Player development problem

[bgheadjack]

Hello again. So, I've chronicled before the problem I've had with minor leaguers having steep falloffs in terms of their ratings, going from elite (Homer Bailey type) to someone who I would cut in the span of a day. I've also had the problem of the huge number of guys who have had developmental dropoffs and not improvements. This current problem may be even bigger.

It seems to me that "good" to "very good" players in their 30's lose their abilities at an alarming and unrealistic rate. I've pretty much learned that if a player is 32, then I have no interest in signing him because he's guaranteed to suck, if he doesn't already. It seems like just about all the Hideki Matsui, Edgar Renteria, Andruw Jones, Chipper Jones type players go from a rating in the high 60's to 21 in the course of a year. Even David Ortiz is now projected to hit .235, although his power is still good. And I've only played the game for a season and a half. Now, sure, when simming every once in a while a player who in "real life" is still good will have a dramatic Brandy Anderson or Chuck Knoblauch falloff, and that's cool. But it's happening WAY TOO OFTEN. I have my league set up for normal development and yet this happens. There are some young studs left in the game, and a couple superstars who are still good, but eveyone seems to just be sucking it up.

Forgetting the whole performance enhancing crap, some players do thrive, or even get better, at later times in their career. It took Bernie Williams too long to reach his peak, costing him the HOF. Randy Johnson finally found his control in his late 20's to early 30's. Greg Maddux still wins 15 games at 41 (or so). And, more importantly, lots of guys still put up sweet numbers at age 34.

This is a dramatic flaw with the game. Please advise. I truly hope that one more patch is on the way. It's needed. Thank you.

Jack Helmuth
Brooklyn, NY

[Nutlaw]

Which version of the game are you using?

Although the issue with young prospects taking ratings hits is widely acknowledged, I haven't heard of any major issues regarding aging. From what I have read, OOTP's modeling correlates with MLB performance fairly closely. If you have any hard data to present to dispute that, then I'm sure that I could point you toward some people with whom to discuss the matter.

Contact (batting average) is one of those areas that tends to peak a bit earlier. I haven't seen unrealistic aging in any of my leagues, and I've seen plenty of productive players go to 35-37 years of age at least.

[Nutlaw]

As this thread has gone more than a week without a reply, it will be closed for housekeeping reasons. If you have any more information to add here, please post a link to this thread in Tech Support and we will continue to troubleshoot the issue. Thanks.