I think it would be nice to program a subtle bonus into making the MiL playoffs. As it stands, 99% of the owners could care less about their MiL accomplishments which of course translates to unbalanced MiL's and a lot of the time, understaffed fatigued teams to boot. Futhermore, right now you have an incentive to NOT make it/advance in the MiL playoffs as along with not giving you anything beneficial (aside from the, ahem, awesome bragging rights of winning the High A WS, of course), it increases your chances of sustaining injuries!

I would propose something as such: If your MiL team makes it and progresses in the playoffs, they should be rewarded with the opportunity of gaining subtle extra improvements in their development. Need not be any drastic either but perhaps a shot at a small bonus in DURABILITY (rationalized by the increased work-out of a longer season played), MAKEUP (rationalized by the extra playoff experience) and perhaps PATIENCE (rationalized by the "thrill" of playing in a more competitive environment.) Nothing terribly game-changing but just enough to care.

I anticipate the main problem with this would be owners stacking all their best prospects into one or two MiL levels, but if I am not mistaken, there are already negative consequences to such actions programmed in --  (players getting ****** off at spending too much time at one level, missed promotion bonuses from skipping levels, etc)

Isn't there already a subtle bonus in the form of an extra developmental cycle?
If there is anything more than that, it simply means that the low minors level with real prospects would get filled with AAA players to surround them.
If anything, there should be a negative consequence to sub .250 win pct. minor league teams to at least discourage minor league pitching fatigue.

I've had players get as many as 100 extra PA in the minor league playoffs.   If you're like me, you believe every extra AB counts in development.  I like to get my prospects at least 1200-1500 AB before moving them to the bigs.   That's 3 seasons at a minimum.  Give me an extra 300 playoff AB and my guy is ready, in my mind, half a season earlier.

So, to me, there's already a reason to do well in the minors.   Of course, this is also the reason I don't care if you screw up your minors.   If you give my lead-off man 30 AB instead of 17 in a 4 game series, that's good for me.   The difference with playoff AB is that there is no fatigue factor.   Game, game off, game......   Plenty of rest.

Posted by MikeT23 on 8/3/2010 6:27:00 PM (view original):
I've had players get as many as 100 extra PA in the minor league playoffs.   If you're like me, you believe every extra AB counts in development.  I like to get my prospects at least 1200-1500 AB before moving them to the bigs.   That's 3 seasons at a minimum.  Give me an extra 300 playoff AB and my guy is ready, in my mind, half a season earlier.

So, to me, there's already a reason to do well in the minors.   Of course, this is also the reason I don't care if you screw up your minors.   If you give my lead-off man 30 AB instead of 17 in a 4 game series, that's good for me.   The difference with playoff AB is that there is no fatigue factor.   Game, game off, game......   Plenty of rest.

If that is in fact the case than my post is pointless. However, I have never been of the thought that an overabundance of AB's leads to accelerated or enhanced development, My take on it was as such.

x = "adequate" AB's per season for a given prospect (likely influenced by his durability)
1. If player attains x, he develops as he should (not counting other factors).
2. If player falls below x, he is stunted
3. If player exceeds x, results would still be same as (1).

If what Mike says is true, that would be rewarding the lazy owners who leave their position prospects in for all 162 games. Well... of course they would still be at higher risk of injury, but nevertheless rewarding them most of the time that injury luck smiles upon them.

As for gaining an extra development cycle, all my prospects get the 5th "regular season" bump anyway, permitting I promote them at the end of season. I have never seen a player get a 6th (not counting trade and promotion bumps) -- playoffs or no playoffs. And of course there are those who believe that these are merely "snapshots" and don't change the development anywho.

I've noticed a substantial increase in injury when a player drops below 98%.   While it may be worth the risk, if you buy into my belief that each AB is one step closer to development, I disagree.    An injury can ruin a prospect.   Getting an extra 100 AB below 98% so he'll be ready half a season earlier isn't worth the gamble.   But getting an extra 100 AB at 100% is a nice bonus for making the playoffs.