Player Development Tab

[AMeadows17]

Just a question regarding the new player development tab in the individual player profiles, which is a neat addition by the way.
Is this purely for prospects to develop into their ratings more regularly/successfully?
Or will an experienced player, who, let's say has maxed out contact, if I tell him to develop contact, will there be a ratings boost there too??

Thanks for the great work with the app

[Will Beh]

Good question! Here's a quick rundown on that new feature;

Players throughout the year will have routines, and standard things they do to practice, get better, and maintain themselves.
However, players do not all have the same routines. The power hitting DH is not going to get a coach to hit him groundballs for hours; he's going to work in the cage instead. The players only have so many hours in a day, and the new player development focus sliders allow you to split up their finite time into the areas of their game that you want them to spend time on. This essentially allows you to micromanage how development influence gets applied to their different ratings, which contributes to development, maintenance, and aging.

Quick overview of in-game mechanics
- Development focus builds off of the existing development system, it is always there and influences the player at all times.
- To adjust a slider, you need to take out of one rating slider to put into another. I.e. you need to get the time from somewhere.
- When all sliders are at the middle state, this is just the same as the development influence of past games.
- When you give more to a rating, not only will it improve development, which includes current ratings as well as talent increases, but it also influences how well a player who has already maxed out his current ratings will maintain it and even fight off the aging curve if he's getting older.
- However, since you need to take the time from somewhere, the aspects of his game that a player neglects will suffer opposite to the above.
- Being 10 points below the halfway mark is actually more detrimental in terms of the probabilities than it is beneficial to be 10 points above the halfway mark
- Once you set a player's focus manually, don't forget to tick the lock checkbox to prevent the AI from changing it. The AI control options can be found in the manager settings, and you can give the AI control over setting the focus for your minor league players, major league players, or both.

[AMeadows17]

Thanks so much Will, for that quick and very detailed response, much appreciated.
Great new feature! I've been looking for something to try and stop Brandon Lowe from striking out so much in my Rays saves for years now

[Jibby]

Great info Will! Been a fan of the game for a few years now. April is my Christmas! I want a little bit more detail about the player development though. Is it only the players who have room to improve (a higher potential rating than their current rating) will have the most opportunity to improve? Or if there is room to improve in a player's attribute, is that the only way it will improve? As AMeadows asked previously, if you try to develop a player's contact or defence, but it's already maxed out, how much will it potentially affect it and, if it does improve, how long, potentially, will it take (a few weeks...a whole season)?

Thanks in advance!

[Will Beh]

Originally Posted by AMeadows17

Thanks so much Will, for that quick and very detailed response, much appreciated.
Great new feature! I've been looking for something to try and stop Brandon Lowe from striking out so much in my Rays saves for years now

[Will Beh]

Originally Posted by Jibby

Great info Will! Been a fan of the game for a few years now. April is my Christmas! I want a little bit more detail about the player development though. Is it only the players who have room to improve (a higher potential rating than their current rating) will have the most opportunity to improve? Or if there is room to improve in a player's attribute, is that the only way it will improve? As AMeadows asked previously, if you try to develop a player's contact or defence, but it's already maxed out, how much will it potentially affect it and, if it does improve, how long, potentially, will it take (a few weeks...a whole season)?

Thanks in advance!

There are three main aspects that fall under the umbrella of development; development, maintenance, aging.
Development is when a young player who has not maxed out their potential changes their current and/or talent (usually positive).
Maintenance is mainly for players that are already developed, and will help them keep their current ratings.
Aging is for older players who will start to decline and lose current/potential (usually negative).
There are many factors that go into how each one works, but at the end of the day it's all weighted random outcomes.
The development focus allows you to adjust the weight on the outcome of specific ratings.
So if you have a prospect who has not maxed out their ratings yet and you put all their effort into their power, and nothing into eye, you may see that their current power increases faster but their current eye does not increase as fast. You will also be more likely to see the power potential increase, and more likely to see the eye potential decrease.
If you have an established guy, if you have him focus way more on one rating than another, you'll be more likely to see a positive talent change to the rating of focus and less likely to see the current value drop. But for the areas of his game he neglects, you'll be more likely to see a negative change in the talent and more likely to see the current drop for that rating.
And for older guys, like Kershaw for example, they will be on a downward trend, but the areas you put more focus on will tend to drop slower than others (and areas you have them neglect will drop quicker).

I find it easiest to think about these new features in a real world context. Basically what you are telling the player to do is spend more of their time practicing one thing at the expense of another. This will of course make them feel better about the thing they spend more time on and they may get rusty on the thing they don't do as much.

Since you need to take time out of one area to invest in another, it's very much a tradeoff. However, it will be overall a net negative. Taking 10 points out of something will have more of a negative impact on the rating than putting 10 points into something.

Do keep in mind however that the is a subtle influence, and you likely won't see any noticeable changes to a player because at the end of the day it's an addition to the current development system. Players will continue to develop normally, and this just acts as a slight influence.

[Jibby]

I appreciate the detailed analysis! I will try to use it to help my team. Thanks man!