Question on player development

[qetwry]

Do younger players develop faster/better if they are in AAA rather than sitting on a major league squad's bench?

[mtlqcpl2]

Seen in previous messages in this forum:

Players develop two times faster in AAA than starting in majors
On the bench a player does not improve.

Development also depends on money spent on farm system.

Development of a player over a year:
Does the game considers the number of games started in majors
and number of games in AAA ?

[qetwry]

cool thanks for that post..

but i was under the impression that what you spend on your farm system only affect the number and quality of your rookies.. not development .. can someone confirm or disprove that?

thanks

[mtlqcpl2]

Here is an extract from a post (march 5th 2002) by Tom Kaplan:

" Here is what I know about the farm system:

-Based on your ranking for the past 162 regular season games
-Farm system controls: amount of rookies you receive, quality of the rookies, and how they develop in your minor leagues

Tom

__________________
Tom Kaplan
Senior Moderator, Sports Mogul
tom.moderator@sportsmogul.com "

[takaplan]

mtlqcpl2 is actually not exactly correct.

Players develop the fastest in AAA. Having them in the starting lineup is good, although they will not develop as much as in AAA. Putting them on the bench is the worst thing you can do. However, there are no statistics to this, so you can't say "putting someone in AAA will develop them 200% faster than in the starting lineup."

Also, the amount you spend on farm system controls the amount of rookies you receive, the quality, and how fast they develop.

[MogulMan]

I decided to run a crude test (*shock!*) by creating three identical players on one franchise and forcing one into the starting lineup, bench and AAA, respectively. The player cloned was a 23-year old shortstop with B- ratings in EVERYTHING.....Contact, Power, Speed, Eye, Arm, Range, and Fielding.....except Health, which I set at an A+ in an effort to minimize the effect of random injuries.

I turned the farm investment way up (to 100 points) which gave the team (the Angels) an A rating.

At the end of Season 1:
Starting SS: Up to B in Contact, Arm, Range
Bench SS: Up to B in Contact, Arm, Range (same)
AAA SS: Up to B+ in Contact, Range; B in Eye, Arm

At the beginning of Season 2:
Starting SS: Up to B in Speed
Bench SS: Up to B in Speed (same)
AAA SS: Up to B in Speed (same)

Note: all remained at B- in Power and Fielding

At the end of Season 2:
Starting SS: Up to A- in Contact, Range; B+ in Arm; B in Eye, Fielding
Bench SS: Up to B+ in Contact, Arm, Range; B in Eye
AAA SS: Up to A+ Range, A in Contact; B+ Arm; B in Power, Speed, Eye, Fielding

At the end of Season 3 (Contact, Power, Speed, Eye, Arm, Range, Fielding):
Starting SS: A+, B, B, B+, A-, A+, B+
Bench SS: A, B, B, B, B+, A, B-
AAA SS: A+, B, B, B+, A, A+, B+

You be the judge, but it sure looks like the AAA player came out smelling the best after three years and the starter was next in line.

I'll do another sim later and start off the players with lower ratings so that we can see the improvement more easily.

Thoughts?

[Cipster]

What about repeating the test with little to no farm spending? It might turn out that if you have no cash to spend on the farm you might be better off playing your prospects.

[KC Fan in IN]

Please do that? I have limited resources, to do that on mine, I would gladly like to see what that creates. Thanks for a good idea .

[qetwry]

thanks everyone, this has been a very helpful thread for me.

one more question though:
the minor league season ends perhaps a month or so before the majors.. is it safe to assume that if i call up rookies after the AAA season ends, that they won't be missing any 'AAA growth opportunities' since they wouldn't be playing games anyway during that time?

in other words... do players develop based on playing time rather than just time? (which also would mean that if some utitlity player who gets 300 AB coming off of the bench develops the same as if he had been in the starting lineup but only got 300 AB due to injury?)

thanks in advance.

[takaplan]

I would assume that player development is based on playing time, not just time spent sitting in either AAA, in the starting lineup, or on the bench.

However, I don't think this is strictly by the numbers; so I think a player who is a consisten starter for 80 games and gets 300 at bats (and is injured the rest of the season, providing there is no permanent damage from the injury) would develop better than a bench player who sits on the bench the whole season and ends up getting 300 at bats, but does not play consistently.

Tom

[georgefc3]

MogulMan - Excellent post!

I'm changing the way I play because of this info!

Good work!