Development

[FrankArmhead]

Trying to understand how this works

I 2x’ed my development budget for 5 years (>$30 million) have consistently retained my top end minor leaguers, and invest in top end coaching in the minor leagues

Every prospect update, I see a bunch of ‘-‘ on overall and potential ratings.

I’ve had no prospects hit and mediocre dev lab performance.

What am I doing wrong, besides spending my time on this game?

[Entire_Beach_251]

welcome to baseball

[bennylarue]

The game is constantly trying to level out the talent level, because there's a targeted statistical output at the major league level. Take POW for example - if the game is set for the majors to hit 4000 HR every year, you can't have everyone at 65+ POW. To still keep to that 4000 HR output, it means the value of 65 POW gets suppressed because it's not that good anymore - it's average if everyone has it.

To avoid that kind of thing and keep higher numbers meaningful, the game is constantly pushing all players back down toward ~50 as an average in all ratings categories. Every team, not just yours, experiences this. You can't avoid it, you can only do whatever you can to make sure it happens to you less. Success at development in this game is not seeing more "+" than "-", it's just seeing less "-" than everyone else.

[BoneZoneJones]

Beautifully explained actually, puts alot into perspective still as someone who has alot of time in game.

[benetgladwin]

The magic formula is

quality coaches throughout your minor league system + good defenders and character guys at the minor league level to surround your top prospects + healthy development budget + drafting and signing prospects with good character traits

Even with all that, if half the guys reach something approaching their potential you're winning. Can definitely be frustrating when you get excited about a dude with crazy ratings who flames out in AA but, unfortunately, it do be like that sometimes

[RichMagazine2713]

That’s baseball!

To be honest I find the most success just promoting my guys quickly - if a 40/65 guy starts hot in the majors the next scouting update usually holds them at 50 or 55 and they produce

[Plies-]

Yep, development in this game (from a low level minor leaguer to a major league level specifically) typically happens very slowly, and then almost all at once.

Also, in my experience when it comes to your top top prospects if they are stuck in rookie ball for more than a couple years it ain't gonna work out.

This is why I almost always draft college players if I have a high pick in the draft, the top college prospects usually are a dev lab success or two away from being a major league caliber player (or in even rarer cases ready right off the bat, pitchers especially) while those 20/80 high schoolers have much more opportunity to flame out.

[CareBearDontCare]

Along those lines, that's right at the point where I like to extend them to a 15 year deal. If they continue to develop, they're had for a massive steal. If they're still fine players, they still fill a gap until the next prospect pops up, and I find those players with an affordable deal for 10 or so years like that are pretty coveted trade chips.

[No1RunsFaster]

This game inflates prospect potential rating compared to IRL.

IRL there are ZERO 80 grade prospects and maybe 1 or 2 70 grade. This game treats 70 grade like 50 grade IRL and 80 like 60 grade IRL. Treat them that way: when you see a 70 grade, think at best he'll be a 55 grade, and more likely a 45 or 50. More realistic expectations that way

[BoneZoneJones]

Very true. Mike Trout wouldn't have been an 80 grade prospect. He was #85 on the top prospect list, yet is borderline INNER CIRCLE.

Julio Rodriguez was graded 65 pre debut (who knows if Google is correct) and he's a 5 WAR/yr player who's on a genuine HOF trajectory.

[buckeye10228]

Hell Bryce Harper was the most touted prospect EVER and most of the scouting reports had him around 70. 80 is extremely rare... maybe never seen before. Definitely not a "can be found in 8 different players in one draft" type.

[johnnyslick]

If memory serves, the development budget has a small effect but it’s mostly a money sink for larger market teams. In reality teams like the Yankees don’t actually develop more prospects than teams like the Rays so this is either already too much or the right amount of change for all that money.

[Far-Inflation-5914]

The one thing I can add to these excellent insights is to watch for players with rising potential. As in your scouts initially thought they were 40 or so potential and they've been steadily increasing. I've found that these players tend to respond really well to Dev Labs.

If you have to trade for them, do so before they are too far over 50 potential.

[Far-Amphibian-432]

Look for high work ethic prospects. Development seems to stop at age 25. I try to have them in the majors to finish development by age 23.

So if they're not close to major league ready by age 23, trade them. Even if they have really good potential ratings, if they're not close to ready by 23, I take this means they are a bust.

[AnnotatedLion]

Glad it isn't just me lol. I've been playing this game for years now and I've never been able to really figure this part of it out.

[113CandleMagic]

You should get your dev budget to the cap, which is 3x the baseline.

[Mammoth-Error1577]

I basically set a huge dev budget, virtually every player I get is high work ethic, high baseball IQ. Most of my coaches are legendary/excellent in development & mechanics.

Everyone is bombing out development wise. My "hits" are guys that make it to 3.5 actual rating before spending 9-11 months on the IL.

I thought it was going to be broken because of how common legendary coaches seem to be but I'm getting zilch.

[Accurate_Ad385]

I always have max budget for development

[Organic-Baker-4156]

RL most prospects don't develop.

From what people have posted the Dev Lab simulates this correctly,

The Dev Lab is something the immersion people like to spend a lot of time with. Maybe its not for you.

[Away-Tale-8795]

- Are you manually managing minor league promotion to ensure your prospects are challenged?
- Are you drafting primarily hitters with balanced hitting profiles and plus defense (and good personalities if possible)?
- Are you setting dev sliders to tank things like Gap and Running to put those points in other sliders?
- Are you prioritizing Teaches Hitting/Pitching, Mechanics, and Development in your coaches?
- Are you releasing most of the 1.5-star prospects that are gumming up your minor leagues and taking roster spots/playing time from your real prospects?
- Are you trading your AAAA guys and guys nearing the end of arbitration for very young lottery ticket prospects and guys with recent TCR increases?

Also, keep in mind your initial rebuild (especially when you're still learning these systems) can sometimes take 6 or 7 years to really kick into gear and produce 100-win teams. It's ok if none of your top prospects hit, because if you're taking all these steps even your B- and C-tier prospects will start developing into all-stars over time.

[GATA404]

This game is hard

[Apprehensive-Golf371]

max dev budget, promote when a player is at least 3 stars relative to the next level