Never saw this coming

[Jasper70]

In my last draft, I drafted Thatcher Hurd out of LSU

1st Round, Supplemental 8, 38th overall
He just retired, never threw a single pitch. $2,340,000 down the toilet, says he wants to play basketball



Is it silly of me to just unretire him or is that just the breaks and throw him on the crap heap of young pitchers that failed

[jksander]

Originally Posted by Jasper70

In my last draft, I drafted Thatcher Hurd out of LSU

1st Round, Supplemental 8, 38th overall
He just retired, never threw a single pitch. $2,340,000 down the toilet, says he wants to play basketball



Is it silly of me to just unretire him or is that just the breaks and throw him on the crap heap of young pitchers that failed

I'd unretire him if you're not playing online ... that's ridiculous to hold yourself to letting that storyline stick. But that's just me.

[snepp]

My opinion has always been that as a single player game, you do whatever gives you the most enjoyment out of it. If it were me I'd probably unretire them, but I hate the storylines so I always turn them off in every league I do anyway.

I'll also undo a lot of career ending injuries for younger players, because I can. I might give them extremely long recovery times instead to simulate a difficult return or something.

[Dr Naysay]

Realistic in that this has actually happened with Kyler Murray but unrealistic that you don't get that signing bonus back. I'm not a fan of the storyline tbh.

[Pelican]

In a perfect (and comprehensive) world, you could play a basketball sim game where he would pop up on some NBA team (i.e. yours) and play for you there. And, if he sucked, you could cut him and presumably he would reconsider the decision to forego baseball. Or, why not do both, like Gene Conley and Danny Ainge?

[Jasper70]

Originally Posted by Pelican

In a perfect (and comprehensive) world, you could play a basketball sim game where he would pop up on some NBA team (i.e. yours) and play for you there. And, if he sucked, you could cut him and presumably he would reconsider the decision to forego baseball. Or, why not do both, like Gene Conley and Danny Ainge?

Ron Reed though he only played 2 seasons in the NBA

[Vezna31]

I have a league where I always play the worst team to a championship and then switch to the latest worst team. In my last switch, I had done a search of retired players showing highest potential. I saw that Warren Spahn had suffered a career ending injury while in his rookie year 3 seasons before but was still 5 star rated. So, I un-retired him and signed him and he went 13-3, 3.04 ERA and helped me win the Series and move on to the next team. With the next team, I traded for Spahn and he went 18-6, 3.11 ERA.

Also with the next team, I noticed 63 year old Jack Lelivelt was a retired 5-star, so I signed him. He hit .290 in 124 at-bats and then retired again at the end of the season. I also tried 5 star 75 year 1B Harry Davis, but he hit .111 in 27 at-bats. Neither of these guys helped much as I finished in last at 70-84, but it was still a fun experiment.

[StLee]

Originally Posted by Jasper70

In my last draft, I drafted Thatcher Hurd out of LSU

1st Round, Supplemental 8, 38th overall
He just retired, never threw a single pitch. $2,340,000 down the toilet, says he wants to play basketball



Is it silly of me to just unretire him or is that just the breaks and throw him on the crap heap of young pitchers that failed

Just want to point out that Thatcher Hurd will forever hold a place in my heart after what he did on June 26, 2023.

With that said, please unretire him! Hurd can be clutch! And he definitely should stick to baseball.

[NoOne]

storylines are the devil!

[monkeyman576]

it happens, those are the breaks.

[SidHickenbottom]

This is pretty common, but my strong take has always been that it shouldn't come out of nowhere. With Kyler Murray we knew he played football and it impacted his draft status. We should know a draftee is a two-way athlete as part of the storyline process. Maybe you can nab them as a draft steal? Sometimes, they stick with baseball, sometimes they retire. It should be an informed choice.

[md40022]

Originally Posted by SidHickenbottom

This is pretty common, but my strong take has always been that it shouldn't come out of nowhere. With Kyler Murray we knew he played football and it impacted his draft status. We should know a draftee is a two-way athlete as part of the storyline process. Maybe you can nab them as a draft steal? Sometimes, they stick with baseball, sometimes they retire. It should be an informed choice.

This is an excellent post. With as much scouting and homework that gets done on early round picks, there is no scenario where you'd ever get blindsided by this type of thing

[jksander]

Originally Posted by md40022

This is an excellent post. With as much scouting and homework that gets done on early round picks, there is no scenario where you'd ever get blindsided by this type of thing

Agreed .. if it's going to be a storyline possibility, there should be more to the story than just "derp, I don't wanna play no more ... " lol and give us some real chances to interact with storylines. The only one I've seen that involves input from the player is whether we fall for the "donate to my charity" shakedown.

[jeffw3000]

Originally Posted by Pelican

In a perfect (and comprehensive) world, you could play a basketball sim game where he would pop up on some NBA team (i.e. yours) and play for you there. And, if he sucked, you could cut him and presumably he would reconsider the decision to forego baseball. Or, why not do both, like Gene Conley and Danny Ainge?

Danny Ainge never played both at the same time. He did what this player did. Quit baseball to play basketball. I believe the Celtics wound up buying out his contract with the Blue Jays, so maybe you can get back your money in court.

[jksander]

Originally Posted by jeffw3000

Danny Ainge never played both at the same time. He did what this player did. Quit baseball to play basketball. I believe the Celtics wound up buying out his contract with the Blue Jays, so maybe you can get back your money in court.

That's what we need ... lawsuits in the game! I want to hire the most badass lawyer, especially if he can arbitrate and keep our salaries down too lol

[kq76]

Originally Posted by SidHickenbottom

This is pretty common, but my strong take has always been that it shouldn't come out of nowhere. With Kyler Murray we knew he played football and it impacted his draft status. We should know a draftee is a two-way athlete as part of the storyline process. Maybe you can nab them as a draft steal? Sometimes, they stick with baseball, sometimes they retire. It should be an informed choice.

That's such a great idea; I linked to it from beta. I don't know if it's possible to do, but thanks for posting it!

EDIT: If it happened to me with my first round pick I'd be pretty annoyed and might reverse it too, but at the very least I think we should have the ability to somehow try to convince him to stick with baseball.

[Bagpipes5]

What's great is if you go look at their measurements they are probably vastly undersized to boot. I had a player leave for football once, the article went on about him wanted to become a defensive end. His measurements? 5'8" 175 lbs. Good luck buddy!

[aks62]

Originally Posted by kq76

That's such a great idea; I linked to it from beta. I don't know if it's possible to do, but thanks for posting it!

EDIT: If it happened to me with my first round pick I'd be pretty annoyed and might reverse it too, but at the very least I think we should have the ability to somehow try to convince him to stick with baseball.

You could apply the "Indian guru" storyline here and substitute the travel to Vishnan Hitmehard for mulling over the other sport they turned down to play baseball. Same framework, different semantics. Then you get an update the next OS/whenever they eventually come out showing the outcome.