Coaching 101

Coach hiring is probably the toughest thing there is in HBD. If done right can reward most of your players in your organization one way or another combined with training. I really never looked at coach hiring too much in the past, all I mostly did was find the best rated coach and went for him. But after the last coaching update and reading the forums I have deduced there may be a winning formula with coaches. I have come to the conclusion that coaching doesn't really help you win games in all reality, the players do that. What the coaches do in essence is help the players be better to win games just like in RL. Ok, sometimes coaching strategy may win a game here and there but not every time.

Note: I like the patience and discipline of all coaches over 50 and higher if I can get them. I also like a higher discipline than patience at the ML level unless I have a young team. In the minors I prefer this reversed. I read somewhere that the higher of the two will override the other. What do these two traits do? Supposedly, Patience equates to teaching and Discipline equates to fundamentals. Which one is better I am not totally sure as I most generally get about the same results with either.

The ML Bench Coach is the most sought after job by any coach. His relevance here though is a little mystical. In RL it is a prime position because the next step is to be the manager of a big league club, but in HBD it doesn't go any further unless the manager (you) gets kicked out of the game.

The Bench Coach - His primary trait is strategy, so this should be above 70. Some other things to consider is his other traits, I try to get a good even mix and the higher the better.

The Hitting Coach - His primary trait is hitting so it should be above 75. The other traits being of a good even mix if possible, though I will go with a higher glove and base running IQ over pitching.

The Pitching Coach - His biggest trait is pitching so it should be above 75. The other traits I like is base running and hitting over glove.

The Bullpen Coach - His biggest trait is pitching also and should be above 65. I am not sure the other traits really apply all that much. Unless of course you want him to advance in your organization one day.

The 1B and 3B Coach - His biggest trait is Base running IQ and should be above 50 for 1B and 70 for 3B. The other traits you would want are a higher strategy, hitting and pitching.

The Fielding Instructor - His primary trait is glove and should be above 70 with a high patience and the others as best as possible. I tend to like discipline and strategy also.

The minor league coaches I tend to try and find adequate coaches with primaries above 50 (not always) with hitting coaches having high glove ratings and pitching coaches with high base running IQ and bench coaches with a high mix across the board or glove if I have to settle lower. However, in the minors this is a little tough in most instances to find these kind of coaches so a little give or take is necessary most of the time.

Some things I have noticed: If you have a high training budget the minors will benefit from the FI, if either your minor league bench coach or hitting coach (or both) have a high glove rating also. Here is my thinking on that, after Spring Training the FI only visits the minors twice during the season and that is only to evaluate players and see if they are in the right position. He doesn't have time to teach everybody so he teaches the coaches. It is my feeling that he may teach the bench coach or the coach with the highest glove rating. I tend to see higher glove points handed out when both coaches have a high glove rating (over 35), it can add +2 to +3 at each bump, that is what I have been seeing using this method. That is not every player by the way, I always thought it would be the player with the highest makeup. But it looks like the biggest gains are the ones with the biggest gap between current and projected. The others get bumps across the board that have the high makeup.

So now you are ready to make offers to coaches. I usually find the one I like at each category and send an offer to fill my vacancies, just one. I don't offer more than one for any position, I used to, not any more. I wait for his return email so I can decipher what it means. If you get a return of "that is about what I expected" let it ride. "another club is offering more" I will increase the offer. "another club is offering a higher level" I will see if it is still vacant and offer him the same job if he fits. Those that reply with a sob story I drop immediately and pursue others. For one I don't follow the money trail unless it says "another club beat your offer". The reason, he is playing another club that he really wants to sign with for more money. There is a good chance he ends up with no job in the end. I really could care less if any coach signs with my team at the end of the first wave. About 50% of the coaches sign at the first wave. At the end of the first hiring wave and you still have unfilled vacancies, check your previous coaches and see if they are still unsigned. If they are and you would like to sign these coaches, send them a modest tender offer over their asking price. Chances are good they will drop a team that is offering more money to come back. One thing to note, any coach will take a bench coach job after the first wave at the minimum salary I have figured out, hasn't failed yet anyway. The only reason one won't is if there is another coach that wants that job and that holds true for all of them. The catch is that you have to figure out which coach and that is the tough part. If a minor league coach refuses to sign for a ML job for any reason, there is a coach that out ranks him somewhere that wants that job. If it happens to be your old coach that you don't want, you may have to persevere a bit.