Franchise Mode Question, Spring Training

[NeptunePirate]

In franchise mode, does playing the spring training games help anything? Do players improve or are there any benefits to actually going through the spring games? never found a clear answer to this, I was curious if anyone here would be able to shed some light on it. I'm someone that enjoys playing all the games in franchise mode, but if there is no real benefit from ST, I will just slip them from now on. Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

[countryboy]

I have never noticed players benefitting from playing in Spring Training games, in the sense that they progress or regress in their attributes.

[Armor and Sword]

The benefit is for you as the manager/gm to play your youngsters, aging minor league guys on the bubble, and on the bubble veterans to get a sense of who should make the 25 man roster, who should stay on the 40 man roster, and who might be ready to break out.

I use spring training exactly what it is for, get familiar with my 40 man roster, try different lineup combinations, and just get ready for another marathon season!

[hitstreak13]

Quote: Originally Posted by Armor & Sword

The benefit is for you as the manager/gm to play your youngsters, aging minor league guys on the bubble, and on the bubble veterans to get a sense of who should make the 25 man roster, who should stay on the 40 man roster, and who might be ready to break out. I use spring training exactly what it is for, get familiar with my 40 man roster, try different lineup combinations, and just get ready for another marathon season!

I play every game during spring training for this reason alone. I have had guys where I truly believed they would not be on my 25 man roster (i.e. Kevin Frandsen in mlb 12). After a .408 avg and solid defense, I put him on and did well as a utility. Definitely can find diamonds that will help you out during the long haul.

[burbank_ca]

I play in season mode and always sim thru spring training. It's barely even noticeable, but it is possible for some pitchers to gain or lose up to 1 pt on their overall attribute rating. I don't know why or what factors play into the decrease/increase... I just know that sometimes Kenley Jensen can begin spring training as an 89 overall and finish at a 90 overall.

Maybe it has something to do with hiring / firing staff? I have noticed that every time I make a change to my coaching staff before spring training, Kershaw always loses (1) stamina point before the spring is finished. . . ALWAYS!

Going from 99 to 98 in stamina (thou still a 99 overall). But, when I make no changes and keep the coaching staff as is, Kershaw never loses that stamina point. Even if I hire a new manager w/+3 stamina and a pitching coach w/ +3 stamina, fire Honeycutt who is at +2. . . Leaving me w/ and overall gain of +4, Kershaw STILL loses that point.
As far as position players are concerned, I have never noticed any changes to their attributes before, during or end of spring training.

Anyways, I've been playing this game for A VERY LONG time now and I've been a visitor to operationsports for even longer... always enjoyed reading postings from some of you veteran posters and have been help MANY times by y'all, not just this game but alot of my other sports games as well... just thought I'd contribute for once. . .

[@legendm0de]

Spring Training is a trainwreck of a mode so if you are ever looking to utilize it for it's normal purposes which is to evaluate your team sort out your pitching staff, learn about some of your minor league prospects you will be bothered that the cpu plays out spring training as if they are 5 year old kids and use their 25 man roster for the whole month in every inning of the mode. There is no player health system in this game, aside from triggering quite random injuries so certainly don't expect elements like training and fitness/conditioning to be apart of the mode.

It was always a horrible experience in MLB The Show, and they only went out of their way to make it even worse this year. And no, the mode will not artificially bump anyones career progression ratings up or down, nor should it. However, spring training is supposed to have plenty of uses but it's tough to make your way through it if that mode is something you need.

It's mandatory that Spring Training for 15' gets a full treatment and is a fair aspect of the game. When I say fair I mean, it's not fair to dog consumers just because you think something is not that important. For hands on Franchise Mode players it all starts at Spring Training and it needs to have some effort applied to it and presented to us properly from now on.

[NeptunePirate]

Wow, thanks for all the responses everyone. I appreciate it.