[Mota]

Originally Posted by Swaggs

I have gotten about 25 years into a sim (I typically GM only but will occasionally play out an elimination game).

A couple of fun stories from my universe:

I took a 5th round flyer on a 6'10 pitcher that had really good personality characteristics and good, but not great hitting skills. He was awful at defense, slow, and poor with the strike zone, but figured it would be fun to follow a 6'10 hitter. He ended up developing really well and has turned into a perennial 4-5 WAR player and a gold glove defender. I had read that height is a factor at 1B, but his error/throwing/range were and still are all in the red, but he turned into a 65 grade defender and has won 4 or 5 gold gloves (he is about 30/31 now). I like to think being 6'10 allows him to reach just about any throw and cut at least some time off of standard throws with his reach. He didn't develop until he was 24 or so and I had an established 1B that was close in age and had been very good from 21ish or so, but I ended up dealing him due to service time and durability. He's also turned into a borderline HoF player (around 55 WAR through his age 31 season).

The other one is that I signed a British player during the international signing period that had great personality traits and was durable and he has turned into a really good RF. He is around 60/65 across the board and a 5-star player. Personality, especially work ethic, really seems to matter in developing these guys. He came up at 21 or so and got established and was going along with 4ish WAR years and then blew up at 25 and had an 8.4 WAR (.340s/40 HR/130 RBI), so I'm thinking I have an MVP on my hands. Then I notice St. Louis (I'm the Pirates) has a 2B with a 14.4 WAR and check him out. He finished the year hitting .437 (mid 30s HR and gold glove defense). This was totally out of the blue - it had been over five years since any expansion and the typical league leaders were between .320-.350, with an occasional outlier in the .360s or .370s (over about 25 years). Kind of blew my mind. I literally remember the only time I have ever seen a .400 hitter in any of the hundreds of (MLB) seasons that I have played OOTP, across versions, was an OF that just had a really high contact rating and hit .401 in barely enough ABs to qualify AND I benched him out of the last game. Hitting .437, just out of nowhere, seemed nuts. I'm loving the universe I have going, though.

I've found that the combination of contact rating and avoid strikeouts is the best for a good batting average. I had a player lead the league with a .358 average one year that had 70+ on both stats, he had no power at all (5 HR for the season), but his OBP and BA were both great, he scored a TON of runs for me.