In general, a player's skills will peak at about 28 years of age. However, each skill has a different growth curve and may actually peak earlier or later than 28. Although each player is unique and can vary from the norm, the following guidelines can be used when gauging the effects of aging on player skills:

1. Contact hitting (CH) is a younger player's skill. Although teen-aged players will not likely start with a large portion of their potential, they will improve quickly and should peak before they reach 28 years of age. Players should maintain their contact hitting well into their 30's before they start to decline in skill.

2. Power hitting (PH) is an older player's skill. Teen-aged players will not likely start with a majority of their potential and will not improve as quickly as with contact hitting, but will start to see greater improvements as they get stronger in their mid-20's and will continue past age 28. Power hitting is maintained by players into their late 30's, but should show a sharp decline as they age further.

3. Speed (SP) is a young player's skill and is pretty much established as a teenager. Player's may see some minor improvement in their speed as they get older, but a player's speed should peak well before he is 28 years old. Players start to lose speed as they get into their mid-30's and their speed decline is rapid.

4. Fielding ability (FA) is a skill that established early, but has room for moderate growth. Players will generally peak at about 28 years of age with their fielding ability and will maintain it throughout their career.

5. Arm strength (AS) is similar to speed in that teen-aged pitchers and position players already have almost all the arm strength they will achieve, but with room for minor growth. Arm strength is generally maintained by the player or pitcher until somewhere around 40 years of age and then will generally decline rapidly.

6. Control (CO) is an older pitcher's skill and, like power hitting, will show a slower early development with an accelerated growth as the player hits his mid-20's and continuing past 28. Pitchers will generally retain most of their control into their 40's.

7. Endurance (EN) is an established skill with nominal growth and will be maintained well into the late 30's, but will generally start to show a sharp decline thereafter.

8. Hold runner (HdRn) is a skill in which a pitcher can show moderate growth, peaking at about 28 and maintaining throughout his career.

9. Pitch ratings (FB, SI, SL, CB, CU, SC, KN) are usually established, but can show moderate growth. In rare cases a pitcher may have a hidden ability in the knuckle ball or screwball pitches, but otherwise, if a pitcher has no ability to throw a pitch, he won't learn it.

All players have several basic ratings, which range from 0 to 99. These numbers indicate the player’s current skill levels. The higher the numeric rating, the more skill the player possesses. The lower the rating, the lower the skill level. An average rating is 50 in all categories. The ratings are divided into two categories: Batting/Fielding and Pitching. However, since pitchers can bat, and batters may occasionally pitch, all players are rated in both categories.

In a Career Association, certain skill ratings will change during the course of a player’s career, improving from work during spring training and slowly declining as the player ages.

Each player has three different sets of ratings, which are used at various points:

Actual ratings represent the player’s normal performance levels as shown on the roster screen. Actual ratings do not change during the season.
Potential ratings represent the maximum level the player may reach in his career. You will never actually see a player’s potential ratings displayed anywhere within FPS: Baseball. A player’s actual ratings may increase during spring training and aging, but will never surpass the level of his potential ratings.

Effective ratings are up-to-the-minute player ratings used during a game. The effects of injuries, pitcher fatigue, and any situational modifiers are reflected in a player’s effective ratings.

Player Ratings:
Batting/Fielding
Contact Hitting (CH)
This rating indicates how often the player makes contact, putting the ball into play.

Power Hitting (PH)
This rating indicates how hard the player hits the ball.

Speed (SP)
This rating indicates how fast the player runs.

Fielding Ability (FA)
This rating indicates how well the player plays his primary defensive position.

Arm Strength (AS)
This rating indicates both how far and how accurately a fielder can throw the ball.

Pull (Pull)
This rating indicates how likely the batter is to pull the ball. Right-handed batters "pull" the ball when they hit it towards left field. Conversely, left-handed batters pull the ball when the hit it towards right field. A batter whose Pull is 70 or more is a strong pull hitter, one whose Pull is near 50 is a spray hitter, and one whose Pull is 30 or less is an opposite field hitter.

Groundball/Flyball (G/F)
This rating indicates how likely the batter is to hit the ball on the ground or in the air. A batter with a high G/F rating hits more on the ground; one with a low G/F hits more in the air.

Batting Situational Modifiers
These modify the CH and PH ratings of the batter. If a batter has a situational rating of 50 (average), it means the situation has no effect on his performance. A rating over 50 indicates that he does better than normal in this situation. A rating under 50 means he does worse than normal in this situation.

The two non-monthly situational modifiers (vs. L, Home) have implied 'opposite' ratings, which can be figured by subtracting the rating from 100. (For example, a batter with a vs. L. rating of 55 has an implied vs. R rating of 45.) The two situational modifiers, ScPos and C&L, show how well a player does in those situations.

The six monthly modifiers indicate an overall proficiency of a player during a given month. For instance, a player with an August modifier rating of 40 compared with ratings of over 50 for all other months, is likely to slump in all ratings during August.
All situational modifiers have a range of 40 to 60, except vs. L, which runs from 35 to 65.

vs. L: vs. Left-handed pitching situational modifier
ScPos: Scoring Position situational modifier
C&L: Close and Late situational modifier
Home: Home situational modifier
Apr: April situational modifier
May: May situational modifier
Jun: June situational modifier
Jul: July situational modifier
Aug: August situational modifier
S/O: September/October situational modifier

Player Ratings:
Pitching

All players have pitching ratings, even if their primary position is not pitching. The ratings are as follows:

Holding Runners (HdRn)
This rating indicates how effectively the pitcher holds base runners.

Endurance (EN)
This rating indicates how many pitches a pitcher can throw in a game before losing his effectiveness. While this rating determines the number of pitches that can be thrown before tiring, the value of the rating does not represent the actual number of pitches.

Control (CO)
This rating indicates how accurately the pitcher throws at his target location

Groundball/Flyball (G/F)
This rating indicates how likely the batter is to hit the pitcher’s pitch on the ground or in the air. A pitcher with a high G/F rating gets more pitches hit on the ground; one with a low G/F has more hit in the air.

Arm Strength (AS)
This rating helps determine the speed of the pitcher's fastball.

Fastball (FB)
This is the standard pitch that nearly every pitcher has in his repertoire. Its flight path is essentially straight from the pitcher’s hand to the targeted location in the strike zone.

Curveball (CB)
The basic breaking ball, this pitch curves down and away from a batter batting from the same side of the plate as the pitcher is throwing (both are right-handed or both are left-handed).

Change-up (CU)
Also known as an off-speed pitch, the change-up is about 15 M.P.H. slower than the pitcher’s fastball.

Slider (SL)
A cross between a fastball and a curve, a slider breaks away from a same-handed batter like the curveball. The slider has more horizontal break than vertical break.

Sinker (SI)
This pitch has very little horizontal break, but drops substantially when it reaches the plate.

Screwball (SC)
A "reverse curveball," this pitch breaks in toward a same-handed batter.

Knuckleball (KN)
A pitch thrown with almost no spin, the knuckleball is susceptible to any random air currents between the mound and plate and breaks very unpredictably.

A pitcher will have a rating for each of the seven pitches, but if he has more than four pitches, only the best four pitches are available in games.

Pitching Situational Modifiers
These modify the ratings of the pitcher. If a pitcher has a situational rating of 50, it means the situation has no effect on his performance. A rating under 50 indicates that he does worse than normal in this situation. A rating over 50 means he does better than normal in this situation.

The two non-monthly situational modifiers (vs. L, Home) have implied 'opposite' ratings, which can be figured by subtracting the rating from 100. (For example, a pitcher with a vs. L. rating of 55 has an implied vs. R rating of 45.) The two situational modifiers, ScPos and C&L, show how well a pitcher does in those situations.

The six monthly modifiers indicate an overall proficiency of a pitcher during a given month. For instance, a pitcher with an August modifier rating of 40 compared with ratings of over 50 for all other months, is likely to slump in all ratings during August.

vs. L: vs. Left-handed batters situational modifier
ScPos: Scoring Position situational modifier
C&L: Close and Late situational modifier
Home: Home situational modifier
Apr: April situational modifier
May: May situational modifier
Jun: June situational modifier
Jul: July situational modifier
Aug: August situational modifier
S/O: September/October situational modifier

Ratings Index

Player Data Columns

NO - Uniform Number
POSN - Primary defensive Position
QPOS - Qualified Position
B - Batting Hand
T - Throwing Hand
AGE - Age as of the current date on the game
EXP - Experience at the Major league level
SLOT - Roster slot occupied by this player
ACT - Active Roster
AAA - AAA Minor League
DL - Disabled List
LOW - Low Minors
HEALTH - Current health status of the player
AVAIL - Number of pitches the player has available before becoming Exhausted

Batting Ratings
CH - Contact Hitting
PH - Power Hitting
SP - Speed
G/F - Groundball/Flyball - How likely the batter is to hit it on the ground or in the air
Pull - Pull - How likely the batter is to pull the ball

Batting Situational Modifiers
vs. L - versus lefties modifier
ScPos - Scoring Position Modifier
C&L - Close and Late situational modifier
Home - Home situational modifier
Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug - Situational modifier for each of the months
S/O - September and October situational modifier

Fielding
AS - Arm Strength
FA:P - FA:RF - indicates how well the player fields at each of the positions

Pitching Ratings
HdRn - Holding Runners
EN - Endurance
CO - Control
G/F - Groundball/Flyball - Indicates how likely the batter is to hit a grounder of flyaball against the pitcher
AS - Arm Strength

Pitches
FB - Fastball
CB - Curveball
CU - Changeup
SL - Slider
SI - Sinker
SC - Screwball
KN - Knuckleball

Pitcher Situational Modifiers
Shown above