Team ERA

[fulton700]

what matters more for building a pitching staff? the coaches' teaching ratings, his relationship with the players or matching pitchers to the type of coach( ground ball, power pitcher etc.)?

[md40022]

Not to twist your question around, but I'd say the actual quality (or potential) of the actual pitchers would outweigh all of the other stuff.

Of the things you list the only one that I pay attention to is the coach's teaching ratings. I never really look at the other stuff.

Still though, I'll always take a pitcher with real good ratings (or real good potential ratings) and a crappy relationship with players/coaches over a mediocre pitcher who had great coach/player relationships.... just my personal opinion

[Brad K]

Is this a game with fictional players?

[fulton700]

md40022 I would agree with you generally but in save after save I have a handful of decent to great pitchers and they fail time after time. 3.5 through 5 stars and green to blue ratings throughout their profile. The coaching is good enough. I have Verlander 3.5 stars with green and blue ratings and he is 0-6 in 7 starts with an 8.12 era and Syndagaard 4.5 star with green and blue rating and is 1-3 with a 3.8 era in 6 starts. The coach had decent ratings and an excellent relationship with both players. I'm just lost trying to figure out how to make sense of it other than being completely random.

[md40022]

Are you playing current day or historical?

I have never played historical, so I'm not qualified to speak on it. Current day though, I would say both of those guys that you mention are getting up there in age and their skills / ratings might possibly be starting to slide in your next round of scouting updates.... That said though, 6 or 7 starts is a small sample. It could also just be both guys slumping at the same time.

[Pelican]

The two guys OP mentions are each very much special cases. Verlander is playing at an age where most top SP are long gone. He is pretty much of a unicorn, and the game may simply see him as a guy age 41 with lots of recent injury problems. With Syndergaard it is not age so much as serious loss of velocity (admittedly starting at a very high rate) and a complete change in pitching style and approach, plus injury issues of this own.

What I would do is have each guy rescouted, with particular attention to changes in pitch speed, and close review of individual pitch ratings. If you see a dip, that is basically the AI's way of warning that this guy may be experiencing a downturn. And when it's an older guy, and/or a guy with lots of miles on the odometer (so to speak), he ain't coming back to what he was. Those green and blue ratings are just predictions based on past performance, a risky thing as pitchers get older.

One thing to check is your settings on pitcher aging. The default is 1.00; but it can be modified. I usually increase a notch to 1.15, causing older pitchers to lose effectiveness quicker. If you are relying on older guys, you might want to dial that setting back to .75, to allow them to pitch effectively longer.

In sum, I think you are seeing a "fountain of youth" problem. Neither guy has found it.