Was hoping for some answers to all of the above coach hiring questions early this week.

Will there be different types of coaches meaning...some coaches will be great at making a veteran team a winner, but not great at developing young players and vice versa?

Hi all, I'd like to share more details and answer questions about the forthcoming Coaching V2 changes. We are still testing & evaluating.

Coaches can enter a world 3 ways:

1. When a world is created or, in this case, when new coaching roles are introduced to a world
2. As players retire, some become coaches. In V2, they will become coaches immediately upon retirement but won't be available in the coaching pool until they've gained a variable number of years of experience.
3. When there aren't enough coaches for a specific role after a new season begins (due to coach retirements), In V2, there will always be at least 35 coaches available per role. While there can be a meaningful disparity between the best and worst coach, every owner will be able to sign a coach that fits the role's profile.

Coaches themselves develop with experience. With each year of experience, they see a ratings increase. As coaches improve, they may eventually want to shift roles.

• Hitting Coordinators can become Hitting coaches
• Pitching Coordinator can become Bullpen coaches or Pitching coaches
• Infield Coordinators can become 1B coaches
• Outfield/BR Coordinator can become 3B coaches
• Catching Coordinators can become Bench coaches
• Bullpen coaches can become Pitching coaches
• 1B, 3B, Hitting & Pitching coaches can all become Bench coaches
• Strength & Conditioning Coordinators will not change roles
• Mental Skills Coordinators will not change roles

In V2, a few other callouts:

1. We are making a small increase to new coaches' Loyalty rating which means a higher percentage or coaches will want to remain with their current team
2. Coaches will only consider offers for their desired role.
3. Each coach impacts player development, often impacting a subset of individual ratings
4. ML Bench coaches will begin impacting ML player development, impacting a subset of individual ratings.

Now, onto answering specific questions...

"Will the update be like a season 1 World where there are no elite coordinators and we'll need to develop them? Will there be enough of them that as they develop season after season, there will still be enough after they get promoted to the mlb? I want to be sure that once the mlb coaches retire, we'll have enough coordinators that are good enough to take on that mlb role, but still have enough coordinators to fill minor league roles. Do you anticipate having to balance this over time if the balance is off (i.e. deficits and surpluses)?"

Existing coaches will remain in their current roles so some will have many years of experience and be near the upper end of their career. The rest of the coaches will be at various points of their careers. Expect a disparity within each coaching role.

"Will there still be significant spring training bumps due to prospects getting exposure to mlb coaching?"

Yes, this remains.

"Can you expand on what is meant by baseball iq related ratings? Is it as obvious as it sounds? The mental skills coordinator will help with contact, splits, eye, control, pitches and ground ball rating?? They strength and conditioning will help with durability, stamina, speed, power, arm strength, velocity?? If the above is accurate, is there a double dip opportunity? For example, will a great mental coordinator and a great pitching coordinator super charge development?"

We prefer not to spell this out but your intuition is correct. For ratings with multiple coaching inputs, the combination is required so no "double dipping". Bench coaches will be the only coaches that have a "bonus" type of impact. The reason? Bench coaches come from various disciplines so one franchise may have a former hitting coach as a bench coach whereas another franchise may have a former pitching coach as a bench coach.


"It seems like some of the coordinators have an obvious career path to make it to the majors except the C specialist, the mental coordinator and physical coordinators and infielder coordinators. Are those ones with a less obvious career path just going to be life long coordinators? If so, is there retire early logic or can we expect them to retire in that age 65 range?"

Spelled out in post above. Each role does have a different age range so you'll see some retire earlier than others.

"Curious to see the opening demands of the coordinators. Also, once the coaching impact comes to fruition, im curious to see if world economics gets super tilted. For example, will there be an immediate run on hiring the elite fielding coordinators? Or, if we have a few seasons in a row where there are more pitcher prospects than hitting prospects, will people run up the $ on pitching coaches."

It's always interesting to see how changes like this pan out. The goal remains to provide decisions to be made where no decision is free. Go heavy on coaches for player development means you have to spend less elsewhere. With surfacing coaching impact on player development, the results will be moer transparent to help with decision making.

"A little concerned about the above referenced fielding coordinator situation. It is well documented that high rated fielding instructors fetch huge contracts. Will you be converting the current fielding instructors to fielding coordinators or will we all be competing for bottom of the barrel fielding coordinators?"

Existing fielding coordinators will hang it up. New IF, OF, C coordinators will be created to replace them.

"I have a feeling that the hitting and pitching coordinators will have bidding wars like the hitting and pitching coaches at the major-league level. Other coordinators will, too, just not to the expense of the others."

Sure, but keep in mind each coach also has a loyalty rating and a growth curve. So you can be strategic about who you target at various points of your franchise. There can only be so many elite or above average coaches. Some franchises will have average or below average coaches. Just like in real life.

"How would IF and OF Coordinators work if we don’t have defined players being one or the other and set positions based on ratings and handedness? If it is determined by what we set as the primary position seems like there might be unintended consequences. To a lesser degree with the C Coordinator, can anyone be designated as a Catcher?"

The position a player plays the most will impact which fielding coordinator impacts their development.

"I'd love to be able to fire a coach mid-season...Like in real MLB!"

We like this idea and will consider in the future once V2 is stable.

"Appreciate the effort. However, this seems to be just as Complicated as the current coach hiring. I don’t think anyone plays this game to get into the weeds on the types of coaches hired. There seems to be a consistent drum beat in the community for making coaching a budget item similar to scouting and to me it makes the most sense"

Fair observation and one we considered. While it would have greatly simplified things, it would have also removed layers of realism from the game. We believe V2 is a compromise. Fewer coaches to hire, greater coach loyalty, more transparency with coaching impact, coaching staff changes to mimic the modern game.

"Do 1st and 3rd base coaches have any impact on in-game base running or are they development only?"
For now, player development only.

"Can we please have a "withdraw and return" button on the coach negotiations pages so we can reduce the amount of clicks?"
Yes

"I'd love to see coaching decisions that influence an organizational ethos. Coach and trainers that stress max effort 5-and-fly pitchers and deep bullpens versus a staff of horses. Small ball vs three true outcomes. Line drives versus flyballs. Pitchers that focus on pitch quality/movement versus control. Nurturing youngsters vs prolonging veterans. Trainers that make players a bunch of slow, hulking boppers or defensive, speedy athletes."

We considered the concept of "coaching strategies" instead of individual coaches but it led to confusing gaps, overlaps and other complexities. It's a game concept we'll continue to think about.

"I might be wrong. If the difference between an 85 in "infield" and a 65 is just a couple of development points, then this is going to lead to some interesting strategic decisions. But if it's the difference between being able to develop a shortstop at all, then I think this may lead to more frustration, and more turnover, not less."

Very thoughtful post. This is why surfacing the impact coaches have on player development is so important. It'll allow owners to decide what is worth $$$ and what is not.

"Also, regarding the transparency (coaches impact on development), will everyone see it or just the franchise that has the coach under contract? Also, can we expect pitchers to drop bad pitches or develop new pitches if there is an elite coordinator? How about AAAA players? If you drafted a borderline player, will elite coaching get him over the hump or are the ceilings still the ceilings?"

Only the franchise will be able to see its coaching impact.

We have existing logic for pitch arsenal changes but I plan to revisit. The latter will be addressed when we revisit diamonds in the rough.