Developer Chat

Alright, we've got a lot of questions to get through so lets get this party started!

It seems that the Type D compensation for unsigned draft picks still is not working as described in the last update. I have had to send a ticket to get my pick awarded in one world, and none of the other worlds that I am part of does this appear to be working correctly. When will this item be addressed and corrected? (coolio4433 - All-Star - 1:05 PM)

There were a couple of worlds that were not updated properly when the update went live. If your world did not have a schedule generated then your world was skipped when we ran our queries to incorporate retroactivity. All of those worlds should have been fixed several weeks ago and we have been handling other Type D picks on a case by case basis. So far, we have only had to manually adjust around 4 picks. Everything is working properly now, if for some reason it is not working for your world just send in a ticket so that we can review it.

Are type D compensation picks awarded for unsigned compensation picks (1*) from the prior season? (coolio4433 - All-Star - 1:07 PM)

No, only true unsigned first, second, and third round picks are eligible for Type D compensation picks. Supplemental picks are NOT eligible to receive Type D compensation picks the following season.

Does a pitcher's velocity have any effect on a runner's ability to steal bases? In real life, for example, it's a lot easier to steal against Tim Wakefield's 70mph fastball than it is to steal against a guy who throws in the mid-90's. (prezuiwf - All-Star - 1:08 PM)

No, at this time the engine does not take into account the actual speed of a pitch. For the most part a 3-5 mph difference in a pitchers fastball is not going to have a marked affect on the success of a player's steal so rather than add unnecessary complexity to the engine we decided to omit this.

A problem has come up in a few leagues that I'm in during the playoffs. It is easy to sneak thru a bad, one sided trade during the playoffs, because most owners are not in the playoffs and are no longer paying attention to the league (especially those that are not renewing). It is too easy to get a bad trade thru because not enough owners see it to Veto. (A non vote is a yes). This usually happens with minor leaguers...Maybe the Trading Deadline shoud end when the playoffs begin to stop this abuse....Jerry (7Yankees7 - Hall of Famer - 1:16 PM)

I guess this is something we can look into. However, we can't control whether or not teams login (which seems to be the real issue here). Maybe the more important thing to do is to motivate users who are not in the playoffs by adding some type of offseason event.

When a Trade Chat is sent to another owner, you never know if he's read it. Can it somehow be made possible to tell if your trade chat has been read? It's poor gamesmanship when a message is not replied to in a timely manner, and it would be nice to see if it's been read, and when. This way you know what you're dealing with.I guess the same should be applied to see if a Trade Proposal has been looked at.... Jerry (7Yankees7 - Hall of Famer - 1:17 PM)

Again, I think this is a viable suggestion and I'll incorporate it into our list.

The use of the strategy sometimes slandered as "tanking" has become a hot button issue in the forums and many leagues. Is/would WIS consider any "negative feedback" responses to losing (e.g., lower budgets, inability to sign coaches, draft picks or IFAs, prospect stagnation)? Or is it viewed as a legit strategy (Tampa Bay did it!)? (dcbove - Hall of Famer - 1:18 PM)

We made a very important forum post regarding the tanking issue today. Please review it when you get a chance.

Know what I hate? My ace starter is injured for 2 games. There are 2 games to be played before his start. However, they always seem to skip over that pitcher and go to the next. WHY? I think that should be changed. ZEKE NY (ZEKE1109 - Veteran - 1:19 PM)

We will be looking into this.

Can you create a TOC for HBD. The interleague play would be awesome. You just need to save the ML team (WS Winner & Loser) intact as it is,to play in the tournament. Every 16 leagues that finish is a new elimination Tournament. It would Fun, and Competitive between Leagues. It doesn't matter if their are 2 or more of the same city. We just want to play..... Jerry (7Yankees7 - Hall of Famer - 1:21 PM)

I love the idea but we haven't discussed anything like this in detail. I would say that this isn't a feature that is really high on the priority list right now, but, then again, that doesn't mean it won't/can't happen.

I had a couple of ideas for upgrades to the system that I wanted to suggest: (1)Often, when I make a change to the player settings, I am usually focusing on one column setting for all players. For example, I usally only change pitcher settings in Inning available or call bullpen. It would be easier to select call bullpen and then adjust all pitchers at once down the column. Similar with PH & PR for hitters. (continued) (oldhoss17 - Hall of Famer - 1:23 PM)

The way it is done now is done for performance reasons. Rather than have all of the player's on any given team in any given world get updated all at once we broke it up to be a single submission only. We may be able to expand the default settings like we did for player/pitcher rest to incorporate some of the suggestions you are making.

(cont) (2) Add alternate starters 5a & 5b to rotation. It is more realistic to find a 5th starter by rotating that position with rookies, long relievers or old veterans to see whose hot. Trying to use alternate starters now locks you into a 3 day rest pattern when the last rotating position you can use is the 4th starter. Please consider these upgrades. Thanks Oldhoss17 (oldhoss17 - Hall of Famer - 1:24 PM)

Tandem 5A/5B has been our list for a long time as a very low priority item. Rest assured it will be available in the game some day.

Could you explain the salary structure in HBD? I see ML players' salaries at 327K, 343K, 360K & 378K. At AAA I see 55K, 57K, 59K, 61K, 64K, 68K, 70K, 360K & 378K. I think I have an idea of how the structure works at the ML level but have no idea about AAA. Thanks. (rod33 - Hall of Famer - 1:30 PM)

The ML minimum is $327K, the minimum at AAA is $54.5K, the minimum at AA is $38K, the minimum at HiA and LoA is $27K, and at RL it's $8K. Any fluctuation that you see is usually due to 40 Man Roster changes or auto signing MiL FAs. If a player made a certain amount and he is on the 40 Man Roster he will continually get a small raise each season. If the player is on the ML club he will get a larger raise per season that he is not under a long term contract.

Do big leaguers sometimes get performance bumps during their rookie year, dips afterward, bumps at the end of contracts, dips with new contracts, ^^or any other affects** other than the unadulterated treatment of ratings and in-game probabilities? (ArlenWilliam - Hall of Famer - 1:30 PM)

No, these events are not in the game.

Thanks for the chat. Reading the help and chat, it is not clear to me what the bench coach effects, if anything. Can you expand on what and how much this position effects actual game play and ratings? (ttnorm - Hall of Famer - 1:33 PM)

At the ML level they have a small impact on all facets of player development. At the minor league level that impact is much larger.

Does the temper rating effect anything beyond the frequency of getting tossed by an ump in the course of a game? Also, does the coach's patience rating interact with the player's temper rating? (ttnorm - Hall of Famer - 1:33 PM)

It is minimally factored into the PA, it is also has an affect on how the player handles a demotion, and lastly it impacts how well he takes arbitration losses.

5 questionable tactics which are within the rules but rarely if ever occur in MLB. 1)Running sub 25 man rosters at the MLB level to save payroll and service time. 2)Setting your starting pitcher at 5 PC to mislead your opponent. 3)Running out MiLB pitchers at 0 (0) due to understaffing/underspending. 4)Running out Milb pitchers as position players due to understaffing/underspending. 5)Selling a player/prospect for (a) cash (payment) and a scrub in order to afford another player/prospect. Any concerns? (ttnorm - Hall of Famer - 1:36 PM)

Most of these issues will be addressed when we start cracking down on the tanking franchises. If you see this type of stuff in your world keep in mind that you can always contact the owner in question and politely (please!) ask him to abide by the rules of the world. If he refuses or doesn't do anything to correct it you can not allow him to rejoin your world (if private of course). If it's a public world you can let us know and we can take a look.

mine is more of a suggestion than a question. i find it really annoying when the ML playoffs start that the world office stops showing me the scores for my minor league teams. i'm far more concerned how my minor league teams are doing in the playoffs than the rest of the league's ML teams. especially when i'm not in the ML playoffs. i only want to see my teams on the home page. if i want to see how the rest of the league is doing, i can check the playoff bracket page. (god_mike - Hall of Famer - 1:38 PM)

I agree and this is something we are trying to implement into the game. We had a working version of what you are describing, but it didn't turn out as well as we would have liked, so we scrapped it.

When you take a player to arbitration and offer exactly what they want, does that count negatively towards that player's likelihood to resign with your franchise in the future as a FA? (danmam - Hall of Famer - 1:38 PM)

No, the only time that it has a negative impact on your franchise is if you offer him a contract that is lower than his demands and the franchise wins.

Any chance we can get some kind of log of all of the Diamond in the Rough players from past seasons so we can follow their progiress? (keith1995 - Hall of Famer - 1:39 PM)

Sure!

Is there a home field advantage built into HBD? Any way to make it tougher on those wild card treams that keep making long runs in the playoffs? (joemac55 - Hall of Famer - 1:40 PM)

There is no home field advantage coded into the game. We leave that part up to you by building your franchise to play well in your ballpark.

Can you ban epithets such as retard, retarded, tarded and tard? These terms are thrown around at will in HBD forums and HBD World Chat, and I am sure that I am not the only one to find them offensive. (cbriese - Hall of Famer - 1:41 PM)

I can see how that would be offensive, so we can discuss eliminating that from the game.

Is it any way that you can make it possible for players coming off of the disabled list to go for a rehab assignment in the minors? (Phillies26 - Hall of Famer - 1:42 PM)

This is a part of the original game design document we just haven't gotten around to implementing it yet.

I'd like to see the base-running rating on more pages, particularly the Free Agent Reports. It's of comparable value to speed - and it would really save some time if I didn't have to click on so many individual player profiles. (jakurus - Hall of Famer - 1:42 PM)

If there is space to add it on the FA report I don't see why we couldn't.

I think you'd see a lot more trading if you eliminated or significantly reduced restrictions on budget transfers. As it stands, many owners are afraid to set aside large chunks of payroll aside for fear of getting stuck with a bunch of cash at the end of the year. The bottom line is that with the freedom to react to market events, HBD would be even more fun and more creatively engaging. Are there any plans to lift restrictions or allow theme leagues w/o restrictions? (jakurus - Hall of Famer - 1:42 PM)

The restrictions are staying, sorry guys.

When will the redrafting of underclassman, jc and hs players who don't sign be brought into the game. Too many good prospects get drafted and then go up in smoke, never to reappear in a future draft. Worse, some guys never get signed who would have signed for slot, because of an owner who could or would not sign them. We really would like to see this addressed. (reggiedeal - Hall of Famer - 1:44 PM)

We originally wanted this to be included in our last update, but we were working under some significant deadlines and time constraints so we had to abandon the feature. Obviously, we want it in there it's just a really complicated feature to code.

What is the future plans for instructional league assignments to programs like the Arizona Fall League and also the option of giving players the chance to play in winter ball. (reggiedeal - Hall of Famer - 1:44 PM)

No new news on this feature yet. We'll be sure to let you all know when we begin planning it.

why can't we fire managers during the season (russilini - Hall of Famer - 1:46 PM)

You mean you want to fire yourself? Just kidding, since it's not that common in real life we didn't want to incorporate it into the game. When we take a look at coach hiring again we'll discuss this option. Whether or not it makes it into the game has yet to be determined or discussed.

Any chance of updated the DiTR system to turn middle range prospects into potential major league stars or at least solid major leaguers? (taz21 - Hall of Famer - 1:47 PM)

This is already in there, it's just a very rare occurrence.

I've noticed that sometimes a pitcher can become the player of the game by "getting shelled". I've never seen a position player earn the P.o.G through poor performance. If they don't already, perhaps they could be earning P.o.Gs for "golden sombreros" (4 strikeouts)?. Or multiple errors? (shobob - Hall of Famer - 1:48 PM)

Ha! Yeah, we can take a look at adding something like this for position players.

It would be fun if you could add ALL to the choices(AAA,AA,Hi A, Lo A and rookies) when we look at the prospects report. Some prospect have a great year but at 2 or 3 level. (jeanpaul22 - Hall of Famer - 1:49 PM)

The decision was made to omit the "All" option for performance reasons.

Is there any good way to determine what type of Free Agent (i.e. A, B, neither) a potentially departing Free Agent would be before he has already left the organization? This would be helpful in determining whether to resign him or not. (cimmy426 - Hall of Famer - 1:50 PM)

That information isn't regenerated until the world rolls over. Once the world rolls over you receive an email that tells you which of your departing FAs is a Type A/B. From there you can decide whether or not to resign him during the normal resign free agents portion of the schedule.

So I've heard the term "late bloomer" tossed around a bit in reference to a player who develops later in his career. Does such a thing exist in HBD or is it just a coincidence of ratings fluctuations? Also, if they do exist, do their late-career improvements correspond at all to their early-career projections? (cimmy426 - Hall of Famer - 1:51 PM)

Yes, it exists and yes they will develop to the projected ratings that you see until they are 27 years old.

Have you ever considered adding a description of when a guy hits a triple? " Al Osbourn hits a triple" for example is pretty boring compared to the rest of the commentary. (huskypride2 - Pro - 1:53 PM)

At one time we had users submit boxscore descriptions through a forum thread we created. Is it time to do this again? Sure, why not.

Are you guys still coming up with new names and faces? I know it seems trivial, but there are lots of players who blur together due to their similarities. Especially the Int'l free agents. (wrecks42 - Pro - 1:55 PM)

We will not be generating new faces, but we did just add a bunch of names to the database.

When I switch between my different worlds, is there a way that you could make it so that it always switches to the "current" season. When I switch from standings in my season 8 world to standings in my season 12 world it goes to season 8 in that world too. It's not a big deal, but it might be an easy fix?? (wrecks42 - Pro - 1:55 PM)

This is on our list as a low priority item. I would expect that this gets into the game shortly.

Would it be possible to have unemployed coaches reduce their demands by one level next season? Most of these guys will end up doing the same after 60-72 hrs of not getting offers, so why not have (for example) the underqualified ML aspirants start out looking for AAA jobs? (GrandWiz - Hall of Famer - 1:57 PM)

Good suggestion. We will take a look at this when we revisit coach hiring.

Thanks for taking my question. Is there any thought to player trades that would involve future draft picks (as opposed to the current setup of cash and/or current players)? (sac_lambs - Hall of Famer - 1:58 PM)

Since it's not a part of real life it is not a part of HBD. If the MLB decides to change that we will more than likely change it as well.

I still don't get why compensatory picks are assigned based on draft order instead of the contract value of the free agent signed. Your argument is that it'll prevent the rich getting richer, but if a better team is losing a player that good, are they really going to be assumed to remain just as strong? I feel as though the current format is more prone to exploitation by tankers than it is by upper echelon teams. Why shouldn't someone be fairly compensated for the value of the player they lost? (r0b0t - Hall of Famer - 2:00 PM)

The reason we decided to do it the way we did was a gameplay decision. We wanted to make the feature as fair as possible for everyone in the world and this is what we decided was the fairest implementation. Again, tanking franchises is over with, so I don't think that they will be able to take advantage of this feature.

during spring training why cant we set our minor leauge lineups and rotation- i like to see how they will look so if during spring training is there a better pitcher or hitter out there than my starter I have set - I am sure that a gm of any mlb knows who is most likely starting at all levels during spring - I dont think they are able to set their aaa team the day before the season starts? thanks johnny (deerhunter63) (deerhunter63 - Hall of Famer - 3:13 PM)

Right now this is something that isn't technically possible given the current structure of the game.

Is it possible that a player with poor makeup and patience would be more likely to struggle in clutch situations? (r0b0t - Hall of Famer - 3:14 PM)

The game engine has no concept of clutch situations. In other words, there are no clutch player's in HBD.

In HBD, we don't get Type A or B compensation if we decline a team or mutual option. This was written in the Chicago Tribune today: "Dye's contract includes a $12 million mutual option for 2010 that becomes a player option if he is traded. The Sox would receive two draft picks if Dye stays with the Sox but his option isn't picked up and he leaves for free agency." Not sure what the real rule is. Any thoughts on updating the HBD rule? (jwendt - Hall of Famer - 3:14 PM)

At some point we'll get this in I'm sure, but not any time soon.

Can we get a draft-like signing option during the re-sign FA period (check boxes)? (randallball - Hall of Famer - 3:17 PM)

Yes! I want this feature as well and we'll see what we can do about it. It would be especially helpful for when you resign your MiL FAs.

Regarding retirement: It seems that no veteran players ever retire until they've squeezed the last ounce out of playing time out of their career. They lose their dignity and get sent to the minors before they'll hang it up. Could you encourage some of the aging players to retire before they embarrass themselves? (bourbonmoon - Hall of Famer - 3:19 PM)

We have several checks in place to determine whether a player will retire or not. There is some randomness involved, but we have confirmed that the levels of player's retiring is right around where we want it.

Has there been any thought to speeding up spring training? Is it possible to use split squad games, sim ST games every cycle (every 4 hrs), etc.? ST seems to drag on a bit. (sjd0378 - Veteran - 3:20 PM)

I agree, but there are no plans to hyper simulate or shorten it at this time.

A possible improvement to the DITR process: When a DITR occurs boost the current ratings of that player right away. Make it a percentage of the total improvement. This will allow for more useful DITRs and for older DITRs to come closer to reaching their new potential. (WiredTiger - Hall of Famer - 3:21 PM)

When we modify the projected ratings those modifications are all incorporated into player development. In other words, just because the projections have grown it doesn't mean that it will take longer for the player to develop.

Could you please explain the effects of Patience, Temper, and Makeup ratings? (cimmy426 - Hall of Famer - 3:26 PM)

The patience rating indicates how well a player can handle a demotion, how long he can put up with staying at a specific playing level, and how well he can handle injuries. The temper rating is involved minimally in each PA, it also indicates how he can handle spur of the moment situations such as getting hit by a pitch or arguing balls/strikes. The makeup rating is similar to work ethic and it is factored into player development, it also indicates how well the player can maintain, improve, and deter decline in his ratings.

When using the formula builder, should the total value of the pitching and hitting categories be close to equal if you don't want the formula to favor one much more than the other? I had a discrepency that was only four total points that resulted in all pitchers being bumped out of my top 30, and I wanted to confirm that for a great pitcher to be equal in value to a great hitter, the total values for each position should be equal in the formula builder. (r0b0t - Hall of Famer - 3:27 PM)

It's really just a matter of tweaking the values until you get the result you are expecting. There isn't one right way to do anything with the formula builder. We left the definition of "right" to you guys.

I would like to have the option to rest a pitcher automatically if he's pitched the game before. Since fatigue is calculated over several games and not just the previous game pitched there are pitchers I don't want pitching back-to-back even if they are still at 100%. This would help make some of the low stamina guys more valuable. (WiredTiger - Hall of Famer - 3:29 PM)

I'm not confident that this is something that will ever be added.

The International FA talent is something that is generally known throughout the league in MLB PRIOR to the time that they become eligible to sign with an MLB team. Would it be possible to generate pre-budget emails along the line of, "A bumper crop of INT FA...", or, "Sort of a quiet INT FA market this season..." to help avoid budget being wasted for rebuilding teams? (randallball - Hall of Famer - 3:30 PM)

We don't know the total amount of IPs that will be generated every season since it's all random. On top of that every owner in the world budgets a different amount of money towards prospects so it would be near impossible to generate these emails in a meaningful fashion.

Can a player with poor patience or temper have their poor performance snowball on them? (randallball - Hall of Famer - 3:33 PM)

Currently, no, this is not possible.

Has there been any recent changes to the logic which determines the rate a player will decline and ultimately receive ratings hits past his prime seasons? (sjd0378 - Veteran - 3:34 PM)

None of this logic has changed recently.

I have heard a lot about increased "fuzziness" in the draft. Is this something that is in place or will be shortly? I think it would be a great aspect. (kneeneighbor - Hall of Famer - 3:36 PM)

It's in there to some degree now. However, I think the fuzziness you are describing is more along the lines of a late round draft pick actually being good. That piece is not in there yet unfortunately, but we hope to add it at some point.

Regarding Free Agency; why is it so hard to get a player signed for even marginally less than the asking price? It seems negotiation is a foreign word now. And why has the team option gone by the wayside? No player accepts this type deal under any circumstances anymore. (elixerr - Hall of Famer - 3:39 PM)

We realize that in some real life situations this would be possible, however it doesn't make sense from a gameplay stand point. We already reduce demands for FAs which I think replicates what you are saying in some fashion. In regards to team options player's will still agree to them, that part of the game has not changed.

Winter League, AFL, extended ST? Any of those close? (randallball - Hall of Famer - 3:40 PM)

Unfortunately not.

Is there any way to change the starting pitcher the day of a game? (buckeye0611 - All-Star - 3:41 PM)

No, we lock both pitchers in so that owner's can set their lineups accordingly prior to the game simulating. It's the fairest way to do it for both owners.

Any though on expanding the DITR feature? What I mean is right now...DITR improve in almost EVERY category. It would be nice to have guys that could exceed their projections in one or two categories more often (ie a pitcher making a great stride in control). (wilhitec - Hall of Famer - 3:41 PM)

We haven't talked about DITR since it was released. We may revisit it at some point, but I feel there are more pressing features that we would like to see in the game first.

With the recent changes made to players' willingness to file for free agency, there are more max contracts being given to free agents. Can you please explain how a player decides between two teams that both make the same max offer? (shucky - Hall of Famer - 3:42 PM)

It's based off of the team with the better chance of making the playoffs in almost every case.

We currently have a team in Munson that is 24-94. The owner logs in once a week, but his ML bullpen is at zero and he's clearly given up. Is there some sort of fair play doctrine we can invoke to have him replaced even though he's logging in within two weeks? (buckeye0611 - All-Star - 3:43 PM)

He'll show up on our report that we receive every Tues. When he does we'll modify his roster and notify him.

Would you put more emphasis on splits as opposed to 1st pitch, 2nd pitch? Also on hitting would you put more emphasis on splits than contact/power? (bperkins - Hall of Famer - 3:45 PM)

The way the ratings are factored into the engine have undergone an extensive amount of research and we feel that the way they are used is correct.

The data I've looked at for multiple worlds indicate that of the ML SS's that meet the recommended defensive ratings, significantly more of them entered the world via draft or IFA as 18-19 year olds than 21-22. Any chance you could check out how many college age prospects develop their defensive like you expect? (TheJester74 - Hall of Famer - 3:46 PM)

We can take a look. If you have specific player's could you send us a support ticket?

Any chance on allowing (or rewarding) owners who come in under payroll budget (and say, have a winning record) to get a one time reward the following season, maybe to be used exclusively for scouting/medical/training? (bradheld - Hall of Famer - 3:47 PM)

We don't want to give owners advantages for playing by the rules. We won't be changing anything involving budgets or carrying over money from season to season.

What is the status of the Hall of Fame? (zoobaseball - Hall of Famer - 3:49 PM)

It's still several months out unfortunately. I want to get this in before the end of the year and whether or not that's possible has yet to be determined.

When will "live" games come into play? (taz21 - Hall of Famer - 3:51 PM)

We're still doing research and talking about how we want to incorporate it into HBD and across the site. We want LIVE to be something that is engrossing for everyone so it's going to be awhile before we actually have an estimated release date. I guess in very simple terms, not for a long time.

Any chance you could add some sort of "hot prospect" tag to a high potential kid sothat even if there's a better current option at his position in the minors, he gets the nod for regular playing time. Automanage on minors is nice for all the minor league fodder, but it's fustrating having to reshuffle a future major league starter into the mil starting rotation b/c there's somebody else there w/ low potential, but a high current stamina where the computer automatically injects him into the starting 5. (taz21 - Hall of Famer - 3:55 PM)

Interesting thought here. I believe that better AI management of the Minor League levels is something we know about. When we look at that we can see what we can do to protect top talent.

Players under contract will never retire, correct? (randallball - Hall of Famer - 3:58 PM)

Correct, however they can decline option years and retire.

Does the player hitting behind the current batter effect how that player is pitched to? For instance, does the player in front of the best hitter on a team get pitched more strikes, or does a player that lacks protection get pitched around? (armst24 - Hall of Famer - 3:58 PM)

No this is currently not a part of the engine.

What new developments should we be seeing in the future? (jacob20h - Veteran - 4:02 PM)

There will be an update in the near future, but we haven't discussed what's in that update yet. I think we all know coach hiring needs a revision and the HOF is a pretty obvious (and popular) choice as well. Time will only tell what actually gets in the new update, but I think one of those two things has a pretty high chance of making the cut.

I would like to be able to put my closer in at 8.1 innings or 8.2, but the only option is to have him come in at the beginning of the 8th/9th. What happens when I have it set for him to come in in the 8th inning is that he'll make 5 outs, reach his pitch count and get pulled. Then a setup B guy will come in and get the save (or try to). Would it be a difficult thing to program one third inning increments into the inning available setting in player settings? (shobob - Hall of Famer - 4:19 PM)

This is where the difference between target pitch count and max pitch count comes in. Give him a desired target pitch count, but then an appropriately higher max pitch count. This will allow him to hit his desired pitch count, but go longer if necessary.

Do pitchers play a part in holding runners close? If so, what attributes contribute to this skill? (ttnorm - Hall of Famer - 4:30 PM)

The pitcher arm / base combination dictates this. Lefties hold runners on 1B better than righties, while righties hold runners on 3B better. Nothing specific to the pitcher beyond that is currently in place.

One thing that goes against the realism of your otherwise above-average product is a lack of options in older leagues in fielding instructors. In our world there are only 33 possible candidates for 32 slots, to say nothing of the quality of the last few available. In real life there are more than enough candidates who would be close to average big league coaches, and HBD reflects that in every category except for fielding instructors. Why? (mnnorthstars - Hall of Famer - 4:32 PM)

There's variability from season to season with coach retirements. We recently increased the number of FIs created each season, but there was the chance where the number available fell below our target. We're always shooting for a low pool, but 33 is too low which is why we recently made the change.

Does the order of a pitcher's pitches make any difference in his performance? IOW, does a pitcher with pitches 90, 80, 70, 60 perform better than one with pitches 60, 70, 80, 90? (ArlenWilliam - Hall of Famer - 4:36 PM)

The order of the pitches doesn't matter; but the ratings certainly do.

Is there any way on a box score to see how many pitches a batter actually faced? Even if it's for the advanced box score, it could be an intriguing statistic to track. (r0b0t - Hall of Famer - 4:38 PM)

We have always tracked this, but we do not show it anywhere. Now that ESPN shows it in their boxscores, we'll see if we can work it in. Before that, not many people cared about seeing it.

Have you guys ever given any thought to adding the ability for us to set personal catchers for our pitchers? I know I like to use my catchers who have a higher pitch calling with my pitchers who may not have the best pitches or even splits. (kjmulli - Hall of Famer - 4:42 PM)

Personal catchers were in our original design doc but haven't moved to the forefront yet. We agree it would be a nice feature.

I would love to see an improvement in the LH/RH specialist logic for relief pitchers. Maybe have rules (between certain innings, within a certain number of runs, etc) in place where a specialist will trump the Closer/setup pitchers for a batter or two. (WiredTiger - Hall of Famer - 4:45 PM)

The specialist logic in the game is definitely working as designed (not to say it's perfect). Many times, owners think a specialist should be pitching but forget to check a few settings. Remember to check Min Inning Available setting, check fatigue versus auto rest, check game situation. A LH specialist won't come in to face a sole lefty in the 7th ahead by 3 and nobody on. They are used only when necessary and when the situation is optional. As mentioned earlier, if you have boxscore where you feel very strongly that a specialist should have been used, please submit a ticket. If there's a way to improve the logic, we will.

How come so many draft prospects are "probably not going to sign"? It seems like 4 of the most talented 6 or 7 prospects in the amateur draft don't really want to play baseball. Maybe its just me, but I think the "best of the best" would always want to turn pro. Could you guys tinker with this a little? (wrecks42 - Pro - 12:01 PM)

The players that you see in your draft pool are based on your settings. If you want to filter out most of the players that are not openly signable just adjust your settings to reflect that.

I've still got a ton of questions in the queue and I'll answer all of those by the end of the day. Thank you so much to everyone for submitting their questions!! We really appreciate your passion for the game!