I guess this is kind of minor but it's something I thought of that I think could be a nice addition. I for one prefer to leave my minors on "auto pilot" and let the AI run them. I make sure I have full rosters but in terms of managing actives and inactives and DL moves, etc. I prefer to let the AI do it at the minor league level. That said, when I have someone I consider to be a good prospect that I want to play, even if they may not be the best defensive option at that position, (since the AI appears to make the lineup based solely on defense and the starting rotation based solely on a durability/stamina combination) I would like to be able to apply some sort of a tag to the player labeling them as a prospect. This way, when I use my recommended lineup, the AI knows that this player needs to be in, at say their primary position over the other player who may be nothing other than a minor league filler. I would say this tag would automatically put that person in at their primary position. Since it is easy enough to change what someone's position is, if you have multiple shortstops and you want them both in the line up, you can change the primary position of one of them so they would both be in under this prospect tag. In conjunction with this, I would think it would be nice to be able to label a minor league pitcher as either a starter or reliever so the AI at least knows if they should be in the rotation or not. If you want, you can limit the number of players per level that can have this tag attached to them, that is fine. This may just be the lazy side of me coming out but I definitely think it's practical and could be quite useful as well as ensuring everyone's better prospects are getting the appropriate playing time.

Here you go miket, open season for you since you appear to shoot down most suggestions that aren't yours. Enjoy!

+1

I like it. They put the Sim option in the management console so we don't have to micromanage our minor leagues. So its frustrating when you have to forego that because the sim keeps putting your prize SS prospect at DH. It's even worse with pitching too, when you have a starting pitching prospect whose durability hasn't developed yet, so the sim keeps putting him at closer. Then you have to manage the pitching staff manually, which includes all the activation and de-activation due to fatigue issues.

Just thought of this as well but the prospect report would then only show players who have the "prospect tag".

If you change the position of your slugging 1B to SS, and he's the only player with SS as their primary position, the SIM should start him there.

Problem solved?     

Not necessarily. This season at Hi A, I had a prospect who was the only 2B listed on the Hi A roster. The sim put him in the lead-off spot and started him every game. But even though he had a durability rating in the 70's, he was down to 97% fatigue and falling after just 50 or so games.  He was starting every game and playing almost every inning, and being worked to death because of it.

The point of the original post is to make sure top prospects start at their primary position and get the majority of playing time, but not to risk injury by being used as a beast of burden and wearing himself out.  Under your suggestion, even if I had a bench player with 2B listed as a secondary position, my 2B would've gotten a little more rest, but the bench player would still be used at HIS primary position more often than at 2B.

Mind you, I have no problem managing the lineups and DL's of my minor leagues.  Its what I do now anyway if the suggested lineup isn't to my liking (and I refuse to let the sim manage DL's, because it always promotes players before I'd like them to be promoted, and you can't demote them back without risking a penalty).  But I think this idea would be a huge help for pitching staffs.  Since the lower minor leagues usually need between 11-15 pitchers, its a huge hassle to shuffle guys between active and inactive 3 times per day (at 4 levels) just to make sure a guy who projects to 87 stamina and 75/80 splits doesn't get relegated to a setup role just because his durability hasn't increased past 15 yet.

Manager Settings / Player Settings / Auto Rest. Defaults to 80%... I increase it to 95%. Once your player hits it, someone else will get subbed in.

Problem solved?

For position players, sure. But what about for lower durability SP's?

The position player issue is easily resolved as mentioned.  You have to manage your pitching.   Takes about 10 minutes per day with 5 teams for me.   And that's checking every cycle.   You should have enough pitchers on the roster where you really only need to check once every day or two.

I LOVE the suggestion of the prospect tag.I have found this to be a BIG problem in the development of players sometimes. A pitcher that will never pitch at my ML level is put into the starting rotation when a pitcher that has the ability to reach the majors keeps getting taken out of the rotation and moved into middle relief. Or a position player I want to be playing everyday is constantly being placed on the bench for  player with an overall rating of 56. It drives me nuts!