I notice that fielding instructors enter at horrible numbers and want to be in the majors. I realized that I would like to sign an inexperienced FI coach to a rookie coaching deal to see how they develop. Has anyone ever had success signing some FI prospects to rookie or low-A coaching roles at the end of coach signing?

Fielding Instructors are only available at the ML level

Right, but a listed FI with 0 years experience wouldn't agree to be a rookie bench coach rather than be unemployed?

I guess the answer may simply be you cannot make the offer. Dunno.

People put way too much stock into Fielding instructors.

1) You can, at some expense, hire a mediocre FI to be a AAA Bench coach. The following season he will request a major league role, either as a FI or as a BC. So you have a LOT of expensive lather, rinse, repeat to accomplish this; and he will almost certainly bolt the organization or change his BL demand to be an expensive BC before you get him to the quality you want.

2) It is impossible to get a coach to sign 2 levels below his demands, and a coach only drops his demands a level if all 32 jobs are filled at his demand position. So it is very very rare that you can sign a coach with ML demands lower than AAA.

3) I respectfully disagree with sjpoker.

Looking at the world I'm in which is in coach hiring right now:

- Only a couple of available Rookie League bench coaches have F ratings 40 or over. You could hire one of these guys and attempt to groom him as an FI, but like dedelman suggests, down the road he might end up looking for BC jobs anyway. I remember seeing one major league BC with an 87 F rating, he switched teams every season because everyone would hire him for FI then next season he'd be looking for another BC job anyway.

- FIs seem to show up in the Available pool once they have F ratings over 50. Almost none of the various coaches throughout the minor leagues have F ratings over 50. Also, seems to me like a relatively high number of FIs have no previous careers, coaching or playing. So if you really want to groom your own FI, best bet might be to find a really young one in the major league pool if you can.

- I also disagree with sjp.

My point with FI is that a 75 is probably not that much a drop off from a 85. I try and get a good FI but I ain't spending $4 million to do so

Posted by sjpoker on 10/29/2016 5:57:00 PM (view original):
My point with FI is that a 75 is probably not that much a drop off from a 85. I try and get a good FI but I ain't spending $4 million to do so

Oh OK yep I agree with that. I just wouldn't want to end up with one of the ones in the 60s or lower. Which could happen depending on the world you're in.

My guys are usually 75 to 85. I just don't see the point of spending the extra two to three million dollars to get an elite Fielding instructor. Just my opinion.

Posted by sjpoker on 10/29/2016 7:33:00 PM (view original):
My guys are usually 75 to 85. I just don't see the point of spending the extra two to three million dollars to get an elite Fielding instructor. Just my opinion.

Wouldn't that depend on your team? If you have a bunch of early draft pick/young IFA position players about to hit the majors or there, an extra couple of points in fielding that you'll benefit from for 6-8 seasons could be worth it, especially considering the chances that the more-expensve FI will resign at $750K for a season or two. $2M extra to go from 85-95 might be a bargain if you have young SS-2B-3B-CF-C. What's not a bargain if your top fielders are all age 27-29 and neither improving or declining has a different value if your top fielders are 22-23 (or even 31-32 and signed for a few years). You might only have that stud FI for 2 seasons, but his impact will last longer than that if he gives your position players a boost.

That's a good point but still it's spending a lot of extra money to develope a portion of the skills of only half of your prospects. I'm just not so convinced that it's worth it for the extra 10 pts in glove rating.

Thanks y'all. That makes that idea unlikely to work.

Djammed you should read what we say but not take it all as gospel. There are multiple ways to win in this game, and everyone has their own game plan. You could easily find something out that is not general knowledge or generally shared to help you win. Not everyone who finds those margins shares them.

So do experiment if you think that's something I can help you out.

For the record, I did as suggested a long time ago. Never paid off.

Also, for the record, sjp is correct in that there are many ways to win at this game. But, far and away, the FI is the most important coach you can hire. It's up to you to decide HOW important and how much you'll spend on that important but, make no mistake, he's the most important coach.