Two seasons in a row, I've had high hopes for my team only to have them start the season by losing, losing, losing. After 30-40 games, we start winning and end up around .500. I'm wondering if my Spring Training strategy is to blame. I limit pitchers' innings and play the position players for 4-5 innings or not at all. Maybe I should be playing them all more. Thoughts?

I limit my ML position players to about 20-25 at bats, and my ML pitchers to 3 appearances with 100 total pitches max. Spring training is to develop the younger players, but I think you do need to play your ML players at least a little bit.

My only thought is that if you’re losing a lot at the beginning of every season, you need to figure out how to be more competitive with those teams in your own division.

I have my MLB players in spring training only the first five games unless they are under six seasons pro.

Losing in the beginning of the season could have more to do with your opponents than you. Two seasons is too small of a sample size.

Players will play to there ratings. What you do in spring training will not affect that AT ALL. It could affect ratings bumps and fatigue but no way whatsoever performance.

If this is the team then without looking at the competition Id say they are a .500 team at best. You cannot have 2 errors a game and expect to win consistently.

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Posted by brianp87 on 4/22/2019 6:25:00 PM (view original):
Players will play to there ratings. What you do in spring training will not affect that AT ALL. It could affect ratings bumps and fatigue but no way whatsoever performance.

I’m not saying you are wrong, but I am saying you have no proof of this. You cannot say with certainty that there is not a piece of code in there that penalizes guys who did not sufficiently participate in spring training or rewards those that did.

Lol. Id bet $ on it. I have not played guys in spring training and it did not change anything that I noticed in development nor how they played in season. The reason this guy cannot win is his defense sucks badly. I did not even look beyond it once I saw the def ratings on his team it stuckout. Players perform to there ratings no matter what over time.

Posted by brianp87 on 4/23/2019 12:14:00 AM (view original):
Lol. Id bet $ on it. I have not played guys in spring training and it did not change anything that I noticed in development nor how they played in season. The reason this guy cannot win is his defense sucks badly. I did not even look beyond it once I saw the def ratings on his team it stuckout. Players perform to there ratings no matter what over time.

You are probably right, just things sometimes get said on here with certainty when none of us really know.

My theory on fatigue is is a good example. I believe hitters start with something like 100 + stamina number. That number is also their maximum number. However, it is programmed so that the highest number it displays is 100. Essentially, 95 means 95, 97 means 97, but 100 could be any where from 100-200. Can I prove it? No. Have I ever seen a piece of evidence disproving or even contradicting my theory? No. Still, I cannot say I know it.

You have some guys under performing from their career numbers....they should improve by the end of the year. A quick look at the other teams in your league and I think it would be difficult to predict record based on your roster. I looked at the history of maybe 12 teams and almost everyone of them has multiple 100 loss seasons in the last 10.....except for the couple that win 100 multiple times or even 8 of 9 years. The talent disparity in your league is significant.