MLB '09 Player Progression and Training - eyeamg0dly's Blog

eyeamg0dly's Blog

MLB '09 Player Progression and Training

Posted on August 4, 2009 at 02:05 AM.

Recently I have been curious of a difference between auto training and manually training my players. There has been alot of talk about player progression and if it is working correctly.

I decided to test this by simming two instances of the Toronto Bluejays. The first franchise was auto trained by the cpu. The second franchise was manually trained by myself. I decided to keep the training simple and focus just on starting pitchers. I picked the Bluejays because they had two SP with A potentials and B overall rating; meaning they had room to improve. Those pitchers are Ricky Romero and Jesse Litsch. For the test i kept track of their progression and general stats after the end of each season. For both franchises I used Knights rosters.

I was only able to complete 4 seasons due to computer and franchise crashes. All my information on season 5 and 6 are lost and I do not have time to re simulate those seasons.

Here are the results of CPU training.

********************************************
season 1 cpu training
--------------------------------------------------------
Toronto Bluejays
--------------------------------------------------------
Coaches
Manager: Cito Gaston
power +1
fielding abil (-1)
k/9 +2
hr/9 (-1)

Pitching Coach: Brad Arnsberg
hr/9 (-2)
pitch movement (-1)
control (+1)
k/9 (-3)

Hitting Coach: Andre Knight
plate disc (-2)
power (-3)
drag bunt (+1)
contact (-1)

1B Coach: Alton Chick
arm str +1
base run abil (-2)
fielding abil (-3)
arm acc +2

3B Coach: Mack Logan
base run abil (-3)
fielding abil +2
arm acc +3
blocking +3

Farm Director: Dwight Dittfurth
control +2
velocity +1
contact +1
arm acc (-2)

-------------------------------------------------------
Training Results
-------------------------------------------------------

Jesse Litsch: 8 wins 15 losses, 97 k, 4.45 era
overall nc (B)
sta +1
h/9 nc
k/9 nc
bb/9 nc
hr/9 nc
clutch nc
control +2
velocity nc
break nc
arm str +2
arm acc (-1)
reaction (-1)
fielding (-1)
speed nc
dur nc

Ricky Romero: 5 wins 13 losses, 138 k, 3.86 era
overall +3 (B)
sta +4
h/9 +3
k/9 +3
bb/9 +3
hr/9 +3
clutch +3
control nc
velocity nc
break nc
arm str +5
arm acc +3
reaction +3
fielding +3
speed nc
dur +3

*******************************************
Season 2 cpu training
-------------------------------------------------------

coach changes:

1B Coach: Drew Ornelas
speed +2
dur +2
arm str +2
base run abil (-1)

-------------------------------------------------------

Jesse Litsch: 10 wins 10 losses, 115 k, 3.10 era
overall +2 (B)
sta +4
h/9 +1
k/9 +1
bb/9 +2
hr/9 +1
clutch +2
control +5
velocity nc
break nc
arm str +3
arm acc nc
reaction (-1)
fielding (-1)
speed nc
dur +2

Ricky Romero: 9 wins 12 losses, 150 k, 4.83 era
overall +8 (B)
sta +11
h/9 +8
k/9 +8
bb/9 +8
hr/9 +8
clutch +8
control nc
velocity nc
break nc
arm str +10
arm acc +6
reaction +6
fielding +6
speed nc
dur +8

********************************************
season 3 cpu training
--------------------------------------------------------

coach changes:

farm director: Felix Bradshaw
stam +2
k/9 +2
contact (-1)
durability (+1)

--------------------------------------------------------

Jesse Litsch: 9 wins 12 losses, 112 k, 4.01 era
overall +3 (A)
sta +5
h/9 +3
k/9 +3
bb/9 +3
hr/9 +3
clutch +3
control +6
velocity nc
break nc
arm str +3
arm acc (-1)
reaction (-1)
fielding (-1)
speed nc
dur +2

Ricky Romero: 16 wins 8 losses, 178 k, 3.66 era
overall +10 (A)
sta +13
h/9 +11
k/9 +10
bb/9 +11
hr/9 +11
clutch +11
control nc
velocity nc
break nc
arm str +11
arm acc +6
reaction +7
fielding +7
speed nc
dur +10

*****************************************
Season 4 cpu training
-----------------------------------------------------

coaching changes:

Manager: Ozzie Guillen
power +3
plate disc (-2)
speed (-1)
bb/9 +2

Pitching Coach: Asdrubal McGregor
k/9 +2
hr/9 (-1)
h/9 +3
pitch movement +1

--------------------------------------------------------

Jesse Litsch: 14 wins 10 losses, 118 k, 2.82 era
overall +4 (A)
sta +7
h/9 +3
k/9 +2
bb/9 +4
hr/9 +4
clutch +4
control +6
velocity nc
break nc
arm str +2
arm acc (-2)
reaction (-2)
fielding (-2)
speed nc
dur +1

Ricky Romero: 14 wins 11 losses, 207 k, 3.73 era
overall +11 (A)
sta +16
h/9 +12
k/9 +12
bb/9 +12
hr/9 +13
clutch +12
control nc
velocity nc
break nc
arm str +11
arm acc +6
reaction +6
fielding +6
speed nc
dur +10

And here are the results of user trained seasons. I used two different training cycles and rotated every other month.

Training Cycles:
(1) long distance running, pitch simulated game, pitching coach session
(2) bullpen session, infield drills, stretching

**********************************************
Season 1 user training
---------------------------------------------------------
Toronto Bluejays
---------------------------------------------------------
Coaches
Manager: Cito Gaston
power +1
fielding abil (-1)
k/9 +2
hr/9 (-1)

Pitching Coach: Brad Arnsberg
hr/9 (-2)
pitch movement (-1)
control (+1)
k/9 (-3)

Hitting Coach: Andre Knight
plate disc (-2)
power (-3)
drag bunt (+1)
contact (-1)

1B Coach: Alton Chick
arm str +1
base run abil (-2)
fielding abil (-3)
arm acc +2

3B Coach: Mack Logan
base run abil (-3)
fielding abil +2
arm acc +3
blocking +3

Farm Director: Dwight Dittfurth
control +2
velocity +1
contact +1
arm acc (-2)

---------------------------------------------------------
Season 1 Training Results
Training Cycles:
(1) long distance running, pitch simulated game, pitching coach session
(2) bullpen session, infield drills, stretching
---------------------------------------------------------

Jesse Litsch: 14 wins 11 losses, 92 k, 4.34 era
overall +1 (B)
sta +1
h/9 +1
k/9 +1
bb/9 +1
hr/9 +1
clutch +1
control +2
velocity nc
break nc
arm str (-1)
arm acc +1
reaction +1
fielding +1
speed nc
dur +1

Ricky Romero: 4 wins 14 losses, 126 k, 6.68 era
overall +5 (B)
sta +5
h/9 +5
k/9 +5
bb/9 +5
hr/9 +5
clutch +5
control nc
velocity nc
break nc
arm str +3
arm acc +5
reaction +5
fielding +5
speed nc
dur +5

---------------------------------------------------------------
Season 2
---------------------------------------------------------------
Coaching Changes:

Hitting Coach: Esix Stevenson
power +2
plate disc +2
contact +2
plate vis (-1)

---------------------------------------------------------------
Season 2 Training Results
Training Cycles:
(1) long distance running, pitch simulated game, pitching coach session
(2) bullpen session, infield drills, stretching
---------------------------------------------------------------

Jesse Litsch: 15 wins 3 losses, 119 k, 3.05 era
overall +3 (A)
sta +3
h/9 +3
k/9 +3
bb/9 +3
hr/9 +3
clutch +3
control +3
velocity nc
break nc
arm str (-1)
arm acc +3
reaction +3
fielding +3
speed nc
dur +3

Ricky Romero: 10 wins 13 losses, 146 k, 4.12 era
overall +9 (A)
sta +9
h/9 +10
k/9 +19
bb/9 +10
hr/9 +9
clutch +9
control +1
velocity nc
break nc
arm str +9
arm acc +10
reaction +9
fielding +10
speed nc
dur +9

---------------------------------------------------------------
Season 3
---------------------------------------------------------------
Season 3 Training Results
Training Cycles:
(1) long distance running, pitch simulated game, pitching coach session
(2) bullpen session, infield drills, stretching
---------------------------------------------------------------

Jesse Litsch: 12 wins 9 losses, 114 k, 3.73 era
overall +4 (A)
sta +4
h/9 +4
k/9 +4
bb/9 +4
hr/9 +4
clutch +4
control +4
velocity nc
break nc
arm str (-2)
arm acc +4
reaction +4
fielding +4
speed nc
dur +4

Ricky Romero: 15 wins 3 losses, 201 k, 3.44 era
overall +11(A)
sta +12
h/9 +12
k/9 +12
bb/9 +12
hr/9 +12
clutch +12
control +1
velocity nc
break nc
arm str +6
arm acc +12
reaction +12
fielding +12
speed nc
dur +12

---------------------------------------------------------------
Season 4

Coach Changes

Manager:James Barlow
plate disc (-1)
power +2
h/9 +1
dur +1

3B Coach:LLoyed McClendon
arm str +2
base run abil (-2)
fielding abil (-1)
arm acc +3

Farm Director: Erubiel Quantrill
speed +3
reaction time (-3)
plate vision +2
hr/9 +1

---------------------------------------------------------------
Season 4 Training Results
Training Cycles:
(1) long distance running, pitch simulated game, pitching coach session
(2) bullpen session, infield drills, stretching
---------------------------------------------------------------

Jesse Litsch: 14 wins 10 losses, 103 k, 3.38 era
overall +4 (A)
sta +4
h/9 +5
k/9 +3
bb/9 +4
hr/9 +5
clutch +4
control +6
velocity nc
break nc
arm str (-4)
arm acc +4
reaction +5
fielding +5
speed nc
dur +5

Ricky Romero: 12 wins 15 losses, 167 k, 4.64 era
overall +12(A)
sta +13
h/9 +13
k/9 +13
bb/9 +13
hr/9 +13
clutch +13
control +1
velocity nc
break nc
arm str +5
arm acc +13
reaction +13
fielding +13
speed nc
dur +13

The results were interesting. I thought for sure I would get a much better results by manually training, however it seemed only slightly better then auto training. I was able to get the pitchers to an A overall faster by the end of season 2 by the manual training. In the auto training, they reached A overall at the end of season 3.

I also kept an eye out on the other pitchers I was not tracking. I have found that both A and B potentials will decline at ages 30+. On a couple of occasions I did see two pitchers decline early, one at age 28 and one at age 29. The biggest difference between A and B potentials is the rate of decline. In my sims, I did not see an A potential decline less then -2 overall. B potentials declined anywhere from -1 to -9, the older they were at that time was when i saw the biggest declines.

C potentials saw overall progression up to age 24 and steep declines starting at age 26+.

I dont really consider this complete though. I really wish I did not lose my last two seasons of information. They showed Romero progression up to age 29 then leveling off at age 30. Litchs still improved up to age 29.