Developer Chat

Welcome! The primary focus of this developer chat will be in regards to the update released last week. I'll also answer any other general questions you may have along with any questions about any upcoming updates.

Hey guys! Let's get this started, eh?!? ( Moderator - 2:00 PM)

When looking at Depth Charts, could you adjust it so the default is NOT to include secondary positions? I'd bet most people find that including secondary positions messes up the chart and have to click to get rid of it. Why not make it the default? (Extract - Hall of Famer - 2:01 PM)

This is something we can easily fit in to the next update.

Would it be possible to indicate on the Free agent report the highest level of stats that are used or in some way show if Minor League stats are included? As it is, I have to pull up each player, go to their statistics and see the level the stats came from. Thank you. (cp49 - Hall of Famer - 2:03 PM)

The stats that are shown on the free agent report are from the previous season and last level played. That can't change because of technical limitations.

is the possibility of live playing in HBD in the near future aleast for playoffs as then being able to adjust for the other team setting the SP at 5pitches and yanking him to get an advantage LH v RH (randyrossrac - Hall of Famer - 2:03 PM)

No new updates on LIVE, sorry guys.

In regards to a no-hitter, I would like to see a SP stay in the game whenever a no-hitter is still in play, regardless of pitch count. I've had guys pulled numerous times that have a 100 pitch max for instance when he still has a no-hitter going late in the game. (mgccpro - Hall of Famer - 2:06 PM)

We can definitely take a look at this and see where we can improve.

how much longer before we see unsigned draft picks who were HS, JC, or college juniors put back into the amature draft pool in the next year that they are eligible? College juniors the very next year, JC players the next year or two years later depending on where they went back to school, HS players the next season if they went to a JC or three seasons later if they went to a university program. NO reason these guys can't be tracked and redrafted as in real baseball. (reggiedeal - Hall of Famer - 2:11 PM)

We hope to have this in one of the next two updates, but the feature lists for those updates have not been finalized. We know it's necessary and that it would add a significant amount of realism to the game so it's pretty high on our priority list.

We have read that there would eventually be some sort of Arizona Fall League and Winter League options, how is this coming along? (reggiedeal - Hall of Famer - 2:13 PM)

No new developments on this feature yet. The good news here is that it is on the preliminary feature set for the third scheduled update that we have planned for HBD.

Will you be fixing the Rule 5 to include players that are out of options and still in the minors for the next update? (spudpicker - All-Star - 2:14 PM)

We currently do not have plans to incorporate this feature. The Rule 5 draft has proven to be quite confusing to a lot of owners (which is why we omitted the Rule 5 Draft compensation feature in the previous update) so we tread lightly when we decide to add features.

Can coach money that is left over after coach signings end be transfered at full value to player or prospect pay, regardless if it is 10K or 1.7M? The current system penalizes owners who budget more for coaching and leaves money that is unused on the table needlessly. (reggiedeal - Hall of Famer - 2:15 PM)

We have no plans to change the way that budget transfers are handled.

will we be able to see profiles of scouts who have top international and drafted players, the thinking that we could hire scouts the way we do coaches. (reggiedeal - Hall of Famer - 2:17 PM)

This was something that was in the original design document but was omitted and will probably never happen. The game is so deep and so many owners despise coach hiring that we don't want to have them go through the process again to hire scouts. The budget system works well and I think that we will stick with that for now.

Can we get a message in our in box when another team has accepted or rejected our proposal? Currently we have to keep checking to trade page to see if a decision has been made on a trade offer. Thanks. (geltzjg - All-Star - 2:21 PM)

We can see if this would make sense. While we don't want to inundate users with a ton of generated e-mails there are some instances where it makes sense.

More Canadian cities available, please! There are plenty of good ones to choose from, such as Hamilton, Quebec City, Halifax, Winnipeg, Calgary and Edmonton. Also, I think that Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa should be available in Eastern divisions as well as North (shobob - Hall of Famer - 2:22 PM)

In due time we will add more cities (and stadiums).

Make a projected stats line on player cards. Right above YTD total. Based on games played and left. (ACEROTHSTEIN - Hall of Famer - 2:24 PM)

Hmmm, I'm assuming you mean an "on pace for" feature? I think we can discuss something like that. If it's something we can easily add to the game it could be a cool feature.

For a team that has positioned itself with HR hitters in a HR park, isn't a 15-20% dropoff a bit to much all at once? ("75-85 HR's will become 60-65 HR's" .. Quoting the update). It is way to severe as immediate. Maybe over 2-3 seasons to let teams adjust. Please comment and consider a change as many of us have built HR teams in HR parks.. (7Yankees7 - Hall of Famer - 2:28 PM)

We talked about doing this, but the truth of the matter is that there was no good way to please every user about the steroid era being over. Your player's are still going to perform well, they just won't hit an unrealistic amount of HRs.

Fielding coaches are very limited. There 10 decent ones , all of which are 60 plus years old, (close to retirement). Then it drop off to 45-50 fielding IQ for the rest of the fielding coaches. It the one coaching role that has such a limited supply. Why is it there never any fielding coaches added to the coaching pool? There way too many of every other type of coach to fill 64 teams, but not enough fielding coaches to fill 32 teams. Could this be address please. (oab2 - Hall of Famer - 2:28 PM)

We'll be sure to address this in the next update.

Is there any chance that we will see a hard cap on International Free Agent Bonuses anytime? (BrianCampos - Hall of Famer - 2:29 PM)

At this time, we do not wish to implement a hard cap on the bonuses offered to IFAs.

When will coach hiring be updated? (BrianCampos - Hall of Famer - 2:30 PM)

We're taking strides to improve the process over time. We don't have anything drastic planned for the foreseeable future but, we do have a lot of little improvements that will occur in the next two updates (and the previous update) that will improve the process.

Any chance we could see Top 10 instead of Top 5 on the league record pages? (bourbonmoon - Hall of Famer - 2:32 PM)

We'd love to be able to display this but the process that runs the player records is very intense and adding more player's to the lists will result in slower simulation runs and world roll overs which is not something we are interested in prolonging at this time.

90% of my players still have all there options including guys that have 10 or more yrs. of big league service, and ages up to 37 yrs. old. If I try to do a revoke waivers to trade after the deadline it will not allow these players with options to put on waivers at all. Cause no trades after the deadline. I am curious why or how options work, I thought a player lost them at some point after X amount of Big league seasons. Or X amount of seasons on the 40 man roster. (oab2 - Hall of Famer - 2:35 PM)

We have a knowledge base article that outlines how minor league options work (KB Article #586). Players do not lose option years, Roger Clemens still had options in his last season with the Yankees.

The site looks great on a bunch of different mobile devices, but the dropdown menus don't always work that well (I'm using the new droid phone today). Any chance for a update to the menus? (dcbove - Hall of Famer - 2:36 PM)

A new mobile site is coming soon and it will be tailored to work specifically on mobile devices.

On a player's stats, could you put an asterisk (or some other designation) whenever that figure was a league-leader? So if a player hits 44 doubles in AA and that led the league, it'd be written: 44* ? (Extract - Hall of Famer - 2:37 PM)

Unfortunately this isn't technically possible, sorry.

Hi, can something be done about owners that actively manaage their ML teams but ignore their minor leagues to the point that their entire pitching staffs fall to 0% rest? This harms the realism of the game and makes it extremely hard for the next guy who takes the organization over. Could the sim just sign bottom-of-the-barrel minor league FAs in these situations? (jceffali - Hall of Famer - 2:41 PM)

I wish it were that easy, but the sim can't just sign player's to the roster. It's quite a bit more involved than that and is a constant discussion point here. Unfortunately, there really isn't anything we can do to curb this. We would like for owner's in worlds to point these things out in the world chat or via trade chat letting owner's know that their minor league systems are on fire. From there we would hope that they would correct it or at least try to.

Is there any way that there could be a minimum of 1 player per franchise on the All-Star team? (bourbonmoon - Hall of Famer - 2:43 PM)

We can take a look. No promises here since it hasn't been in the game since launch but we can always revisit the idea and see if it would be possible.

Suggestion? It would be nice if newly generated fielding instructors would consider taking minor league bench coach jobs. I've tried but had no success. (dcbove - Hall of Famer - 2:44 PM)

Yes, a fielding instructor will not take a lower level position at this time. This may be changed soon.

Looks the +/- numbers are really increasing. Excellent job working that in to the update. Any chance of adding more advance stats (VORP, OPS+, ERA+, etc.)? (tcolonial9 - All-Star - 2:45 PM)

Thanks! Not sure if or when we will ever add more advanced stats, but if it makes sense to do so we will.

Could you please explain to be the waiver system and how it works with salary? My thought is that if someone picks up a player on waivers then they are responsible for the remaining salary. I put a high priced veteran on waivers expecting to get rid of his salary. Someone picked him up and I am still paying his salary. Does this happen in the big leagues? (bperkins - Hall of Famer - 2:48 PM)

If a player has been waived and you are awarded the claim, then you are responsible for a prorated amount of his full salary for the current season and the full amount of all subsequent years under his current contract. If that isn't the case please send in a support ticket with the player and we can investigate this further.

Can we do something about the abundance of sub-10 stamina pitchers? No player ever comes into the league as a one-out lefty. Maybe by the time they're 35, they've become that, but no high school or college pitcher is used that way or is only capable of throwing 10-15 pitches. (jwendt - Hall of Famer - 2:49 PM)

This was fixed in the previous update. The minimum stamina that any pitcher can now have is 5, it used to be zero.

Can you explain the impact on homers with the new update? I seem to be hitting a lot less homers. (swamphawk22 - Hall of Famer - 2:50 PM)

That is the intention. High powered hitters will no longer be able to achieve totals of 80+ or 90+ HRs so you should be seeing fewer HRs hit by elite power hitters.

Can you explain why there is no inherent home field advantage in HBD. Since every sport has a home field advantage, why should MLB be different?? (swamphawk22 - Hall of Famer - 2:53 PM)

The advantage is that you build your franchise to play in your park.

There has been a lot of talk about needing to revamp the Health Rating/injuries engine, maybe to accommodate more short term injuries and less injuries to high health rating guys. Do you guys have anything planned on that end or do you guys think the engine is working as intended for injuries? Thanks for the game, all in all, it is a great product. (mainou - Hall of Famer - 2:54 PM)

Injuries are working as we intend. Always keep in mind that a player with a high health rating is less susceptible to injury but it doesn't mean that he can go uninjured.

Still getting page not found errors since the update...cleared cookies/cache, etc. (kschoenberg - All-Star - 2:57 PM)

To fix this issue you must perform the following tasks: Clear you cookies and cache Close your browser Open your browser Log out of the site Log in to the site

Can we have a way to easily look at how other teams have setup their rotation? (kschoenberg - All-Star - 2:59 PM)

This is interesting and we can surely do it. We'll put it up for discussion and see what happens.

I would like the default season to reset when I change worlds to the most current season. When I switch from a world that is season 12 to season 14 and go to standings it always lists season 12 instead of the current season 14. (WiredTiger - Hall of Famer - 3:00 PM)

Yes, this is quite annoying and we will try to get it corrected in the next update.

so about the end of the "steroid era." does this mean that Home Runs will go down across the board, or leaning towards players with more power? (wetherjenius - Hall of Famer - 3:01 PM)

The change will affect the truly elite power hitters in HBD. The variance will have a much less significant impact on those player's that do not fit that category.

Have you considered creating a custom statistic formula system so that a owner can create his/her own metrics and have them show up on the stat page? I am thinking of SABERmetrics statistics in particular like BABIP, wOBA, FIP etc.... (whiskychaser - Hall of Famer - 3:01 PM)

No, I don't think this is something that we want to introduce into the game at this time.

could you add more players to the list to vote for the various awards. Five just does not cover enough potential players. Also, could you add more than five for the all-time list. It would be a nice feature to see where players rank in history. (Starbuckdc - Hall of Famer - 3:02 PM)

The reason that we use 5 is for performance reasons. At this time we can't up the numbers, sorry.

Is there any plan to have an download/upload feature for amateur draft? (fitnage - All-Star - 3:02 PM)

No, this is not something that we will be introducing.

The player durability seems out of whack. How can a player with 74 durability who has been rested start tiring long before the all star break...especially if they're playing in the OF? (kschoenberg - All-Star - 3:04 PM)

This is all working as intended. If there is someone specific that you would like to inquire about you can send in a support ticket so that we can take a look.

I would like to request the following functionality: the ability to either copy a trade offer or the ability to reopen one. A lot of people reject trades and then say make me a different offer. It would be nice to be able to start with a rejected trade and then just edit it. (WiredTiger - Hall of Famer - 3:05 PM)

I think there are a lot of areas in which this page could be improved and I like your suggestion. We'll see if there are any other areas to improve and maybe add it to the update feature set.

now, that Home Runs are going to be down, will pitchers with higher GB/FB ratings give up less home runs as well? (wetherjenius - Hall of Famer - 3:07 PM)

Pitchers HRs allowed should decrease and that will be tied to the GB/FB rating.

Any possible future inclusion of a "rehab assignment" feature? As it stands now, 99% of the time, when I have a Major League player get injured, upon his return, he is thrown right back into the lineup/rotation. It would be nice if after a long-sustained injury, you had to send your player on a 3-5 games rehab stint, or something to that nature. (stiller609 - All-Star - 3:08 PM)

It's possible but it's not a top priority at this time.

Can we please have a way to individually set player base stealing and baserunning agressiveness? There are some players you want to be very agressive and others that shouldn't leave the base without a bus pass. (kschoenberg - All-Star - 3:09 PM)

This is never going to happen, there are way too many players to have individual settings for each of them.

I wonder if there is a way to make the rule 5 draft a little more newbie proof. It seems like a lot of new players get tripped up by this lose someone good and sour on the whole game. How about a check box marking your team as rule 5 ready so the commish can know who is and isn't ready? In addition if you don't click the check box could the AI start filling in your 40 man roster with eligible players by overall rating? (WiredTiger - Hall of Famer - 3:11 PM)

This might work for private worlds but would never work for public worlds. I like the idea and I think it definitely has merit, but the solution is probably much bigger than this. We might have the AI intervene at some point, but for now it's entirely up to the user to protect his better player's from the draft.

Is there any consideration of adding a 4th or 5th player slot in the trade menu, to allow for 4-for-2 trades, etc. (gjello10 - All-Star - 3:12 PM)

Due to the complexity of this page we have not discussed adding more slots. I don't think that it will happen anytime soon or at all.

I think the defensive requirements at SS and CF are a bit unrealistic when you look at the available player base. The ML "average" should mean there are many above that number. That's not really possible when the number is 85 (kschoenberg - All-Star - 3:16 PM)

Well, that depends on each individual owner. A lot of owners value offense over fielding so they play player's out of position or they play a less than mediocre SS hoping that his offense will make up for his fielding. It's no secret that SS's have to be good in this game in order to succeed and the averages are inline with what we expect.

Why was there a need to reduce the number of HRs? How large a factor will extreme hitter parks play into the "Max" HR figures (dherz_263 - Hall of Famer - 3:18 PM)

90+ HRs in a season wasn't realistic, that was the major reason. Elite power guys playing in extreme hitters parks will be the guys that I alluded to earlier in the chat. They will be the player's who have the most variance in the max number of HRs they hit. In other words, instead of hitting 50 in a non-extreme hitters park they might hit 60-65 in an extreme hitter's park.

on the waiver wire screen it would be nice to know the length of the current contract. (WiredTiger - Hall of Famer - 3:19 PM)

Good one, I'll make sure that gets reviewed. Thanks!

When looking at a player's career stats, would you be able to add stats at home vs. on the road? (wetherjenius - Hall of Famer - 3:20 PM)

We don't store game data from season to season so this wouldn't be possible without some significant revamping of the database.

Could the system be modified to allow the note indicator to be shown on the line-up and rotation page in addition to the change rosters page? (wholck - Hall of Famer - 3:21 PM)

Potentially, yes, we might be able to add this

Can there be a update that players can change positions within the game? In the game right now, when a player takes over another player, that player is out of the game. (wetherjenius - Hall of Famer - 3:22 PM)

Some day we hope to have this feature implemented into the engine.

Any news on when we can promote our own coaches during the rehire process? All coaches readily accept promotions on the open market - why not in the re-hire process? (acatala - Hall of Famer - 3:23 PM)

This is something we are currently discussing. It's a significant change, but it is definitely worth exploring.

Please give us an easy way to determine how much a player has played recently while setting lineups. Maybe a "games played streak" (kschoenberg - All-Star - 3:25 PM)

The reason why we don't add a lot of data to these pages is because of the significant space limitation. We want to show all of the core stats and core ratings which are more important than these "fluff" pieces. For the foreseeable future all of the other data will have to be gathered using the player profile.

How about an option to fire or hire a coach in mid season (assuming that the team's budget will allow it)? (69cubs - Hall of Famer - 3:26 PM)

Everyone wants this feature, but we have yet to find a way in which it makes sense and works within the confines of the current game. We have yet to find a good solution here.

In the 11/3 update, you mention adding tie breakers beyond first contract offered for a FA agent that has been offered the max contract by multiple teams. In the knowledge base and in responses from CS, we have long been told that tie breakers already existed beyond first contract offered. Is this update adding additional tie breakers (and, if so, can you share them) or just fixing logic that hasn't been working as intended? thanks (cmthieme - Hall of Famer - 3:29 PM)

There were tiebreakers previously, the last one we used was time the offer was presented, which obviously didn't cut it. We added two additional tie breakers. The first is the relevant IQs of the coaching staff. Position players will always look at the hitting IQ of the hitting coach and the fielding IQ of the fielding coach. Pitchers will always look at the Pitching IQ of the pitching coach and the bullpen coach. The second tiebreak is ballpark. Pitchers will always want to pitch in a pitchers park and position players will always want to play in a hitters park.

And Historical stadiums would be quite awesome when you are adding Cities and stadiums. (WiredTiger - Hall of Famer - 3:30 PM)

Ha! One step ahead of you ;)

How about mobile access that is a bit more than the scores? (kschoenberg - All-Star - 3:44 PM)

We don't have a feature set nailed down yet for HBD. The only news is that a mobile site is coming.

Drag and drop for setting lineups...please! (kschoenberg - All-Star - 3:45 PM)

I wish this were possible, but it isn't even on the radar.

Can you make a page where teams can see exactly how much prospect payroll each team in every world has left to spend? This would help when it comes to international bidding wars to see who you are bidding against, and if it would be in your best interest to drop a bid on target A and move on to target B. (sdhizzle - Hall of Famer - 3:47 PM)

There is a certain amount of secrecy we would like to keep in the game and the budget details are not for public viewing.

With this home run adjustment, you only talk about guys who used to hit 80-90 now be "limited" to 60 or so. Does that mean that 40-home run guys are unaffected or is everyone affected? Will 10-HR guys now hit 7? Or, is the only affect on the 80-90 guys? Thanks, again (robinhood410 - Hall of Famer - 3:48 PM)

Only the upper echelon will be affected, the lower power rating players will not see an adjustment.

Shouldn't minor league injury callups be on a 2 way contract and just collect MLB salary while they are in the MLB? (ttnorm - Hall of Famer - 3:49 PM)

We don't do it this way to alleviate confusion.

I have not seen an abundance of HRs hit by players in my leagues, will all HR totals across the board be coming down? (dherz_263 - Hall of Famer - 3:49 PM)

Yes, the change affects all worlds and all players

It would be nice to be able to make roster moves after the WS if you've been involved in the WS. If you are in the WS you don't get a chance to send guys down after the series is over and before rollover. (WiredTiger - Hall of Famer - 3:51 PM)

We're aware of this, but have yet to find a good way to implement it. We would have to add days to the schedule in order to make this happen and even then it wouldn't be 100% effective because some owner's wouldn't take advantage of the lengthened schedule.

newbie/abandoned team protection idea... if a draftee or intl FA is signed and not assigned then instead of releasing the player can we just have it so the player is assigned to the lowest roster that has room? (WiredTiger - Hall of Famer - 3:52 PM)

We can take a look at this scenario and see if it is something we can address.

One of the most frustrating things about HBD is the Amateur Draft. I understand that different amounts spent on college and HS scouting should yield better information but I dont understand how first round choices could go unscouted by several teams. Can you help me understand the thinking here? (bullet6464 - Hall of Famer - 3:53 PM)

The amount of money assigned to your scouting departments increases your franchise’s ability to locate and scout talent. The more you spend, the more players you’ll discover and the more accurate your scouting reports will be. However, it doesn’t mean you’ll always see the best players available. Some of these players can slip through the cracks and some will be scouted by other franchises who have spent less money on scouting. But the percentages will always be in your favor.

Hey patrick, any thought to allowing us to change our "scheduled" starting pitchers just for playoff games? Maybe we'd have to have them set by that mid-cycle? It's just when you're in, for instance, a do-or-die Game 6, you might want "all hands on deck," and then figure out your Game 7 starter depending on who was needed to get you there. It definitely happens in MLB, where they don't decide who is going until the day of, sometimes. Thanks a lot. (robinhood410 - Hall of Famer - 3:54 PM)

This is actually set in the engine right after the game has simulated. We do it this way so that user's have the opportunity to set their lineups to compete against the scheduled starter. We don't have any plans on changing that for now, sorry.

Would ... Free agent report the highest level of stats that are used or in some way show if Minor League stats are included? (cp49 - Pro - 2:03 PM) The stats that are shown on the free agent report are from the previous season and last level played. That can't change because of technical limitations. I'm not asking for a change, just something to show it includes Minor League stats- an *, or something? (cp49 - Hall of Famer - 3:55 PM)

Ahhh, okay that makes a bit more sense. Again, we'll take a look and see.

Would it be possible to add a "last 10 days" or "last month" view on the lineups page, similar to what's available in idividual player's game logs? This would help a lot in getting an overall sense of which players are "hot" and which aren't at any given moment. (mjpals - Hall of Famer - 4:00 PM)

Yes! I'm pushing for at least one of these to go into the next update.

With the new HR update, there may be some records that will never be reached then. Like the triples records that happened in the early part of HBD. Some of those records will never be broken because of the updates. (69cubs - Hall of Famer - 4:02 PM)

That's a good point. We'll have to monitor these and see if it makes sense to make adjustments.

I see a lot of players losing significant points in Range as the approach 30, but I don't see anything that would mirror that players with that experience also are far better at positioning themselves. (kschoenberg - All-Star - 4:03 PM)

Could you send some specific examples in a support ticket? Thanks!

Can coach loyalty ratings increase if they are resigned? Also, is there anything being done to address the lack of viable coaching candidates at the Hi-A and Lo-A levels? (bjb2378 - Hall of Famer - 4:07 PM)

Coach ratings progress much like player ratings. Resigning a coach doesn't have an effect on his loyalty rating. We'll have to look at the data and see if we need to inject more coaches into the system. I have not personally found the Hi-A, Lo-A shortages but I have seen the fielding coach shortages.

Some of the stat categories highlied on the world page are just inane...things like Range Factor for LFs. It would be nice if there was sometihng that put up career highlights there...XXX hit his 500th career HR, etc. (kschoenberg - All-Star - 4:08 PM)

We will be expanding on the World Content section when time provides. The positions for the stats are generated at random, but yeah we understand that range factor at 1B is pretty meaningless.

When is fielding going to be substantially addressed in an update? In HBD CF's still make 125% more Putouts than LF's or RF's, while in real life they only make 10-15% more. When will an outfielder ever make a throwing error? (the Benders - Hall of Famer - 4:08 PM)

Throwing errors at the OF positions is on the short list, we're aware of this. When that is reviewed we will look at CF POs vs. RF and LF as well.

Getting back to the 0% minor league pithching when ML is taken care of.- This is veiwed by several owners as cheating. 1 possible fix, 5days minor league team @ 0%, 1 forfeit for the major league team. (joelshields - Hall of Famer - 4:10 PM)

Unfortunately, we can't forfeit games (although it's not a bad idea). We had a lot of submissions regarding this specific scenario. If this is a serious issue maybe we need to update the fairplay guidelines? Maybe this is a forum discussion?

When you said Reduced upper end of home run frequency in the 11/3 Update, What exactly do you mean? A cap on max HR Rating? A Cap on max HR's? I know it's going to mean nobody hits 90 HR's anymore, but how are you going to go about that? P.S. Not to much because The HR's bring in the Fans... (7Yankees7 - Hall of Famer - 4:10 PM)

What this cap means is that player's who used to hit 80-90+ HRs per season will now hit 55-65 HRs a season. There will always be variance, so it will be possible for a hitter to hit more than 65HRs but the HR totals will come down to more realistic numbers.

I agree on the major league scorboard .. it is so difficult to see how other teams have done and who division rivals are playing. (drisco13 - Hall of Famer - 4:14 PM)

I'll add this to the list and see what we can come up with, I didn't realize there was such a high demand for it.

When re-signing our own Free agents at the beginning of the season it would be nice to either have more time to do it or have them reject or accept right away. (WiredTiger - Hall of Famer - 4:17 PM)

If your player is willing to sign he will sign as long as the offer is what he was demanding so the processing is kind of moot since he will accept no matter what. In regards to auto-signing rather than waiting we may be able to do that, but I would have to do some significant research to find out if it is truly possible. It would be better to incorporate that change rather than add days to the schedule which is something we aren't really interested in doing.

We have had problems with problem owners (Caracarn comes to mind) who deliberately sabotage leagues. What is being done to ensure that once they are removed, they can no longer create an alias and do it all again. (t2bott - Hall of Famer - 4:18 PM)

We have some special queries written that identify the problem users and once they create a new account it is closed immediately. It isn't a perfect system, since most of the internet is based off anonymity and people can always find work arounds, but it works 90% of the time.

Are you happy with the current logic where top players can almost never be resigned before hitting the market now? I think this is far better than before where it was way too easy to resign players, but wonder if it has gone too far. I think it would be nice to at least have a chance to re-sign top guys before they rollover into FA status, even if at a very expensive rate, if an owner so chooses. Are you happy with the current logic or do you envision this changing at all in the future? thanks (cmthieme - Hall of Famer - 4:20 PM)

I think the overall consensus is that it makes more sense, there are some owners that support it and there are some that don't. We could incorporate some loyalty factors into the process, such as a player that has played with your franchise his whole career would be more apt to resign a contract or something along those lines.

The ++ and + plays seem to be a bit out of control. They seem to be coming fast and furious sometimes 4 or 5 in a game. (kschoenberg - All-Star - 4:21 PM)

Could you send in some boxscores through the support system so that we can take a look? Thanks!

The plus and minus fielding update. Does that mean there will be more plays that impact the game, or that they will now be properly labeled and game play will not be impacted at all? (swamphawk22 - Hall of Famer - 4:22 PM)

Better fielders will be able to stop what would be hits and convert them to outs, while poor fielders won't be able to convert those plays at all. So, it's going to impact gameplay.

Could you please explain the change in +/- plays and fielding a bit more. I understand it's been only a week and the sample is small, but I haven't really seen much difference in the amount of + and - plays so far. (coolio4433 - All-Star - 4:26 PM)

We made the change so that elite player's at a position have the same opportunity to make + plays as every other position. Before the update CF'ers were making way too many + plays. On the flip side a terrible fielder at his position will have the opportunity to make - plays.

Is there any chance of allowing us to add a 4th or 5th player to trades? This would make the game more realistic, as star player trades in MLB often involve more than 3 players (Texas got 4-for-2 for Mark Texiera; Cleveland got 4-for-2 for Cliff Lee). As it stands, in HBD these trades could be broken up into a 3-for-1 trade and a 1-for-1 trade, but then you run the risk that half of the agreement will go through, while half of the agreement is vetoed. (gjello10 - All-Star - 4:27 PM)

No changes to the trade proposals screen have been discussed. Given the complexity of this whole process I don't think we are going to introduce more slots.

In each Major League draft, there are often certain players that demand Major League contracts. Stephen Strasburg, Yonder Alonso, Alex Rodriguez, etc. Have you considered having certain players with very high projections demand Major League contracts in Hardball Dynasty drafts? (dgtrache - Hall of Famer - 4:37 PM)

While it's rare it is possible in HBD.

Do you anticipate making a quicker recovery available for at least some players, after reductions caused by injury, demotion, or inactivity? (ArlenWilliam - Hall of Famer - 4:38 PM)

Injury recovery and the way it relates to player's is all about the makeup rating. The higher the makeup rating the better he will recover. We don't have any plans for an accelerated process.

Would it be possible to add a scouting page to view the current/projected ratings of teams' rosters other than your own can be added? The only option I'm aware of to view another teams player's ratings is to go into trade proposals, which isn't as convenient. (evelandz23 - All-Star - 4:43 PM)

Hmm, interesting. I think we can probably come up with a page to display this information.

Pitcher vs. Batter stats would be a real plus. It's a key stat for big league managers. (kschoenberg - All-Star - 4:44 PM)

We agree, but there are technical limitations within the game that keep us from doing some of more complicated analysis.

Does the end of the steroid era merely shift stats down, or do you forsee sluggers being reduced in overall value? (mainou - Hall of Famer - 4:45 PM)

They shouldn't have reduced value, they will still hit more HRs than other player's just not with the same frequency as before. So, I guess it's just a stats shift coming back to normalcy.

Can we expect HR Hiutters Batting Average to drop off 10-20% with the drop in HR's. If not, approximately what percentage drop will there be? How will it effect OBP? (7Yankees7 - Hall of Famer - 4:46 PM)

The other stats won't see a significant increase or decrease. The only change is that they won't hit as many HRs.

With the revamped +/- system, what will it look like for the not quite top fielders and even average fielders? How many plus(+) plays will they see? (jway11 - Hall of Famer - 4:46 PM)

It's really impossible for us to answer this question. The spectrum is from -30 to +30 so somewhere in between there.

Why not have Chat notes to work from bottom to top instead of having to scroll down for the latest questions and comments.. (69cubs - Hall of Famer - 5:01 PM)

We'll make a correction here if necessary.

Make a league scoreboard page where you can quickly view and click on the ML level scores for the previous cycle. Like other sites do it(ESPN, etc). Team name, Runs, Hits, Errors and then a short sentence with the player of the game description. (ACEROTHSTEIN - Hall of Famer - 12:07 PM)

This page already exists. It's called Game Highlights and it's available in the World Office.

Does the end of the steroid era mean that balls that used to be HRs will now be outs? Or will they be other hits? Mainly doubles and triples based on speed? (bjb2378 - Hall of Famer - 12:07 PM)

The reduction in home runs will be appropriately broken down into triples, doubles and singles.

My question is regarding the new + and - system on the defensive side of the ball. If you were to play a true SS at 1B, for example, should you expect tons of + plays, perhaps in excess of 30 even? Would this be an overwhelming advantage if someone employed this strategy? (soursurfer - Hall of Famer - 12:16 PM)

He would definitely have an advantage as his ratings would dictate.