Ok I've got a weird one:

Player Profile: Jimmie Locke - Hardball Dynasty Baseball | WhatIfSports

Just traded for this guy, he was drafted about 5 seasons ago but profile lists 2 pro years and he only has stats for this season and one 5 seasons ago. I'm guessing he was stuck the inactive list for 4 full seasons and they didn't count towards his pro years total (He was not released according to his transactions page).

Does anyone know what's going to happen with his development? Will he be like a guy 5 years post-draft or was he "paused" and will develop like a guy who has <2 years pro experience? He gained 2-3 points in key categories over the years he was inactive but has already gained 2-3 fielding point this season. I'm wondering if this will continue or if it's just a little early season bonus.

No clue but I learned from this that if a guy (apparently) sits inactive for a season or four, it doesn't count towards his pro years (he only has 2). It will be interesting to see what happens.

Development is partially based on age. As a player gets older his development speed slows down to almost nothing by age 27. He lost 3 years of development time so won't end up as high as he would have if he had played those younger years.

Mid-season update: This guy has gained 5 points in Glove, 4 points in Throw Accuracy, 4 points in Baserunning, but nothing else really. On the one hand that’s much much more progression in those categories than I would expect for a guy his age but it’s odd that nothing else showed any gains. Could it be coaching related?

Your AAA hitting coach has 27 patience and 45 discipline-- but 76 hitting, so I don't think it's the coach. I think it's mostly him... sometimes very low ratings don't progress at all, and his "blue" ratings are 23, 99, 31, 10, 40. So eye pretty frequently stops development early, and ratings like 23 and 10 sometimes don't develop at all.

But I wouldn't rule out that it's a coding silliness where fielding and baserunning rating development key off "years pro" but hitting ratings key off "years since drafted." Two or three programmers, coding three different engines, doing something just a little different that only matters in these weird niche circumstances.

Or maybe like most SS's his bat is just garbage and has already reached it's potential.

I've always wondered how progression works if a guy isn't on your active roster (inactive, signed but unassigned). It also makes sense for development to only occur when on the active roster when you think about situations like IFA's signed in ST vs. guys signed at the end of the season. If the clock is always running then isn't a guy signed at the start of the season going to have 3 or 4 extra development cycles than the guy at the end? Or maybe the clock is only triggered once a player is initially signed/assigned.

I wouldn't be too surprised if his development clock was simply paused. If the clock is paused, rebuilds would be more interesting. You could batch prospect development to line more guys up for the optimal window.

End of Season update:
Overall gained 7 points in Glove, 6 points in Throw Accuracy, and 5 points in Baserunning. Also squeaked out 2 CON points and 2 vsL. Much much more progression than I would have expected for a guy drafted 6 seasons ago.

I'm interested to see where he ends up after roll-over, but he'll serve as at least a backup SS and maybe a decent short-sided platoon option. I'll take that given the acquisition cost was essentially nothing.