Handyman’s guide to training new positions

[biggerme]

While trying to find information regarding Position Ratings and how to train new positions in these forums it was quite clear that there is not much information to start with.
For the better or worse I have gone through to reverse engineer how this game actually calculates Position Ratings and as it surprisingly came out, it’s quite a simple setup.
First of all you have to understand that it’s nothing else than simple math which needs variables to calculate end result and the game provides all the tools to do that. As a basis of investigation I have used blank database where just couple of players were generated for the purpose of testing the calculation rules.

For the sake of simplicity I will use 100 Point Scale commonly used in the game itself to explain fielding rating of each position and which positions are worth to be trained at all.
Defensive Ratings themselves are distributed into 3 main blocks: Catcher, Infield and Outfield + additionally Turn Double Play ability which is valid for Infielders, Catchers and Pitchers.
More information is available at http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/documentation/ootp11/index.php?page=defensive_ratings and initially all the research was based on OOTP 11, have tested these with v13 and looks like they are still valid.

First rule is that you cannot train anyone to become proficient at any of the positions unless they actually have decent Defensive Ratings in a respective Ability Block.
Secondly, for any Infield or Outfield position the most important Ability is Range, without it all other abilities are worthless … only exception being 1B, but that will be clarified in that position formula.
Third - Abilities are more or less fixed from the moment player is created, don’t get me wrong they do change but these changes are not dramatic at least until aging factor’s come into play.

So the actual talent rating at each position is determined with the following
Oversimplified formula - ((FieldingRating1 - constant)*weight1 + (FieldingRating2 - constant)*weight2) x Experience = Positional Rating

How to read the formula?
Every position has a starting Handicap defined, this determines how difficult the position is to start with.
Then there is median point of 62.5 defined, every Defensive Rating is evaluated against it. If Arm rating is higher than this value then expect increase to Handicap, if it’s lower then it’s retracted from Handicap. Value 25 determines how many points per every 25 points of Defensive Rating the actual change in Positional Rating is.
Finally there is relative weight applied, meaning how important this individual Defensive Rating for that position is.

Calculations per Position
Legend: Green is Constant Value, Red is Relative Weight of Defensive Rating and Blue stands for Handicap for that position.

P = ( ( (Infield Range - 62.5)/25*39.5) + ( (Infield Arm - 62.5)/25*6.25 ) + ( (Turn DP - 62.5)/25*3.25 ) + ( (Infield Error - 62.5)/25*15.75 ) + 153.5 )
C = ( ( (Catcher Ability - 62.5)/25*9.75) + ( (Catcher Arm - 62.5)/25*21.25 ) + 74 )
1B = ( ( (Infield Range - 62.5)/25*27.25) + ( (Infield Arm - 62.5)/25*2.25 ) + ( (Turn DP - 62.5)/25*2.5 ) + ( (Infield Error - 62.5)/25*13.75 ) + 113.5 )
2B = ( ( (Infield Range - 62.5)/25*21.5) + ( (Infield Arm - 62.5)/25*1.5 ) + ( (Turn DP - 62.5)/25*9 ) + ( (Infield Error - 62.5)/25*8.25 ) + 64.5 )
3B = ( ( (Infield Range - 62.5)/25*21.5) + ( (Infield Arm - 62.5)/25*6.75 ) + ( (Turn DP - 62.5)/25*3.5 ) + ( (Infield Error - 62.5)/25*7.75 ) + 66 )
SS = ( ( (Infield Range - 62.5)/25*23.5) + ( (Infield Arm - 62.5)/25*2 ) + ( (Turn DP - 62.5)/25*8 ) + ( (Infield Error - 62.5)/25*7.5 ) + 50 )
LF = ( ( (Outfield Range - 62.5)/25*31.5) + ( (Outfield Arm - 62.5)/25*4.25 ) + ( (Outfield Error - 62.5)/25*6.25 ) + 80 )
CF = ( ( (Outfield Range - 62.5)/25*43) + ( (Outfield Arm - 62.5)/25*1.75 ) + ( (Outfield Error - 62.5)/25*3.5 ) + 39 )
RF = ( ( (Outfield Range - 62.5)/25*33.75) + ( (Outfield Arm - 62.5)/25*6.25 ) + ( (Outfield Error - 62.5)/25*6.25 ) + 71 )
DH …. just kidding
If you need to adjust calculations either to scale 10 or 200 - for first option divide all values by 10, for second multiply with 2.

From the weight information it’s easy to conclude that if you have an able SS than he can learn easily any other position in Infield, and same applies for CF learning any other position in Outfield.

How to use this information?
Well, I do recommend reviewing always what your top prospects can learn. As long as they are still in Minors it’s rather easy to force them to learn a new position, just check that it’s worth doing. Who needs a rating of 35 Second Baseman anyway besides watching how the ball eludes him constantly.
One of the more rarer finds are the hidden Catcher prospects and that really does not happen very often.

How fast will they learn a new position or gain experience?
There are some threads in the forums talking about, main consensus seems to be that player gains 1 point of experience per game. I seem to agree it mostly, but looking more into detail it tends to be Innings Played at that Position. So one would say 1 Full Game/9 Innings Played is quite a good benchmark.
That is actually visible in Spring Training too clearly and is rather annoying as players don’t get that many innings and don’t get the necessary experience. Best way by far is to have players gain the experience in Minor Leagues.

Big question mark remains, are these relative weights actually reflecting properly how important each individual Defensive Rating is? This formula seems to be quite old in the game and has not changed while the game itself has changed.

Not to mention, almost the same method can be also applied in order to find out expected statistics for Offense and Pitching, just slightly more complex.

bigg