OOTP5 Player Development Questions...

[Karim]

I purchased OOTP5 only a month ago so I did a FOFC search first. There really wasn't much of a consensus, nor was their one at the OOTP boards.

I'm really having trouble coming up with a development strategy in the minors and figured there is no better place to ask.

Scout: Outstanding/LEGENDARY
A: Excellent/LEGENDARY
AA: LEGENDARY/LEGENDARY
AAA: Good/Excellent

I play with Talent Only ratings.

1) Where should each minors manager be assigned? I was thinking of putting the best at A ball to get the players off to a good start but ended up putting him at AA when the players got promoted. Should players experience different managers? In real life, are minors managers shuffled? Isn't the best manager at AAA?

2) How do I prevent drops in ratings? I had two 5-star hitting prospects whose talent has dropped. Plate discipline and hitting is lowered to where one is 4 stars and the other is 3.5 stars. They are both 24 and mediocre in AAA.

3) Do you listen to your scouts on when to promote or go strictly by stats? In real life, how quickly do players go through the system and what is the youngest player feasible at AAA? I had two 22 year old pitchers lighting it up at AA. I wanted them to pitch another full year at AA to take advantage of the quality manager plus I was already full on the major league roster. My scout said they were ready for AAA so I reluctantly promoted them. Their K to IP ratio is almost 2:1, H to IP ratio almost 1:1, but ERA is above 5.00. I honestly don't know if I'm helping or hurting their long-term development. Can a player be hurt by keeping him in the minors too long? The 5-star pitcher has already dropped to 4.5.

4) Once a player goes from a prospect rating to a overall rating, most of the time the stars drop to 2.5, regardless of actual performance. Has anyone seen otherwise? Does this improve over time or is this a bug?

~~~

Sorry for the amount of questions. It's not that I want to be spoonfed everything, but I don't want to be doing something obvious that is hurting development. If possible, I'd also like to stick to "Real Life House Rules". If an 18 year old is never going to be in AAA, then I won't do that either.

Thank-you very much in advance. Hopefully this generates some good discussion.

[ScottVib]

1) I tend to try and keep my best coaches with my best prospects. So if all my hot pitching prospects are in AA then the LEGENDARY pitching development guy goes there. I tend to keep my best coaches in the low minors trying to give the guys a head start with the lessor in AAA, since I tend to stash a lot of vets in AAA.

2) There is no sure way to prevent talent drops.

3) Use a balance of stats and scouts, if the scout tells you he's ready he probably is, but it tends to be conservative, I've had fairly decent success promoting a little ahead of the scout. Keeping a player in the minors too long can cause the player to be less likely to reach his full potential, if they're ready and you can get them enough playing time, I'd bring him up; regardless of the age.

4) The blue stars are graded differently on the white stars. The blue stars look at talent and potential while the white ones go by current ability relative to the skill of other players at that position.

[MizzouRah]

1) Where should each minors manager be assigned? I was thinking of putting the best at A ball to get the players off to a good start but ended up putting him at AA when the players got promoted. Should players experience different managers? In real life, are minors managers shuffled? Isn't the best manager at AAA?

I would use Scott's idea. I tend to put my best minors manager at A, unless there are alot of good players at a particular level. You want a good one at AAA, becuase I think it helps your veterans from losing ratings as they become older. AA would get my lowest rated manager, unless you have a ton of talent there. Your L/L rated manager needs to be where you have the most talent, if that happens to be AAA, you get both benefits for older players and hot talent. Pure speculation from me.


2) How do I prevent drops in ratings? I had two 5-star hitting prospects whose talent has dropped. Plate discipline and hitting is lowered to where one is 4 stars and the other is 3.5 stars. They are both 24 and mediocre in AAA.

Your AAA manager could have somehting to do with it, only rated at GOOD in hitting, although like FOF, when players reach a certain age (23-26?), they either get better or take a hit, in FOF I think it was # of years in the NFL.


3) Do you listen to your scouts on when to promote or go strictly by stats? In real life, how quickly do players go through the system and what is the youngest player feasible at AAA? I had two 22 year old pitchers lighting it up at AA. I wanted them to pitch another full year at AA to take advantage of the quality manager plus I was already full on the major league roster. My scout said they were ready for AAA so I reluctantly promoted them. Their K to IP ratio is almost 2:1, H to IP ratio almost 1:1, but ERA is above 5.00. I honestly don't know if I'm helping or hurting their long-term development. Can a player be hurt by keeping him in the minors too long? The 5-star pitcher has already dropped to 4.5.

I plead laziness here. I always hit the button on the transaction screen to let the computer adjust my minors, although I keep them on human control (to draft and release/sign when needed). It's a quick way to have them adjust pitching staff and lineups for all 3 minor systems. I would assume it would be better to adjust the minor league players myself, but I figure that's what I have a scout and managers for. Besides the computer has the exact same AI, so it's fair in that reguard.


4) Once a player goes from a prospect rating to a overall rating, most of the time the stars drop to 2.5, regardless of actual performance. Has anyone seen otherwise? Does this improve over time or is this a bug?

Another good explanation from Scott. :)


Todd

[Karim]

Thanks guys.

I ended up trading my top two hitting prospects for help at catcher and 3rd. I'm trying to get over the top after the following:

Year 1: World Series. Up 3 games to 2. Lost game 6 and 7 at home. Main deficiency was a lack of power.

Year 2: World Series. Up 3 games to 2. Lost game 6 on the road. Was up 5-0 in the 7th and 5-3 in the 8th. Two outs in the 9th, give up a three run homer. I haven't been more devastated after any sim ever.

Year 3: World Series. Swept to repeat champions after putting up the most wins in league history.

Great game, this OOTP5.

[MizzouRah]

Who are you playing with?


Todd

[Karim]

A sixteen-team, fictional league.

I just cheated though... :rolleyes: I had a stud 20 year-old closer in A-ball with a Manager Legendary in pitching. As a 19-year old, he put up outstanding numbers, but I didn't want to rush him so I thought if he could put up good numbers this year, I'll promote him at the start of next season.

Half-way through the season, he has very good numbers, but not as ridiculous as last year. I get a message from my scout saying it's time to promote him. I ignored the message then a month later at the end of August I noticed right across the board...

... talent drops in hits allowed
... talent drops in giving up homers
... talent drops in walks
... talent drops in getting strikeouts
... loses duration

I couldn't believe it, so I changed it back and promoted him to AA. I guess I'll follow my scout's recommendations from now on.