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A few months back I started an eight team, two division fictional league. My strategy in the initial draft was to take a lot of young players with high potential; sacraficing the first year or two for years three to five. My twenty-four year old catcher hit 30 homeruns, my twenty-five year old first baseman had 100 RBI's, my twenty-five year old thirdbaseman hit .299 with twenty-five homeruns, and my twenty-six year old left fielder won a Pure Slugger award. Not to mention; my twenty three year old pitcher went 12-7 with a 4.05 ERA. All of these players had potential ratings ranging from 45 to 70 with the arrow pointing up. After finishing 80-82 I was excited for the improvements of these players. Unfortunately, everything went wrong. Apparantly, despite their success in the majors, the computer punished these players for skipping the minor leagues. To me if you put a young player in the majors too quickly, then yes of course their ratings should drop, but if a young player is ready and succeeds; then his development should rapidly improve.

Needless to say I'm in big trouble. Despite their great years should I dump these players; some made the all-star team, down in the minors so they can develop their skills back up again? Or is this just something that randomly happens; a players skills might drop one year, but then sky-rocket the next?

To add to my troubles I'm a small market team, competing against the likes of New York and Chicago with salaries three times the size of mine. I can't afford such a set-back. Please any advice would help. I've got the Freddy Gonzalez Blues.

1of9,

I'll assume that their ratings dropped, since you seemed to suggest that but you never said it actually happened.  I've seen ratings drop one year and climb the next. Granted, I've rarely ever seen a 1-year change greater than +22 or worse than -20 or so. Just because ratings may be high, even with a high potential, there's never any guarantee where anything will go. For example, some of your younger guys may be maturing sooner, some may be maturing later.

Shaun had said that on average, he has arranged for players to "peak" at roughly 28 years of age. However, this is not a static figure. Some players may peak sooner, some later. I could not list the number of players that were MONSTERS in the minors, then turned into little purring kitties in the majors the next year, and somehow, in the years to come, never quite developed that roar I expected to hear.

I once remember this fictional pitcher I had, Johnny Stahl. I was stocked deep with pitching and needed some fielding help, so I traded him off. I had kept him in the minors for 3-4 years, since I had this feeling in my gut that he just wasn't ready. Well, the team I traded him to put him in the majors right away; he was their #1 or #2 starter. To be truthful, he had a great first year, going 14-6 or something, with a sub 4.00 ERA. I was just ABOUT to feel like a goober that missed his opportunity with a phenom hurler, when the next year he got slammed. He never had a winning season after that and never even won 10 games again. He lasted 3 more years before he was sent to the minors and released the year after that. Next end-of-season had him retiring.

It just goes to show that Puresim is a wonderful thing a beauty in complexity that changes from minute to minute like New England weather.

[:)]

Thanks Frozen,

I needed somebody to talk me down form the ledge. I also like the fact that you can never tell what will happen, and in the end, if I ever win a title, it will make it all the better.