Prospect Progression

[Mega0862]

Ok, so I have some questions about developing players.

1. What level is best to keep your prospects at to grow? ie. AA, AAA, MLB

2. Is it much harder for a player to grow past a certain age?

3. What is a good base overall for a young guy to reach before calling him up to the MLB?

4.Does training play a significant role?

5. Say you have an A or B potential prospect but he is still a 68-74 overall by age 24 or older, is he not going to reach his potential? and is it time to move on?

Thanks in advance.

[TheWarmWind]

Re: Prospect Progression

1. Whatever level they are performing at. Watch your prospects stats. If they are struggling, send them down a level. If they are dominating. Promote them. Bad performance can kill your prospect's development. Good performance accelerates it, though there are no guarantees.

2. Hard to say, but it seems like once a player reaches his late 20s/30, if they're not MLB caliber they're never going to be. I'm sure someone on OS has an experience that counters this though, it's just been my experience so far.

3. Depends on your MLB overall average, though to be honest you should reward performance over ratings. For example, my save is a carry over from 14, ratings were much higher on average back then so my MLB threshold sits in the mid 70s. If I had started this year I might dip into the high 60s based on the ratings I've seen.

4. As far as I can tell, training can help accelerate growth to a particular stat, but the effect is minor.

5. 24 isn't too old. I've seen guys languish in the minors then get a sudden burst of ratings. 68 - 74 is definitely still on track, just a potential late bloomer (they exist IRL). Now if they were 45-55, you might have a problem.

[BillPeener]

Re: Prospect Progression

1. Whatever level they are performing at. Watch your prospects stats. If they are struggling, send them down a level. If they are dominating. Promote them. Bad performance can kill your prospect's development. Good performance accelerates it, though there are no guarantees.

Out of curiosity, how do you know minor league performance affects progression?

[Mega0862]

Re: Prospect Progression

1. Whatever level they are performing at. Watch your prospects stats. If they are struggling, send them down a level. If they are dominating. Promote them. Bad performance can kill your prospect's development. Good performance accelerates it, though there are no guarantees.

2. Hard to say, but it seems like once a player reaches his late 20s/30, if they're not MLB caliber they're never going to be. I'm sure someone on OS has an experience that counters this though, it's just been my experience so far.

3. Depends on your MLB overall average, though to be honest you should reward performance over ratings. For example, my save is a carry over from 14, ratings were much higher on average back then so my MLB threshold sits in the mid 70s. If I had started this year I might dip into the high 60s based on the ratings I've seen.

4. As far as I can tell, training can help accelerate growth to a particular stat, but the effect is minor.

5. 24 isn't too old. I've seen guys languish in the minors then get a sudden burst of ratings. 68 - 74 is definitely still on track, just a potential late bloomer (they exist IRL). Now if they were 45-55, you might have a problem.

Thanks for all the great feedback!


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[TheWarmWind]

Re: Prospect Progression

Out of curiosity, how do you know minor league performance affects progression?

Experience. I've yet to see a prospect do poorly in the minors while his attributes skyrocket. Meanwhile those that do have rapidly rising attributes tend to be the ones who are doing well.

[JayD]

Re: Prospect Progression

I love the way they have progression. I see some prospects accelerate to the majors and then I see some that just stay at the minor league level, busts.

[Caulfield]

Re: Prospect Progression

if you are looking at overall as a factor in call ups to the bigs, you might also want to look at their potential as well. if a guy is somewhere in the 65-69 range but a C potential or less, you could call him up to ride the bench and get a AB's. But I wouldnt pull a player out of the minors just to ride the bench if he was an A potential. if you arent going to use him much, might as well leave him down on the farm and continue to grow past 70 overall. Once he's at 72+ he should be in the bigs. if he's stalled behind another player, consider changing one of those 2 players primary position, if you have a need at another position.

though its not always possible, I like to stock my milb levels by age, when I can:
Single A 22 and under
AAA 25 and above

if you have a pitcher in single A who doesnt have a good off-speed pitch, he's probably not ready for AA ball.

[Mega0862]

Re: Prospect Progression

This is all great info. I'm trying gage some players. I have the OSFM rosters and I'm watching Jorge Mateo, Clint Frazier, and Gleyber Torres. Frazier and Mateo I called up to the MLB after my first season. They were both 73 overall but after my second season, they both went up to 75. Now I called up Torres and he is a 72 starting at SS. Meanwhile I have Kaperlian who is a top 50 pitching prospect stuck in the minors at a 64 overall the past two seasons.


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[Rocket32]

Re: Prospect Progression

Do players still progress in A ball even though they don't play any games?

[countryboy]

Re: Prospect Progression

Do players still progress in A ball even though they don't play any games?

Yes they do.

[Mega0862]

Re: Prospect Progression

I just drafted a LF and this kid is an A potential with an overall of 68 already and he's only 18! I have him batting 3rd on my AAA squad, hopefully he progresses well.


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[bigsteve15]

Re: Prospect Progression

When promoting a high level prospect to the bigs I have criteria before they do so without considering overall. For fielder's they need to have decent arm strength or else you'll see the ball thrown like a child. For hitters you need to have decent plate vision or else your PCI will be small and you won't make much contact with anything. Lastly for pitchers they must have decent control or else good luck getting your pitches to go where you aim them. If these attributes are too low your player could regress. Best to keep him in the minors until these stats are at least in the 60's IMO.

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[Mega0862]

Re: Prospect Progression

When promoting a high level prospect to the bigs I have criteria before they do so without considering overall. For fielder's they need to have decent arm strength or else you'll see the ball thrown like a child. For hitters you need to have decent plate vision or else your PCI will be small and you won't make much contact with anything. Lastly for pitchers they must have decent control or else good luck getting your pitches to go where you aim them. If these attributes are too low your player could regress. Best to keep him in the minors until these stats are at least in the 60's IMO.

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Great points! The aforementioned LF prospect with a 68 overall, has killer hitting and vision stats but his arm strength and accuracy are in the 30s. If his arm stats don't progress by the end of this season, I may just call him up to DH next season.


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[bigsteve15]

Re: Prospect Progression

Great points! The aforementioned LF prospect with a 68 overall, has killer hitting and vision stats but his arm strength and accuracy are in the 30s. If his arm stats don't progress by the end of this season, I may just call him up to DH next season.


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That was an issue in 16 for me. Really good hitting but horrible fielding. It may be because when we set our scouts to look for prospects we chose to look for good hitting tools rather than fielding?


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[Mega0862]

Re: Prospect Progression

That was an issue in 16 for me. Really good hitting but horrible fielding. It may be because when we set our scouts to look for prospects we chose to look for good hitting tools rather than fielding?


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Ah! That's true, I didn't think of the scouting being a reason for that.


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