Developer Chat

Welcome to another Hardball Dynasty developer chat. patrickm885 and tzentmeyer will field questions regarding the game as well as react to any suggestions for future updates.

Alright, guys we have 80 questions here! Let's get rolling. ( Moderator - 2:03 PM)

for trade history can we get all trades for our franchise and not just the ones since we were owners? It would be interesting to see what other owners di before we got there. (WiredTiger - Hall of Famer - 2:05 PM)

This is already available for you. If you go to the trade history and select a season in which you didn't participate you can see what trades other owners have made that previously managed your franchise.

Are all 100%s equal for pitchers. For example will a guy who has been at 100% for 5 cycles, perform slightly better and/or get less fatigued than a guy who was at 80 (100) the cycle before, and then just reaches 100% the day he gets the ball? (div1991 - Pro - 2:06 PM)

When it comes to pitchers 100% means 100% there is no "bonus" fatigue for those that have been resting for a longer period of time.

I know that coach hiring has been a sore spot, but this is what owners most complain about in my leagues. There is way too much turnover from year to year. It is better now than it was, but can be improved. Will we ever be able sign ML coaches to multi-year contracts? I'd also like to be able to fire coaches mid-year. czucco (czucco - Hall of Famer - 2:10 PM)

Multi year contracts for coaches is something that we have yet to discuss in great detail and we have shied away from it since it's not all that common in real life. We still have an ever growing list of suggestions from you guys, along with some of our own enhancements that we would like to see. Feel free to continue to suggest anything you might think would make the process more enjoyable and we will be sure to add it to the list.

Have you considered making some sort of advantage in stamina or strenght for playing in your home ballpark. (disposable77 - All-Star - 2:12 PM)

We have some ideas for home field advantage but they won't be directly tied to player ratings like you are suggesting.

Is there a chance that we'll be able to set individual players stolen base tendencies rather than just the teams? (zinpa - Hall of Famer - 2:14 PM)

Given the current limitations of technology there is no way we can implement such a feature. We did the math and if we did allow this it would be well over a billion records. Please, if you see anywhere where this isn't inline with what you would expect, feel free to send a support ticket for us to review. We are always looking for ways to improve the engine.

I think budget caps and restrictions on transfers take a lot of fun out of the game and reward the less creative owners. Defend it. (jakurus - Hall of Famer - 2:15 PM)

We realize that some of the veteran owner's would love to see these restrictions lifted, but we also have to consider owners who are new to the game. One way we can deter decimation of franchises and potential future problems is to have some of these aspects of the game in place.

I think HBD is a fantastic game. Incredible depth. Great job so far. My "fun" question is whether you have considered allowing players the option of taking steroids. Similar to Hoops Dynasty with Booster gifts, the team risks losing their player due to increased injury or suspension but can achieve short term gains. The flaw could be someone wrecking a whole franchise by loading up all of their players but the concept of steroids use could be interesting. Any thoughts? (slurie2001 - Hall of Famer - 2:20 PM)

Everyone should be able to begin offering steriods and HGH to all of their players in the next cycle of games. Just kidding! We haven't really thought about doing things like this yet, but we definitely want to have problem players that begin to serve suspensions and just otherwise out of their minds. Whether or not this will be tied to illicit drug use is another question that we have yet to answer.

What are the chances in Hardball Dynasty, of having the radio button changed to a check box on the GM/Roster Management page? This would allow owners to make multiple moves at the same time instead of having to do each one seperately. This would save time for owners with multiple team, especially if you have move than one rollover/start up at the same time. (BBMogul - Hall of Famer - 2:21 PM)

The most popular question in the queue! Advanced Edit Rosters Mode is on its way, once we have clearly outlined the best way to implement the feature, rest assured it will be added. I think we all want to be able to start making moves on several players at once rather than have to go through several screens to complete one move.

Would it be possible to add something to a players card to show that he won a WS? (radek - Hall of Famer - 2:27 PM)

World Series rings, sure! I've put it on our list, could be neat.

can you put what kind of hitter (S/R/L) and what arm a pitcher throws with on the edit trade pages? (WiredTiger - Hall of Famer - 2:27 PM)

I can't believe that this isn't on there! I'll add that in.

Any plans to add more cities to the game? Also, any plans to change Iowa City to simply Iowa? (Iowa City does not have a professional baseball team, and Principal Park is the home of the Iowa Cubs in Des Moines) (hatt11 - Hall of Famer - 2:29 PM)

We plan on adding some new ballparks and cities in the future. If you guys know of any inconsistencies feel free to pass them along via a support ticket and we'll try our best to correct them.

MLB pitchers have widely varied abilities to hold runners. Can we add a 'hold' rating to each pitcher? Then stolen bases and pick offs could depend on both the pitcher and the catcher. (jwendt - Hall of Famer - 2:31 PM)

I saw this question this morning and discussed it with tzent. It was in the original design doc, but we have so many ratings that mean so much more we didn't want to cloud it with a rating in which 90% of all pitchers would just be average.

Does arm strength/arm accuracy affect pitchers at all? It seems to me that my guys (even with high control) tend to walk considerably more batters if their arm accuracy is also not very high. (leppykahn - Hall of Famer - 2:33 PM)

Arm strength and accuracy don't affect a pitchers pitching ability, that is only for fielding. Those two ratings could best be represented with the velocity rating and the control rating.

Hitting, Pitching/Bullpen and Bench coaches typically move up through the minor leagues. There is no similar progression of Fielding or Baserunning coaches, which could mean that as coaches retire, there will be less available major league fielding and 1B/3B coaches. Are new coaches added in between seasons for these roles? I noticed in one world that only 34 fielding coaches existed and only about 28 were actually worth signing, meaning a couple people got stuck with total junk. (csherwood - Hall of Famer - 2:34 PM)

New coaches are created during each season rollover. In addition, players now become coaches, too. There is a very low chance of there ever being a shortage of coaches for a particular role. Many minor league hitting coaches reach the majors as first base coaches, then move to third, before becoming a hitting coach at the big league level. This flow is also part of HBD.

I think everyone in HBD would be better served if we could see the amateur draft prospects at the beginning of the season, would give us more time to evaluate and rank. Any thoughts on doing this? (jktcat - Hall of Famer - 2:35 PM)

The second most popular question in the queue. The reason why we can't generate the prospects at rollover is because the rollover process is already so time sensitive to add something like this to it would seriously hamper the performance of the rollover process. A lot of people have also asked about seeing them earlier than 4 days before the draft. We have plans to improve the ranking process and we will definitely discuss adding a day or two to the unveiling of the prospects.

Will we have a more advanced scouting budget where we can focus our hs or college scouting on certain regions or types of programs? Similarly, will we be able to have an international stratogy that makes budgeting more a part of who see's who? For instance, one club spends all it's 14 million in Mexico, another spends 11 mil there and 3 mil in Australia, so the second club may miss out on a good Mexican prospect, but get the Aussie that the first team never saw. (reggiedeal - Hall of Famer - 2:36 PM)

This is actually how the scouting system is designed and functions. However, we didn't want to present that additional layer of complexity to the owners. Right now, all regions are equal based on the budget. If we ever wanted to introduce this, everything is in place to do so. But we think it's too much for a game that is already very complex.

When dealing with players in arbitration is there a penalty for taking arbitration every time? Such as less likelihood they sign longterm or potential for a higher salary demand. (gator993 - Hall of Famer - 2:38 PM)

If the player is winning arbitration cases there is no penalty. However, if you are offering less than his demands during arbitration and winning those cases he will have an increased likelihood of opting for free agency rather than signing long-term with your franchise.

re: money transfer, is it for programming reasons or gameplay reasons that we have to transfer money in $2M increments? i think a "transfer remaining" option would be great, particularly for the end of coach hiring. (schedule1 - Hall of Famer - 2:39 PM)

This is mainly just a technological limitation. It is much easier to add in whole dollar values to the database rather than non-whole numbers.

How does the temper attribute for a player work? Most specifically, it seems that the perception is that a high temper attribute is bad, whereas a high attribute in any other manner is good. Are these assessments correct? (leppykahn - Hall of Famer - 2:40 PM)

That is correct, it is the only rating in the game in which a high rating correlates to a bad outcome. We did it this way to avoid confusion, it just didn't make sense to have a low temper rating mean that the player had a bad temper.

Are there any plans in the works for making it easier to manage a world? Specifically when dealing with the occasional abandoned team or whatnot? Also, are there any plans to allow a replacement owner to replace the bottom of the barrel coaching that could significantly set the franchise's development back? (leppykahn - Hall of Famer - 2:41 PM)

I think that this suggestion could go a long way. If you guys have any suggestions as to what duties a commissioner would want please feel free to pass them along, we'd love to hear what you guys think!

I've noticed several of the "league leader" blurbs that have been added to the home page are not correct. For instance, As of the AM Cycle, the Caught Stealing % leaders in the NL 1 - 5 are .256; .311; .167; .273; .355 Can you correctly sort them? (dherz_263 - Hall of Famer - 2:42 PM)

A lot of these have been fixed (or are in the process of being fixed). If you see any other inconsistencies please let us know and we'll go ahead and correct them.

Did you have that salt-and-pepper look when you first started working at whatifsports? Or was it HBD that made you go gray? (r0b0t - Hall of Famer - 2:45 PM)

I don't have the salt and pepper (yet!). I can't speak for tzent though :)

Do you plan to keep track of playoff records (player records) in the future? (pvc4twenty - Hall of Famer - 2:48 PM)

We haven't really thought about this, great suggestion! We'll see what we can do to incorporate this.

What will be done about unsined draft picks. Can the system be updated to put unsigned guys in the next draft, or if they go to a four-year college, put them in the re-draft pool 3 or 4 seasons later? (reggiedeal - Hall of Famer - 2:48 PM)

This is a great suggestion! We have always wanted to put some of the unsigned draft picks from previous seasons into the try-out camp and in the original game design document we have outlined ways to bring players back to the draft. This is definitely something we want to do in the future.

Are there plans to make Diamond in the Roughs a bit more appealing? (pvc4twenty - Hall of Famer - 2:52 PM)

The Diamond in the Rough process is very similar to what happens in real life. The player that has something "click" increases his ceiling. The status of the player at that time dictates the ceiling. There aren't many players that go from a lousy prospect to an all-star, although lousy prospects can improve to be good enough to reach AAA. Sometimes, a team will hit the jackpot and a fringe big leaguer will become an all-star. We wanted to make this feature realistic, and we believe we did so. We didn't want every team to have a player turned into an all-star every season.

League blogs are becoming more popular and add a lot to the in game experience. Anything you could do help that out some. Easier linking of players/teams info. Easier way to download data and standardization from screen to screen would make things simpler. (TheJester74 - Hall of Famer - 2:56 PM)

We are planning on having a downloadable data feed for those who are interested (a la SLB). A lot of the details regarding the format and the distribution has yet to be discussed. It is on our list and it is something that we would love to have available for you guys. Quick comment on all of the blogs, thank you so much for the passion you guys have! We love reading these blogs and also love reading the forum threads that you guys make regarding your worlds. Keep up the great work! For those worlds that do have blogs, provide us with the world and the blog URL and we'll see how we can incorporate a link to them in the World Office.

Can we get a clear all for defensive replacements and player rest? (WiredTiger - Hall of Famer - 2:56 PM)

We talked about this and it seems to be pretty popular. We'll see what we can do.

Could you make it possible to make a defensive switch like this in the later innings to give us more managerial flexibility... Bench player goes to shortstop, shortstop goes to second base, second basemen is taken out of the game. (div1991 - Pro - 2:57 PM)

Yes. We have a list of 15 items we want to improve in the engine and this is one of them. It's on the near-term improvement list.

CONGRATULATIONS ON THE ENGAGEMENT, PATRICK (r0b0t - Hall of Famer - 2:57 PM)

Thank you sir!

I've seen at least two or three playoff games where owners start a lefty and let him pitch 5 pitches and then bring in a righty to continue starting thus screwing up the platoon. Is there a way to prevent this or will this be considered a viable strategy? (WiredTiger - Hall of Famer - 2:58 PM)

It's a viable (although frowned upon) strategy since it's something that can and has occurred in real life. I personally wouldn't be very happy with an owner that employed this strategy on me.

When I make active/inactive or DL moves with position players, it is then necessary to go through and reset my player rest, defensive replacement, and pinch hitting depth charts to the recommends (esp. in the minors where there is no real reason to spend time setting those charts yourself). Any chance you can add a single button that will set all 3 of those charts at a single level at once instead of having to go through all 3 of them every time you make a move? (csherwood - Hall of Famer - 3:00 PM)

Any time you make a roster move for a team controlled by the AI, the AI will automatically re-run the recommendations for you at the midway point between cycles. For example, if you make some roster moves on your AI-controlled team at 1:45 PM EST, the AI will automatically run the recs for you at 3:00 PM EST. We don't want to do this for non-AI controlled teams, however.

I just jumped in to star the extended 3:00 hour -- tzentmeyer. ( Moderator - 3:01 PM)

Any thought of adding a Rumors aspect to the game, i.e. a link to the newspaper-like page that would report rumored free agent signings or trades. Bidding in the dark against other teams is OK, but in reality, many times MLB teams know who else is pursuing a free agent or what other teams are offering a free agent. I might suggest adding a Security allocation to the budget. Teams that spend more on Security have fewer front office leaks into the newspapers/ onto the Rumors page. (akgsports - Hall of Famer - 3:02 PM)

That's a suggestion I hadn't heard before. It's interesting, but I'm not sure what it would gain us other than open the door for potential collusion.

You guys generally seem to want to go as close to real MLB rules as possible, but what if those rules are clearly not optimal, HBD or otherwise? Would you deviate? (yankeedoodle - Pro - 3:03 PM)

That's exactly what we've done. We try to follow the exact rules but cut corners for the sake of game play. There are numerous instances of this in the game (such as not following minor league level age restrictions, super 2 arbitration guys, etc.)

I know you guys said there weren't any before, but are there any plans on giving players signed when they're 18 an extra year of eligibility from the Rule 5 draft? (gman981981 - Hall of Famer - 3:04 PM)

Perhaps. The recent collective bargaining agreement had a few changes in it. This change basically lessens the impact of the Rule 5 Draft. I feel like changing it in HBD may not be in the best interest of the game so we are holding off on the change.

Minor League Free agents during the pre-season FA signing period. Minor League contracts offered by more than 1 team to a player, what can be done to allow owners who submit the 2nd or 3rd minor league contract to the player to have a chance to sign him? Since it is a first come first serve deal during the FA period, and if someone offers a contract immediately after the FA period starts, others would not have a chance to sign him. (69cubs - Hall of Famer - 3:06 PM)

We'll have to look into this some more. If a player is asking for a minor league deal to begin with, he shouldn't be a very good player. That's why we allowed the first come, first serve approach. If you see some of this during your next FA period, please contact support with the player and world in question so we can take a look.

Love the game, but my question is on the rule 5 draft. why do we have so early? can we have it after the spring training so we can evaulate the players before we put them on our 40 man or do call up's?. there is about 2 days of offseason there before the season starts. thanks. (sidekicker - Hall of Famer - 3:08 PM)

It was tough fitting it in, but we wanted to follow the order of things in real life, so we definitely wanted it before spring training so everyone has time to evaluate the players. And it had to be after Free Agency so owners knew what their rosters would look like. The Rule 5 draft process is a low risk, high reward strategy and should be viewed as less of a roster building action than free-agency. Most teams don't keep the selected players.

Hi iam iam4real in the horsby world. I have 2 questions in developing this site. (1) Would it be posible to have all stats displayed in one location such as runs scored 2b and games played along with the stats provided on our line up pages or gm pages? (2) Is there a posability of having the 40 man roster on its own as a catagory for the gm to add and remove players from instead of going to 3 seperate screans and options to do the same thing. Just 2 suggestions i will have for the future. (iam4real - All-Star - 3:11 PM)

I don't quite follow the first question. As far as a separate page for the 40-man roster, we didn't want to introduce yet another page into the game when you can get at this information a few different ways already.

Any new information or updates about the Hall of Fame (requirements, owners getting a voting power, veterans committee, go into HOF under one team) when do you think it will be out? (jfja76 - Hall of Famer - 3:12 PM)

A HOF will be part of HBD at some point. When we do it, it's going to be awesome, but we're holding off to tackle a few other more important issues first (such as an advanced roster moves mode).

Why, in assigning positions through the GM page, do the recommendations consistently recommend positions beyond the capabilities of the player? For example, I have a player rated 74, 80, 77, 80, and it recommends his position as SS, even though he would be below average in each category for that position. (psychoch - Hall of Famer - 3:14 PM)

Because an average implies some players above and some players below. Since Derek Jeter is a shortstop in real life, we want our recommendations to indicate he could be a SS. That's why recommendations should always be viewed as a good starting point, but never the optimal solution.

In what season should we expect the HOF to begin? Are you envisioning owners voting at a specified point in the season and needing a particular % to make the Hall? Would there be min. %s needed to stay on the ballot the following season, etc? (slurie2001 - Hall of Famer - 3:14 PM)

We'll try and mimic the actual process as best we can, making any necessary adjustments to make it the best it can be in terms of game play. We haven't finalized any of it yet.

Why does a centerfielder's glove need to be so good to be successful in the field? It seems like a 75/80 glove CF drops a lot of fly balls, while a 40 glove 1B or even a 70 glove 3B rarely drops pop ups. There are a lot of CF's at the major league level making 15 or more errors in a season, which is a lot more than a typical big league CF would make. (lylediekmann - Hall of Famer - 3:18 PM)

Centerfielders see the most action in the outfield. A significant percentage of the balls they see are not easy pop flies. The # of errors is always in relation to the number of total chances. They always say you need to be strong up the middle, and that includes CF.

I recently had my budget re-arranged during preseason. The issue was that I temporarily went over my player payroll after arbitration, so WIS computer re-arranged my budget. I had trade in the works, however, that put me well withing my player budget. i completely understand the need to rebalance budgets, but I think this should wait until salaries actually start getting paid - otherwise owners close to their player budgets lose a lot of flexibility. (selmer - Hall of Famer - 3:20 PM)

Budgets are at the core of all the finances in HBD. With that in mind, we can't be lax in enforcing them. Owners need to be aware of this ahead of time, which is why we include the upcoming potential salary costs in the Set Budget page at the beginning of the year.

any chance of allowing different pitch counts for when a pitcher is starting verus relieving? (WiredTiger - Hall of Famer - 3:25 PM)

You can do that already by adjusting them when you change their role. If you're talking about when a SP is used in relief, we'll have to look into that.

IQ levels for coaches in my worlds have been increasing at a steady pace as seasons go by. For instance, the average hitting IQ for ML hitting coaches in Cooperstown has increased from 69 to 78 from seasons 1-5. Similar results can be seen for ML pitching and fielding coaches. If this continues, soon there will be enough high-IQ coaches to go around for everybody, this making coach hiring less important. Can we expect to see this steady increase of coaches IQ's start to level off at some point? (tecwrg - Hall of Famer - 3:27 PM)

IQ increases for coaches are based on experience and coaching level. There are peak years for improvement, and then they stabilize. The average will always fluctuate with coaches retiring and moving up the ladder.

I was recently informed through a ticket that Type A and B free agents are based strictly on ratings. Since MLB does this based on a 2-year statistical formula (Elias), why doesn't HBD use a similar formula? Any plans to make this update in the future? (jwendt - Hall of Famer - 3:29 PM)

Elias does it on statistical averages because they don't have ratings like we do. And, for the most part, they can count on the best players always playing at the big league level. In HBD, we do have ratings and we can't guarantee that the best players are getting the most playing time and, as a result, the best stats. To make sure the best players are getting the appropriate A and B label, we have to use ratings.

Fantastic work with HBD, it's a brilliant product. I wanted to know if you could introduce some variableness in resigning veterans to 1 year below market deals. Not opposed to it completely, but it allows owners to unrealistically to stock pile talent. (tcolonial9 - All-Star - 3:31 PM)

If you're talking about potential FAs accepting 1 year deals, this should only be happening for below average players or players past their prime. Anyone else shouldn't be going for this type of contract because it's shortchanging their potential income and Scott Boras just wouldn't like that. If you come across one in particular you question, shoot the info to customer support so we can take a look.

Are pickoff plays the result of a ratings-influenced event in the game? If they are, is it the rating of the defense (pitcher, catcher, etc.) or the offense (baserunner, perhaps even 3B coach) that cause the PK? (Braziman - Hall of Famer - 3:33 PM)

It's based on the pitcher arm, base, baserunner baserunning rating, and game situation. Base coach input isn't a part of it, but it could and probably should be.

Is the +/- system supposed to resemble the Dewan system? It seems like there are not nearly enough '+' and '-' plays for each position (tcolonial9 - All-Star - 3:35 PM)

It is, but they are assigned on the fly based on an average across positions that doesn't change. Dewan's system allows for change because the quality of players at each position changes from year to year. The totals also are related to the # of chances, as well as the skill of the player at a position. We made a change to this a month or two ago that should result in an increase at 3B, SS, 2B, 1B and the corner outfield positions.

The average OPS+ in 2007 for a ML C was 86+. Not sure what it is in HBD, but i'm pretty sure it's well above 100+ (tcolonial9 - All-Star - 3:36 PM)

Each world is different, but we can assure you that our averages across all players and all positions are pretty darn near close to the average over the past 10 actual MLB seasons.

One issue I have with HBD is time sensitivity. In the early part of the season, setting budgets takes place over a 24-48 hr span, however it has sweeping impact on the course of the season. For coaches who have reserved a team, why can we not set our budgets while we are waiting for other owners to join up? (dherz_263 - Hall of Famer - 3:38 PM)

Once a league fills and the schedule has been generated, you can adjust your budget. This provides you with a few more days before the world actually starts.

What is the best way to develop a player? What are the pitfalls/factors that help a player reach their projected ratings? Is it possible for every player to reach their potential, or are the players that don't reach their projections a deliberate part of the game design? (leppykahn - Hall of Famer - 3:41 PM)

Lots of factors are at play. Player makeup rating, age, peak age (varies from player to player), coaching staff, performance, level/age relationship (25 yr old at lo a isn't a good idea, for example), injuries and demotions. Most players should reach their projection assuming a normal progression pattern. Remember, some players continue to improve beyond 27 years old, but the display of projected ratings lock in at age 27. If they improve beyond that, their projected ratings synch up to their current ratings.

Can you tell us about what is coming in the following year for the game? (leppykahn - Hall of Famer - 3:43 PM)

Advanced roster mode, engine improvements, smaller "extras" and other general improvements. Beyond that, we have a long list of items we'd like to add. An Arizona Fall League is a hopeful addition to bridge the gap for owners not in the playoffs.

Does the level a player is at affect his speed of development? Or is it only a product of coaching, playing time, and success? (wilhitec - Hall of Famer - 3:43 PM)

Yes. Level and age matter and so does repeating a level too many times.

How much do a player's defensive ratings drop off as they get older especially CF and SS? Thanks great game! (darrenmaybee - Pro - 3:45 PM)

The model mirrors real life. I can't answer that in a simple manner, but there's a pattern that mimics what you'd expect. First goes range, then goes arm strength, then others.

hi tom. any chance that players who have the opportunity to veto a trade could do it BEFORE the trade is voted upon? it seems as if this would save owners a bit of time + energy. thanks. (schedule1 - Hall of Famer - 3:47 PM)

This would make sense. We have it on our list of improvements.

Regarding the coach hiring process, if I have multiple offers out to coaches at the same position, why does the lowest price coach always sign, as opposed to the highest ranked at his position? Wouldn't it make more sense to have the best coach sign, not the least expensive? (gogomez1 - Hall of Famer - 3:48 PM)

Supply and demand. If the lower coach is only getting one offer and the higher coach is getting several, the lower one will accept faster.

There have been questions and studies about ratings distribution of players coming in the draft. Many people have reported minimal representation of higher range guys (CF type) and very high amount of low range guys (DH only types) According to respected ML scouting sources very low range college and HS players are rare. Any chance the rating distribution of players in the draft could be reviewed again. (TheJester74 - Hall of Famer - 3:52 PM)

It's rare for low range guys at the high school and college level because the ratings are for current attributes, not projected attributes. That's what makes scouting and the guys at Baseball America so impressive -- their ability to project players and how they'll change as their bodies change. Every year you see prospects move to lesser positions due to body-change related changes. For the draft in HBD, the scouts have already done the projections for body changes for you.

Could we get a better explanation of how patience and temper effect a player. Are there any advantages to a low patience or high temper player? In the "call to bullpen" help section it specifically says that the AI suggestions take patience, temper, and makeup into account when suggesting a call to bullpen value. (TheJester74 - Hall of Famer - 3:53 PM)

Temper is involved for in-game blowups. In the future, it will be more of a part of off the field incidents. Patience is related to how players handle demotions. The help text you referenced is misleading, so we'll have to change it. Both will be incorporated more in the future.

Do you have a concern about the overall rise in the talent levels in leagues? Leagues as a whole have significantly more talent than when leagues are created. Are there any plans to slow the influx of talen either through the draft or international prospects? (bjb2378 - Hall of Famer - 3:55 PM)

This varies from world to world. Across all worlds with 5 or more seasons, the level of talent per season has not fluctuated very much.

Are there plans to have players that underachieve the same way Diamonds in the Rough overachieve? (pvc4twenty - Hall of Famer - 3:55 PM)

This is already built in with injuries and the player makeup rating. In addition, bad coaching staffs, lack of playing time, etc.

It appears that regardless of an organization's history of budgeting, players who continue to improve into their mid-30s still hit a MAJOR wall at age 37-38. Because of that, it is doubtful that many players will ever naturally retire "on their own terms". Is it possible of having a 37-38 year old capable of playing a good 3B, SS, 2B, CF under the current player rating progression? (randallball - Hall of Famer - 3:57 PM)

Each player has a unique peak age. This peak age helps dictate the aging process. So, some 38 year olds will still be able to play an acceptable CF, but not many, just like in real life.

Would you consider making a draft prospect's position available for edit before they are drafted? (tcolonial9 - All-Star - 3:58 PM)

Consider, sure. That's the first time I've heard that type of suggestion, though.

In the playoffs, if an owner choses play by play only, can you kill the next scheduled game box. If down 2 games to 1 in a best of 5 and you see another game is scheduled, that defeats the purpose of hiding the play by play. (dmurphy104 - Hall of Famer - 3:59 PM)

We've tried, and it's not very easy. We would like to do it, though, so it will probably happen. The more often sitestaff reaches the playoffs, the higher this likelihood increases! We don't like it either. Holding my hand up to cover the right side of my screen seems silly, but I do it.

I've seen in another devchat that with a good pitching coach, a pitcher may drop some of their poor pitches. Yet, Ive never seen this actually happen. Have I just missed it, or has this not been implemented yet? (dmurphy104 - Hall of Famer - 4:00 PM)

It's in the game and it definitely happens. It's rare, and it has to be a good pitching coach coupled with a pitcher with a very lousy last pitch. And they have to have at least 3 pitches, of course.

While owners have the ability to affect to a point if a player develops (or regresses) We are left at the mercy of the baseball gods to how. Not asking for an "edit player ratings" button, but will we ever have the chance to mold players development in some areas. Assuming it would be a trade off - work on OBP at the expense of power, work on stamina as the expense of developing better pitches. (TheJester74 - Hall of Famer - 4:00 PM)

In some form, maybe. Adding instructional leagues with this type of system is always a possibility.

Are there any plans to clear off the tryout camp every season? It seems to me that there would always be new players trying to sneak into the minors, instead of the same guys aging/getting sloppy from lack of coaching/playing time. (leppykahn - Hall of Famer - 4:01 PM)

If this isn't already happening, it should be. We'll take a look.

Do pitchers take longer to recover the further into a season you go? Say in the first week of play he drops to 50% and recovers in 3 days, will that always be the case? (jktcat - Hall of Famer - 4:03 PM)

For pitchers, it's consistent regardless of the point in the season. Position players wear down more as the season goes and take longer to recover later in the season, which is why you need to give occasional rest early on (just like in real life).

I know this is probably brought up all the time, but we need better access to stat history. It's already stored in player profiles, how hard would it be to give us a sortable page? (_nuke_ - Veteran - 4:04 PM)

It's not available yet because of site performance. We've been improving these areas over the last 6 months, so we may be able to cross that bridge sometime this year.

How many players are generated per amateur draft? Is the process completely random are are there targets for so many starting pitchers, SS's, catchers etc? (robocoach - Hall of Famer - 4:05 PM)

Targets for each position. The quality is based on a realistic model, but there's always variation from world to world, season to season.

Does a pitcher's makeup and/or patience rating play a role in how they do pitching in clutch situations? If not, is there a chance that it could become relevant, particularly for relief pitchers? (r0b0t - Hall of Famer - 4:07 PM)

No, they are not. There have been studies over the years about "guile" but it's not something we have in the game at the moment.

Was there any change in the way the SIM uses/rates pitchers, thus affecting results ? Seems to me, based on results so far this seaosn, L/R splits are weighted much higher. I have several SP's in one world that all went up across the boards in ratings, but their performance has decreased dramatically. Their weak points are their splits. I am talking ERA's of well established pitchers going from 4.40 range to 7.50 range... (domiisgod - Hall of Famer - 4:08 PM)

No, this hasn't changed. We increased strike out rates for upper tier pitchers at some point a while back, but that's it.

How about performance based temporary budget increases? Like win 2 WS in a row and have an extra 10 million to use for 2 years due to the increased fan interest. (_nuke_ - Veteran - 4:10 PM)

That results in the snowball effect, which is something we want to avoid at all costs.

Still no plans to move a team to another Ball Park??? (sdjessie - Hall of Famer - 4:11 PM)

That's in the works. Forgot to mention that earlier.

Any though of slightly changing the number of $ you can go up and down per season for budgeting? if you decide to switch strategies and are at the extreme then it takes 2 1/2 years to get back to the $10 million standard. $6 million might be better or the option to reset back to the standard? (WiredTiger - Hall of Famer - 4:15 PM)

That's the way we designed it to mirror real life. It takes seasons for teams to change strategies. $4M is 20% of the cap. With the exception of the Marlins pulling off what they did to win the World Series the first time, dramatic changes don't happen.

Will weekly player awards eventually be saved long term to player cards? I have noticed that currently they are reset when the world rolls over. (pvc4twenty - Hall of Famer - 4:18 PM)

This has been fixed and will go out in the next update.

That's all the time we have left. There were a ton of questions, so that's a good sign. We'll review the chat and take notes of suggestions and items to look into. We'll do it again in February. Enjoy the game!