The Devastating Effects of Age - What settings do i need? Help!

[aslanking]

OK - so i think i need to change my settings. My league's CY Youngs from 2 years ago - both NL & AL - were 33 years old - 5 star pitchers.

Move two years in advance - they are 35 yeras old - 1 star pitchers - and are routinely getting shellacked.

While i acknowledge that performance declines with age (except in the steroid era) - this precipitous decline is not realistic. If it was only these two pitchers, i'd say - meh - bad genes - but it is any pitcher in the league. Heck - my stud starting pitcher who routinely won 17 games a year for 10 straight years - hit age 33 and dropped to 1 star and i'm tempted to retire to preserve his legacy.

Any ideas what i need to tweak to made the aging decline more gradual??

[Max Boyer]

You will have to play with the Aging Speed and the Talent Change Randomness to achieve something that will suit you more.

Everything is set at 1.000 and the Talent Change is at 100 (0= no changes, 200= all random).

I stick with the 1.000 value everywhere but I play with a 75 Talent Change.

Remember that the amount of innings your pitchers are throwing, and how many injuries they've had, will all count towards their downfall at some point.

I hope this helps.

[Padreman]

Remember some injuries will have a stronger affect on them too

[Carlton]

I lower my aging to .650 (little more for pitchers) and I am in deadball, I get many 35yr old retirements, but I also get the occasional 41 or 42 year old still hanging around as a backup or in AAA.

I lower my development to around .350 (little higher for batters) but I use Spritze's 18yr old database

Maybe that can help you some?

My talent randomness is at 80

[RchW]

Originally Posted by aslanking

OK - so i think i need to change my settings. My league's CY Youngs from 2 years ago - both NL & AL - were 33 years old - 5 star pitchers.

Move two years in advance - they are 35 yeras old - 1 star pitchers - and are routinely getting shellacked.

While i acknowledge that performance declines with age (except in the steroid era) - this precipitous decline is not realistic. If it was only these two pitchers, i'd say - meh - bad genes - but it is any pitcher in the league. Heck - my stud starting pitcher who routinely won 17 games a year for 10 straight years - hit age 33 and dropped to 1 star and i'm tempted to retire to preserve his legacy.


Any ideas what i need to tweak to made the aging decline more gradual??

Before you tweak anything look at more than 2 pitchers. Individual declines tell you nothing about settings especially if they are on your team.

Use a filter to see how many pitchers 35+ pitched 200 innings in your league. You can vary this sort to capture more or less pitchers.Try 190 innings then 100 innings. You could capture relief pitchers separately via games pitched. You can then look at baseball reference to see how your league compares. If the problem is obvious you can change the aging and development mods for pitchers in game.

As a reference, in 2014 mlb only 6 pitchers 35+ pitched 200 innings and 9 pitchers 35+ pitched 190 innings. Setting the bar at 100 innings you get 13 pitchers. However 33 pitchers 35+ pitched in 30 games. My solo league matches the first 3 criteria well but I don't have enough marginal relievers in my game to match the 4th. Not sure I'll make any changes yet.

[aslanking]

It is pretty much every starting pitcher that was a stud - they drop off tremendously by age 35 and i don't really see any pitchers over the age of 35 with more than 2 stars - but i will try the filter - i think that makes sense.

I hate tinkering with the talent/aging sliders as i don't want to taint the league - i generally like the stat results as a whole across the board (lg batting average of 255 era of 4.00).......it's just seeing these star pitchers become wash-ups well before their time that concerns me.

[darkcloud4579]

I use aging in the .100-.400 range and development at .100

[RchW]

Originally Posted by aslanking

It is pretty much every starting pitcher that was a stud - they drop off tremendously by age 35 and i don't really see any pitchers over the age of 35 with more than 2 stars - but i will try the filter - i think that makes sense.

I hate tinkering with the talent/aging sliders as i don't want to taint the league - i generally like the stat results as a whole across the board (lg batting average of 255 era of 4.00).......it's just seeing these star pitchers become wash-ups well before their time that concerns me.

By any number of measurements pitchers do drop off by age 35. Even with the data I gave you earlier. It actually shows that the high inning 35+ pitchers are just inning eaters not really that good. If you look at all pitchers by WAR ERA+ and FIP you don't see more than 1 or 2 35+ guys and not in every category. You do see the 24-30 group in all categories which matches what our eyes see on the field. See below for FIP, you'll have to take my word that the others are similar or check for yourself.

Keep in mind that SP over 35 make up only 13/44 pitchers in MLB in that category. You might want to look at the total number of pitchers you have at 35+.

[JMDurron]

I think that your settings are fine, but your expectations are off, if you expect stud pitchers at 35 years of age to be roughly as effective as they were 2 years closer to their peak seasons. 35-year-old aces should be the rare exception to the rule.

[RchW]

Here's a perfect example. Neel won the Cy in 2069-70 and declined in his age 35 season. Maybe not as bad as the OP but in no way unexpected.

[Matt Arnold]

I'm upset that Chapman fell off the cliff in my game. He was a top closer in the league, and then practically overnight he's barely MLB-calibre. His FB is down to 88-90 range.

Okay, granted, that happened when he turned 41, but still...