[Syd Thrift]

Yeah, I've definitely seen it where the game essentially produces pitchers in particular at the same rates that pitchers exist at the major league level. This is exacerbated by feeder leagues IMO because every single college and high school has a full complement of players at every position. IRL colleges don't play every day and so don't use large rotations so much and on top of that tend not to have full bullpens. Pretty much anyone who is good enough to play pro ball is good enough to either be in the rotation (even if they only throw 2 pitches for strikes) or are a closer.

With position players, in real life like 90% of guys in high school who are good enough to play pro ball and are right-handed come out as shortstops. They may not be projected to play short but that's what they're doing in high school, simply because they're the best athlete on the team and at that level the best athlete plays the toughest position. In OOTP you see a more even distribution, especially if you're using feeder leagues. Bear in mind that real life there aren't a couple dozen high school "academies", there are *thousands*.

With left-handers it's a bit tougher because the guys who throw well were converted to pitchers by the time they turned 16. Still, if they're good enough to play in the pros they almost certainly are good athletes in their own right - Jeremy Brown types don't get picked much, even when a good HS coach is smart enough to overlook their body type.

Basically, in a nutshell *very* few major-league quality prospects, particularly those coming out of high school, should be starting out at first base. Just a quick look at the top 15ish guys in 1B innings last year, to take an example:

Joey Votto - Came up as a C/3B, though he only spent a year doing that in the fall league before he got converted over to first

Anthony Rizzo - did play first all the way, although I will say that it looks like there were extenuating circumstances: he missed most of his first full season with cancer and the Cubs apparently felt that his bat needed to play in the major leagues, so they kept him at first

Eric Hosmer - also played first from the get-go, although this looks like it had more to do with the Royals fast-tracking him than anything else. Even in the pros, he played a few innings in right field

Will Myers - came up as a RF and even won the ROY at that position

Justin Smoak - came up as a 1B, played 1B in college, and was never considered anything but a 1B

Paul Goldschmidt - the rare right-hander who came up as a 1B; played it throughout college, it looks like

Carlos Santana - came up and played his first few years in the majors as a catcher

Jose Abreu - International signing

Josh Bell - started out as a RF and played his first 3 seasons in the minors there

Mark Reynolds - played the first 5 years of his career at 3B

Mitch Moreland - the Rangers tried him in right field for several years before moving him to first full-time

Ryan Zimmerman - played at 3B for the first 8 years of his major league career

Yuri Guriel - International signing; played 3B in Cuba and Japan

Chris Davis - tried at 3B for a year before being put at 1B the rest of the way

Logan Morrison - came up as a LF

Yonder Alonso - played college at 1B but was *still* tested for a bit in LF in the minor leagues

Tommy Joseph - came up as a catcher

Joe Mauer - came up as a catcher (of course)

Danny Valencia - came up as a third baseman

Matt Carpenter - came up as a third baseman and was converted into a kind of utility player before transitioning to first in the majors