I took over a team and noticed the previous owner accumulated a great number of DITR's. Is there a "tell" on a prospect that raises the probability he might be a DITR later? Or is it totally random?

Totally random on any players with max overall ratings of 60 (or somewhere around there) or lower. So you could try fill your minors with guys who have good pitching or hitting ratings but low overall. This usually means most good DITR will be low durability hitters like C"s or RP's. Getting the sim to hit on those players consistently is something I haven't figured out yet. I've tried putting the players I don't want to get selected on inactive right before the DITR rollover but then it just seems I get one or no DITR as a result. So maybe they are determined at an earlier time and if you inactivate the they simply don't get the DITR? I don't know.

IMO, there has got to be a better use of your time, either inside or outside of HBD.

Most DITR do not become good enough to be more the last P out of your bullpen or a backup C or 1B. I've had 1 exception in all my years playing. Would have been a good SP except for getting big injuries 3 out of 4 seasons after DITR.

It's hot hard to pick up an affordable last long or short RP or backup C or OK bat off the bench.

So why spend time trying to perfect something that, if you nail it, doesn't really pay off all the much?

The guy who figured out we could all see the upcoming IFAs! Now that was a hack worth putting some time into. This one? I don't see it.

i was just curious, not spending any time on it.

I believe tufft is referring to brianplath's post about trying to maximize DITR through micromanagement of eligible players — trying to minimize DITR for players who won't benefit enough from it and steering it toward those who could (low-stamina RP, low-durability DH/1B or C).

Yeah, I'm coming around to that viewpoint as well. Potential payoff isn't worth the time.

Can owners still see upcoming IFA's, or has that bug been fixed?

I have gained a ton on DitRs without spending a ton of time just focusing on catchers. When you're making your draft rankings, identify catchers that project to 57 or so or lower who would be major leaguers if their AA, PC, and big 5 hitting ratings were all projected 20 points higher, and put them at the very bottom of the players you bother to rank. When you trade with someone, scan their minor league catchers and see if they have a similar young guy, and ask for him as a throw-in.

The payoff is that at any one time about half my teams are running DitRs at catcher. Usually they're just the platoon partner vs. LHP and defensive replacement, but still, that's a nice yield for very little work. And sometimes you get a legitimate starter. This guy has a career OPS of .767 in a pitchers' park and has a PC of 91, and this one has an OPS of .808 in a slight pitchers' park and has credible defensive ratings.

Minimal effort can produce useful players. This guy was drafted as a defensive catcher. He could play 1B and a poor LF/3B now. And his hitting is good enough for part-time work.

Player Profile: Ivan Pujols - Hardball Dynasty Baseball | WhatIfSports

Posted by cebola on 6/15/2016 11:05:00 PM (view original):
Can owners still see upcoming IFA's, or has that bug been fixed?

Fixed.

I just traded for this guy today. Got the DITR bump last season. He's already 25 but he's still getting 2 point increases to some of his pitches. Which to me would suggest his pitches should top out relatively high by HBD standards (I think they have a shot at becoming the highest combined avg. of P1 through P5 in the league). His splits are also still consistently going up two points most cycles. Not sure where this guy ends up but I'm VERY curious.

I'm using this guy as a good DITR comparison. He's been great so far in 2 years in the bigs (1.19 WHIP 3.34 ERA) and I think my guy ends up as good, if not better.

Or I might look back at this post a year from now and shake my head at my projections, lol.

Besides their big bump when they get their diamond, will DiTR still develop as they normally would have? Or is their development also accelerated (instead of gaining 1-2 points per development cycle, they start earning 2-3 points instead - or something like that).

I think it depends on how hight their potential ratings ceilings are raised. So in most cases they will get a bump plus accelerated ratings boost. Like the guy I posted above, age doesn't appear to hinder older players from making development gains similar to first year pros. But I have also seen DITR who don't seem to have their ceilings raised all that much so it looks like all they get is the bump and then a normal development pattern again.