2032 Offseason SIM 3 FA2 Complete - Next SIM FA3 Wednesday (AM) 7/10

[PaulC]

Really good point on this part. 55-55-55 type pitchers are kind of long relievers now or bullpen. Pawtucket had to do alot of magic tricks to get to .500 and it was alot of #4, #5 type guys.

My point still stand though not seeing alot of pitchers from our college's.

Actually in one scary part, I never checked the pitchers but out of our top 50 hitting prospects 8 of them were Intl "free guys" while that doesn't sound very bad most were usually at the top 25 portion.

I'm pretty sure real life "discoveries" really aren't like this. One was from England for Christ Sakes.

Yes Funclown... Yes!!

[PaulC]

Shark, all kidding aside this is becoming the issue. Check the top 50 prospects out most have been discovered.

Again, fine I suppose but this is not what we signed up for. I see some teams continue to just land them while others its just scrubs.

We might as well go back to the days of unlevel markets. Random is fine, but this can really tilt things besides the playing field. Its also giving team more trade power.

I know me and another GM spoke about this and this was an actual worry expressed at the time we voted.

The one you pay for PERFECTLY ok with it. Its a huge risk your taking, but its backed up by money so cool.

This is the drum I’ve been beating for awhile on Slack... I’m not sure the fix, but the current system seems broken!

[PaulC]

Discoveries should be disabled. Too random. I’m fine with bidding on internationals. The random scout discoveries was mentioned by me in the vote thread as a possible issue going forward. I think that issue is now here.

I love to make this a motion... They are far too random.

[PaulC]

See, I actually like the discoveries more than I like the IAFA signings, mainly because of control/success.

Quantity and quality of scouting discoveries are based on two factors: your scouting directors "international scouting" ability and the amount of money you allocate for "international scouting." After we lowered the scouting budget ceiling to $9M, there isn't really any team that has an upper hand here. I know a lot of GMs, myself include, left little to no money for international scouting until some legit prospects started showing up. I think the first 3+ seasons we had discoveries turned on, I just left my ITL budget at $0. Because that $9M is spread across four categories (majors, minors, amateurs, and ITL), if you really wanted to land the best discoveries, bumping your ITL budget north of $5M, along with a quality ITL scout, you will get a good return. Since I raised my budget considerably is when I found LF Richie Van Luik, SS JR Djojo, 1B Lonnie Obayana, SP Danny Ley and SP Mike Ponce. Those currently rank #1, #2, #4, #10 and #19 in my org Top 30. Granted, that's OSA, and every single one of those players, my scout likes less than OSA. But before then, all the guys my scout discovered I would cut before they even reached Rookie League because they had zero potential.

I'm however not the biggest fan of IAFA, mainly in effort to protect teams from making bad decisions. The margin of error in OOTP is very slim in a lot of areas. Prospects sometimes never develop. The star player you give a big contract to could decline rapidly. Etc. What I don't like about IAFA's is it's a LOT of money for a teenager that your scout has seen just one time. We have all seen players in the draft that at initial look, your scout or even more so OSA, absolutely LOVED out of the gate. But after a few full seasons in the feeder league, the reports start to decline and the stats don't project a great player. When you are deciding to fork over say, $5M+ (sometimes we have seen some go for $9M), for a 16yo your scout has seen one time, with no stats, that is insanely high risk. We see teams scramble to clear $5-$10M every year because the player declines, the team is over budget, etc. It might not seem like much but $5M can get you a lot of things in the BLB. It can add seats to your stadium. I landed a top 20 SP (at the time) in Bill Roman for $5.5M last year in FA. Bumping your overall scouting budget from say $3M to $8M, is going to make a ton of difference. Paul just signed possibly the best IFA of this class with less than $5M annually.

The fact that 40% of your top 10 are ‘discoveries’ is one of the things I really dislike about it. As a great team that picks late in the draft, spending money on discoveries has regelated the draft meaningless in Seattle’s case.

[Pat]

The fact that 40% of your top 10 are ‘discoveries’ is one of the things I really dislike about it. As a great team that picks late in the draft, spending money on discoveries has regelated the draft meaningless in Seattle’s case.

I’m not disagreeing with you there. I’ve been against IFA, IAFA and scouting discoveries.

I just don’t think discoveries should be turned off on the basis of being “too random.” I’d argue it’s probably more quantifiable than player development budget... scouting budget... personnel impact... etc. If you have a good ITL scout and you give him a higher budget, he’s going to find good discoveries.

[Hank]

I’m not disagreeing with you there. I’ve been against IFA, IAFA and scouting discoveries.

I just don’t think discoveries should be turned off on the basis of being “too random.” I’d argue it’s probably more quantifiable than player development budget... scouting budget... personnel impact... etc. If you have a good ITL scout and you give him a higher budget, he’s going to find good discoveries.

I have a great ITL scout and have $10M in development. Haven't discovered one top-100 prospect yet.*
The system is broken and should be shut-off.

*I've traded for two, but have never discovered one as of today.

[Sharkn20]

I have a great ITL scout and have $10M in development. Haven't discovered one top-100 prospect yet.*
The system is broken and should be shut-off.

*I've traded for two, but have never discovered one as of today.

Development isn't tied to random discoveries, appareantly as Pat says Money allocated to International Amateurs is.

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[PaulC]

Development isn't tied to random discoveries, appareantly as Pat says Money allocated to International Amateurs is.

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Either way... It seems like a feature that isn't working as we thought it would... These guys are littering the Top 10 and Top 100, which was not how it was sold at the beginning... Yes, it is early to tell, but based on the money being dumped into scouting, and being heaped on IAFAs, it is quite clear that quite a few people in our league feel that they are worth the extra cost. As much as everyone says it is too early too tell, that hasn't seemed to stop any of us from increasing budgets, or spending wildly on these lottery tickets...

[Sharkn20]

Either way... It seems like a feature that isn't working as we thought it would... These guys are littering the Top 10 and Top 100, which was not how it was sold at the beginning... Yes, it is early to tell, but based on the money being dumped into scouting, and being heaped on IAFAs, it is quite clear that quite a few people in our league feel that they are worth the extra cost. As much as everyone says it is too early too tell, that hasn't seemed to stop any of us from increasing budgets, or spending wildly on these lottery tickets...

What is clear is that there is some people in this league that don't listen and don't want to learn.

I give up, play as you wish, then moan.

See you in the opposite bench!

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[Hank]

What is clear is that there is some people in this league that don't listen and don't want to learn.

I give up, play as you wish, then moan.

Finally something we can agree with.

[Sharkn20]

Finally something we can agree with.

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[funclown]

Just think, this all started from a Pawtucket trade block!

[Pat]

I have a great ITL scout and have $10M in development. Haven't discovered one top-100 prospect yet.*
The system is broken and should be shut-off.

*I've traded for two, but have never discovered one as of today.

Like Shark said, development budget doesn't affect discoveries. Discoveries are based solely on your international scouting budget and your quality of scouting director: Your current scout is rated "Excellent" on international scouting. That's basically a 60 out of 80 scale. Poor, Fair, Average, Good, Great, Excellent, Outstanding, Legendary. According to the current scouts employed by BLB teams today, only four scouts have a worse international rating than Montreal's. So your current scout is T-20th out of 24 teams on international ability. Based on previous discussions on the importance you put on amateur scouting, I would guess that your international scouting budget is the one you are skimping on. FWIW, my current ITL scouting budget is 50% of my total scouting budget.

I don't follow your team enough to know if you have "never discovered a top 100 or not" but currently in your org top 30, a discovery is ranked 5th, 7th, and 15th. Considering that your two most recent amateur draft choices SP Larrie Johns (2.22) and SP Blake Clermont (4.12) rank 14th and 25th in your organization, you are still landing players that OSA thinks are good via discoveries, despite having a subpar international scout when compared to the rest of the league. And the jury is still out on how much you spend on ITL scouting budget.

Either way... It seems like a feature that isn't working as we thought it would... These guys are littering the Top 10 and Top 100, which was not how it was sold at the beginning... Yes, it is early to tell, but based on the money being dumped into scouting, and being heaped on IAFAs, it is quite clear that quite a few people in our league feel that they are worth the extra cost. As much as everyone says it is too early too tell, that hasn't seemed to stop any of us from increasing budgets, or spending wildly on these lottery tickets...

Isn't working like we thought it would? Like I said before, I feel discoveries are more quantifiable than a lot of OOTP features. Do we even know how player development works? Hank just stated in a previous post that he puts $10M into Player Development every year. What does that even do? If I spend $5 and Hank spends $10, it's supposed to get your players to their full development faster. But how faster? A season? A month? A week? For a team and GM that say the cards are stacked against them without having an elite budget, why spend $10M on something when you really don't know what it does? Discoveries, if you spend the money and you have a good ITL scout, will show up for you. It's that straight forward.

I agree, it's too early to tell but I actually can see multiple Top 100, some even in the Top 10, that OSA loves their potential but based on their stats, their current abilities, my scouts opinion and their age, looks like they are never going to make it there. I'm not going to publicly bash someone's prospect in effort to not devalue them, but remember, OOTP isn't designed to be so black/white. OSA who creates the Top 100 prospect list, is designed to be flawed. That's why you have a scouting director and a scouting budget to show more "true" ratings/potentials. This is directly from the OOTP manual:

"In OOTP, in addition to individual team scouting directors, there also exists an unbiased scouting agency known as the OOTP Scouting Association (OSA). OSA scouts players on a regular basis, and can provide a second data point for you in analyzing scouting reports. Even if you fire your scouting director, OSA can still provide you with some data on players. Unfortunately, OSA is woefully understaffed, and as a result, OSA only updates player scouting reports annually. OSA scouts are also woefully underpaid, and as a result, they are rarely as accurate as your own staff. As with all scouting, the younger the player is, the less likely OSA scouting reports are to be accurate. Most scouting directors who are available for hire will provide better information than the OSA scouts do. The bottom line is that you should use your own scouting department's information as a primary source of data."

Most scouting directors who are AVAILABLE for hire, will provide better information. A quick look at personnel Free-Agents shows that there are 179 scouting directors "available for hire." The worst four of them are rated "poor" at scouting minors. I'd venture a guess that OSA is "poor" or at best "fair" at rating players.

FWIW, I haven't signed a single IAFA to a signing bonus. So everyone isn't doing it. And scouting max budget is $9M. You can’t really dump a ton of money there.

[Pat]

Additionally, the highest rated scouting director is in Los Angeles. He's LEGENDARY at all four ratings. He was a Free-Agent in 2018. And makes $1.2M. Every team in the BLB could have signed him for $1.3M.

[funclown]

Additionally, the highest rated scouting director is in Los Angeles. He's LEGENDARY at all four ratings. He was a Free-Agent in 2018. And makes $1.2M. Every team in the BLB could have signed him for $1.3M.

I've had an excellent scout(outstanding Intl) , past 3 seasons have been at the baseline with scouting (over last year) and varying % with Int scouting. I do get discoveries , but never someone who comes close to the top 100. Again to me its just random.

As someone who has been in the league a longtime now I do know one thing , "free guys" have caused chaos in this league and usually leads to a revolt. I simple want everyone to know this is coming.

1) Rule V or the "I caught you" bug. Free top 100 prospects for someone simply trying to live life. Never once affected me, even benefited me. However at the time I was a married male raising triplets. I had alot of spare time. RULE CHANGED

2) Intl Super Star free agency. Wasn't free guys per say, but guys who simply showed up and altered league in one swift stroke. Years of developing talent was simply swooped aside by these guys. If you had a budget and were simply in the right place at the right time you could become a juggernaut. RULE CHANGED

3) Today's discoveries where maybe there is science behind it, but not alot of people understand it. I guess if you play alot of single player or multiple online leagues you have a leg up? Who can say. All I kind of know is this isn't what we signed up for when we took the vote. Most was a "you get fringe players out of this complex" I don't see this as true right now.

If we want to be real world in the PRESENT, there isn't crazy discoveries of top 50 prospects from places like Iceland or Finland. Maybe in Latin America..maybe? Scouting is too advanced now. If we want to be more like 1948 or 1963, thats cool also. We just continue doing it.