In Morgan world, which has been around for 14 seasons now, we have an interesting situation for fielding coaches. Only two coaches with greater than 65 fielding rating are under 60 years old.

One coach is 37 years old and the other 54 years old and all other coaches with any reasonable ability at teaching fielding are 60+ years old and already a number are starting to retire. Is this common in most older worlds? I'm guessing it has something to do with the of all the ML coaches, there is nothing that develops their abilities at the minor league levels.

Some of the best pitching, hitting, bullpen coaches in the world have developed through the minor league system - but most of the fielding coaches are guys that were fielding coaches in S1.

I think this was an issue brought up in a recent chat that WIS stated they'll look at and hopefully fix. I've seen it start to become an issue in one of my worlds and read about here in several.

I don't know that this is something that needs to be fixed. You may have to pay more for a premium defensive coach as they start to disappear. You may have to settle for a 60 Fielding iQ, which is not much more than where they started out in season 1.

My coach is 66yo and 85 F-iQ. In season 1 he was 53yo with a 65 F-iQ. I looked at some available coaches and there is an unsigned 28yo with a 51 F-iQ. If he was able to maintain a minor league job, by the time he was 53, he'd be at least a 65.

Signing promising young coaches with good fielding IQs as minor league bench coaches seems like the best course of action.

Both for your franchise, and for the world in general.

So I just had a very informative back-and-forth with support over the issue of fielding coaches. (Pasted below)

In summary... any FI with a rating over 50 will likely help your team to "some" degree. Once you get below 50, you start running the risk of that FI HURTING your team.

For everyone who is getting their panties in a bunch that "I can't get a fielding instructor with a rating over 75!"... you just need to get over it. Not everyone should have a superstar fielding instructor. Some teams are going to have average ones (closer to a 50 rating).

Admittedly, for consistency sake, I'd like to see bench, hitting and pitching coaches be thinned out so that the same logic applies across the board.. by today's standards, it looks like there are a TON more quality BCs, HCs and PCs than FIs. (There are routinely DOZENS of each with ratings over 70, and even several over 80, in both of my worlds at the end of coach hiring every season). Thin them out too.

Here is my support ticket:


9/15/2009 9:46 AM smoelheim
Hi... just wondering... what is considered an "average" fielding coach in HBD? I realize that some will be better and some will be worse, but I'm just wondering what an "average" FC would be.

Thanks.
9/15/2009 10:38 AM smoelheim
An additional question... at what point does a fielding instructor start HURTING your team? How low of a rating can a fielding instructor have, but still even SLIGHTLY improve your defensive skills?
Thanks.
9/16/2009 9:56 AM Customer Support
Steve,

An average fielding instructor has a fielding IQ of 50. Anything below average will have the potential to hurt your team.
9/16/2009 10:11 AM smoelheim
Thanks... you've answered my second question (at what point does a FI start hurting your team). So you'd absolutely NEVER want a FI with a rating under 50. I'm good with that.

But I dont think that is an "average" fielding instructor. If that were the case, I think you'd be saying that half of the major league fielding instructors (those who are BELOW average) would actually hurt their team's fielding ability.

Much like an "average" SS has ratings of 80-85-85-85.. what kind of rating should an "average" fielding instructor have? Just a general guideline where half should be better and half should be worse?

Thanks again!
9/16/2009 12:42 PM Customer Support
Steve,

An average fielding instructor is any fielding instructor that has a 50 fielding IQ (all of the ratings in the game assume that 50 is the average).

There's quite a bit of randomness built into this so that is why I said there is the potential to lose ratings, it's not a guarantee but the possibility increases as your fielding instructors fielding IQ worsens.

IOW... a FI with a fielding IQ in the high 60s isn't a disaster.

Noted!

Exactly. I'm done solving everyone else's ***** sessions for today. I hope you all enjoyed it.

Considering the source, I wouldn't put any stock in the answer. CS has been known to be wrong several times.

Its as good an answer as I've seen... and it should put an end to all of the "I can't get an 80-rated fielding instructor!" whiners.

Until/unless someone can prove it otherwise.

Quote: Originally Posted By smoelheim on 9/16/2009[snip]
An average fielding instructor is any fielding instructor that has a 50 fielding IQ (all of the ratings in the game assume that 50 is the average).

There's quite a bit of randomness built into this so that is why I said there is the potential to lose ratings, it's not a guarantee but the possibility increases as your fielding instructors fielding IQ worsens

...this is a much more thoughtfully written reply than most CS crap.

I'm tempted to believe that it's at least mostly true.

Maybe, but CS denied that the training bug existed for about a year before finally actually looking into it and realizing it did exist. I'm not saying they don't THINK they are telling the truth, I'm just not sure I believe they really looked into it enough to know.

Nobody has proven that there is an actual problem with Fielding Instructors though. They just complain that they can't get an 80-rated one.

Based on this correspondence, I dont think there is any reason that everyone should expect to get an 80-rated FI.

Quote: Originally Posted By smoelheim on 9/16/2009
Exactly. I'm done solving everyone else's ***** sessions for today. I hope you all enjoyed it.

Well done. It is hilarious that anyone still whines and doubts.

Some will probably jump to the conclusion that because 50 is described as an average coach (evidently across all levels), that means 50 is average for the majors as well as the minors, forgetting that minor league coaches will more likely be below average than major league coaches, and major league coaches above average.

Quote: Originally Posted By smoelheim on 9/16/2009Nobody has proven that there is an actual problem with Fielding Instructors though. They just complain that they can't get an 80-rated one.

Based on this correspondence, I dont think there is any reason that everyone should expect to get an 80-rated FI

Again, assuming that the correspondence is accurate.

The problem with the response is that it would make you believe that a 50 PC or HC would also be "average" at the ML level. I'm not going to be the one to test the theory, but I am willing to bet that it's wrong.

Check some of the teams of the people complaining...see what their players' fielding ratings are doing now that they are into their season. If the guys with 55 rated FI are still developing or at least not losing points in the minors, then you'll have some sort of an answer.