[Pelican]

Forgive me a quick digression on how OOTP handles the classic "AAAA" player, who dominates the minor leagues (and AAA), but never breaks through in MLB. The mention of Cal Emery above got me thinking about how, with development on and higher TCR, OOTP can improve on IRL. In my experience, AAAA stars are less likely to "flame out" in OOTP. They rarely turn into stars, and they don't duplicate their AAA stats; nor should they. But they also rarely turn out to be the total busts they were IRL. In short, their MLB performance tends to be roughly in the middle distribution of what you would expect, based on their minor league stats, age, and supporting ratings. Weird to say it, but this seems more "realistic" than the IRL outcome.

George Banks is another classic AAA player, with 232 HR in eleven minor league seasons, versus 219/.343/.409 in five partial MLB seasons and only 245 PA. He seems to have had the tools to excel.

It's fun to give these guys a "second chance" in OOTP, with at least the possibility that things will turn out better, between the randomness setting and the partial reliance of the game engine on minor-league performance. I expect that having at least some quality AB right out of Spring Training is a better test than the late-season callups these guys typically had. I use expanded rosters through Memorial Day, or the end of April in this sim, for just this reason. Let's see what a few promising if marginal players can do, before the final roster trim.

Any of you have thoughts on the "AAAA" issue?

Favorite "AAAA" players of all time, anyone?