I'm in the middle of my first season and, though I knew this team would be bad, there are some players that are just performing way below what I expected and improvement has been just awful.  Any suggestions?   Hardball Dynasty – Fantasy Baseball Sim Games - Honolulu Spearfish Franchise Profile

Here's a young catcher that I thought would at least hit well:  Hardball Dynasty – Fantasy Baseball Sim Games - Player Profile: Eddie Lewis.  He's neither hitting, nor improving.  What's the deal?  

There's also this pitcher that I had to battle to sign in the offseason:  Hardball Dynasty – Fantasy Baseball Sim Games - Player Profile: Karl Morrow.  He isn't great, but why would he be performing so much worse than his historical figures?  I thought I would have 4 years of a 13-13 pitcher with a 4.50 ERA.   He's a horror show right now.  Change stadium?  Better defense?  Better PC catcher?

Lewis is in his 5th season.  Substantial improvement is unlikely.    He'll hit better.     Not sure much better than .800 OPS but in that range.

Morrow isn't great so you know that.   Your defense isn't horrible but it isn't helping either.   He should be a little better but he's a below league average pitcher.

Your SP is bad.   Alamanzar, Reyes, and SanChez are all AAA at best.    Get into the FA market and pick up SP with vLvR over 55, control over 80, and try to keep p1, p2 over 75.     usually you can pick up declining veteran pitchers that fit the bill.  

next.  trash your SS.  he cant hit anyway.. so might as well get a defensive ace in their to help with your ERA.   get a SS with range and glove over 85 or damn close as you can.    

Posted by siberiansoul on 8/21/2015 1:01:00 AM (view original):
Your SP is bad.   Alamanzar, Reyes, and SanChez are all AAA at best.    Get into the FA market and pick up SP with vLvR over 55, control over 80, and try to keep p1, p2 over 75.     usually you can pick up declining veteran pitchers that fit the bill.  

next.  trash your SS.  he cant hit anyway.. so might as well get a defensive ace in their to help with your ERA.   get a SS with range and glove over 85 or damn close as you can.    

Thank you for suggestions.  Sanchez was the best available FA pitcher after the season started and I realized how bad my starters were.  He's just eating innings while I see whether I can get any development out of the minors.  Whoever had this team signed only relievers that were decent, but no starters.  

Unfortunately, I am more than a little discouraged as the few decent prospects in the system appear to not be improving.  For instance,  Hardball Dynasty – Fantasy Baseball Sim Games - Player Profile: Pedro Fernandez,  Hardball Dynasty – Fantasy Baseball Sim Games - Player Profile: Charles Lee &  Hardball Dynasty – Fantasy Baseball Sim Games - Player Profile: Garret Bonds all project to be ML starters (I guess), but none are improving fast enough to get there.  Am I doing something wrong?  

The only thing you're doing wrong is having unrealistic expectations. Fernandez has gone up 2-3 points in core categories in half a season. That's decent development, but he's never going to be more than a back-end starter with his lousy vR. Lee is 23 and in his 4th season; he's not going to improve a lot. Bonds' development is also fine, but he  is not going to be good regardless. His VEL/GB would only work with great splits, and his are never going to be even mediocre. Even with optimal growth, he's going to have one rating in the 70s and that's not going to get it done.

Try to deal one of your many decent/good hitters for SP. Or deal a top hitting prospect for a good SP/SP prospect. Keep in mind that in most worlds you have to overpay for good SP so you're not going to get a bargain. There are tons of SP signed — 26 in the minors with STA of 70+ — just not any that are good.

Don't get bummed out about this season.  Use it as a learning experience.  Very few rookie owners have success their first season.

Advice:  Coach ratings and training budget play a roll in how much your young prospects develop.  For example, your fielding coach is only rated 64 which is below average.  Your position player prospects will only improve 1-3 points (per season) in glove and accuracy ratings with a fielding coach rating that low.  A better fielding coach would get you 3-5 point gains for the same player.  Next season get a better fielding coach although if you go for a top one, be prepared to pay $2-3M for him.  What is your training budget?  The higher the better for young player development and to slow down the decline of older players. If you left it at $10M, that would be a contributing factor to slow player development.

Training would not affect in-season development.

I took another look at your SP.   Alamanzar's stats are a rookie owner trap to look at.   He did well in the minors and he has a good control and a nice p1 so a rookie owner is thinking... hmmm.   what do I have here.    Well.. what you have there is a AAA pitcher at best b/c of his splits of vLvR of 39.     A pitcher like that is a career AAA guy.  

• He will put up outstanding stats thru out the minors... all star / studly  / sometimes Cy Young-like
• He will make you feel good about your AAA squad as he helps them get to the playoffs.
• He will make managing your AAA easier as you know you have a horse in the stable year after year

What he WON'T do..  is perform in the Bigs.   He will get blown apart more often than not.   If you keep him in the bigs long enough, you will see some flashes of what he does so easily in the minors..  but do not be fooled.   splits of 39  for L and R is like a softball pitcher in the bigs.  Somebody I am sure can find cases where a single split that low has survived in the bigs, but with both splits that low.. forget it.
 

Remember, the ratings are out of 100.  So if you're using guys with ratings of 60's, 50s... they are batting practice.

Go to the edit rosters page, and click on a position of a player.  It will give you the fielding recommendations.   Jim Minor would be an amazing BL shortstop- his bat sucks yes but sometimes you sacrifice hitting to get a SS with ratings like that.    

Omar Browning and Yank Mayne are decent hitters, and much better than who you're using in the ML's now.  

Higher ratings good.  Lower ratings bad.  

I am in my first seasons in 7 years.  The first year, try to improve your team and organization as much as possible.  Your expectations are too high.  Mine were as well.  Just try to acquire talent piece by piece through FAs, Rule 5, Small Trades, or anything you can. 

Every one of us gave out a **** contract or three at the beginning. Learn from it and move on.

I still give 'em out from time to time.   Today's needs, tomorrow's **** contract.

It's not a good team, but you knew that.  A few comments:

In general, you want better coaches than you are using.  Look at successful teams and see what their coaches' ratings are.  The patience rating is very important for coaches; a coach with a patience rating of zero is a real problem.

In general, you can get better value for your buck by emphasizing defense.  Your D is actually much better than the guy who preceded you in that franchise; keep that trend up and look for even more defense.  

Your SPs are scary bad; you're running a bunch of very marginal major league pitchers out there and your last SP is going to struggle at AAA.  The most important pitching ratings are VsR, control, VsL, P1; P2 and GB/FB are worth looking at.  For a major league pitcher, a rating of 70 is marginal, and 75 is average; a pitcher with control or VsR much less than 70 will need other ratings to be noticeably higher than 70 to be a good major league pitcher.  

Essentially all player development occurs in the first 3-4 seasons after draft or international signing.  Players who are more than 3 years from that point have little development left; more than 4 year very little.  Don't expect much development, no matter what your projected ratings say, if they have that many pro seasons behind them.

Hope this helps.

Posted by dyoungquist on 8/22/2015 12:15:00 AM (view original):
Don't get bummed out about this season.  Use it as a learning experience.  Very few rookie owners have success their first season.

Advice:  Coach ratings and training budget play a roll in how much your young prospects develop.  For example, your fielding coach is only rated 64 which is below average.  Your position player prospects will only improve 1-3 points (per season) in glove and accuracy ratings with a fielding coach rating that low.  A better fielding coach would get you 3-5 point gains for the same player.  Next season get a better fielding coach although if you go for a top one, be prepared to pay $2-3M for him.  What is your training budget?  The higher the better for young player development and to slow down the decline of older players. If you left it at $10M, that would be a contributing factor to slow player development.

I'm glad for the comments, but the fielding coach is rated 90 with a 69 Patience.  Either you or I are mis-reading something.  I put training & medical up to $14, because that is the limit.  It seems to make no difference whatsoever.

Posted by siberiansoul on 8/22/2015 2:27:00 PM (view original):
I took another look at your SP.   Alamanzar's stats are a rookie owner trap to look at.   He did well in the minors and he has a good control and a nice p1 so a rookie owner is thinking... hmmm.   what do I have here.    Well.. what you have there is a AAA pitcher at best b/c of his splits of vLvR of 39.     A pitcher like that is a career AAA guy.  

• He will put up outstanding stats thru out the minors... all star / studly  / sometimes Cy Young-like
• He will make you feel good about your AAA squad as he helps them get to the playoffs.
• He will make managing your AAA easier as you know you have a horse in the stable year after year

What he WON'T do..  is perform in the Bigs.   He will get blown apart more often than not.   If you keep him in the bigs long enough, you will see some flashes of what he does so easily in the minors..  but do not be fooled.   splits of 39  for L and R is like a softball pitcher in the bigs.  Somebody I am sure can find cases where a single split that low has survived in the bigs, but with both splits that low.. forget it.
 

Thanks, but I called him up instead of some others as his potentials are 50+ in each vLvR and he was already on the payroll as a ML player...no increase in budget.  Sort of a hail mary to see if he would improve.  Evidently the potential ratings are simply garbage.  The players don't improve enough to reach them.   I guess that's something to learn, but I cannot imagine the reason why the game designers would choose that.