Player Development Strategies

[Martos]

What works to develop a player with high potential?

Even if they are supposedly "major league ready" I've seen some low stats. Should I promote them and let them take their lumps developing or should I let them work on things in the minors? Which one tends to work better?

In particular, I am in a historical league with a ton of talented pitching in my minors. Should I bring them up to the bigs and let them show what the've got or should I protect them and put even mediocre players ahead of them in the bigs to "protect" them and keep them from getting their confidence destroyed?

[Kelric]

How are their actual ratings as compared to those pitchers already in the bigs?

[Martos]

Originally Posted by Kelric

How are their actual ratings as compared to those pitchers already in the bigs?

That's got a tricky answer. My players have lower ratings than most in the Bigs. More importantly, their potential is greater than most in the Bigs. So the basic question I have is whether or not I should keep/push those guys down to the Minors by obtaining medicore pitching talent to protect them or just bring them up and see what happens? I'm worried about spoiling my talent by bringing them up too soon.

[Kelric]

With low stats and lower ratings, I would let them continue to get seasoning in the minors. As a caveat, I prefer letting guys sit too long rather than calling them up early.

[ptwarr18]

Originally Posted by Kelric

With low stats and lower ratings, I would let them continue to get seasoning in the minors. As a caveat, I prefer letting guys sit too long rather than calling them up early.

Agreed here.

Low stats, low ratings = Leave them in AAA

Low stats, high ratings = Maybe give em a shot at ML, especially if they are angry about being in the minors, it could be causing the poor performance

High stats, low ratings = Give em a shot in the ML if they have spectacular stats in AAA over a long period of time but have a quick hook. If they start to struggle, send em back to AAA for more development.

High stats, high ratings = Duh...



The exceptions to the above rules are once a guy gets to his mid 20's, say 26 or 27, that's my cutoff for them, they need to be in the ML to sink or swim.

In contrast, if by some chance you have a guy whose 19 or 20 and getting called up, be very careful with him. You want him to have success to keep his morale and development high. If there are struggles maybe he should still be in AAA.