Here we go again, time for coach hiring. By far my least favorite part of the game, even though I resign as many of my coaches as I can it still seems like a lot of work stretched out over too many days, and the results of the effort expended is barely visible in the development of prospects and or the maintenance of skills for the veterans on the ML club. (My Training budget is always set to 20 to help maintain the ratings of my veterans)

I'd been fortunate to have good retention with my ML bench coach for 10+ seasons until he walked last season. His replacement had very good ratings in the 4 skill development categories, plus patience and discipline, but weak in Strategy. Perhaps due to injuries and other factors but I had my worst W-L season in 14 seasons (still above .500 but missed  the playoffs), and started to wonder if part of the reason might be the Bench Coaches Strategy rating.

From the Hep Menu:

Strategy - This is the coach's strategy rating. The higher the rating, the more likely he'll succeed as a bench coach. Bench coaches are important, because they can improve/hurt the day-to-day management operations of a minor league franchise as well as affect in-game decision making (even at the big league level if the manager gets ejected). They generally have different managerial settings than the ones you've set, for instance. ("Succeed as a bench Coach"-What does that mean?)

After reading this I started to question what the bench coach actually does at the major league level.  Since most of my ML players have had at least 3-5 seasons in the minors most of their development is done. That would seem to downplay the importance of the bench Coach's Batting, Pitching, Fielding, Base Running, and Patience ratings. So what's left?

Will Discipline effect in game "Basics" like hitting the cutoff man, or is that affected via the Arm Accuracy development of your fielders? Probably not.

It appears that all that is left is Strategy, but I'm not sure what the above definition implies.

1. What does "Day-to -day operations" mean, and does it not apply to the ML team per the wording above?
2. And it looks like "In game decision making" for your bench coach comes into effect when you (the manager) is ejected from a game.

It sounds like if I set my Argumentative rating to "Never" to avoid ejections, my ML Bench Coach does very little if anything.

Please let me know what I'm missing.

I agree.  I have been setting my argumentative to 0 and ignoring the strategy rating for a while now.  For a  veteran team, I'm coming to the conclusion that the most important thing to do with the ML bench coach is to spend the minimum.

Thanks dedelman.

No other thoughts?

Posted by dedelman on 2/5/2011 12:14:00 PM (view original):
I agree.  I have been setting my argumentative to 0 and ignoring the strategy rating for a while now.  For a  veteran team, I'm coming to the conclusion that the most important thing to do with the ML bench coach is to spend the minimum.

+1

I buy the best bench coach money can buy from the AAA ranks and put him on the ML bench.
Or I wait until they drop their demands and pick one of the left overs.

In my last coach hiring experience I ended with a better PC at AAA then at the ML level when they dropped their demands.

Coach hiring is as much of a pain in the *** as you let it be.

If you aren't going to sweat 2-5 points in teh key IQ categories, you can sit back after your initial offers and only check in once they start signing.

Posted by dedelman on 2/5/2011 12:14:00 PM (view original):
I agree.  I have been setting my argumentative to 0 and ignoring the strategy rating for a while now.  For a  veteran team, I'm coming to the conclusion that the most important thing to do with the ML bench coach is to spend the minimum.

I go the other way.  I set my argumentative to 5 (to get the performance bump as often as possible) and don't worry about bench coach strategy because I've never seen anything strange after the manager has been tossed.  I mean I don't think the worst bench coach would PH for my best hitter with my backup SS or anything crazy like that.

I always let my ML Bench Coach walk and hire a AAA BC for the ML minimum.

I'd been fortunate to have good retention with my ML bench coach for 10+ seasons until he walked last season. His replacement had very good ratings in the 4 skill development categories, plus patience and discipline, but weak in Strategy. Perhaps due to injuries and other factors but I had my worst W-L season in 14 seasons (still above .500 but missed  the playoffs), and started to wonder if part of the reason might be the Bench Coaches Strategy rating.
Read what you just wrote. Do you think that the poor record had anything to do with the lower strategy rating of the Bench Coach? A reasonable conclusion can be made even just from your original statement that the strategy rating of a Bench Coach is more significant than anyone else has acknowledge so far. Just like a HC with a high batting IQ is going to make your team hit better and your PC with a high pitching IQ is going to improve your teams pitching staff. The ratings are not meaningless and the higher the rating the more it will help your team. If you don't want to pay for it that is up to you but you can't dismiss it as meaningless just because you don't want to pay for it.

Posted by timf on 2/8/2011 3:50:00 PM (view original):
I'd been fortunate to have good retention with my ML bench coach for 10+ seasons until he walked last season. His replacement had very good ratings in the 4 skill development categories, plus patience and discipline, but weak in Strategy. Perhaps due to injuries and other factors but I had my worst W-L season in 14 seasons (still above .500 but missed  the playoffs), and started to wonder if part of the reason might be the Bench Coaches Strategy rating.
Read what you just wrote. Do you think that the poor record had anything to do with the lower strategy rating of the Bench Coach? A reasonable conclusion can be made even just from your original statement that the strategy rating of a Bench Coach is more significant than anyone else has acknowledge so far. Just like a HC with a high batting IQ is going to make your team hit better and your PC with a high pitching IQ is going to improve your teams pitching staff. The ratings are not meaningless and the higher the rating the more it will help your team. If you don't want to pay for it that is up to you but you can't dismiss it as meaningless just because you don't want to pay for it.

Admin has repeatedly stated that Pitching Coaches and Hitting Coaches have no in game effects.  Instead they effect development. 

From the FAQ section:
Bench coaches don't just have an impact when they take over for the manager (i.e. you). They impact all of the ratings and performance of the players.

The main ratings that the bench coach has an effect on for position players are hitting, pitch calling, and base-running. For pitchers at the minor league level they take over (to a lesser extent) the bullpen coaches role.

At the minor league level bench coaches play a role in all facets of player development. That is why they are one of the most desired and highly compensated components of your coaching staff.

Posted by timf on 2/8/2011 4:15:00 PM (view original):
From the FAQ section:
Bench coaches don't just have an impact when they take over for the manager (i.e. you). They impact all of the ratings and performance of the players.

The main ratings that the bench coach has an effect on for position players are hitting, pitch calling, and base-running. For pitchers at the minor league level they take over (to a lesser extent) the bullpen coaches role.

At the minor league level bench coaches play a role in all facets of player development. That is why they are one of the most desired and highly compensated components of your coaching staff.

That comment about the bench coach impacting the performance of the players is inconsistent with what WIS has said in DEV Chats. 

Ok, but your first post states that high batting IQ makes your team hit better which is incorrect. 

Maybe everything I've said is wrong. I don't know for sure. All I know is that I've followed what I've read and my teams have gotten better every season as my coaches improve. The better my HC the more runs I score and the higher my teams average and OBP. The better my PC the lower my team ERA and fewer runs allowed. The higher my BC's strategy rating the more games I win. Maybe they all impact very little and sum of those things has lead to the inprovements I've seen but I don't argue when the results match up with what I've read.

This is exactly the kind of sanity check I needed!

Thanks and keep it coming!