OOTP Baseball:Screens and Menus/Player Development Lab

The Development Lab is a new feature added to OOTP 25. It gives you extra controls over how your players will grow over time. You can assign specific programs to players during the off-season in hopes of getting specific boosts in certain areas.

Find out more information about the lab here, in the developer's guide to the program.

The Player Development Lab (Also known as Practice Facility in Historic Games). This gives you more say in the development of your players, something that has never been seen before in OOTP. (Also check out Player Development Sliders)

Development Lab Specific Settings

Specific Development Lab settings can be found under Game > Game Settings > Players & Teams.

The Development Lab settings:

• Disable Player Development Lab - If you want to enable or disable the Development Lab in your game, use this check box. Checked means it is disabled and unchecked means it is enabled.
• Development Lab Size - This drop down box will allow you to change the slots available for you to use. It ranges from 1 to 20 slots. The Default is 6 slots. Click on the drop down box to see the options to choose from.

• Display Lab Specific Rating Changes in Completion Email - This setting will enable or disable the rating changes in the Development Lab email. Examples of the information sent in the emails:

Development Email when lab specifics email is disabled

Development Email when lab specifics email is enabled.

**NOTE** The numbers you will see in the completion emails depend on which rating scale you use. If you use 1-100 the numbers will be larger than 5 scale. If you use 1-5, 2-8, 1-10, or 1-20, the numbers seen in the completion email will be smaller than 5 scale.

This facility is open during the offseason and preseason, and includes weight rooms, batting cages, bullpens, training equipment, and more. While this facility is open you can send players here, where they will follow a training program designed to improve a specific part of their game.

Programs take different times to complete. You have short programs (4 to 5 weeks) and long programs (4 to 5 months). **NOTE** the length of your season will change these numbers. A shorter season will make the programs take longer (5 to 6 weeks or 5 to 6 months) and a longer season will makes these programs shorter. A player should be able to complete "3 short programs" or "1 long program and 1 short program" in an offseason.

Development Outcomes

Programs have four possible outcomes: Poor, No Improvement, Successful, and Outstanding. With an outstanding outcome, for some programs you will get a potential rating boost, and with others you might get a bonus improvement.

Not all poor results will give a negative outcome, but some will regress your ratings. Also, only what is seen in the Development Emails show what changed for your player. Looking at a scouting report shows ALL development from the last time your scout ran a report on that player. The Development Lab ONLY affects the stats from the program you ran and will not change other ratings. For example, if you put them through the Gap Power program, you will see in the dev lab email any changes that the development lab had on your player. What you see in scouting reports, are not what changed because of the Development Lab.

List of Development Programs

Development programs are split between common programs, pitcher-specific programs, and batter-specific programs. Different programs have different difficulties to complete them: Easy, Medium, Hard, and Very Hard.

Common Programs:

• Improve Defense
  • Pitcher - This program is considered EASY - On successful or outstanding completion this program will improve: Hold, Infield Arm, Infield Range, Infield Error, and Turn Double Play.
  • Catcher - This program is considered HARD - On successful or outstanding completion this program will improve: Catcher Arm, Blocking, and Framing ratings.
  • 1B - This program is considered Easy - On successful or outstanding completion this program will improve: Infield Arm, Infield Range, Infield Error, and Turn Double Play.
  • 2B and 3B - These programs are considered MEDIUM - On successful or outstanding completion this program will improve: Infield Arm, Infield Range, Infield Error, and Turn Double Play.
  • SS - This program is considered HARD - On successful or outstanding completion this program will improve: Infield Arm, Infield Range, Infield Error, and Turn Double Play.
  • LF and RF - These programs are considered EASY - On successful or outstanding completion this program will improve: Outfield Arm, Outfield Range, Outfield Error.
  • CF - This program is considered HARD - On Successful or Outstanding completion this program will improve: Outfield Arm, Outfield Range, Outfield Error.
  • Bunting Drills - This program is considered EASY and can be learned by all players, including pitchers. This will help improve Sacrifice Bunt and Bunt for Hit.
  • Strength and Conditioning - This program is considered HARD - This program can be used by anyone that has over 20 proneness in all 4 of the single proneness ratings: Overall Proneness, Back Proneness, Legs Proneness, and Arm Proneness. If any of these fall below 20 (these can be found in the Player Editor screen), this program will not show up in the list of programs to use. This program will not let you know in specifically what has improved, it will just say that your proneness improves from "old durability" like Normal to "new durability level" like Normal bordering on Durable. It will not give numbers. If you have a pitcher who gets an outstanding result they will have a chance at receiving a velocity boost. A batter who gets an outstanding outcome will have a chance at a small potential power rating boost.

Pitcher Specific Programs:

• Secondary Pitch Improvement - This program is considered EASY - On a successful program, this program will pick the pitcher's highest rated secondary pitch (non-fastball) and slightly improve it. This program has the possibility to improve the Changeup, Circle Change, Curveball, Cutter, Forkball, Knuckle Curve, Knuckleball, Screwball, Sinker, Slider, and Splitter. This program has no effect on the Fastball.
• Improve Control - This program is considered MEDIUM - A successful program will improve the pitcher's current control. If a player's control is maxed it will not give an improvement. On an outstanding program it will improve the current control and also the potential control of the pitcher. A poor program could regress the pitcher's control.
• Increase Pitch Movement - This program is considered MEDIUM - This program acts the same way as the Improve Control program. A successful program will improve the pitcher's current movement. If the pitcher's movement is maxed it will not give an improvement. An outstanding program will improve the current movement and also the potential movement of the pitcher.
• Improve Pitch Arsenal - This program is considered HARD - This program will not be shown if all the pitcher's pitches are 375 or over in both current and potential in the editor. This program will pick any pitch under the above requirement and improve it, including the fastball. Once all pitches exceed 375, in editor ratings, this program will be removed from your Development Lab Program List.
• Increase Velocity - This program is considered HARD - As long as your Velocity is below 99-101 Mph, this program will show up on your Development Lab list. Once your Velo reaches 99-101 this program will be removed as a program you can use. The Strength and Conditioning program can also give a Velo boost on an outstanding program.
• Endurance Training - This program is considered HARD - As long as your stamina is not maxed, this program will show up in your list to help improve your stamina.
• Add Pitch to Arsenal - This program is considered VERY HARD - On a successful program, this will add a random pitch not known to the pitcher already.

Batter Specific Programs:

• Baserunning Fundamentals - This program is considered VERY EASY - A successful or outstanding program will improve the player's baserunning abilities.
• Base-stealing Technique - This program is considered VERY EASY - A successful or outstanding program will improve the player's Stealing Aggressiveness and Stealing Ability.
• Running Mechanics - This program is considered MEDIUM - A successful or outstanding program will improve the player's speed.
• Plate Discipline - This program is considered MEDIUM - A successful program will improve the batter's current Eye. If a batter's Eye is maxed it will not give an improvement. On an outstanding program it will improve the current Eye and also the potential Eye of the batter.
• Gap Power - This program is considered MEDIUM - A successful program will improve the batter's current Gap Power. If a batter's Gap Power is maxed it will not give an improvement. On an outstanding program it will improve the current Gap Power and also the potential Gap Power of the batter.
• Quality of Contact - This program is considered HARD - A successful program will improve the batter's current BAPIP. If a batter's BABIP is maxed it will not give an improvement. On an outstanding program it will improve the current BABIP and also the potential BABIP of the batter.
• Two-strike Approach - This program is considered HARD - A successful program will improve the batter's current Avoid Ks. If a batter's Avoid Ks is maxed it will not give an improvement. On an outstanding program it will improve the current Avoid Ks and also the potential Avoid Ks of the batter.
• Generate Batspeed - This program is considered HARD - A successful program will improve the batter's current Power. If a batter's Power is maxed it will not give an improvement. On an outstanding program it will improve the current Power and also the potential Power of the batter.

Tips and Tricks

Having coaches with good development traits, players with positive personalities and good morale could possibly give a slight bonus at getting better outcomes. Making sure your development budget has enough money can also help with the development lab outcome.