[Rain King]

The Potential ratings are over-cooked. There are too many players that start with elite potentials. The consequence of that is that development has to be designed in a way that many players do not reach that potential.

Would you prefer there to be much fewer prospects that start out with good potential? I definitely would, but the Devs have tried that a few times and the complaints were much bigger in those instances than they are now. People do not seem to think it is fun to have their 3rd round picks projected to be unlikely to make it even if that is reality.

Stuff is a consequence of modern baseball. When everyone has great stuff, nobody's stuff stands out enough to get relatively elite ratings...particularly starting pitchers when they are also compared relatively against the ratings of relief pitchers also.

Here is the Top K/9 vs. the Average K/9 for Qualified Starting Pitchers going back in 10-year intervals from 2024.

2024: 11.4 : 8.6 (1.33)
2014: 10.8: 7.7 (1.40)
2004: 11.0: 6.6 (1.67)
1994: 10.7: 6.2 (1.73)
1984: 11.4: 5.4 (2.11)

The average K rate has been coming up without the top level K rates changing much. So, when they tightened the "Current Rating" 20-80 scale to be more realistic this version the result is it "looks" like Stuff ratings aren't very good when it is really just that slightly above average is currently really good.

I do think they could make some tweaks to how the game handles the 20-80 scale for starting pitchers' Stuff ratings, but nothing is inherently broken. It is just a perception problem.