veteran player development question

Smellyface · 07-20-2007, 10:36 AM

Paul Williams is a player in my league who came up with 5-star potential. I think I handled his promotions correctly and at an early age he became a solid major league player. He quickly jumped up to 3 stars for his actual rating and became an everyday outfielder.

Now Paul is 30 years old and has 6 full years of major league experience under his belt. He is STILL at 5-star potential and 3-star actual rating, which is where he has been his whole big league career. Is there any chance he will fulfill his potential at this point? Or is it common for players to just plateau somewhere below their promise? If this were the case, I would think that the scouts would stop being so high on his potential at this point.

Paul's actual contact/homer power/eye: 6/7/5
Paul's potential contact/homer power/eye: 7/9/10

He has produced consistently, usually batting around .290 with 25 dingers. But clearly it seems like he should be capable of more. And to add to my confusion, he still seems to be very highly valued by other teams in trade talks.

1998 Yankees · 07-20-2007, 10:51 AM

As long as those stars are there, he has a chance of reaching that potential, but the probability steadily declines with age. Players may not ever reach their potential; I have seen this many times and I think it's associated with intelligence and work ethic. What happens is they reach a certain age and all of a sudden their actuals and their potentials take a nose dive, and it's over.

07-20-2007, 10:36 AM	#1
Smellyface Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Illinois Posts: 211	veteran player development question Paul Williams is a player in my league who came up with 5-star potential. I think I handled his promotions correctly and at an early age he became a solid major league player. He quickly jumped up to 3 stars for his actual rating and became an everyday outfielder. Now Paul is 30 years old and has 6 full years of major league experience under his belt. He is STILL at 5-star potential and 3-star actual rating, which is where he has been his whole big league career. Is there any chance he will fulfill his potential at this point? Or is it common for players to just plateau somewhere below their promise? If this were the case, I would think that the scouts would stop being so high on his potential at this point. Paul's actual contact/homer power/eye: 6/7/5 Paul's potential contact/homer power/eye: 7/9/10 He has produced consistently, usually batting around .290 with 25 dingers. But clearly it seems like he should be capable of more. And to add to my confusion, he still seems to be very highly valued by other teams in trade talks. __________________ Corked Bat Baseball League

07-20-2007, 10:51 AM	#2
1998 Yankees Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Yankee Stadium, back in 1998. Posts: 8,645	As long as those stars are there, he has a chance of reaching that potential, but the probability steadily declines with age. Players may not ever reach their potential; I have seen this many times and I think it's associated with intelligence and work ethic. What happens is they reach a certain age and all of a sudden their actuals and their potentials take a nose dive, and it's over.