Does this need to be six whole days? Really? Does anyone out there get the slightest bit of enjoyment from ST?

idk. the rest of my coaching staff agrees with me that 6 days in florida is a nice little perk...

So in your one complete season you've managed to figure out what everyone likes/dislikes?   You are absolutely amazing!

Haven't gone through the new coach hiring process but that was easily the worst part of Hardball.  Spring Training isn't too bad.  After all that time on the computer signing free agents, coaches, arbitration players, trades, etc. ST is a nice break for a day or two.

Posted by irishfury01 on 8/5/2010 9:33:00 PM (view original):
Haven't gone through the new coach hiring process but that was easily the worst part of Hardball.  Spring Training isn't too bad.  After all that time on the computer signing free agents, coaches, arbitration players, trades, etc. ST is a nice break for a day or two.

Key being "for a day or two"... six full days followed by a full day and a half of rest is much too long. I challenge anyone to step up and say they would be upset if ST were reduced to 2-3 real life days.

I'd rather keep the current length, but add a couple bells and whistles to make it more fun. Something like split squad games or being able to select from a menu of fundamentals drills to help your players improve in certain areas.

For example, you'd be able to decide whether you want your players to focus on drills that might improve their baserunning or drills that might improve their glove ratings. Or even better, you could have something like 100 percentage points to work with, and a menu of drills with pull-down tabs from which to select what percentage of your team's time will be spent on each drill. If you focused on just one or two areas, you might see higher gains there with a risk of slippage in other areas. Or you could spread it around evenly with less chance for gain and, conversely, less chance for loss.

I like the 6 days but I wouldn't throw a fit if it were cut in half.    I mentioned this before but I'd like to play against myself for 10 games.   Split my squads how I see fit and play them against one another.   While the sample size is small, maybe this helps me decide who the 24th/25th players on my roster will be.  After all, I'll control who they face.   In the current ST format, I may face 3 BL aces or 3 minor league scrubs.  The results have no meaning at all.

I like the idea.  It would be nice if we also had spring training settings that we could set.  I also set my player rest and defensive replacements to the lowest possible value for spring training, and change my pitch count to low numbers to simulate getting a lot of people into games.  It would be nice if I had a game plan screen where I could say, player X plays SS for 3 innings or 1 at bat, then player Y plays SS for 3 innings or 1 at bat, then player Z, etc..  That way I would have control over who was getting time where.  You can kinda control it through settings and heirarchies now, but its not exact.

To add to it, my idea would also give owners something to do during that day and half between ST and the regular season.    As it stands, the stats mean nothing so most, if not all, of our roster decisions are already made.    Maybe, in a controlled enviroment, we could use the 50 AB to help us sort things out.   While that's not a lot of AB, they'll all be in your home park so they'll represent about 20% of the home AB he'd get all year. 

It's not a bad idea, and a definite upgrade in terms of evaluation, but in the end it's still a very small sample size. I always have my 25 man roster set before ST begins, and no matter how hot a guy gets for 50AB's will that change. Of course, that's my personal preference, and don't expect everyone to hold that point of view.

Travis' idea is great and has been discussed before in relation to an Arizona fall league and I would personally LOVE to see something of this sort. In realistic terms, I don't see this happening soon, so I would happily settle for a 3 day ST.

And remember, WiS, a season which is shorter by 3 days, means a 3%+ increase in profits!!! Everyone wins!

50 AB is definitely a small sample size and it's possible that very few owners would put any weight on it.    As I said before, maybe I can decide between a 44/73/58/58/58 and a 73/44/58/58/58 as my 25th man.  It would give me something to do.   And, if WifS shortened ST to 12 games, there's 2 less real-life day in ST for everyone else.   Win for me, win for you and, as you pointed out, a win for WifS!