2036.12 The Ultimate Rebuild: Finding Use in the Useless

GM: Ben Heuring

Moderator: lordtoffee

User avatar
ae37jr
BBA GM
Posts: 2980
Joined: Fri Feb 05, 2016 1:37 pm
Location: Davenport, FL
Has thanked: 40 times
Been thanked: 645 times

2036.12 The Ultimate Rebuild: Finding Use in the Useless

Post by ae37jr » Wed Oct 17, 2018 2:20 pm

Image
Chapter 3

Finding Use in the Useless (Minor League Playing Time)


Before I begin, I just want to point out that I am skipping around a bit here and by no means going by order of importance. A rebuild should really begin on the minor league level a few years before a team pulls the plug on it's current run. So therefore I am strictly focusing on building up my farm system. I want to start laying the groundwork now, so that when I start to bring in real prospects, the foundation of success is there for them.

For my money, the most valuable thing to aide in player development is playing time. You can have the best coaches, spend the most PP, and play in the tiniest of ballparks for a hitter or biggest for a pitcher, but a player can only develop if he is actually on the field getting reps.

We currently have 5 levels of minor league ball. With 9 batters, 5 starters and say 5 RP getting sufficient use, that's 95 players in your organization getting enough playing time to positively enhance their future. 95 out of the 150. That's not bad. But what about those other 65 players? Maybe this is why nobody outside of Brooklyn was excited when we signed so many undrafted free agents. These players are unimportant and won't receive the enough playing time to enable them to bump like they will need to.

That's pretty much the theme of this chapter. How can we put good use to those other 65 minor league roster spots that most teams waste away. Back when I was in a previous league I solved this problem. That league was a lot smaller and only had 2(later expanded to 3) levels of the minors. They also only simmed twice a week and used 7 day lineups. Upon joining the Brewster, this plan was near impossible to duplicate as there were 4(now 5) minor league affiliates, 3 sims a week, larger rosters and when I first joined we simmed for 10 days. Since this is the Ultimate Rebuild. It's essential I go back to this. The plan went as followed...

For hitters, I would break down the players into four groups. Catchers, 1B/DH, Infield, and Outfield. In each group I would pick out my best players that I felt should start at each position. Then I would add in another bench player to each group. I'd then go ahead and fill out the lineup with the starters being the starters and the 4 main utility players would be the primary backup at the other positions.

From there I would fill out the 7 day lineup for each level, every sim. I would rotate the 4 utility players into the lineup to rest one of the starters in each group. So my 2 catchers would play every other day, my three1B/DH would play two out of every 3, while my INF and OF would play 3 out of every 4 days.

I know what you're thinking. Can't I just do this on the depth chart and set it to use sub 1 every 4th day?Theoretically yes. I know it didn't work that well when I tried this before, but that was several years ago. Maybe it does now. I know I will try it as it would save a lot of work.

But what I do like about the hands on 7 day approach is that you can really set up a nice cross training program. It doesn't strickly have to be that the utility player is the one that rotates positions. After a couple of weeks you get a good feel for who needs work and where. Cross training players is a very important aspect in enhancing a players value. Remember, every single player in your system should be an asset. No matter if they are future hall of famers, platoon players, trade bait, or enhancement players. They really should serve some purpose in the big picture.

Another benefit of this program is that it automatically allots rest. The constant 1-2 days off a week has always seemed to keep the prospects sharp and rested all at the same time. Believe it or not, I don't know too much about the game software itself. I know it take a player 15-20 straight days or whatever to become tired. So this may be overkill. I just feel from a realistic stand point that this is a great idea. Please never mistake my “theories” for fact. A lot of what I say is based off how I think it should be. This rotation of hitters creates 4 more “useful” minor leaguers at each level.. Subtract that 20 and we still have 45 useless players. We're getting there.

On to the pitching staff. It's always been hard for me to define useful pitchers in the minors. You can set your staff, but it's up to your manager to decide who comes in the game and who rots in the bullpen. This is one of those areas where I need to dig deeper and create some new scheme.

Being that my goal is to get as many pitchers as I can with enough innings where they feel important. Let's try this and see how it works. Starters are the easiest to control. I'm going to start by using a 6 man rotation at all my levels and a somewhat low pitch count. Maybe 75-80? I really don't know the answer. It may need some tweaking.

One thing that stands out to me is that the “Stopper” role and “Long Reliever” tend to get a lot more work then middle relievers and specialist. The first reveal I'm offering up in my grand plan is that I'm going to steer away from low stamina pitchers. I'm a big believer in moneyball tactics and I feel that right now in the BBA, stamina(especially in two pitch hurlers) is a very under valued skill that can make a big difference . So we are going to stockpile a lot of high stamina pitchers in our inventory list. These pitchers will overflow the rotations and spill into the Stopper and Long Man roles.

Where does this leave us? Say 6 starters, 3 stoppers, and 3 long relievers? That's the plan. I might need to adjust pitch counts and roles a bit to get the desired results, but we are looking at 12 useful pitchers. Up from the 10 that most teams carry. The added 10 extra useful minor leagues drops our useless total to 36.

Now is where things get hard. I mean there is only so much playing time to go around and with 30 man rosters you just aren't going to be able to play everyone. What do you do with the rosters spots that will be taken up by players with little or no playing time? First off, there are the injury backups. It's never a bad idea to keep some roster spots open for players capable of filling in during the inevitable injury. Say 2 versatile hitters and 2 high stamina pitchers. That's 20 extra spots driving the useless total down to 16.

Lastly is probably my favorite roster spots. The one that makes me smile and brings joy to my face. The player/coach. Like it or not(I love it). The player personality model has a large impact on this game. There is a certain synergy involved in player development. Having team captains, leaders, sparkplugs, and pranksters has it's purpose. I've been chastised in the past for having past their prime guys such as Jonathan Archer buried in my low minors. But at the end of the day I feel they had a strong influence on the players you see in Brooklyn today. So we will continue to use player coaches to fill out the remaining 18 roster spots.

So this is our starting point in our rebuild. My homework for this sim is to execute this plan to try to maximize the usefulness of the most minor leaguers we possibly can so that they get enough playing time and bumping becomes an option. If you want to follow along at home, go right ahead. If you think this is too time consuming and not worth the effort, just wait till the next chapter where the crazy Brooklyn GM sets individual player strategies for all 223 players in the organization and tells us all about it.
Alan Ehlers
GM of the Twin Cities River Monster
Image

User avatar
RonCo
GB: JL Frontier Division Director
Posts: 19813
Joined: Sat Nov 14, 2015 10:48 pm
Has thanked: 1982 times
Been thanked: 2901 times

Re: 2036.12 The Ultimate Rebuild: Finding Use in the Useless

Post by RonCo » Wed Oct 17, 2018 2:37 pm

This is very close to my own general approach to managing things, but done at much better detail. Love this.
GM: Bikini Krill
Nothing Matters But the Pacific Pennant
Roster

GoldenOne
Ex-GM
Posts: 3317
Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2018 1:36 pm
Location: South Riding, VA
Has thanked: 728 times
Been thanked: 485 times

Re: 2036.12 The Ultimate Rebuild: Finding Use in the Useless

Post by GoldenOne » Wed Oct 17, 2018 2:39 pm

I've actually tried to go out and get at least one veteran, Captain personality on each of my minor league teams as well to start the season. I think I've let a few of them go when I needed some roster spots for one reason or another but I still try and make sure there is at least a few + leadership guys on each team. It still remains part of The Plan.
Brett "The Brain" Golden
GM: Nashville Goats 2034-2039 (The Plan® was working when I left!)
GM: Charlotte Cougars 2040-2052
GM: Rocky Mountain Oysters 2053-2057
2056 BBA Champions!

"Tonight, we take over the world!"
-- The Brain

User avatar
RonCo
GB: JL Frontier Division Director
Posts: 19813
Joined: Sat Nov 14, 2015 10:48 pm
Has thanked: 1982 times
Been thanked: 2901 times

Re: 2036.12 The Ultimate Rebuild: Finding Use in the Useless

Post by RonCo » Wed Oct 17, 2018 3:10 pm

The veteran concept is probably good when gently applied. I do still pay attention to leadership and captains, regardless of age.
GM: Bikini Krill
Nothing Matters But the Pacific Pennant
Roster

User avatar
Lane
GB: Vice Commissioner
Posts: 6774
Joined: Tue Feb 02, 2016 8:18 am
Location: Los Angeles
Has thanked: 516 times
Been thanked: 700 times

Re: 2036.12 The Ultimate Rebuild: Finding Use in the Useless

Post by Lane » Wed Oct 17, 2018 9:32 pm

Good shit.

I have a draft feature coming soon with Archer in it :)
Stephen Lane
Vice Commissioner / Historian
General Manager, Long Beach Surfers
Since 2026

Image


Ex-GM, Amsterdam Neptunes, 2025 EBA Champions

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic

Return to “Brooklyn Robins”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests