I haven't read past the first few pages, and I understand this sort of lobbying is precisely what you're not looking for.
However. Objectively, I take real umbrage with the potential ratings of two marquee players. Two of the most recognizable faces of the MLB, mainstays in almost every OOTP 15 dynasty that will be played. It's not a contract typo, but I'd sooner pain to do them justice. I have little doubt that you're each going to hiss and spit at me in unison for this, but it bears mentioning somewhere...:
(If, in fact, PECOTA also churns out potential ratings, well, here's some Bryce Harper sycophantism.)
Could someone who's not dismissing me out-of-hand please briefly address the potential ratings of Bryce Harper and Yasiel Puig, relative to one another?
'Cause
Last season, Puig was 22 years old and hit .319 off the strength of an exorbitantly lucky .383 batting average on balls in play. (This is second among everyone with 300 plate appearances — a tick above
that Michael Cuddyer, who now and forevermore owns a batting title.) Harper was 20. With a decreased, pedestrian, perhaps unlucky .306 BABIP, Harper hit .274.
Substitute one BABIP for the other and Puig hits .265; Harper .330. The point at which Puig bats .274 is a BABIP of .318 — right in line with the career numbers of Cano, Tulowitzki, and Adrian Gonzalez. Harper, you'll remember, was hobbled for weeks, and is two formative years' Puig's junior.
Yasiel's real fast and licks the ball alright, so he may stand to BABIP higher. But OOTP gives me this
for him and Harper respectively, which seems emphatically disingenuous. Their 2013 numbers indicate that 22-year-old Puig made perhaps slightly better contact than did 20-year-old Harper. (Bryce, for his part, struck out 16% less often and walked about 50% more.) Yet Puig projects to hit .335 and Harper .306.
If nothing else, I question how one of the absolute best 19-year-olds in league history can make discernable strides in virtually every facet of the game and still warrant
this sort of regression. Who here believes Mondo's ceiling is .305 / 35 HR / 35 2B? This is important!
(Though on reflection, it might help combat his inevitable transformation into the Hulk during year three.)
But anyway. Thanks for everything. '15 and every iteration of OOTP is simply tremendous; this bit me, literally my only qualm. If I'm actually arguing with PECOTA, then I suppose I'm just a dummy.
Edit: Ammunition: Harper hit more line drives at a higher clip, meanwhile. 19.9% line drives for Bryce Harper, down from 22.5% in his rookie year (23.5% thus far in 2014 ahem injury); Yasiel Puig hit line drives 19.1% of the time. His bloody fly ball percentage was higher too. tl;dr: Augment and rectify Bryce Harper's potential ratings. Or don't.