Developer Chat

Hardball Dynasty

tzentmeyer

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

12:00 PM - 1:00 PM EST


The LIVE portion of this chat will begin on

Wednesday, January 7, 2009 at 12:00 PM EST.

Welcome to the first HBD chat of the new year. We'll cover all HBD topics here, so fire away.
We're currently working on improving some logic with coach hiring (when coaches fall multiple levels when an owner doesn't sign a coach), improving the season schedule so interleague play rotates divisions, adding the ability to select and offer demands to multiple players on the Amateur Draft Results page, evaluating retirement logic, free-agent & coach demands, stolen base attempt ratios, and prospect scouting adjustments (HS, college, int'l). We've got more in the pipeline, but these are at the top.
We've merged four worlds thus far and it's appeared to help as the # of openings has dropped significantly. We'll continue to monitor this situation closely.

79 questions thus far. I'll do my best to address each one and I'll try to respond to every user at least once before answering a user's second question. ( Moderator - 12:00 PM)

What are the next major updates we should expect to see (and when)? (randallball - Hall of Famer - 12:01 PM)

For our bi-weekly dev chats, we're going to list what we're working on in the Introduction paragraph. As far as release date, we haven't decided on that yet.

What are your plans, if any, for future improvements with regard to both coach hiring and the drafting (R5/Amateur) process? Can you share even a loose timetable for them? (double-a - Hall of Famer - 12:06 PM)

For coach hiring, we will continue to plug away at improvements and corrections to the process. If, after we think we have that perfected, it continues to be the least liked part of the game we'll consider a more drastic change. For the Amateur Draft, we plan on doing a few things. The first is adjusting the accuracy of scouting departments to include more fuzziness. The second is we'll allow users to select multiple draftees and offer their demands with the click of a button rather than negotiation each one individually. Third, we'd like to make a minor adjustment to the overall rating formula so that stamina does not inflate a pitcher's worth. This should make a franchise's default draftee pool rank better from the get go. For the Rule 5 Draft, we'd like to put a few more checks in place so new owners don't lost their better prospects because they didn't understand the rules.

Just finishing up Season 10 in Bench and the draft still suffers from horrible distribution of positions. Tons of left-fielders... a handful of center-fielders and a poor mix in between. Aggravating the problem is I generally move many of the poor defensive players at other position to LF. When can we expect a more realistic distribution of positions in the draft? (showofforce - Hall of Famer - 12:09 PM)

Two responses to this one. The position of prospects in the draft are based on your scouting budget. The more you spend, the more accurate the position projection. The less you spend, the less accurate. As far as the distribution goes, we put in a ton of time with this to ensure the realism. And it's definitely working but what's important to note is that you won't see the same distribution season to season, world to world. Like in real life, every draft class is different. Some years it's pitcher heavy, some years it's slugger heavy, etc.

Does MLB experience play a roll in a player's performance at the major league level, regardless of his current ratings? (lcfiore - Pro - 12:10 PM)

Age is a factor in ratings development and contract status, but it doesn't impact a player's performance on the field. That has already been built into a player's rating development.

The +/- system doesn't seem to be producing anywhere the number of +/- plays as the dewan system. Is this an engine restriction? Also, CF still seems more valuable than SS. (tcolonial9 - All-Star - 12:11 PM)

While our system is similar to the Fielding Bible, we don't strive to mimic the same numbers. That said, we do plan on reviewing this as we also believe the number of +/- plays should be higher.

Any plans to expand the list of available parks? New Hampshire preferably. (2U23L - Hall of Famer - 12:12 PM)

At some point, yes. We'll add some new cities and some new ballparks. Anytime we receive a suggestion, we add it to our evolving list. We review it after each update. Some items stay on the list awhile, but they should eventually reach the top!

Any chance you'll improve player decisions regarding whether to re-sign or test FA? The idea that you can always re-sign a FA the previous season is bizarre to me, especially when you can lock them up for so much cheaper than thy would fetch on the open market (in some cases). (cademord - Hall of Famer - 12:14 PM)

That's actually not true. There are some players (if they are good enough or have been treated poorly), who will not accept a long-term contract and test the FA market. The demands for a long-term contract versus FA can vary, because the latter includes what the player did that season.

The prospect scouting/development aspects of HBD are the most interesting (to me at least) - are their any plans to expand the control/options in this area. such as having scouting money broke down by scouting regions/area scouts and coaching/training being put toward roving instructors (more than just the fielding coach) or something along those lines? (randallball - Hall of Famer - 12:16 PM)

Scouting was actually designed and coded that way. However, we made the decision to keep things simple in this regard. So, if we ever decide to open it up this way, doing so would be rather easy. But adding an additional level of complexity may not be the right thing to do at the moment. But never say never.

Is there any possibility the format for the amatuer draft could be extended to span several cycles? Maybe have the 1st Rd in the Am, Supp. Rd in the PM, rounds 2-5 in the PM2, etc. It would allow for adjustments to a users draft board after each round, and make the draft much more interactive. (karl0023 - Hall of Famer - 12:17 PM)

We could do this, but it would give an advantage to those users who can frequent their franchise more often. That said, we're hesitant to do so. There's a large number of owners who can't access their teams during the day or at night, so this would shortchange them.

Any chance of firing coaches in the middle of the season? (donaldkey - Hall of Famer - 12:18 PM)

It's on our suggestion list. So, yes, it's always a possibility. We could see where it would be helpful, but we also see some danger in it. Owners wouldn't hire coaches, then fire them and pick from the best available.

So many players' development flattens out severely after 5 seasons of pro ball, whatever his coaching and ratings. Is that what you intended? (ArlenWilliam - Hall of Famer - 12:21 PM)

Depends on the player. Every player has a unique peak age. They'll see the most rapid rate of improvement in their early years of development. Every owner sees different things. When we review the data, we look at huge chunks and we see the proper percentage of players reaching their projected ratings. When they fall short, it's with good reason: makeup rating, coaching staff, playing time, age/level, level repeat, demotions, injuries, etc.

Any chance we'll see the a pitcher hold rating? A few notes, the White Sox used essentially the same catcher (AJ) all year. Opponents attempted 42 SB (27/42) on Gavin Floyd and 12 on Mark Buerhle (5/12) even though Buerhle had about 10 more IP. Clearly the pitcher is as culpable for SBA as the catcher if not more so. (jwendt - Hall of Famer - 12:23 PM)

We considered adding it at launch but held off. With so many ratings in place already, we felt this one just wasn't worth it. Lefties are better than righties. Aside from that, very few pitchers have an above average or exceptional pickoff move. Some pitchers have longer deliveries which allow for more SBA, but then you're talking about adding another trait for a player. HBD is very complex, so there are some areas that we don't include and this has been one of them thus far.

How close are we to seeing something done about reducing/eliminating SB attempts when it comes to poor/slow baserunners (without having to sacrifice aggressiveness with our legitimate baserunners)? (joeymillman - Hall of Famer - 12:24 PM)

Very soon. It's high on the list.

Any future plans to be able to have baserunning and basestealing aggressivness be set to the individual players rather than the team as a whole. (Primetime17 - Hall of Famer - 12:27 PM)

No. This topic has been touched upon quite a bit. When it comes down to it, owners/managers should want their higher rated players running more than their lower rated players. The manager setting for each should work in conjunction with that basic fact. There shouldn't be a need for individual settings if it's working properly. And we've already touched on the fact we plan on addressing some SBA rates very soon. We are always working to provide as much control as possible without overload. This fits into the category we think can be done without additional categories per player.

Would it be possible to come up with more names for the name database? In the Negro League it would be nice to see some names associated with some of the old Negro League players. (BrianCampos - Hall of Famer - 12:28 PM)

We have an enormous database of names based on ethnicity. If you have a list of particular names you'd like to see and haven't, please send a support ticket and we can look into adding them.

Can the heading line be made sticky in all areas, so we don't have to guess which stat we are looking at as we scroll down? (torrone - Hall of Famer - 12:29 PM)

We tried this and were very close. We agree that it's kind of key as we move into the 10th and 11th seasons of many worlds.

Can there be a system where more players exceed their original ratings predictions? As it stands now, it doesn't seem like there are too many Ecksteins or Piazzas ever found in the later rounds of the draft. (torrone - Hall of Famer - 12:31 PM)

This touches on two topics. First, is the scouting fuzziness that we plan on adjusting. The second is Diamond in the Rough players. A franchise can see certain players jump in their career paths. Between both of these pieces, you should be able to see some Piazzas and Ecksteins. But both of them are very rare, and that's the way we designed it in HBD, too.

It would be great to look at the Standings for all levels of my franchise on one page. Is this in the plans for HBD? (rod33 - Hall of Famer - 12:32 PM)

It's on the suggestion list.

Any chance we could see some more advanced stats? I'd love to see ERA+, OPS+, WARP, etc. (tcolonial9 - All-Star - 12:34 PM)

Yes. We'd like to add some team-specific stats first, stats that can't be calculated by using individual player stats. After that, we'd expand our individual player stat set.

would it be possible to raise the budget ceilings for "training", "medical" or any of the "scouting" categories (with increased benefits of course)? (The_Stiffs - Hall of Famer - 12:36 PM)

The budgets are setup with balance in mind. Each can be $20M with the exception of the player payroll. Upping the limit would distort the balance. This also ensures that a healthy percentage is spent on player payroll, which helps with competitive balance in the world. Nobody likes seeing 14-148 teams in their world. We allow the prospect and coach payrolls to rise above $20M, but it comes at a rather pricey cost.

Lots of confusion in one of my worlds about placing rule 5 guys on revokable waivers after the trade deadline. What happens? (ttjackson - Hall of Famer - 12:37 PM)

No special rules here. If he's claimed, he can be pulled back and traded. If not, he can transfer clubs but maintains his rule 5 status.

I would like to see an improvement to RP logic, maybe creating a "fireman" role. Right now, if my best guy is set to Closer but not just save situations, he'll still often be used in 9th inning, up 3 runs situations which is a waste of his arm to me. If he is Setup A, he gets put in first once setup stage is reached, regardless of the leverage of the game situation (for example he might face the worst hitters in the lineup). Any thoughts to fine-tuning RP usage to improve this? (moonriver - Veteran - 12:39 PM)

Yes, we plan on expanding the "Use Closer in Save Situations Only" setting to include a few more options that would provide better usage of the closer.

Will ML players retire while still under contract? (pvc4twenty - Hall of Famer - 12:40 PM)

No. If a player is under contract, he won't retire.

I wonder if you could lay out for us how players at each position tire. It seems to me that a catcher for instance should tire more quickly over the course of season compared to say a 1B and a DH should hold his stamina better than any position player. After several seasons of playing it seems to me like stamina is almost entirely attached to AB's and nothing else. Not very realistic. (mosley80 - Hall of Famer - 12:44 PM)

Catchers fatigue the most, then the other position players, then DH. We're not talking a huge difference here, but it is significant over the course of a season.

When I click on Game Log, can I see the stats totals for the past 10 days? Is it possible to have it for the past 30 as well? Can this also be rolled in the team stats page? (leaffan10 - Hall of Famer - 12:45 PM)

The past month is already an option. As far as adding it from a team perspective, I'm not sure what that would add. If you're really hoping for this, please clarify in a support ticket. Thanks

Will we eventually be able to offer a different position higher up in the organization to coaches who choose to remain? For example, sometimes the guy who wants to be a AA hitting coach is someone I'd prefer to bump up to AAA hitting coach. (r0b0t - Hall of Famer - 12:47 PM)

That would complicate the Rehire page, but we can add it to our suggestion list as it makes sense for the coach.

Will the sim ever account for an owner constantly taking him to arbitration and automatically walk after the time is up and not accept a long term contract before the world rolls into his FA year? (gator993 - Hall of Famer - 12:48 PM)

It's already in, but we may need to increase the rate at which it occurs. We'll review.

Why are Compensation picks for potential free agents based on ratings and not statistics ? (mileininger - Hall of Famer - 12:48 PM)

Because stats can be distorted (ballpark, division, etc.) whereas ratings cannot.

Can we see head to head stats of the team we're playing? Possibly stats of the pitcher vs. the opposing team? (leaffan10 - Hall of Famer - 12:51 PM)

Not currently, but both of these items are on our suggestion list and would be nice additions.

Is adding a double-switch feature a consideration at all? Not just for a change in pitchers, but would it be possible for there to be a defensive replacement and have the player being replaced move to another position and have the player he's replacing go to the bench? For instance, bring in a def. replacement at CF and have the previous CF go to LF, with the LF then going to the bench. (xuandrewtb - Hall of Famer - 12:53 PM)

Yes it is. It's one of the improvements we'd like to make to the engine.

Would there ever be a way disclose who the potential type a's b's etc would be for the coming season 1 year in advance? To give you a better idea if you should resign them the season prior to FA? There are guys I'd let go for a pick but I'd resign in advance if there was no chance. (smanfredo - Hall of Famer - 12:54 PM)

Since it's based on ratings, it can't be done in advance because there's player development/regression in the offseason.

Can we get an expanded player search feature? I would love to have the same flexibility we get with the free agent search. And it would be nice to search on projected rating. (WiredTiger - Hall of Famer - 12:56 PM)

We can expand the player search, yes. But including projected rating is problematic as it involves the scouting department. We had this in at one point, but the page was used heavily and caused some site slowness issues.

Is it an intended result or a "loophole" that you use the "DFA No-waivers" transaction as a way to have unlimited (assuming you have the payoll budget) MLB players? It seems that after you DFA a guy, you shouldn't be able to assign him back to the majors without something like a DL add (similar to the AAA send down quick recall limitation) (98greenc5 - Hall of Famer - 12:57 PM)

That's a non-intended loophole. We'll close it. Thank you. You should not be able to DFA a player and return him to the big league squad unless he replaces a player going to the DL.

Are there any plans to add career stats as an option on the player statistics page? (jmas410 - Hall of Famer - 1:01 PM)

Rather than bringing that into the Player Statistics page, another page might make more sense. We'll add it to the suggestion list.

Trades: I personally feel if an owner doesn't vote on a trade they are not interested. Is there any thought to NOT counting an abstaining vote? The process would also benefit by changing the rule for approval to a simple majority of voting owners. (rockindock - Hall of Famer - 1:03 PM)

Not sure I understand this question. as it stands, a non-vote is considered a non-veto. And the veto count is the only thing that matters as far as a trade being rejected goes.

Would be possible for prior seasons to show what the ratings were at the end of the season in addition to the beginning of the season? I would be interesting to see how much a player grew over the off season. (WiredTiger - Hall of Famer - 1:04 PM)

We've considered this, but it would result in player cards being double in length which would not be a good thing. That's why we went with just the beginning of the season.

Your answer to cademord early in this chat is dead wrong. I've never seen nor heard of a player in the last year of his contract rejecting a long-term extension that meets his demands. It's the least realistic part of the game at the moment. (benj13blue - Hall of Famer - 1:06 PM)

It's in the game (I wrote it and have seen it). Like I said, though, it's very rare and only applies to very high rated players. It will be reviewed and adjusted. Because we agree that it's not very realistic.

When are you guys planning to rollout the Hall of Fame? Any details on how nominations and voting for that might work? (dw172300 - Hall of Famer - 1:07 PM)

After our series or updates focusing on improvements. We haven't nailed down any of the details yet. But it will include a combination of AI and user voting.

Can there be a way that in the player records, you can seperate the NL and AL records. The hitting records are skewed in favor of the AL batters with the DH, and the NL is favored in the pitching catorgories. But I also think we should keep the records of the two leagues together also (jacob20h - Veteran - 1:08 PM)

Is there a way, sure. But the volume of data that needs to be maintained for player records is enormous. This would triple the data size. Because of that, we haven't viewed it as being worthwhile enough.

Are there any plans to add more features to the draft settings? I think a great addition would be weighting more picks towards college or high school, to mirror what is done in scouting. This could avoid picking inaccurately "high-talent scouted" HS prospects over better accurately scouted college prospects. (rpainter2002 - Hall of Famer - 1:09 PM)

Yes, this option has been considered and could make some sense to ad.

Will there be live any time soon in HBD? (psychobeast - All-Star - 1:10 PM)

Depends on what you mean by soon. Within the next 12 months -- probably not. Eventually -- we think so. In a limited and controlled fashion.

Is there any way to see player ratings on the Option Report? (mrdanielx - Hall of Famer - 1:13 PM)

Yes, by clicking his player profile. We haven't displayed ratings on this page because the number of players is usually very low and we don't have different tables for pos players and pitchers. To show ratings, we'd have to have multiple tables and then there are real estate issues. So, we've kept it simple where owners can see ratings by viewing the player profile.

Can the lifetime stats be added to the combined leagues? (Primetime17 - Hall of Famer - 1:15 PM)

I assume you are talking about merged worlds. Pulling the career stats would require a significant code rewrite as our totals are always sums of the individual season data. Due to this and the fact the stats wouldn't jive with anything and loses relevance with the merger, we've opted to not do it.

with the new world merging capabilities, are there any plans of creating "champion" or "tournament" worlds with exported teams from multiple different worlds? (The_Stiffs - Hall of Famer - 1:16 PM)

Not presently, but the ability is now proven to exist. As we move forward, this could occur.

happy new year WIS! I wanted to get a sense of any progress made on incorporating the Ariz Fall league and Latin American winter leagues into the schedule? Also, Is it possible to incorporate actual in season "negotiating" with your FA (where you submit a figure, and the player may counter with a slightly lower offer under certain circumstances) - makes sense because in most cases, the player ultimately signs for much lower on the open FA market than his initial demands. (victorzhao - Hall of Famer - 1:18 PM)

AFL & winter leagues fall into the new feature set, so they will come after the improvement updates. As far as counter offers during the season, it would add another layer of complexity, but it could be worked in at some point in the future.

Do injuries that stretch across two seasons (e.g., hurt in Season 4, injury still preventing the player from playing at the beginning of Season 5) leave a longer-term impact than similar-length injuries that resolve during the offseason? I've noticed such players (whose injuries elapse during the offseason) have their projected ratings bounce back, whereas players whose injuries stretch across two seasons don't. If there is a difference, are you cool with that? It seems a little unrealistic. (zooeydog - Hall of Famer - 1:19 PM)

We'll have to review this. They should work the same.

Any way we can add position players to the Tryout Camp (obiewon777 - Hall of Famer - 1:20 PM)

We plan on adding some unsigned or undrafted Amateur Draft players to the tryout camp. High school seniors or college seniors. Sometime soon.

Is there any plan to develop some sort of attendance income. Maybe "prorate" the income so that everyone has the opportunity for the same amount of money. Smaller stadiums seats have higher ticket prices than bigger stadiums, etc. (jktcat - Hall of Famer - 1:23 PM)

No. We've avoided this, as we view it as a non baseball bell&whistle type feature. It would also result in the standard snowball effect -- good teams draw more, get more money, get better, etc. We just don't see enough benefit in it.

There appear to be many players with sub-par ratings doing better than their counter-parts with better defensive ratings. Can you explain why this might be happening? It seems as if the + / - play stats should imcrease all around. A higher degree of reward / punishment may be in order to give the defensive ratings more respect in the game. What do you think of that? (Pubs - Hall of Famer - 1:24 PM)

There's always probability and variance that can account for some of this. But we have mentioned earlier that we'd like to see the # of +/- plays increase a bit. This would help widen the gap here a bit.

It seems like the talent in the college and HS draft has had a ceiling put on it as I've seen several IFA's with better projections than anyone in the draft. Is this the direction of the future? Thank you. (cp49 - Hall of Famer - 1:25 PM)

Not true. The model for each is the same.

Will any changes be made to make international free agents less expensive to sign? (yggdrasil - Hall of Famer - 1:26 PM)

That's a supply/demand issue. If you're talking about the lower tier players, we'll review the signings or lack thereof.

Does Makeup possibly cause someone to do worse in a platoon than not? (spudpicker - All-Star - 1:26 PM)

No

Any chance bonus money for a contract can be pulled from the current season so long as $ is left in the budget, rather than the first year the contract is in place? During the playoffs I usually resign my expiring contracts and would love the ability to use that left over $ for something productive. (BrianCampos - Hall of Famer - 1:27 PM)

We have to keep the bonus money in the first year of the contract for those owners who bail after a season. Allowing more ways to back load it could lead to more problems.

Is there any plan to one day allow for voting on the Fireman of the Year award? (sharkeyke - Veteran - 1:27 PM)

No, the real one is done using a straight formula, so we maintained that.

In a theoretically identical situation (catchers, fielders etc..) would a pitcher with pitches of 90-80-70 be expected to perform identically as a pitcher with pitches of 70-80-90? Or does the pitch order matter? (sickchangeup - Hall of Famer - 1:29 PM)

The pitch order matters, but not that much. The first pitch is his out pitch.

With regard to your earlier answer about Rule5 guys on revokable waivers after the trade deadline, I put a Rule5 player on revocable waivers after the trade deadline: he was claimed by his original team and I lost him to that team pursuant to the Rule5 offer-back/accept feature. So is the rule if nobody puts in a waiver claim on a Rule5 player, he then goes through the offer back process like he would earlier in the season? (auburnfan - Hall of Famer - 1:30 PM)

If the team that originally had the player claims him, then that overrides the revoke feature since it's technically an offer back at that point. Rather unusual situation.

Currently the batting average of balls in play (minus HR) in my leagues for even the best teams sits around .400. The average in the MLB is .300. If we have the proper pitching/defense, should we see something closer to the MLB or is there just more/better offense in HBD? (spudpicker - All-Star - 1:32 PM)

Assuming average quality of pitching, offense and defense, it should resemble the MLB circa 2000-2004. Offense in the MLB has died down a bit since then, but .100 is quite a bit of disparity.

How have you and patrickm never won a championship between you? The esteemed Mr Boon hasn't either, if my memory serves me correct. (r0b0t - Hall of Famer - 1:33 PM)

We prefer to allow our users win. Plus we're too busy working on improvements to the game to rank our 51st-200th draft prospect!!!

Is there any plans to let us download a data file of our players and/or leauge ratings and stats to help us use excel to track players and create content for our blogs? (kalikgod - Hall of Famer - 1:34 PM)

We've avoided that thus far because we don't want to provide an advantage to those users who are good at spreadsheets versus those that are not. We try to keep all things within the game. If there are certain statistical snapshots people would want, please let us know via support ticket and we'll see if we can build some functionality for that.

Would it be possible in HBD to add a feature where a pitcher has the ability to add a new pitch to his repetoir, as many often do in real baseball? (363dp - Hall of Famer - 1:35 PM)

It's on the suggestion list, but not in yet. This would definitely be tied to the quality of the pitching coach.

If a player suffers rating drops because of poor coaching or injuries, will this player likely improve more in the future than if he did not suffer rating losses from bad coaching or a injury? Assuming he has all the in game tools (training, coaching, playing time, etc, etc) favoring him. (plague - Hall of Famer - 1:36 PM)

If all the pieces are in place, he could improve at a faster rate, yes.

Any prospect of increasing the availability of certain stadiums to other regions that make sense? (mrdanielx - Hall of Famer - 1:37 PM)

If you have a specific list of cities you think should be available in regions and they are not, please let us know via support ticket and we'll review.

When a player fatigues below 100, is the number a pct of his ratings(95 is 95 % of his ratings ability). Also, does a guy fatigue as much if he PH in a game as opposed to starting? (torrone - Hall of Famer - 1:38 PM)

No, it's not linear. A player will see minimal fatigue from a PH appearance.

any chance that the WS winning owner can get his/her real name in the game as a legitimate prospect in next season's amateur draft? that would be sweet. (victorzhao - Hall of Famer - 1:39 PM)

There are a few user content features we'd like to add for WS participants in the future. Coach names, scout names, agent names, player names, play-by-play text, etc. Just not there yet.

Any chance we could lock a catcher with a starter? (jeanpaul22 - Hall of Famer - 1:40 PM)

Personal catchers? it's on the list.

Any chance we might see a expansion of Diamond in the Roughs. I play in 8 worlds and I have yet to see a diamond in the rough be a good major leaguer. It would be nice to see a player that was once a 65 projected overall rated player jump up to a 75 or 78 overall projected player. Currently what we see is minor leaguers become better future minor leaguers. (plague - Hall of Famer - 1:42 PM)

The idea behind DITRs is, on the whole, see a small group of players jump one level of skill with an even smaller subset make two skill level jumps. For instance, an organizational SS could become a fringe big leaguer. A fringe big leaguer could make the jump to regular. And every now and then, you could see a fringe big leaguer make the jump to All-Star. We review these periodically, and it's working properly. I've personally seen some on my team make the two level jump.

Compensatory picks seem to be currently awarded in roughly the order that the players signed. So, for example, if a team signs more than one Type A guy, the player who signs first nets the first-round pick, the player who signs second nets the second rounder, etc. This can really screw over the previous team for players who last until FA ends. Any chance they can be ordered by player quality? That's how it works in MLB, as Yankees illustrated this year. (travisg - Hall of Famer - 1:44 PM)

When we make the changes to synch up with the recently updated collective bargaining agreement, we'll look into improving this, too.

Will there ever be more Canadian cities available? (shobob - Hall of Famer - 1:44 PM)

Sure. When we expand cities, we'll throw in a few more.

In response to an earlier question you said that you are looking to make scouting projections more fuzzy. Are there any other changes planned for the Amateur Draft that will make the results more random? i.e. more 1st round busts or more late round players developing into stars. (jmas410 - Hall of Famer - 1:45 PM)

This should lead to that. We won't add any hidden "bust" code, if that's what you mean.

In the player records section, could we have a post season sort feature? I would love to see who some of the all time post season greats were in some leagues. (BrianCampos - Hall of Famer - 1:46 PM)

We may add some of the basic stat sets for post-season play. But not the full stat set.

Can you set free agent targets up so they are still in the free agent target page after the Rule 5 draft please ? Right now, it seems that the targets get cleared out after the Rule 5 draft. (mileininger - Hall of Famer - 9:16 AM)

We'll look into removing this -- may be an accidental clearing.

I've got to call it quits for the day. 49 questions remain on the list, so sorry to those that weren't answered.

Thanks for all the questions! We hope the dev chats help.

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