My typical ST strategy is to play all starters for the first 9 games (hoping for minor injuries) and then all my prospects for the final 9 games (hoping for development)

Under this strategy over the past 30 seasons or whatever, each team in each league tends to start out around .500-.550 until the AS break and then goes berzerk down the stretch at like a .750 clip for the last 60 games. Consistently this exact pattern, I'm honestly not even exaggerating.

Recently, because of life business and general ambivalence towards the team I assembled, and this league I'm in, I did not invite a single prospect or minor leaguer to my Franchise Profile: Somethings team. Nobody got injured, nobody developed. I don't have good prospects anyways, doesn't matter.

But, interestingly, I have gotten off to the best 50-game start not just of this team's history but of my entire HBD history- 38-12 (.760), despite this being the worst version of that team in 10 seasons.. Went on a W9 followed immediately by a W13.

So now it has me wondering, have I been doing it wrong this entire time? Am I going to crash at the end and flame out in the first round? The user guide mentions Rust, but says it will be a future implementation... What if it actually does exist?

Obviously one season is not enough to draw any conclusions. But moving forward I plan on going with the general ambivalence strategy to see if the Hot Start trend continues

I will say in my brief experience my teams tend to start out slow. I try getting my BL guys the 3 games for pitchers/25 at bats for MLer's, but I'm like you and have the BLers play until they hit those and just prospects afterwards. I'm wondering if I should stagger this a little and instead of heavy playing time in the beginning and none at the end.