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Improvement Chances are the means by which players improve (i.e. increase their numerical value) in each individual skill area. The higher the value, the better that player is in that skill area. An IC is an opportunity for that player to improve. A player who receives an IC must also 'convert' that IC in order to receive an improvement in that skill. As each player accumulates and converts ICs, their skill levels increase. Each player will improve at a different rate, based on age, current skill, and other factors. Major League ICs are accumulated differently than Minor League ICs.
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Major league improvements are earned during the season and may be converted during the off-season; they are accrued based primarily on playing time. Major league improvements are modified by a multiplier based on your mentoring score. Teams with around 50% mentoring or a C+ score will see improvements earned at the rates below. Teams with high scores will see them accrue slightly faster. Teams with lower scores will accrue improvements more slowly.
The more a pitcher pitches, and the more games he pitches in, the more chances he will earn, before mentoring. Pitchers will begin to see diminishing returns around their 40th improvement with each improvement chance more difficult to earn. Pitchers 27 or younger may also see health problems due to overuse.
Each Inning Pitched earns .1 IC.
Each appearance (game) earns .15 IC.
Pitchers on the major league roster may earn .16 IC if he has appeared in the past 8 days. If he has not, he may also earn .1 IC if he has pitched in that past 10 days. If he has not, a .05 IC bonus is available if he has pitched in the past 12 days. Finally, if that does not apply, there is a .02 IC accrual for pitcher pitching in the past 15 days. If the pitcher has not pitched in the past 15 days, he will accrue no chances based on being on the roster. Only one of these options (the greatest) will be applied to any pitcher.
The 0.1*IP + 0.15*G + (.16 / .1 / .05 / .02 / 0.0) will be modified each game by that game's mentoring score. Starting pitchers are affected by starting pitcher mentoring; relievers are affected by relief pitcher mentoring. The total IC's accrued to-date during a season is available on the Player Card or in the Improvement Report.
Batters receive 0.1 IC's per plate appearance. Or, 1 IC per 10 plate appearances. This total is modified by team mentoring scores for each game in which they appear at the plate.
Major League ICs are converted into skill improvements during the off-season. A players skill remains constant during the year while on the Major League roster. The IC conversion rate is primarily based on age and current skill level. For player age, there is a “sweet spot” of about 23-25 yrs of age where players will convert the highest percentage of ICs in the Major Leagues. Players younger (and older) than this sweet will convert fewer ICs. Bringing up a younger player into the Major Leagues too soon might jeopardize his potential. Minor League IC conversion rates are generally better for younger players (22 and below).
The better a player is in a skill, the less chance he has of converting an improvement chance. Skills are grouped together for this calculation, which is sometimes referred to as Bundling. The following skills are bundled for improvement conversions: Control & Velocity, Contact vs RHP & Power vs RHP, Contact vs LHP & Power vs LHP, and Arm & Range. One effect bundling has is that it allows for a wider variety of player types. If a player is a much better power hitter than contact hitter, he will remain that way for his career.
| Best | Worst | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 | 23, 25 | 22, 26 | 21, 27 | <21, 28 | 29 | 30 | 31-33 | >33 |
| Best | Worst | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23, 24 | 22, 25 | 26 | 21 | 27 | <21 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31-33 | >33 |
In the major leagues, your team will get 3 Mentoring scores after each game: Batters, Starting Pitchers, and Relief Pitchers. You can see what your score was for each game by reviewing the Game Notes in the boxscore of each game. Each player on your team who is 28 years of age or older has an effect on your team's Mentoring score. A C+ mentoring score is considered average. Any player with a mentoring grade higher than F will raise the your team's game mentoring score; the higher the player's mentoring grade, the greater his effect will be. An individual player's Mentor Value is calculated using 3 components: Age, Skill, and Leadership. Having high values in each of these will give a player a high Mentor Score.
For position players, a player will increase your team's mentoring score more if he is in your starting lineup rather than on the bench. A veteran catcher has an effect on pitchers as well - with his Range being a big component. A player's in-game overall rating is used in the calculation - so if he hits lefties better than righties, he will count for a bit more when you're facing an LHP - and if you're playing a catcher at shortstop, his overall rating is calculated using his defensive skills at shortstop.
If your team wins the game and the team you beat is ahead of you in the standings, your mentor values for that game will get a slight bump across the board, depending on how many games ahead of you the other team is. This gives you an incentive to try to beat teams that are better than you - especially teams that are really far ahead of you in the standings.
Younger players need mentoring more than older players do. An 18-year-old player will get more out of mentoring than a 26-year-old will. Mentoring has no direct impact on in-game player performance, only on the number of improvement chances young players receive.
Coaching Points (CPs) tells the minor league coaches how serious you are about developing a player, and whether your minor league coaching staff should focus on one player over another. The more Coach Points assigned to a player the more ICs that player is likely to receive. Each team has 15 coach points they are able to assign to players on their minor league roster, with a maximum of 5 points on any one player.
Each player (minimum of 15 players) receives one invisible, required coaching point for being on the roster which is taken into consideration when dividing coaching attention. For this reason, it is advisable to keep roster size close to 15 players as possible. Going below 15 player has no advantage, but staying above 15 will result in fewer improvements for players assigned visible coaching points.
A minor league team will have 15 assigned visible coaching points and 15 or more automatic invisible coaching points for a total of 30 (or more) coaching points.
Each team will have two opportunities for improvement based upon their coaching point allocations. ABE will make a random selection with each player having a chance equal to their assigned plus invisible coaching points divided by the total number of coaching points.
If your minor league roster has less than the minimum 15 players, you might find that only one (or even no )of your two CP-based Improvement Chances were earned during a game. This is because ABE looks to assign a random IC based on a minimum of 15 players. If there are only 14 players, there is a "hole" in one of the player spots, and ABE may assign an IC to this hole. If this occurs, no player earned that IC, and that IC went to waste. ABE will also not display an improvement chance if an ineligble player is selected due to injury or recent demotion after major league use.
If you have less than 15 visible coaching points assigned, your team may also have less than two CP-based improvement chances.
Each minor league team will have one additional (3rd) opportunity to improve each game, with one player selected from among all players on the minor league roster not recieving special coaching attention - 2 or more CP's. So all players with 0 or 1 assigned, visible CP's are equally eligible and likely to recieve this third improvement chance.
Once a player is selected for an improvement chance - either one of the two CP-based chances or the reverse or non-CP chance - ABE will determine whether or not the player has improve and display the information in that day's major league box score. Chances that do not improve will be denoted by a "Cory Snyder not respond to coaching in Contact_vs_Righty" message. You should not read anything into a single lack of improvement, just as you would not read anything into a batter's single strikeout. However, you may want to read something into a continued pattern of non-improvement; that player may either be too old or too good to get much better and Coach Points may be better spent elsewhere.
Any improvements in the minor leagues take affect immediately. If the improvement(s) cause a the skill to cross into a new letter grade range, the card will be updated immediately as well.
As in the Major Leagues, the Minor League IC conversion rate is based on many things, but is primarily based on age and current skill level. Hitters have a greater chance of improving - all things being equal - because each individual improvement in a skill has less of an effect on their overall ratings and performance. The below percentages are based on average skill (C+ / 50).
| <20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31-33 | >33 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26% | 24% | 22% | 20% | 18% | 16% | 14% | 13% | 10% | 8% | 6% | 3% | 1% |
| <20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31-33 | >33 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 80% | 73% | 66% | 60% | 55% | 50% | 45% | 40% | 33% | 26% | 20% | 10% | 5% |
Current skill level also plays an important role in determining success or failure of an improvement change conversion. The better a player already is, the less likely he is to improve in a given skill set. Skills are bundled into sets so that any skill in that set improves based on the average skill level in that bundle.
Bundles
Power vs RHP* and Contact vs RHP
Power vs LHP* and Contact vs LHP
Speed
Arm and Range
Control* and Velocity
Endurance
*At this time, these skills recieve additional weight within the bundle due to their importance in the game.