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#2 pick becomes useless the day after the draft

Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2016 9:53 pm
by Al B
Behold the tale of Ryszard Bednorz, the prospect who wasn't.

You may have clicked on the link and asked yourself, "why the hell would anybody use the #2 pick in the draft on that guy?"

The knee-jerk answer is "nobody", but the after-the-facts-are-known answer is "probably anybody, because 'that guy' wasn't 'that guy' when he was drafted."

Check out Exhibits 1 and 2:
Bednorz_disaster_1.jpg
Bednorz_disaster_1.jpg (103.73 KiB) Viewed 8249 times
Bednorz_disaster_2.jpg
Bednorz_disaster_2.jpg (130.42 KiB) Viewed 8249 times
He was a potential 5-star player the day I drafted him, and the day after the draft ended his potential had plummeted to 1 star (or 1 1/2 according to my generous scout).

My first reaction to this was "this is some kind of mistake, somehow Bednorz' ratings got switched with someone else's," but this is OOTP. OOTP will sometimes just decimate a player's ratings, no explanation given. Not that an explanation would have reversed the decimation, but considering how the game loves to regale us with tales of players tripping over their dogs and falling down the stairs or slicing their thumbs while dicing papayas (things which rarely, if ever, effect their ratings), it would have been nice to have been afforded some insight as to what event or series of events caused the second most promising slugger in the draft to turn into a "below-average hitter" who "just isn't consistent enough to be reliable" a month after every scout in town thought he had 5 power potential.

It's a rotten stroke of luck, to be sure, but bad luck probably isn't any more prevalent in OOTP than it is in real baseball, or for that matter, real life. The fact that this change occurred before the player even stepped onto the field is galling but ultimately no more devastating than if it had happened after a year in AA ball, since that's where he was headed to begin his professional career.

Whatever, there's nothing I can do about it except bitch about it, and I think the past few paragraphs satisfies that requirement. So, moving on...

Re: #2 pick becomes useless the day after the draft

Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2016 10:31 pm
by TristramsDad

Re: #2 pick becomes useless the day after the draft

Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2016 10:46 pm
by Al B
Make me wanna holla.

Re: #2 pick becomes useless the day after the draft

Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2016 9:03 pm
by Al B
UPDATE

In spite of the insta-plummet in his offensive ratings, I went ahead and treated Bednorz as if he were my #1 draft pick last year (since he was my #1 draft pick last year). I made him the everyday left fielder at AA, and batted him third in the order.

He responded with a .247/.359/.424 line (not bad for this league) in 28 games, but then went out for six weeks with a sprained ankle. When he was healthy again OOTP gave him the "green arrow", suggesting he was ready for AAA. I promoted him, and this time he really responded: .300/.353/.493 the rest of the way. His ratings were still crap, but performance-wise he truly looked like a prospect.

On 1/1/19, OSA's re-assessment had jacked his current and potential ratings up considerably. He's now a 3/3 CON, 4/4 GAP, 3/3 POW, 2/3 EYE; still considerably below his original pre-draft ratings, but considerably better than where they were when they bottomed out on 2/3/18.

Bednorz' impressive professional debut was part of the reason I chose not to re-sign the 39-year old Larry Dares; my hope was that my #1 pick from last year would be my starting left fielder this year.

He's getting his shot. He was my Opening Day left fielder; he went 0-3. After going hitless in his first three games, he sprung to life with two hits in four at-bats--including a three-run homer--in a game that we won 8-5. OOTP named him the Player of the Game. He picked up an RBI double in the following game, which we won by one run.

With his average still below .170 in his 5-game big league career, it's a bit premature to say he's arrived. But I think he's a good bet to have a decent career. We'll check in on him again at some point.

Re: #2 pick becomes useless the day after the draft

Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2016 11:06 pm
by commish
Image

Here is our guy in the AAA uniform which I will probably upgrade in the near future.