The biggest problem w/ Fielding Instructors is their lack of improvement from development in many cases. IE, they create a young FI who has a promising future, but he starts out as a 50 in fielding coaching. No body wants him as their ML fielding coach w/ that rating, so unless somebody picks him up as a minor league manager (and his strategy rating is probably going to suck) he's not going to develop, and actually regress. I like Mike's idea of getting rid of a coach's requirements for a level, would give you more options to sign the young FI w/ solid loyalty and develop him into a major league worthy FI after 4-5 seasons progressing up the minor league ladder.
Additional ideas:
1) similar to the end of season awards, if a coach doesn't vote in the hall of fame, an Auto Vote is made by the computer based upon some standard (ie Cy Young awards, all star selections, MVPs, Gold Gloves, batting champs, etc...) If a coach views the field, doesn't like any of the canidates, they get the option to put in a "no vote" which would cancel out the computer's autovote should any canidate qualify under the minimums.
2) during coach rehiring, if I have my ML 1b coach from the previous season want a promotion to the 3b coaching job, its a take it or leave it situation. I can't offer him the ML bench coach job. I should be able to offer promotions to my returning coaches like I can with my returning minor league coaches (ie I can promote the AA hitting coach from the prior year to AAA even if all he wants is the AA job again)
3) A note sent to coaches a couple of times a year (after ST, all star break, and start of the playoffs) from each level saying which players perhaps deserve promotion. Make these notes based upon their current ratings and some sort of baseline ratings for each level in relation to their position. It would help limit the amount of "hands off" approaches to the low minors that lead to a guy being left in low A for 3 seasons and retiring, when he really should have been moved up to AA along the way. Even if he's a minor league lifer, this gets him a few more seasons in the minors before retiring.
4) more post season awards. Batting champ, HR champ, RBI champ etc... Make notes of them on the player's awards page for eventual hall of fame consideration.
5) If possible, I'd like to see a "timeline" comparision of a players stats during his prime. As worlds begin to age, a guy might sit 10th on the all time homer and rbi list, but he was the world's best during the 10 seasons he played during his late 20s and early 30s.
6) a better DiTR system. There need to be a few Roy Oswalt, Albert Pujols, Mike Piazza types that come out of the middle to late rounds of the draft and turn into regular all stars and hall of famers. As it is today, if you're not a relief pitcher or a catcher, your odds of becoming a regular contributer in the majors is pretty small for any DiTR.
7) Spread the draft out over a few more days and/or cycles. Allow us to re-rank our players, if desired at each break. I'd recommend 3 cycles to do the draft/rerank players. 1st round, rounds 2 & 3, and the rest of the draft.