Players consistently peaking in their early 20s

HuntSchmitt · 11-22-2024, 12:18 PM

Hi all,

I have browsed other threads but have not found this question to come up. I have had this happen in both OOTP 24 and 25 -- both in fictional and live starts.

In sum, players are almost always having their best years in the age 22-26 range, and then fall off as they age beyond that.

Now, I understand that for some guys that are 45-50 overall that their peak will be the mid to late 20s, but this is happening at the top level as well. It is not uncommon -- standard, actually -- for a guy to be 7+ war at age 23, 24, and 25, and then ~3 war at age 28, 29, 30 (Silver Sluggers are almost always guys in the 22-26 range). Note that this happens regardless of whether it is a contact guy, power guy, speedster, fielder, etc. (i.e., it is not just fielding or SBs inflating the war). This happens with pitchers as well, though to a lesser extent.

Has anybody encountered this? I have tried setting the dev age to older, slowing the dev speed, etc. This has happened in leagues anywhere from 26 teams to 48 teams. I know that young guys are inflated in the live starts, but it still happens in year ~2050 of those leagues and in fictional leagues as well.

I would love to know what is happening under the hood. Is there too many good young players, and thus they are just overtaking the older guys? I have had as many as 40 generated draft rounds, and as few as 20 -- with the same results in both. I do not touch the player modifiers or sim engine at all. It is not injuries derailing these seasons either. Guys will regularly play 150+ games and still have the drop off (I usually keep injuries at the default, but sometimes I set long term injuries one notch lower).

Any thoughts? Happy to provide any additional information.

Murcer · 11-24-2024, 03:15 PM

I noticed this as well and tested a number of settings to try to push back hitter peak seasons. After looking at OPS and ERA by age, I eventually went with:
Batting Aging Speed: .80
Batter Dev Speed: .38
Pitcher Aging Speed: .80
Pitcher Dev Speed: 1.0

The pitcher development seemed ok to me but it bugged me that hitters were peaking at 22 or 23. Using the .38 pushes the peak back a few years which felt more realistic to me.

HuntSchmitt · 11-24-2024, 05:48 PM

Great, thanks a lot! I will try it on my next sim and report back.

HuntSchmitt · 12-02-2024, 03:40 PM

This did not do it for me. It just led to the league having a handful of superstars and the rest of the big leaguers being 35-40, with the occasional 45-50. Guys were outperforming their rating of course but still were peaking early/at the beginning of their career -- even the 3-4 superstars were not replicating their peak years in their early 20s.

My thought is that something is happening where the league totals are not on pace to be hit (say for home runs, hits, Ks, etc.) and thus the sim engine is responding by boosting younger players performance (idk if that even is a thing) so that top guys are still performing at/near their preseason predictions. Still, those now-28-years-old top guys were 7-8 war guys in their first two-three years in the league, and now are steady 4-5 war guys.

My thought now is that maybe there are not enough good players? so young guys are having outlier years to cover up the gaps in reaching the league totals? Idk, but I am going to try a sim where I slightly bump the development up while slightly turning talent change randomness down.

11-22-2024, 12:18 PM	#1
HuntSchmitt Bat Boy Join Date: May 2019 Posts: 12	Players consistently peaking in their early 20s Hi all, I have browsed other threads but have not found this question to come up. I have had this happen in both OOTP 24 and 25 -- both in fictional and live starts. In sum, players are almost always having their best years in the age 22-26 range, and then fall off as they age beyond that. Now, I understand that for some guys that are 45-50 overall that their peak will be the mid to late 20s, but this is happening at the top level as well. It is not uncommon -- standard, actually -- for a guy to be 7+ war at age 23, 24, and 25, and then ~3 war at age 28, 29, 30 (Silver Sluggers are almost always guys in the 22-26 range). Note that this happens regardless of whether it is a contact guy, power guy, speedster, fielder, etc. (i.e., it is not just fielding or SBs inflating the war). This happens with pitchers as well, though to a lesser extent. Has anybody encountered this? I have tried setting the dev age to older, slowing the dev speed, etc. This has happened in leagues anywhere from 26 teams to 48 teams. I know that young guys are inflated in the live starts, but it still happens in year ~2050 of those leagues and in fictional leagues as well. I would love to know what is happening under the hood. Is there too many good young players, and thus they are just overtaking the older guys? I have had as many as 40 generated draft rounds, and as few as 20 -- with the same results in both. I do not touch the player modifiers or sim engine at all. It is not injuries derailing these seasons either. Guys will regularly play 150+ games and still have the drop off (I usually keep injuries at the default, but sometimes I set long term injuries one notch lower). Any thoughts? Happy to provide any additional information.

11-24-2024, 03:15 PM	#2
Murcer Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Jul 2011 Posts: 247	I noticed this as well and tested a number of settings to try to push back hitter peak seasons. After looking at OPS and ERA by age, I eventually went with: Batting Aging Speed: .80 Batter Dev Speed: .38 Pitcher Aging Speed: .80 Pitcher Dev Speed: 1.0 The pitcher development seemed ok to me but it bugged me that hitters were peaking at 22 or 23. Using the .38 pushes the peak back a few years which felt more realistic to me.

11-24-2024, 05:48 PM	#3
HuntSchmitt Bat Boy Join Date: May 2019 Posts: 12	Great, thanks a lot! I will try it on my next sim and report back.

12-02-2024, 03:40 PM	#4
HuntSchmitt Bat Boy Join Date: May 2019 Posts: 12	This did not do it for me. It just led to the league having a handful of superstars and the rest of the big leaguers being 35-40, with the occasional 45-50. Guys were outperforming their rating of course but still were peaking early/at the beginning of their career -- even the 3-4 superstars were not replicating their peak years in their early 20s. My thought is that something is happening where the league totals are not on pace to be hit (say for home runs, hits, Ks, etc.) and thus the sim engine is responding by boosting younger players performance (idk if that even is a thing) so that top guys are still performing at/near their preseason predictions. Still, those now-28-years-old top guys were 7-8 war guys in their first two-three years in the league, and now are steady 4-5 war guys. My thought now is that maybe there are not enough good players? so young guys are having outlier years to cover up the gaps in reaching the league totals? Idk, but I am going to try a sim where I slightly bump the development up while slightly turning talent change randomness down.