Player Development Questions.

I would appreciate any thoughts or suggestions on player development.

1. Does playing time help player development?

2. Does playing various positions help with defensive development? If you played a right fielder at third base would it help him any in developing his glove?

3. I've read where age plays a significant part of development. So if you draft a 22-year-old, and he has significant upside potential (ex. 65 to 78 overall) does he have a chance to reach that potential assuming average to above average makeup?

4. Coaches. Does it help a player develop during roster expansion for a player to get some ML coaching if he is not going to see much playing time? Or should he just stay in the minors and not start accruing ML service time if he is not ready for it?

5. Does the GM know for certain the potential of his own players before 27yo? Or is that a factor of advanced scouting or some other coach skill or feature of the game?

Thanks.

1. Yes

2. No

3. It depends. Keep in mind that projections are never a sure thing, and the further you are away from $20m in advanced scouting, the less sure they are. Makeup helps, but it's just one of many, many factors.

4. Development needs playing time. Sitting on a ML bench with ML coaches is generally not going to be as good as playing in minor league games with minor league coaches.

5. See my comments for #3. Projections are never a sure thing. There are many factors that can work for or against a player reaching his maximum potential.

How does trading a prospect affect player development? Let's say the first team has training at 16 mill but the other team receiving the player is at 10 mill, will that drastically change how the player develops?

His future development on the $10m training team will be slightly downgraded. I wouldn't call it drastic, i.e. he won't lose any of the development he's already experienced.

Thanks for the reply! Thats good to know i have always been curious about that!