Insights on Spring Training?

Bisbo · 06-01-2005, 01:39 PM

I'm in my first two online leagues and have Spring training coming up in each. Anyone have any insights on the best way to utilize Spring training? Tried to search for other threads that might have discussed this, but didn't come up with anything. Thanks for any thoughts you have.

Riverdome · 06-01-2005, 01:46 PM

It's very popular to leave all the settings at 5.
If you have long shot prospects you might want to consider changing their values. If he's likely to be a carreer minor leaguer anyway what do you have to loose?
Consider taking one tool players (Usually all contact or all power) and either trying to make them an all around better player, or max out what they are already good at. What harm could come from taking all power points from Ichiro and trying to make him an even better contact hitter?

I tend to leave at all 5s, but occationally I will play Dr. Frankenstein and try to push players talent cureves one way or another.

Fibonacci · 06-01-2005, 01:58 PM

For hitters, I generally take away from eye/discipline, particularly if they have high ratings in that area. Then I add to wherever I think it will do the player the most good - or what I'd most like to see improved.

For pitchers, I like to take away primarily from velocity. Espescially if they have a lot of it. Velocity seems to be the least important pitching rating. Control is my second choice. Then I primarily add to stuff, and secondarily to movement, depending on the pitcher.

Joshv02 · 06-01-2005, 02:05 PM

If a reliever has an END of 4+ (or 3+, perhaps) taking away from END is fine.

If a pitcher is a nuckleballer, taking away from Velocity seems fine.

For a C or 1B, taking away from Defense is fine -- esp for 1B.

Karros270 · 06-01-2005, 02:25 PM

I generally just leave them all at 5. Now I'm thinking though I'm going to use Josh's advice, it makes no sense to work on velocity for a knuckler, I just never really thought about it before I guess (duh!).

Cooker · 06-01-2005, 02:46 PM

In spring training I leave everything at "5," unless:

1. A batter has really low power, in which case I move all his power points to either contact or eye. I'd rather have a guy with 60 contact and 10 power than a guy with 45 contact and 20 power, if you catch my drift.

2. A reliever has relatively high endurance (for example, 45-55) in which case I move some or all endurance points to stuff or control. Endurance does me no good if his poor stuff and control will never let him reach the majors.

In my solo league I had a catcher with a 57 arm. Not terrible but not great. I moved just two points out of power and into defense in ST. Voila, after spring training his arm strength went to 95! Maybe it would've happened anyway, but I like to think my reallocation helped increase it. (His power talent dropped only slightly, and wasn't that great to begin with.)

Most of these are just common sense, thinking about whether a particular category can be sacrificed to turn a career minor leaguer into someone who might be at least a role player in the majors.

Ktulu · 06-01-2005, 03:10 PM

Quote:

For hitters, I generally take away from eye/discipline, particularly if they have high ratings in that area. Then I add to wherever I think it will do the player the most good - or what I'd most like to see improved.

Usually eye/discipline is the area that will do the player the most good.

JDOldSchool · 06-01-2005, 03:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fibonacci

For hitters, I generally take away from eye/discipline, particularly if they have high ratings in that area. Then I add to wherever I think it will do the player the most good - or what I'd most like to see improved.

I would never do this since it's the rating I look at most for offensive players.

Bisbo · 06-01-2005, 04:51 PM

Thanks for all the helpful responses - this is a terrific online community!

congobeast · 06-01-2005, 05:12 PM

"Me too" here.

I love to build a #2 hitter in Dr. Frankenstien mode during ST.
Take a good fielding, decent contact & eye/walk guy and remove all his power and feed it to more of his strengths. Once in a while, you'll get lucky. Using this method, I turned Frank Sigafoos into a HOF candidate. I got a little lucky, and he became a slick fielding .350 hitter... with no power whatsoever. Didn't matter, though- he could move my speedy leadoff hitter around like nobody's business.

It's also a great way to steal defensive replacements from the scrapheap. (Dump everything into fielding, learn every position you can in the minors). Ditto for making designated pinch hitters.

I wouldn't risk a 3.5 - 5 star players development to most of these tricks, but it's a great way to turn your 7th round draft choice into a productive role-player.

Fibonacci · 06-01-2005, 06:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ktulu

Usually eye/discipline is the area that will do the player the most good.

I don't want to take away an offensive player's walks so that he's below average in that area. But if I would rather have a player get a single than a walk, as this can creates more opportunities. And I'd much prefer that he strike out as opposed to hitting into a double play.

I've had great success with my method, as I'm sure you've had with yours. (Otherwise, neither of us would have bothered posting.) An interesting study, would be to take a league with all teams exactly the same and then have one team follow my philosophy for hitters in ST and another team follow your philosophy. All the rest of the teams would give everybody 5's during ST. My guess is that we'd probably both finish ahead of the other teams that did nothing, but who knows?

Qwerty75 · 06-01-2005, 09:12 PM

Quote:

For a C or 1B, taking away from Defense is fine -- esp for 1B.

If you assign 0 pts. to a C's defense, is there a chance that his Arm will decrease as well as his Range/Fld.%?

Qwerty75 · 06-01-2005, 09:15 PM

Quote:

In my solo league I had a catcher with a 57 arm. Not terrible but not great. I moved just two points out of power and into defense in ST. Voila, after spring training his arm strength went to 95! Maybe it would've happened anyway, but I like to think my reallocation helped increase it. (His power talent dropped only slightly, and wasn't that great to begin with.)

Dola,

The above posted by Cooker seems to suggest that Arm is potentially affected by ST Defense points as well as Range ...

f.montoya · 06-01-2005, 11:17 PM

Should I post my secret here? Hhhhhmmmmm

here's one example:

If you have a 27-30 year old leadoff hitter who already has little or no power but is mostly the guy you want to get on base for other guys in your lineup, then obviously you wouldn't care if he went from 3 homeruns to 2 or 1 or even 0. That's not his job. I'll take all 5 points away from his power and distribute them according to his other weaknesses.

A loophole in the game maybe. I've always been able to create superb leadoff hitters over the course of three or four seasons.

disposableheros · 06-01-2005, 11:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joshv02

If a reliever has an END of 4+ (or 3+, perhaps) taking away from END is fine.

If a pitcher is a nuckleballer, taking away from Velocity seems fine.

For a C or 1B, taking away from Defense is fine -- esp for 1B.

ditto

this is assuming a 1-10 scale and the nuckleballer has a "k"

toolboxnj · 07-02-2005, 12:51 AM

This may be a dumb question, but what in ST raises eye/discipline? I see "strike zone knowledge".. will this add to "avoid k" and "eye"? Thanks

battists · 07-11-2005, 05:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by toolboxnj

This may be a dumb question, but what in ST raises eye/discipline? I see "strike zone knowledge".. will this add to "avoid k" and "eye"? Thanks

I was wondering the same thing. Along the same lines:

-Does "Power Hitting" impact both "Gap" and "Homerun" power?
-Does "Control" affect both "Control" and "Movement"?

Any numbers-crunchers out there willing to experiment?

Just a note, players will DEFINITELY decrease if you lower their numbers in an area. In my first spring training, I lowered the Endurance values for a number of my starters. I figured "They already have 85 endurance, why are they going to need more than that?" I put those points into stuff and control.

Unfortunately, the two of them dropped over 12 points in endurance! That seemed a little excessive. I mean, I didn't even lower it to 0. I think I put it at 2.

Anyway, more feedback welcome!

(Meanwhile, what's with the proliferation of amateur players with speed of 40 but 100 steal?

)

Kiko1313 · 07-12-2005, 09:18 PM

How much should I expect ratings to change after spring training. It doesn't seem like my team's numbers hardly changed. Examples (these are from 6.5):

2B - S. Zabala - ratings: 21/94/72/100/29 - talent: 14/90/74/100/15 - 5 range
spring training values: 11 contact, 3 power, 3 K/eye, 3 defense

The ONLY thing that changed was his range down to a 4 despite Player Development News showing:
Silverio Zabala defense at Second Base suffers.
Silverio Zabala has good batting practice sessions!
Silverio Zabala seems to have lost some power.
Silverio Zabala displayed poor strike zone judgement!

SP - R. Vidal - ratings: 22/23/64 - talent: 22/16/57 - endurance: 10 - velocity 91
spring training values: 7 stuff, 3 velocity, 7 control, 3 stamina

The ONLY thing that changed was his stuff DECREASED from 22 to 21 despite:
Ramon Vidal loses some stamina.
Ramon Vidal has good pitching sessions!
Ramon Vidal has lost some throwing velocity.
Ramon Vidal has improved his control!

These are only 2 examples of many. I picked 2 players to show that I thought for sure would change considerring my large changes away from using 5/5/5/5 for spring training values. Can anyone give me some insight of what's going on?

06-01-2005, 01:39 PM	#1
Bisbo Minors (Single A) Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 65	Insights on Spring Training? I'm in my first two online leagues and have Spring training coming up in each. Anyone have any insights on the best way to utilize Spring training? Tried to search for other threads that might have discussed this, but didn't come up with anything. Thanks for any thoughts you have.

06-01-2005, 01:58 PM	#3
Fibonacci Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 283	For hitters, I generally take away from eye/discipline, particularly if they have high ratings in that area. Then I add to wherever I think it will do the player the most good - or what I'd most like to see improved. For pitchers, I like to take away primarily from velocity. Espescially if they have a lot of it. Velocity seems to be the least important pitching rating. Control is my second choice. Then I primarily add to stuff, and secondarily to movement, depending on the pitcher. __________________ It is not certain that everything is uncertain. - Blaise Pascal

06-01-2005, 02:05 PM	#4
Joshv02 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: , " Posts: 3,082	If a reliever has an END of 4+ (or 3+, perhaps) taking away from END is fine. If a pitcher is a nuckleballer, taking away from Velocity seems fine. For a C or 1B, taking away from Defense is fine -- esp for 1B. __________________ Brookline Maccabees. RIP

06-01-2005, 02:25 PM	#5
Karros270 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 2,392	I generally just leave them all at 5. Now I'm thinking though I'm going to use Josh's advice, it makes no sense to work on velocity for a knuckler, I just never really thought about it before I guess (duh!). __________________ now everybody's praying...don't prey on me

06-01-2005, 05:12 PM	#10
congobeast Major Leagues Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Western Massachusetts Posts: 469	"Me too" here. I love to build a #2 hitter in Dr. Frankenstien mode during ST. Take a good fielding, decent contact & eye/walk guy and remove all his power and feed it to more of his strengths. Once in a while, you'll get lucky. Using this method, I turned Frank Sigafoos into a HOF candidate. I got a little lucky, and he became a slick fielding .350 hitter... with no power whatsoever. Didn't matter, though- he could move my speedy leadoff hitter around like nobody's business. It's also a great way to steal defensive replacements from the scrapheap. (Dump everything into fielding, learn every position you can in the minors). Ditto for making designated pinch hitters. I wouldn't risk a 3.5 - 5 star players development to most of these tricks, but it's a great way to turn your 7th round draft choice into a productive role-player. __________________ (The Boys of Summer) Cleveland Indians 1929-?? (All-Forum Baseball Dynasty) Pittsfield Hillies 2000-?? "I would walk through hell in a gasoline suit to play baseball." Pete Rose

06-01-2005, 01:46 PM	#2
Riverdome All Star Reserve Join Date: May 2002 Location: Ohio Posts: 964	It's very popular to leave all the settings at 5. If you have long shot prospects you might want to consider changing their values. If he's likely to be a carreer minor leaguer anyway what do you have to loose? Consider taking one tool players (Usually all contact or all power) and either trying to make them an all around better player, or max out what they are already good at. What harm could come from taking all power points from Ichiro and trying to make him an even better contact hitter? I tend to leave at all 5s, but occationally I will play Dr. Frankenstein and try to push players talent cureves one way or another. __________________ I was at the first OOTP Conference, where were you?..........

06-01-2005, 02:46 PM	#6
Cooker All Star Reserve Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Columbus, OH Posts: 592	In spring training I leave everything at "5," unless: 1. A batter has really low power, in which case I move all his power points to either contact or eye. I'd rather have a guy with 60 contact and 10 power than a guy with 45 contact and 20 power, if you catch my drift. 2. A reliever has relatively high endurance (for example, 45-55) in which case I move some or all endurance points to stuff or control. Endurance does me no good if his poor stuff and control will never let him reach the majors. In my solo league I had a catcher with a 57 arm. Not terrible but not great. I moved just two points out of power and into defense in ST. Voila, after spring training his arm strength went to 95! Maybe it would've happened anyway, but I like to think my reallocation helped increase it. (His power talent dropped only slightly, and wasn't that great to begin with.) Most of these are just common sense, thinking about whether a particular category can be sacrificed to turn a career minor leaguer into someone who might be at least a role player in the majors.

06-01-2005, 04:51 PM	#9
Bisbo Minors (Single A) Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 65	Thanks for all the helpful responses - this is a terrific online community!

06-01-2005, 11:17 PM	#14
f.montoya Hall Of Famer Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 6,077	Should I post my secret here? Hhhhhmmmmm here's one example: If you have a 27-30 year old leadoff hitter who already has little or no power but is mostly the guy you want to get on base for other guys in your lineup, then obviously you wouldn't care if he went from 3 homeruns to 2 or 1 or even 0. That's not his job. I'll take all 5 points away from his power and distribute them according to his other weaknesses. A loophole in the game maybe. I've always been able to create superb leadoff hitters over the course of three or four seasons. __________________ Fidel Montoya Asahi2 Baseball League ex-Commissioner(Historical League Since 2004) Ex-Web Host Current Mod Maker??

07-02-2005, 12:51 AM	#16
toolboxnj Minors (Double A) Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 192	This may be a dumb question, but what in ST raises eye/discipline? I see "strike zone knowledge".. will this add to "avoid k" and "eye"? Thanks

07-12-2005, 09:18 PM	#18
Kiko1313 Minors (Double A) Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 123	How much should I expect ratings to change after spring training. It doesn't seem like my team's numbers hardly changed. Examples (these are from 6.5): 2B - S. Zabala - ratings: 21/94/72/100/29 - talent: 14/90/74/100/15 - 5 range spring training values: 11 contact, 3 power, 3 K/eye, 3 defense The ONLY thing that changed was his range down to a 4 despite Player Development News showing: Silverio Zabala defense at Second Base suffers. Silverio Zabala has good batting practice sessions! Silverio Zabala seems to have lost some power. Silverio Zabala displayed poor strike zone judgement! SP - R. Vidal - ratings: 22/23/64 - talent: 22/16/57 - endurance: 10 - velocity 91 spring training values: 7 stuff, 3 velocity, 7 control, 3 stamina The ONLY thing that changed was his stuff DECREASED from 22 to 21 despite: Ramon Vidal loses some stamina. Ramon Vidal has good pitching sessions! Ramon Vidal has lost some throwing velocity. Ramon Vidal has improved his control! These are only 2 examples of many. I picked 2 players to show that I thought for sure would change considerring my large changes away from using 5/5/5/5 for spring training values. Can anyone give me some insight of what's going on?