the player set up to pitch every five days in the rotation and play the field the rest, he is going to spend most of the season not performing well. That sucks and I do not know if it is an issue of being tired (it does not show this way) or a behind the scenes penalty that the game applies for pitchers hitting (and vice versa) but in all of my experiences both the players pitching totals and batting totals will be substantially below what I would otherwise expect based on their ratings. So there are substantial concerns you might have with this setup with regard to minor league performance for your organization, playoffs, etc. But if you are willing to put up with the below average performance, he will continue to improve his ratings on both ends as he plays and gradually work his way up toward the majors while playing both ways.

Which brings up the second concern. This process really only works (and "works" is stretching it, because there is a performance penalty) as long as the player is good enough to be in the starting rotation and in the starting lineup. As soon as he hits a point in his development where he would need to go to the bullpen or play off the bench, the AI will simply not work well for you anymore. You won't be able to make him a position player but give him a bullpen slot. And while you can make him a pitcher and still move him into a slot on the position depth chart, the AI will generally ignore a lot of those plans and only use him as a true an-game injury replacement if there is nobody else left. So eventually you will have to pick one way or the other for him to play and a lot of people would consider all the extra work in the meantime to not be worth it, if you have to make that final choice. But if you think it's worth it because it is fun and interesting, go for it.

Most of my players get shifted to one side or the other when they are moving from AA to AAA just because you can't justify using a two pitch pitcher as a starter at that level, so I decide where he has brighter future and just move him that way for good. If you make him a position player, he will never pitch again unless you do it manually (and even then he will likely be awful). If you make him a pitcher, he might be hit better than average, which is nice, but not nearly as well as you would think.

Once upon a time (there is a post here on the boards somewhere from a LONG time ago) I did develop a player that was both a legitimate major league starting pitcher and a legitimate pitcher. But once he got to the majors and performance actually mattered, the whole thing became much harder because of the rest issue. Basically, I developed a system where, using the seven day lineups, he pitched once a week on Sundays (everybody else was on a normal 5 man rotation) and then played the outfield three days a week with three days of rest around his pitching. Probably not worth all the trouble but it was the only way I could keep his stats from tanking and it was a lot of fun.