After the season ends - More ratings updates based on 2nd half (and full season) performance
I do complete ratings updates and splits for guys who have the requisite ABs this year (July / August project), I like to wait until guys have about 300 (or more) total ABs in a given season before I do full on updates for them. This gives me a lot of data to work with and prevents me from over rating a guy. Additionally, I do the same for pitchers when they hit 100 IP (for starters) and 50 IP (for relievers).
When I first put these out last year I had all the retired pitchers at 1 for stamina just to try to get them to retire faster, what I found was two things, 1) they linger, they wont retire which theoretically, if they would, should put more pitchers in the draft, that wasnt happening fast enough though and 2) when I went to the next season in my own dynasty there was an absence of pitching at Single A which allowed the batters to post crazy numbers. Some guys were hitting 100 home runs, this was in all three Single A leagues, so what I did was to add at least 3 retired guys for each team at each level AAA / AA / A, (I refer to them as scrubs. With these scrubs they will all have a stamina of 25 and all have a 90 MPH fastball with 50 control plus one other pitch also having 50 control, I like to keep it uniform. What this does is when you go to the next season there will be some pitching at the A level with these scrubs so if you like more realism like I do then this is something you will like, even if you really dont even care much about it, its still more realistic stats wise.
These are not 100% in terms of the players in the game at the AAA / AA / A levels because we can only do so much since the game is so old. As long as you know and understand the limitations of the rosters you will really find them to be playable and accurate. At AAA I would estimate that there are about 20 guys per team that are actual players, at AA its 20 and in A its full of old players who have long since retired, I lowered their skill levels to ensure that the retire quickly though. Last season I had spread out the players to have some guys in A ball but what I decided to do this season was bump everyone up to AA and AAA so in A ball you will find mostly scrub pitchers. This is beneficial when you go into season 2 of your dynasty / owner mode as there will be pitching to face drafted hitters. Most teams have between 60 and 70 guys (the average per team is 66). That is of course fluid based on trades and other signings that happen during the season.
Player ages, this comes up from time to time so I wanted to address it here. When I do the rosters I set the players 5 years younger than they are in real life, this is to offset early ratings regression that I noticed when simulating a lot of seasons. I noticed that guys start to regress pretty badly at age 30, in real life MLB that isnt the case so I wanted to counteract that a little bit. This doesnt apply to anyone under 22 in real life because theyd all be 17 in the game, 5 years younger as I said above. One important note on this though, I dont update ages every year, I do this every few years so depending on when you purchase your update, they may be 5, 6, 7 years younger than in real life. As I said though, I get the question from time to time when someone buys an update and notices it, it is done to counteract early ratings regression so there is a logical reason for why I do it the way I do.
One last note - If you have a favorite team and want that list just message me to see who I have on that team and I will send you that team so you can decide for yourself if its worth you buying it rather than there being a mystery to it like with the other sellers. With the others you dont really know what you are getting and when it arrives it has to be a disappointment, I am taking the mystery out of it for you all so when it comes you will know exactly what you are getting.
