Elbow Ligament Reconstruction Surgery -- What Can I Expect in 12 Months

[American_Ernesider]

On 10/20/2022 in the midst of a playoff run, my top regular season (likely not my top pitcher though) pitcher got injured and I was informed he needed elbow ligament reconstruction surgery.

This was tough news to take. He had really strong #s in pretty much all categories.

Now I have to figure out what to do for 12 months. My question to the board --

Based on your OOTP in-game experience and/or understanding, what can I expect when he returns? Will he come back a year older, but little other impact? Or can I expect a drop in any ratings?

Thanks!

[tcoots423]

Originally Posted by American_Ernesider

On 10/20/2022 in the midst of a playoff run, my top regular season (likely not my top pitcher though) pitcher got injured and I was informed he needed elbow ligament reconstruction surgery.

This was tough news to take. He had really strong #s in pretty much all categories.

Now I have to figure out what to do for 12 months. My question to the board --

Based on your OOTP in-game experience and/or understanding, what can I expect when he returns? Will he come back a year older, but little other impact? Or can I expect a drop in any ratings?

Thanks!

Missing a year can drop ratings and could stunt any potential he had. If he is a big enough star he could come back and get back to what he was and sometimes ive seen them stay the same.. This game does a great job of having any aspect happen. Hell he could never recover and retire. If I were you I would place him on the 60 day DL and find someone to replace him because he wont be back next year at all.... Oh yea.. and say your prayers haha

[jpeters1734]

It depends. I've had a good 32 year old go down only to back a few years later and win the cy young. I also had a starter go down and lose all his stamina. I would plan for the worst and hope for the best.

[tcoots423]

Originally Posted by jpeters1734

It depends. I've had a good 32 year old go down only to back a few years later and win the cy young. I also had a starter go down and lose all his stamina. I would plan for the worst and hope for the best.

Exactly! Thats why I said I love how this game has so many variables and so many situations..

[American_Ernesider]

Thanks for the replies. I do like that I go in not knowing what the future will be. It was tough to get the news though, but a feature I like about the game.

[battists]

I think the game has greatly improved in this regard. I know not everyone is into the "roleplay" kind of stuff, but to me, injuries are an area where there is a huge opportunity to make things a little more manager-y.

For example, many baseball injuries aren't ones where BAM Bob is injured. They are the kinds where perhaps a player isn't performing very well, and over time it comes out that he has some tightness in his shoulder.

I think it would be super cool if OOTP modeled that. For example:

• SP Bob Smith is a four-star starter who normally puts up pretty good numbers. Maybe a 3.50 ERA etc. etc.
• Over a span of a month, Bob is getting shelled to the tune of a 8.00 ERA, although in OOTP no injury has been reported.
• As manager, you get a note from the pitching coach saying something like, "Boss, Smith is telling me he's been feeling some tightness in his shoulder. I think we should push back his next start." So you move him back a few days. (Maybe at this point OOTP shows him as day-to-day with shoulder inflammation.)
• He gets shelled again. Pitching coach says we're going to talk to the team physician and see what he says. (Depending on the time period, maybe he gets some tests done.)
• As manager, you get a note from the team doctor suggesting there is some inflammation in the shoulder joint, and we could either wait it out a bit or do an MRI.
• etc. etc. until finally he has to have the MRI, and it's revealed he has a partially torn rotator cuff or something. There could be things in here all along like articles where the pitcher talks about how he's been pitching through the pain for months now, etc.

I dunno, I think that sort of thing would be awesome.

[asheft]

Originally Posted by battists

I think the game has greatly improved in this regard. I know not everyone is into the "roleplay" kind of stuff, but to me, injuries are an area where there is a huge opportunity to make things a little more manager-y.

For example, many baseball injuries aren't ones where BAM Bob is injured. They are the kinds where perhaps a player isn't performing very well, and over time it comes out that he has some tightness in his shoulder.

I think it would be super cool if OOTP modeled that. For example:

• SP Bob Smith is a four-star starter who normally puts up pretty good numbers. Maybe a 3.50 ERA etc. etc.
• Over a span of a month, Bob is getting shelled to the tune of a 8.00 ERA, although in OOTP no injury has been reported.
• As manager, you get a note from the pitching coach saying something like, "Boss, Smith is telling me he's been feeling some tightness in his shoulder. I think we should push back his next start." So you move him back a few days. (Maybe at this point OOTP shows him as day-to-day with shoulder inflammation.)
• He gets shelled again. Pitching coach says we're going to talk to the team physician and see what he says. (Depending on the time period, maybe he gets some tests done.)
• As manager, you get a note from the team doctor suggesting there is some inflammation in the shoulder joint, and we could either wait it out a bit or do an MRI.
• etc. etc. until finally he has to have the MRI, and it's revealed he has a partially torn rotator cuff or something. There could be things in here all along like articles where the pitcher talks about how he's been pitching through the pain for months now, etc.

I dunno, I think that sort of thing would be awesome.

I totally agree with this. I think that in general, injuries need to be a lot more dynamic. Things like the possibility to play long term with an injury and suffer decreased performance as you suggested (read: Angel Pagan), maybe tying that to loyalty and work ethic, or having multiple injuries, or rehabbing one injury and suffering a different one (read: Freddy Sanchez), or suffering and injury in a game and staying in only to come out and/or go on the DL later. And I think there also needs to be more fog as to how long a player is actually going to be out for. I've never really (or very rarely) seen actual players get diagnosed right after the game, and know exactly to the week or day how long they will be out for. I think more realistic than that would be initally giving the player something like "Moderate knee injury", and then later upgrading that to "Medium term knee dislocation, recommend placing on DL", and then gradually giving you updates on progress for their treatment and recovery. And the whole phantom DL thing needs to be represented somehow. Maybe not the blatant "we just want to get the guy off the roster but not cut him completely so we're going to put him on the DL", but so much of the time (in real life) I see DL activations coupled with placing other players on the DL, and due to, among other things, the all or nothing, immediate (most of the time, and when it's not there's no way to visually gauge "oh, that looks like a minor pull, he won't be out for very long" vs "he tore up his ankle and will be out for a long time he needs to go on the DL immediately") diagnosis, it's pretty rare that it actually works out that a player can go on the DL right when someone else comes off to balance out the roster. It makes it, IMO, a lot harder to manage the DL than it should be. There are tons of other possibilities for the injury system, I just wanted to get some of my ideas out to add on to what other posters have said, and I apologize if my overuse of paranthesis or commas made that post hard to read in any way...