I dropped my new SS prospect into the DH role for fear of injury. Has anyone else confirmed he will still get normal fielding level increases.
12/4/2012 9:29 PM

Is a player's defensive improvement dictated by his position? For example, will a player who projects 95s across the board defensively improve faster (or come closer to his projections) playing shortstop than he would if he played left field? It seems there is a ceiling on improvement of certain ratings at certain positions. (examinerebb - Hall of Famer - 4:43 PM)

The skill and rate at which a player can improve is tied to the position he's playing. A projected SS will take longer to reach his peak fielding ability if he's playing 1B everyday as opposed to SS everyday. In fact, if you stick him at 1B he may never come close to his peak.

12/4/2012 9:38 PM

Prior dev chat

12/4/2012 9:38 PM
Death-- I know they said this, and I have always behaved as though it's true.  But has anyone actually tested this, perhaps with a prospect with an SS glove and all hitting ratings under 20?  I personally think HBD has a lot of features that were intended but never actually programmed, and I've often suspected this may be one.

mezirah-- I wouldn't worry about this issue too much.  The "injury bug" being what it is, if a prospect gets hurt you can usually make up the development.  Just play him at SS unless someone has tested the veracity of that dev chat comment.

12/4/2012 10:27 PM
what's the bug?
12/4/2012 10:54 PM
This has been discussed many times.   I always fall back on this:   Would the developers create a game that encourages you to play firstbasemen at SS in order to maximize fielding development?   If so, that's retarded.

I followed the developement of 8-9 future SS.  Because I had so many, I had to play some at 3B/2B/CF.   I noticed no difference in development of glove or arm accuracy(arm strength and range will come from your training). 

The injury "bug" allows players to come back as good, or possibly better, if you allow them to get a couple "Injury recovery" bumps by placing even the minor injuries on the 60 day DL.   The concern I have is doing it with full 1st year or 2nd year players because they develop so quickly naturally.
12/5/2012 8:49 AM
I know what ded is saying, but when the guys who built the game tell you something, I follow that like a sheep.
12/5/2012 1:43 PM

So do you play your stud 1B prospect at SS when you have no SS prospect at that level?  Because, if you believe harder position = better development, you should.

12/5/2012 1:51 PM

You know me better than that. I never have that problem.

12/5/2012 1:55 PM

Mike, I agree that a system that had players playing tougher positions = better development wouldn't make any sense.  I could see a system that rewards development when players are playing the position that they fit best at.  If a player that had shortstop caliber ratings was playing first base, I could see his glove arm and range not developing optimally.  If that same player played CF, I could see his glove and arm not developing optimally (not as many opportunites plus not fielding ground balls).  Not saying it works that way, just that it would make sense.

12/5/2012 3:42 PM
I've tested fielding development with C by putting them at DH or 1B. Doesn't seem to matter very much if the C or play DH when it comes to bumping their fielding. But there's no way to know for sure, as there are other factors. I've never risked it with a very good SS prospect.

If I really wanted to know this, I draft or sign a no-hit, good D SS and start DHing him in rookie league. Move him up every season. Make sure I had at least average fielding coach & bench coach at that level. And track the results vs what I expected to see. A test of 1 player isn't much of a test, but if he didn't develop I doubt I'd try it again.
12/5/2012 4:17 PM
You get two correspondence each season, "Position Changes".

Maybe you get it just for the sake of generating correspondence, but I'd like to think it actually means something
12/5/2012 5:03 PM
It does. Anyone paying attention to those is a dumbass.

Hit recs on a 65-62-73-70-15 guy.   He'll be put at 2B.   Who the hell plays a 65/62 at 2B?

Do the same with a 3-27-77-84-90.   DH because he lacks the range to be a catcher. 
12/5/2012 5:29 PM
Yea yea, point being, someone created those for a reason, and while the reason may suck for some things, it probably also means "hey, dude, you're playing a pretty good SS at 1b".

I could be overly optimistic, yes.
12/5/2012 6:38 PM
They told us that we'd see weekly screenshots of various improvements that would be implemented in early fall 2012 also. I'll put more trust in my experience that no upgrade occurred than in their claim that it would. Just because they say something is so does not make it so.
12/5/2012 7:23 PM
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