Like many of us, I hate coach hiring. Too much time invested and coaches are often swayed another way at the last minute. But I don't want this to be about complaining about the current process. I'd like to hear what strategies people use to hire good coaches as I think it is a valuable part of the game as it is currently set up.

Plan to spend 4 million on the best Fielding instructor out there. Then wait until the first coach hiring blitz and sign all the leftover guys for next to nothing.

Serioysly. I used to bid rediculous amounts for coaches that were middle of there pack. Then at the end of signing, I'd see guys who were a good 3-5 points better then my coaches that never got signed.

We treat coach signing too much like free agency. There are lots of good competent coaches out there. Even for fielding. But getting that 88+ fielding coach is always helpful.

Yeah, I follow the same strategy as hockey. $9-10M can usually buy top 10 coaches across the board at bargain prices (except FI, gotta budget more if you need him). Until more coaches read the boards or owner interviews, it will continue to be cheap, at least in the leagues I'm in. I'll often have 1B and BU coaches better than most owner's hitting and pitching coaches.

For the minors, I hire the best guys at AA or AAA and stash all future ML players there regardless of age (I don't buy into early promotion development penalties). All other levels I punt for the most part.

I remember reading something, somewhere that the bench coaches in the minors are the most important thing to player development.

Bench coaches - help - in development. Its an add on basically.

For fielding instructors, the two most important attributes are
1- Loyalty
2- debut season GLV

Because of the weirdness with FI contract renewals, target FIs with 75+ loyalty and you'll save millions on your budget over the long run. Also, target FIs with starting debut GLV of 55 and above. 50-54's top out at 85-89, and everybody 55+ gets to 90+. If your league rolls with a debut 56+ and loyalty 75+ it's worth punting 5 seasons worth of development to hang on to him for 20+ seasons if you're lucky. https://www.whatifsports.com/HBD/Pages/Popups/CoachProfile.aspx?cid=744460 - Jim Holmes is hopefully going to be that guy

How much do coaches really impact players? I was wondering how much a difference between a coach in the 80-95 rating versus 50-75 rating. I am still new to Hardball, I usually try to higher the best coaches with 12-13 million budget and usually end up with solid ones.