Broken Bat - Discussion Forum: Evaluating youth

Forum >> Discussions >> Evaluating youth

Post ID	Date & Time	Game Date

#77996	10/16/2020 11:08:51 am	Jul 21st, 2047
rlawrence Joined: 02/03/2020 Posts: 102 Inactive	Okay, so I see some 17 year old with a '7' in hitting, and 'will never be a good hitter' comment. I see another with a '1' in hitting, and 'can be a very good hitter' comment. So, if he can be a very good hitter, do I even really care what his starting numbers are? Or if he starts so low, do you just leave him be?

#77997	10/16/2020 11:54:09 am	Jul 21st, 2047
Seca Joined: 05/05/2014 Posts: 5201 Waterloo Dinosaurs Legends	The "very good" represents his cap. You generally expect a VG hitter to finish in the 14-17 range. Some players add SI faster, move through the minors faster. I am quite convinced there is a hidden variable (which I usually refer to as "talent") which influences how much SI they add. Talent is a fairly common feature in sports management games like BrokenBat. When the training update fires my guess is it checks to see if the player is below cap, and then adds a chunk of skill related to the players talent. (There are other factors - we've been told that part of the added skill is a random. Your manager also has an influence). If correct what this means is that starting skill level is important. There is a finite amount of time a player can spend in the minors. If starting skill is low and talent is low then a player may not make their cap. An 18 yr old "VG" with 1 hitting is a higher risk proposition than an 18 yr old "VG" with 9 hitting. Doesn't mean you should cut the 1 hit guy. He may turn out fine. (Butler for example had a starting hit skill of 0. A season and a half later it was still 0. But he filled out fine). But these guys are higher risk. Worth noting that it seems that the written scouting is occasionally inaccurate. A player may say "VG" but might actually just be good. He may come up short of expectations even tho his starting skill and talent were fine. Hope that makes sense. Dinos place a great deal of importance on starting / current skill numbers when doing prospect evaluation.