The Official Draft Discussion Thread

[AC]

Thanks for putting us all to shame with that, Royals. :P

Just curious: How do you come up with these awesome plans? Cause I just drafted a D (A) 18 y/o starting pitcher. He'll be 19 when he starts playing. I'm think AA call up for June. I'd like to make a plan for him. Wish you could automatically cap innings.

Does anyone really care where I sent this from?

Does anyone really care where I sent this from?

[royals19]

Re: The Official Draft Discussion Thread

Thanks for putting us all to shame with that, Royals. :P

Just curious: how do you come up with these awesome plans? Cause I just drafted a D (A) 18 y/o who's now 19. I'd like to make a plan for him. Wish you could automatically cap innings.

Does anyone really care where I sent this from?

I take the tools of the players and try to develop them the best way possible. I also keep these two main goals in mind.

Get hitters as many ABs as possible
Get pitchers as many innings as possible without hurting them

Hitters are a little more expendable and can be developed quicker. Pitchers however are not and its hard to get them to reach their full potential without getting hurt.

If they get hurt they lose innings and when they lose innings, they lose development time and when they lose development time, they don't develop and when they don't develop they become busts-don't let your prospects become busts.

[AC]

I take the tools of the players and try to develop them the best way possible. I also keep these two main goals in mind.

Get hitters as many ABs as possible
Get pitchers as many innings as possible without hurting them

Hitters are a little more expendable and can be developed quicker. Pitchers however are not and its hard to get them to reach their full potential without getting hurt.

If they get hurt they lose innings and when they lose innings, they lose development time and when they lose development time, they don't develop and when they don't develop they become busts-don't let your prospects become busts.

I'll try and get him on a >150 innings limit.

Does anyone really care where I sent this from?

[MattGarza13]

Re: The Official Draft Discussion Thread

Question, Brian Dozier is a 25 year old B potential SS with decent ratings and was raking in AAA 50 games in, I called him up to be my everyday SS and through 10 games hes hitting .333 with 9 rbis 3 hrs and 6 doubles. He has made 3 errors though, is it okay that I called him up or did I hurt him. Same with A couple of other prospects I thought were ready for AAA but they went on cold streaks so I called them back down and now there normal and I didn't get the loss of potential email, So I'm fine right?

[AC]

Question, Brian Dozier is a 25 year old B potential SS with decent ratings and was raking in AAA 50 games in, I called him up to be my everyday SS and through 10 games hes hitting .333 with 9 rbis 3 hrs and 6 doubles. He has made 3 errors though, is it okay that I called him up or did I hurt him. Same with A couple of other prospects I thought were ready for AAA but they went on cold streaks so I called them back down and now there normal and I didn't get the loss of potential email, So I'm fine right?

Nah, you're all good. Dozier's generally good for .275 with 25-30 HRs, btw.

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[Mark James]

Re: The Official Draft Discussion Thread

*If you want to avoid the long summaries of each year with my prospect, skip down to the notes about development.

I apologize for taking so long to post back here after saying I was going to focus on developing an A prospect pitcher in my Indians franchise. Well, here's what happened! Earlier today, on the other franchise development thread that hasn't been posted on in a couple of days, I wrote up an extremely long post about his development in complete detail with stats from every year and how exactly I developed him. Well, lo-and-behold, just as I was about to finish up the post, Internet Explorer crashed! I'm on my sister's laptop who doesn't use Firefox like I typically do so there was nothing I could do about it. I was extremly upset. It was probably 2500 words or longer! But, oh well. I decided it would be too time consuming to go and get all of his statistics again so I'll just give a brief of what I had before! Note: I'm playing MLB 11 The Show franchise mode because quite frankly I don't have the extra money to spend on MLB 12 The Show. I don't think there is any difference in the development process in the franchise, however. None of this development was played by me. It was all simulated or watched with manager mode.

Albert Cobb
- Selected with 6th overall pick in First Year Player Draft.
- 6'2", 299 pounds. R/R.
- Coming out of the draft he looked as followed: Overall = D, Velocity = C, Stamina = D, Control = D, Fielding = F, Potential = A.
- Featured four pitches: a four seem fastball, a curveball, a change up, and a slider. His fastball was his 'get ahead in the count' pitch while his change up and slider were his 'out' pitch.
- Signed to a four year deal.

As I said previously, I don't have all his statistics but I'll briefly explain how it all went down year by year. I tried to stick to the Montgomery script of building a prospect out of the draft but decided to branch off into my own development as went on with Cobb's career.

Year 1
Cobb started right out at AAA as the #2 starter in the rotation. I wanted Cobb to see a lot of innings in his first year while being able to stay healthy. I put a 200 inning limit on his first year. The first 100 innings of his were spent as the #2 starter while the last 100 were spet as the #1 starter. I went with a four man rotation to make sure he would see enough innings to be able to develop correctly. If I remember correct, he finished with a 12-9 W/L and 4.03 ERA. He had a solid K/BB ratio, which I believe was around 90:40. The first year went extremely well and in the off-season he gained +4 on his overall with +5 in each category of attributes besides his specific pitches.
Summary for development: 200 innings in AAA for year one. Split the first 100 as the #2 starter and last 100 as #1 starter.

Year 2:
In the Montgomery prospect mold, my prospect would throw 75 innings in AAA before breaking into the MLB club as the #5 starter. I decided that Cobb was not ready to break into the MLB rotation in just his second year so I decided to have him go another full year in AAA. He was the #1 starter throughout the year and finished with a 13-8 W/L with an ERA of around 3.55. He had 19 of his 30 starts be quality starts and had a solid K/BB ratio which was improved from year one. In the offseason, once again, he gained another +4 on his overall and moved up anther +5 in each attribute category besides his specific pitches.
Summary for development: Spend another 200 innings in AAA. Monitor closely his development from year one.

Year 3
Cobb was invited to Spring Training in the MLB rotation and fared pretty well with his competition. I decided that his development was going smooth but I wanted him to get one last fine-tuning in the minor leagues before making the jump to the MLB rotation. He pitched 75 innings in AAA before getting the call to the MLB rotation. Going into the rotation he looked as followed: Overall = C, Velocity = C, Stamina = B, Control = D, Fielding = F, and Potential = A. He was made the #5 starter in the rotation and did quite well. Finished with a 7-6 record with a 4.22 ERA. Also had a solid K/BB ratio that I don't have remembered off the top of my head. I was extremely happy with how he perfomed given that it was only his first year in the major leagues. His ERA wasn't as low as he would have liked, but he certainly showed that he can be succesfull. Gained another +4 in the offseason with +5 in every category except specific pitches.
Summary for development: Throw 75 innings in AAA before breaking into the MLB rotation. Watch him closely to see how he fares against major league competition.

Year 4
Depending on how your prospect goes with this development plan, he should either be ready to move into the #4 or #3 role in the rotation. I decided that depending on how Cobb preformed in Spring Training would decide which spot he takes in the rotation. Overall wise, he was ranked as the 4th highest on my roster but production was was ranked as the 3rd. He out-performed Jeanmar Gomez for the 3rd spot in the rotation and was the #3 starter right out of the gate. I decided to keep him on a 200 inning limit this year to avoid injury and keep him away from arm fatigue. If the ball club made the playoffs, we would run with a 4 man rotation as he would be held out. Cobb certainly proved that moving him to the #3 starter was the right decision. He went 15-9 with a 3.93 ERA in 203.2 innings pitched. If it weren't for the innings pitched, he would have been able to start two more games. Luckily for Cobb, the team didn't make the playoffs and he didn't have to sit out any playoff games. Then came the biggest offseason since signing Cobb. His contract was up(which, in reality, I don't believe it should be because he hasn't had 6 years of MLB service) and we had to decide how long we wanted to offer him an extension. I decided that he had gone through my development process perfectly planned and he was no-doubt the future of this ballclubs' rotation. The Indians signed Cobb to a 6 year extension. And finally, to end off his fourth year, he gained another +4 overall and +5 in every category.
Summary for development: Monitor Spring Training games to see if he out-preformes other pitchers to move up in the rotation. If he does well in Spring Training, move to #3 starter. If not, keep him at either the #5 stater or the #4 starter.

Year 5
With his development going just as planned, I had big expectations for my prospect in this year. I expected him to be at or a year away from his full potential. He ranked 2nd overall-wise and 2nd production wise in my rotation so he was moved into the #2 starter role. He started off the season a little slow once he got in rhythm, he was lights out. He finished the year with around 210 innings pitched, and multiple complete games. I was ecstatic abou how the whole development process for Cobb was finally pieced together into one solid year for him. He finished with a W/L of 16-7 an an ERA of around 3.49. He led my team in strikeouts, quality starts, and complete games. For the first time in my simulate franchie, my Indians were heading to the playoffs as a wild card team as well. The first game of the series was lost to the New York Yankees but Cobb's effort in game 2 won us that one. However, we lost the next two games and Cobb didn't get to pitch again. However, on the bight side, he got valuable playoff experience and was heading into Year 2017 as one of the highest rated players on my team. Gained +3 overall in the offseason with +3 in each category besides specific pitches.
Summary for development: Based on production from previous year and production in this year's Spring Training, decide whether or not he was worthy of being moved up into the #2 or #1 starter role in your rotation.

I'm going to stop the lengthy summaries of each year now and just finish off with his last couple of years statistics before I stopped simulated the franchise.

Year 6 (2017)
W/L: 15-5. ERA: 3.31. Started year on 15 day DL with an arm injury. Nothing major; came back after a rehab start in AAA. Finishes third in Cy Young race, first all star appearence and #1 starter in the rotation since Opening Day.
Year 7 (2018)
W/L: 18-5. ERA: 3.27. Highest rater played on my team. Finishes second in Cy Young race. Starter for AL in the All Star Game.
Year 8 (2019)
Yet to be started! Not sure if I want to continue on with this. I kind of want to play one season with Cobb just to see what it would be like to actually play with him. I'll see!

*Notes about development:
- With a pitching prospect, the one thing you want to focus on most is getting your prospect the most innings possible without him obtaining any type of injury. Luckily, I was able to avoid the injury bug with my prospect and only have him to go on the DL once throughout his career so far. The more injuries your prospect gets, the more rehab starts he has to go through and the more time he has to spend going up and down in those rehab starts.

- Try to draft a pitcher with velocity already in the high D/low-high C range because the development of velocity takes extremely long if even possible. I think in my prospects eight year career he went from a mid-level C to a high level-C in velocity. It barely upgrades while stamina and the other categories upgrade every offseason with his potential.

- Turn training assignments on manual. With the auto training assignments, your pitcher is going to be working on shagging flyballs, which is extremely pointless. Don't get me wrong, you want a good fielding pitcher, but in your deveopment process you would rather focus on building stamina and upgrading pitching attributes. Mix your training assignments around with the bullpen sessions and long tosses to try and upgrade every attribute with +5 when you go into the player progressoin in the off season. However, if you don't think you can manage this, put it back onto auto and you will most likely get the same results but not as good if you did it manually.

- Monitor the development of your pitcher closely. By this I mean go into manager mode and watch each of his pitches. You don't have to do this for every game, but it's better to get an actual view of what your prospect can do rather than just his statistics. Call for certain locations for him to pitch and make sure that he can have pin-point location before moving into the MLB rotation because if he leaves a dinky slider right over the middle of the plate, proven major league hitters are going to drill him and leave you wonder what the hell happened!

- Prospect developing takes time. Especially if he's not an A prospect or high B prospect where he won't get +4 overall in each off season. Luckily, I had a good pitching scout that showed me his A potential before I had even drafted him. Remember, as said before, even if you don't know the potential if your pitcher in the draft, take a glance at his speed on his pitches. Higher velocity equals quicker development because velocity is just so damn slow to upgrade. At least it was for me. Royals19 might have another way to develop velocity that I completely missed out on.

To end this off, I hope you all enjoy developing prospects like I do! I hope this can be a plan for some of you who didn't know how exactly to develop pitching prospects. I'm going to develop a position player next and possibly post back here whenever I'm done with him. I would also like to thank Royals19 for starting the prospect development fad with MLB The Show. He certainly got the ball rolling!

- Mark James

[AC]

Shame you couldn't get 12. Game play blows 11 out of the water. The progression system didn't change one bit though, which helps. Thanks for the contribution.

I'll be continuing the development of my newest A prospect in the morning. Well, it's 1:02, so it is the morning. Later in the morning lol. Stuck him in Single A for the whole year. Gonna be careful with him.

Does anyone really care where I sent this from?

[MattGarza13]

Re: The Official Draft Discussion Thread

Nah, you're all good. Dozier's generally good for .275 with 25-30 HRs, btw.

Does anyone really care where I sent this from?

Man I didn't know he was so amazing, every out is a rip for him and he also walks a lot. Too bad he can't field hes dropped 2 pop ups and booted a grounder already. Jamey Caroll was an amazing fielder but his .209 average with 1 hr and 14 rbis wasnt impressing through 50 games. Through around ten Dozier already has 2 more homers than caroll and almost the same amount of RBIs. I've simmed to the end of the season 3 times and Dozier goes +5 in all areas.

I'm mad about the draft, I got 2 A potentials ( my stud and a 22 Y/O RFer with amazing power and nothing else ) but in the 3rd round I had a scouted out B potential SP and I took a risk and took a SP that wasn't scouted who had max velocity and a high K/9, he ended up being F potential...

[AC]

Man I didn't know he was so amazing, every out is a rip for him and he also walks a lot. Too bad he can't field hes dropped 2 pop ups and booted a grounder already. Jamey Caroll was an amazing fielder but his .209 average with 1 hr and 14 rbis wasnt impressing through 50 games. Through around ten Dozier already has 2 more homers than caroll and almost the same amount of RBIs. I've simmed to the end of the season 3 times and Dozier goes +5 in all areas.

I'm mad about the draft, I got 2 A potentials ( my stud and a 22 Y/O RFer with amazing power and nothing else ) but in the 3rd round I had a scouted out B potential SP and I took a risk and took a SP that wasn't scouted who had max velocity and a high K/9, he ended up being F potential...

Don't worry about it. B potentials can be kinda sketchy. Also, put Carroll at SS and Dozier at second.

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[MattGarza13]

Re: The Official Draft Discussion Thread

Don't worry about it. B potentials can be kinda sketchy. Also, put Carroll at SS and Dozier at second.

Does anyone really care where I sent this from?

Bleh I can't, Casilla is one of my bright spots hitting .300 and playing a superb 2nd. Maybe I could put Casilla at short and Dozier at 2nd. I don't think that'd help much though as Dozier has a gun and makes a lot of throws in the hole that I think only he could make. I've played 3 more games and dozier went 2-4, 3-4, and 2-4. He had a home run and 3 doubles in those games... Too bad I'm 14 games out of it.

[AC]

Bleh I can't, Casilla is one of my bright spots hitting .300 and playing a superb 2nd. Maybe I could put Casilla at short and Dozier at 2nd. I don't think that'd help much though as Dozier has a gun and makes a lot of throws in the hole that I think only he could make. I've played 3 more games and dozier went 2-4, 3-4, and 2-4. He had a home run and 3 doubles in those games... Too bad I'm 14 games out of it.

Maybe Dozier to 3rd?

How do you plan on developing your right fielder that you just drafted?

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[MattGarza13]

Re: The Official Draft Discussion Thread

I would but I don't want him to get comfy there with Sano coming up who looks to be a .300 hitter with 35+ power potential. Hes leading AA in Hrs by like 6 at 18 years old.

I'm not sure how to develop him.. Haha it says hes 22 but does that mean next season he will be 23 already? Hes got C power and everything else is low. I think I need to put him in A for a year so he develops some contact so he doesnt go on any cold streaks. Than maybe a full year at AA so then his contact will be upper Dish with upper C power. Then I will start him in AAA if he gets hot I'll call him up if not he'll stick to AAA and start next year. So his major league ETA would probably be around 25? I'm kinda thinking he might be have to be a DH though..

Only if I had any starting pitching I'd be set for the future. I have a future closer with high B potential, some solid relief, but only 2 young pitchers with B potential. I already traded 3 High B's ( All in places I didnt need them. ) For Brandon Morrow so that kind of helps.

Catcher - Mauer ( I could trade him for 2 A potential pitchers and 1 B if I wanted though. Than I'm super thin at C )

1B - Morneau is hitting well, I also have Chris Parmelee who like 24 and is B potential playing with the Major League club hitting .270 with no pop.

2B - I got my future stud A potential guy, for now I have Casilla holding it down well.

SS - Dozier is amazing 25 Y/O high B

3B - Valencia is young with B potential and is hitting .255 10 hrs 31 rbis also leads the league in doubles. I also have a future MVP canidate with Sano ( 18 Y/O high overall with high A potential )

Outfield is really crowded even after trading a B guy. I have Aaron Hicks high overall 22 Y/O with B potential, Joe Benson 23 Y/O with B potential, Ben Revere who is hitting .300 and has B potential, Denard Span whos younger with a B or A potential, and My drafted guy with A potential.

I'm thinking I could potentially trade Valencia and Span for some pitching?

[AC]

I'd ask that in the trade discussion thread. I'd also put Sano at DH until Morneau retires, and then I'd put him at first.

I think I'd get him started off at A, then move him up to AA. If he preforms, start him off at AAA the next year.

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[MattGarza13]

Re: The Official Draft Discussion Thread

I'd ask that in the trade discussion thread. I'd also put Sano at DH until Morneau retires, and then I'd put him at first.

I think I'd get him started off at A, then move him up to AA. If he preforms, start him off at AAA the next year.

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Right now I got Parmelee playing 1st everyday and Morneau DHing because I can't risk injuring him or have him get tired and lose his bat in the lineup.

I'm hoping my best lineup in the future will look something like this.

1. Hicks LF
2. Mauer C
3. Doyne 2B ( My stud A guy )
4. Sano 3B
5. Torres RF ( A potential power hitter )
6. Morneau DH
7. Parmelee 1B
8. Dozier SS
9. Revere CF

[AC]

Right now I got Parmelee playing 1st everyday and Morneau DHing because I can't risk injuring him or have him get tired and lose his bat in the lineup.

I'm hoping my best lineup in the future will look something like this.

1. Hicks LF
2. Mauer C
3. Doyne 2B ( My stud A guy )
4. Sano 3B
5. Torres RF ( A potential power hitter )
6. Morneau DH
7. Parmelee 1B
8. Dozier SS
9. Revere CF

I'm just saying, I'd trade Parmelee for pitching when Sano is ready.

Be sure to keep us updated on the development of your prospects.

Does anyone really care where I sent this from?