How much time should you play your ML Regulars in order for their ratings not to decrease, pitchers and position players.

Ive always had them play a couple innings a game and have never had a problem.

I usually give guys 20-25 ABs and about 10 IP, I usually let them play a few full games early then let the younger guys play the later games. I see a lot of people have them play in almost every game on limited time, but I always figured more games played = greater chance of injury.

Somebody more experienced can correct me on this, but I don't believe that playing time has any affect on rating decreases. I am sure that it helps improve the ratings, but I dont believe it has any negative affects. The only thing that you have to worry about is a rust-factor that is supposed to be in the game.

Quote: Originally Posted By strikeout26 on 1/10/2010Somebody more experienced can correct me on this, but I don't believe that playing time has any affect on rating decreases. I am sure that it helps improve the ratings, but I dont believe it has any negative affects. The only thing that you have to worry about is a rust-factor that is supposed to be in the game

Strikeout, there is no "rust factor" that makes a player with XXX as numbers underperform. What you see with the numbers (accounting for rounding) is what you get.

What there is, however, is the potential for rating decreases if veterans do not get sufficient playing time in ST. And, since they are veterans, it is usually very difficult for them to recover any lost ratings.

I use 20 PA for batters and 3 appearances/10IP for pitchers as my guidelines, and have managed to avoid any ratings loss since I've started doing so.

I pretty much follow a similar formula as zbrent. After my ML players reach those thresholds, they never see another inning in ST. I'm way too paranoid about injuries.

Dittos to Zbrent and Mytitan.

I shoot for 20 PA per position player, 100 pitches for SPs, 40 for RPs.

I play my ML starters earliest in Spring and work my way down thru ML backups and best prospects. If a MLer is going to get a 15-day injury, I'd rather have him start his recovery as soon as possible. If I have a position player with low health ratings, he get his plate appearances as a DH.

Thanks, I followed the formula and saw no ratings decrease for Veterans.

Is this still the most accurate consensus for playing time or have there been more recent updates? I have tried to give players I care about 30 at bats and 12-15 IP for starters and 8-12 for relievers. I have not seen any penalties, but it seems like I could be getting away with much less and spread the at bats around a little more

I can't remember ever having an injury in spring training. I let the position players play a few innings every game and make sure my pitchers get 10 innings in.

Quote: Originally Posted By wafairb on 3/28/2010I can't remember ever having an injury in spring training. I let the position players play a few innings every game and make sure my pitchers get 10 innings in

I had two or three 60+ day injuries in one ST, one to an ML starter and one to a AAA/ML reliever.

There are definitely injuries in preseason. zbrent's suggestion as to playing time is a good one. Keep in mind that ST ABs & IPs will count against a players fatigue as the season progresses, so that is another reason not to waste too much playing time on your regulars in ST.

I have my SPs in a five-man rotation, with tandem partners, giving them 40 pitch maximums. The tandem partners are preferably SP pitching prospects, but more often guys who I will have at AAA and who might be called up in an emergency.

I put my top RP prospects in the setup A role and my younger major league relievers in the setup B role. I add the older major league relievers in the final 6-8 games of the spring training.

As for hitters, I play prospects and younger major leaguers exclusively for the first 9 games, then introduce older major leaguers.

As for injuries, I rarely see them, although my starting 1B was hurt twice this spring. He first went down for six days, then in his second game back, went down again for 29 days.

i have had two 260+ day injuries during ST. One was during the first inning of the first game and it was a 85 overall 1bman who go hurt aparently walking out to play 1st.

Quote: Originally Posted By Fregoe on 3/29/2010i have had two 260+ day injuries during ST. One was during the first inning of the first game and it was a 85 overall 1bman who go hurt aparently walking out to play 1st.

bum apparently didn't know baseball players work out year round these days, well unless your Miguel Caberra.

I generally aim for 20-25 bats for my reguler lineup guys and 15 for my veteran bench players. My top hitting prospects will often get 35 - 45 at bats while secondary hitting prospects will often get about 20 at bats once all things are done.

I usually shuffle my lineup for each game and once a vet reaches his at bats, I put them into rest mode for the remainder of spring training. I might have 1-2 games w/ my regular every day eight and high rest/defensive replacements settings, then the rest are a mix of prospects and vets untilt he end where its all prospects.

I usually put my pitchers into a 4 team tandom setting trying to get my starters about 3 appearances and 8-10 innings. I'll let top pitching prospects more time, often 12-15 innings. ML relievers get about 5 innings of work, and reliever prospects usually end up w/ about the same unless I've got a true stud reliever prospect, in which case I might use them as part of a tandem to make sure they get 8+ innings.