George Brett Not Happy Batting 3rd?!

[Taer]

Hi everyone; I am not sure if this should be posted in this sub-forum or in the Historical League sub-forum. I chose here, because this is a game-play issue that may not be limited to a historical game.

Here is the situation: Finally, after several years, I was able to get a top-rated prospect in the last draft and was very happy to chose Mr. Brett. After doing my management wizardly stuff, I determined the best spot for Mr Brett would be 3rd in my batting order. My team is a National League team, but that fact should have no bearing on things, I'd think. Everything was fine and looking rosy. Spring training went by with a few minor injuries ( gotta include no riding in pickups during the off-season clauses next year).. but nothing that set my team back.

Mr Brett was performing awesome and I looked forward to having second base stable for the foreseeable future. Everything was idealic until the third week of the season when Mr. Brett sent me an email saying that he was not happy batting where I had him placed, and that he wanted to be placed in the middle of the line-up ...

Okay ... not sure why 3rd was considered not "middle of the line-up", but lets get over that and fast forward to the next series.. where I switched Mr Brett with my #5 hitter .. just to "give him the chance" he pleaded with me for. It didn't work. Not only was it the wrong dynamic for winning on the field ... but Mr Brett's agent sent me an email stating that he felt it was time I traded his client!

This seems wrong on several levels to me. First: Brett is a new player, and as a rookie, wouldn't he just be happy his butt was in the Show and not in triple A, stuck behind a veteran starter? Secondly: If 3rd and later 5th position in the batting order does not constitute "the middle" .. then why not flat out state: I demand to bat clean-up .. and avoid beating around the bush? Third ... I understand in the mid-80's Brett had a season where he batted 30+ home runs ... but seriously ... 20-30 homerun power potential with the contact and proven ability to get on base and make things happen ... does not mean he's a clean-up hitter... wouldn't players like Brett, Gwyn, Raines, Henderson, et all understand that they are not cleanup hitters and actually be happy that they were playing for a manager that knew not to try to make them into the next Aaron or Ruth?

This, and the outragous salary demands in the early years, are the things that bother me the most about this game. I have done research and found the answers as to why free agency and high salaries are enabled the way they are in this simm, but I failed to find any thread or discussion dealing with the player not being happy in his role.

Thanks for reading and responding,
Taer.

[Tony M]

I'll move this to historical for the time being as it may be a setting that is causing this as players should play like they did in history.

*maybe you didn't give him enough pine tar

[Taer]

Originally Posted by Tony M

I'll move this to historical for the time being as it may be a setting that is causing this as players should play like they did in history.

*maybe you didn't give him enough pine tar

Thanks Tony ... as far as the Pine Tar thing .... it is not my fault the bat-boy got confused and gave him the Vasoline and Gaylord Perry the Pine Tar, is it? lol

[RchW]

No disrespect intended but this is not George Brett and won't act like him.

Player personalities are randomly generated so the dissatisfaction with his role is co-incidence. What are his personality ratings like?

You didn't say if you are using recalc or not. I assume you are. Check his power rating against the top HR hitters and against league totals. In a low HR environment he may be a power hitter.

If not using recalc, check his power talent (potential). The development curve may be making him into a power hitter. If so he will want to bat cleanup.

That being said the personality quirks and levels of dissatisfaction are a little weird or perhaps simplistic. I had a 40+ HR guy who wanted to lead off. That wasn't going to happen on my team. What is your manager level/rating in the game? Perhaps you are getting a more severe reaction than a 30+ season guy.

This, and the outragous salary demands in the early years, are the things that bother me the most about this game. I have done research and found the answers as to why free agency and high salaries are enabled the way they are in this simm, but I failed to find any thread or discussion dealing with the player not being happy in his role.

Do you not have option years, and arbitration on? Not sure what year you are in but arbitration came in in 1972. That should limit salaries.

[Kanonen80]

Another thing to check would be to see if he's set to "middle of the line-up" in all line-ups (ie. RHP, LHP, RHP w/DH, LHP w/DH) and see if that helps.

[Taer]

Originally Posted by RchW

No disrespect intended but this is not George Brett and won't act like him.

Player personalities are randomly generated so the dissatisfaction with his role is co-incidence. What are his personality ratings like?

Thanks for replying RchW. I simulated 20 additional years since I last posted, so I'll be happy to report my findings. ( not computer literate enough to be able to post screen-shots or I would post one of Brett's career.) First things first... here are his ratings at the time of his retirement:

Contact: 6
Gap Power: 7
Home Run Power: 4
Eye Discipline: 5
Avoid K's: 6

One of the reasons I drafted him originally was that at the time, his contact, and avoid K's rating were 9 .. his power was either 6 or 7, but I do not remember for sure.

You didn't say if you are using recalc or not. I assume you are. Check his power rating against the top HR hitters and against league totals. In a low HR environment he may be a power hitter.

I am in my 4th historical league, originally I've set them up as suggested in the stickied thread in this sub-forum, only changing a few things so far, as I gain a better understanding of the sim and what would be more enjoyable to me. This last league, I restricted trades to be rare and made the AI value potential in its calculations; in the past three leagues before, I've slowly increased the injury frequency as I got used to it. Other then that, I've stuck to the sticky's recomendations.

I did not check his ratings as compared to those that were the HR kings at the time, but I do know that the league leaders were between 40 and the mid-50's between '73 and the late 80's and then there was high burst of 50-70 from '89 through '95 (Brett retired in '91).

Brett's personal HR numbers ranged from 0 his rookie year (89 games) to a high of 30 in 1978. Most years ranged from 15 to 25. He just was not a Home-Run hitter. In fact, him not having any home-runs his rookie year, really made me question the validity of his demands and his agent's trade demands at that time.

I...
That being said the personality quirks and levels of dissatisfaction are a little weird or perhaps simplistic. I had a 40+ HR guy who wanted to lead off. That wasn't going to happen on my team. What is your manager level/rating in the game? Perhaps you are getting a more severe reaction than a 30+ season guy.

My Manager and Bench Coaches were all blue or green in their levels and were the best I could hire at the time each of their contracts were up, so their Rookie and Veteran handling abilities were always above 10.

In all my sims the only two people that gave me any trouble ofthis nature was George Brett and Carlton Fisk. (Fisk was understandable, because he was slowly loosing his starting role to Mike Socia). I have only had the option for player satisfaction and team roles affecting the player attitudes enabled for the past two sims, so perhaps the sample size is not large enough for me to see how these options plays out.

Do you not have option years, and arbitration on? Not sure what year you are in but arbitration came in in 1972. That should limit salaries.

I do have these turned on, but I found salaries to baloon high, quite early in each of the sims I've played. For example, the premier free agent of 1960 was Mickey Mantle ... and he demanded a 5 year deal worth 20 million ...this is just out of whack for 1960 era baseball and what brought home to me how out-of-whack this part of the sim is was a quote by Duke Snyder ... and this is a quote that OOTBP even used during a loading screen ... where he said if he was being paid 1million he'd feel obligated to sweep the stands after each game ...

So ya... arbitration is on, and for a little while I can have Drysdale or Kofax ... but then because LA doesn't loosen their pocketbook until mid 80's, I always end up watching franchise players walk until the era of drugs.

I sincerely hope there are some changes made to the way free agency is scaled prior to the 70's for those who love historical leagues.

Again thank you for responding and I look forward to hearing more input.

[Taer]

Originally Posted by Kanonen80

Another thing to check would be to see if he's set to "middle of the line-up" in all line-ups (ie. RHP, LHP, RHP w/DH, LHP w/DH) and see if that helps.

I do start each season by having the manager make all my line-ups and depth-charts... but I normally only check the vsrhp and vslhp versions.. so this is a possibility. I'll have to start checking all of the versions now. Thank you for this tip.