Donny Meier, A Success Story (VERY long)

[fluharty]

-Introduction-
My league is a career fantasy league started in 1901 in OOTP3 and imported into OOTP4 in 1936. I have scouts/coaches turned off. This is a summary of the career (so far) of Donald Meier, who I affectionately call Donny. I have the draft set to 10 rounds in the league setup but oncasionally the selections to 7 or 8 rounds just before selections are made hoping that the overall talent in the minors will increase a little (by selecting 7 or 8 rounds from a pool of 10 rounds of players).

-1933 Draft-
Donny was my 6th (of 7) round pick (144th overall) in 1933. He was an 18 year old 2B with reduced ratings "FFF 001" with Speed-Steal-Bunt-BuntHit of ACBA and range/fielding A/993. I drafted him because I was SICK of drafting pitchers (as I had taken a pitcher in each of the previous 5 rounds). My thought was, since he was fast and an excellent defensive 2B, I would teach him SS/3B/1B and try to make him into a late inning defensive replacement extrordinare. The following round I drafted a CF with similar intent (not a success, thus not the subject of this story).

-1933 season-
Donny struggles to reach the mendoza line for most of the year but finishes the season around 210. I teach him SS right away. It takes him about half the season to learn it, but when he does he's given a B/978 rating.

-1934 spring training-
Donny works on his defense at SS (-2 power +2 defense) and improves to A/986.

-1934 season, 19 years old-
Donny repeats A and hits much better, finishing somewhere around 250. I teach him 3B and once again it takes him quite a while to learn it. He's given a C/.960 rating.

-1935 spring training-
I want Donny to move up to AA so I have him work very hard (-5 power +5 hits) on contact hitting in spring training instead of his defense at 3B.

-1935 season, 20 years old-
Donny starts his third season in A. He learns 1B (I have a 1B but decide to teach him 3B. My 3B acts as DH). He learns 1B very quickly and gets a very good B/982 rating! By June Donny is hitting 280-290. Irritatingly, my scout insists he's not ready for AA yet. In July I give up waiting on my scout to give the go ahead and promote Donny anyway. He starts out well enough, hitting around 250 but tapers off to around 230 by the start of september so I send him back down.

-1936 spring training-
Donny works hard on contact hitting again in ST. I am determined to get him to AA.

-1936 season, 21 years old-
Donny is finaly ready for AA. He hits around 260 for the year.

-1937 spring training-
Donny works on his defense at 3B and increases to B/972.

-1937 season, 22 years old-
Donny repeats AA, hitting around 260-270.

-1938 spring training-
Donny improves his 3B defense to B/986.

-1938 season, 23 years old-
Donny three-peats AA and hits 260-270.

-1939 spring training-
Donny works hard on contact hitting. He WILL make it to AAA!

-1939 season, 24 years old-
His fourth year in AA. It is starting to look like poor Donny will never make it to AAA. I still plan on using him as a defensive specialist, but have no room on my roster this year.

In august my starting SS goes down for the season and I have to start my backup (34yo). He's a *BAD* SS (D/940) but a solid 3B (C/970) and has a good stick (658). Unfortunately, I have no SS in AAA, so I have to call up Donny Meier from AA so I can rest the old man and have a good glove at SS for late in the game. Donny hits .348 (8/23) as a backup/defensive-specialist and his ratings jump from 2-2-3 to 3-2-4!

-1940 season, 25 years old-
Donny starts in AAA (finaly) but my SS goes down with a 5-6 week injury (brittle SOB). My backup again becamomes my starter (36 now) and I (shortsitedly) did not sign a second backup, so Donny gets the call. Then my backup goes down for the season!!! I call up a 6th OF since I had no IF in AAA (ok so I'm an idiot) and put Donny in full time (I probably could have traded for someone, but I figured "what the heck, its just for a month or so, I'll give him a try". He hits .247 (23/93) as a starter/backup that year.

-1941 off season-
I trade my made-of-glass starting SS and sign a young stud FA 2B, moving my 2B to SS (he's just as good at both positions). When checking AAA to see if I need to sign another backup (I have 2 IF in AAA now, including Donny). I notice Donny is rated "434 AFF"! Cool! 4 is all I ever wanted from him anyway, as he is to be a defensive specialist.

-1941 season, 26 years old-
Donny becomes a full time little-stick ultra-glove IF utility guy in 1941, mostly backing up 2B/SS (I still have the old man and now a rookie 1B). He hits .222 (20/90) for the year.

-1941 off season-
I am finally able to remedy my lack of AAA prospects as I have an extreme glut of AAA picthing (7 SP and 9 MR/CL). I trade some MLB/AAA piching to various teams for AAA positional prospects, although my pitching staff will now have three rookies. I also sign the old man (38) to a 1 year low $ contract as he still carries a pretty good stick (557) and was not injured last year at all.

-1942 season, 27 years old-
Donny's second year as defensive specialist. I trade my extra 1B part way into the year (he needs to play full time; he is almost as good as my starting 1B) for two A level prospects and call up a 21 year old RF 634 (unexpected, as he just made AAA this year) that needs some at bats in the majors, so Donny starts backing up at 1B too. Donny ends up hitting 292 for the year (33/113) and is now rated "445 AAA"! Not too shabby for a guy that started out 001/FFF! And, at 27, he could still improve!

[Tiger Fan]

Nice story. It is great to see a prospect develop like that when you take him under your wing.
Keep us updated on his progress.

[DennisS]

This thread is a real treat for me!!

It is mad fun to read about a marginal player, and his struggle to achieve greatness.

It seems as if all the other posts are about some mega-talented future HOF'er.

Please, please keep us informed and up to date about Donny

[Specs]

This is why I think player development has improved, but I really wish I could hear this about a superstar pitcher.

[fluharty]

-1943 season, 28 years old-
Hit 292 (33/113) again. What are the odds of that?

-1943 off season-
Due to budgetary constraints I was unable to offer a contract to my first baseman and lost him to FA.

-1944 season, 29 years old-
I had two choices for starting first basemen and neither of them were good. One was a fella named Nutter and the other was Donny. Nutter was rated a 4 6 6 and Donny 4 5 5. Nutter had a career BA of 273 but is 36 years old. I decide to start Donny but give Nutter 25% of the playing time at first and some time in RF. Donny begins the season well, but trails off. Nutter bats consistantly worse, however, so Donny keeps the starting job. He hits 231 for the year (99/429) with 40 2B, 2 3B, 5 HR, 69 RBI, 88 K, 39 BB, 24 SB, 11 CS. He started 105 games at 1B, 18 at 3B, and 1 at 2B.

-1944 off season--
I have a AAA 1B man that will be ready next year and there were no FA 1B men available that merited a one year deal, so I'll probably go with Nutter/Meier again. Hopefully, my rookie will be ready next year.

-1945 spring-
As usual, Donny worked on contact hitting in spring. I wouldn't bother mentioning it except that he went up in hits and is now 5 5 5.

-1945 season, 30 years old-
Went with Donny at fist again since my AAA 1B guy is not ready (plenty of time- he's only 21). I dont have the exact ABs, since I am at work and adding this season from memory, but Donny continues to over-achieve, hitting in the 290-300 range in 450 or so at bats and was second on the team in doubles.

[Giants44]

This story has inspired me to start a fictional career league starting in 1900.

Great stuff

[majormet]

This is great stuff, these are the hidden stories that you can get out of OOTP4, this guys sounds a lot like Joe mcEwing.

[DennisS]

As a Cardinals fan, I can tell you that Joe McEwing was a huge favorite of the fans here.

On a related note, Tino Martinez got TWO standing ovations from Cardinals fans on Opening Day.

The first, on his first at bat, the second, after a late game single drove in a run.

The news the next day had an interview with him, he was shocked, surprised, and very, very pleased.

Look for Tino to have as good a year as he can.

[toanstrom]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Blind Jerome:
This is why I think player development has improved, but I really wish I could hear this about a superstar pitcher.

---

There's a pitcher in my fictional league named Claude Marceau who has quite an impressive story behind him. Selected in the seventh round of the dispersal draft by New York Claude suffered through seven injury plagued years in the minors with New York he was eventually released in 1881. (This is with the most recent patch) Claude was picked up on a flyer by the Cincinnati Barons in the winter of 82'. He was intented to be a deperation starter, his avoidng runs rating was one. After just one year Claude got called up to the big club, he worked mostly in relief but this past year he was placed into the rotation for the Barons and responded by going 13-5 with a 3.15 era and making the all-star team! He's 34 at this point so I dont know how many productive years are left in him but it just struck me as a great reclamation story and proof of how great this game's player development is. Who knows maybe Claude will become the Jamie Moyer of the Professional Baseball League. By the way his ratings are all 6's with all good talents!

[ 04-15-2002, 01:47 AM: Message edited by: toanstrom ]

[joshuaaaaaa]

This was a great story, and has inspired me to watch some of my prospects more closely. I seem to be better at wrecking some prospects than improving them. A couple of times I've pulled up AAA pitchers with decent ratings (4s and 5s) to fill injury holes, watched them struggle, figure that I'll send them back to AAA for more seasoning, and suddenly they are no longer good enough for AAA, and languish in AA for the rest of their careers.

In my current league I've got a few home-grown prospects, some of whom may end up being superstars (my new RF is hitting .500 through 48 ABs in 2009, after hitting .270 in 100 AB as a late season callup in 2008), unfortunately I didn't really track how they started.

Thanks again for the great story. I love reading these histories on the board.

[Killer_Bs]

I'm a little confused on the talent guidelines...

So guys can actually increase their talent levels to good from average, etc?

I was under the impression that talent levels where their "maximums" and that they could only increase their numerical rating up to that talent maximum.

[fluharty]

I have seen it only a few times. It can happen, but doesn't happen very often. They can also drop, unfortunately. Adds a dimension of uncertainty, even with scouting turned off.

[toanstrom]

-Newark, 4/2/1889
Claude "The Mime" Marceau has announced that he will retire at the end of the season. Claude had become a major fan favorite in Newark after being accuired via trade in the franchises' second season. He will finish his career with a 49-51 record and a 4.16 lifetime ERA. He posted two good seasons for the Knights, wininng 13 games with a 3.98 era and 10 with a 3.45 era before running out of gas last year and going 2-12 for the cellar dwellars. This year the Quebec City native will be pitching and coaching for the Providence Pilgrims, Newark's AAA squad. He hopes to have a career in coaching begining next year.