Scouting

[kohut]

My team scouting is 35 points a season which is 5th best in the league and my players are still changing stats each sim. This is crazy. I am getting totally turned off taking a shitty team because thats when it happens. I was both NY's and never had this problem. I am Cleveland and never had this problem but now im San Francisco and one sim guys are full of A's the next they are full of C-'s

Also my lineup goes back to its original which sucks because some guuys with F's and D's are playing but I have better guys on the bench. I just want to rebuild a small market team but its impossible when my guys ratings fluctuate each sim.

[James Grove]

Kohut -

I'm forwarding your comments to Clay. If I understand you correctly, each day your scouts tell you different things about the players on your team? That doesn't sound right, and it's probably a bug of some kind.

Could you please give us some more detail about what is happening?

What team and league are you?
When you say "one sim guys are full of A's the next they are full of C-'s" do you mean that each day when you log in to your team (the same team each day) the player scouting reports are different?

If you view the players from different teams then their abilities will appear different, because the Yankees have different scouts than the Angels have, for example. But the Yankees should always assess players consistently.

Player abilities change over time, and your scouts' accuracy rises and falls as you spend more or less money. But nothing should be changing overnight...

Please give us some more information, and we'll look into this.

Thanks,
James

[kohut]

I emailed Clay and found out that it takes a while for the scouting to change over. I tookover a team in debt at the beginning of FA and after the 1st day of regular season everything went back into place. I dindt know it took so long to become accurate. But what are the disadvantages of poor farm spending and poor medical spending? Less farm improvement and longer injuries or more injuries?

[Particleman]

I think poor farm spending causes your young minor league players to improve at a slower rate. I think poor medical spending causes players, stats which are reduced during injuries, to climb back up slower when they are finally recovered. I could be wrong though.

What is scouting though? Some have said it improves the rookies you get. Others have said, it gives more accurate stats, which is it?

[kohut]

I beleive both to a degree. I have the New York Mets and spent a bit less than mym Indians in scouting but for a time I was getting some wicked prospects. 18 yr olds with B hitting and A power and such. Now im getting bad players. But it is both. If you dont spend on scouting you will have players with inaccurate ratings.

[Clay Dreslough]

There's some info on the Help link from the Expenses Page:

http://www-1.sportsmogul.com/bb/Help/Expenses.htm

(I just posted this file).

Clay

[Particleman]

Thanks for the link Clay.

What determines AAA talent? Is it the number value of the money you spend on the farm system that determines how good the players are? Or is it the ranking that determines this. Personally, I don't think that the farm system should be linked with spending at all. It just gives the big market teams yet another advantage. The big market teams just spend all whole lot of money on their scouting and farm system because their budget is capped. And since their spending on contracts is capped, they have nothing better to do with it other than spend it on other expenses like farm, scouting, and medical. In real life, the big market teams don't necessarilly get the best young talent in their farm systems. Big market teams are able to pick up the young players after they've established themselves on a small market team, and the small market team can't afford them anymore. However, one could even argue that small market teams generate more young talent than large market ones, the Montreal Expos had a great farm system and great young talent for years, of course they all left after they made their name (Alou, Pedro, Galaraga, Grissom, Deshields, Pavano, Fulmer, Segui, Vlad Guerrero etc... all came from Montreal) , Oakland also had plenty of great young players in the 80s when they won their titles, and they have plenty of young talent now. The Blue Jays and the Mariners developed Shawn Green and Arod respectively, they just couldn't afford to re-sign them. The way Baseball Mogul has their system setup now, it's nearly impossible for small market teams to get good young talent.

I think that each team should have a different spending limit on certain expenses, such as farm system, based on how good their team's farm system is in real life. Or have the expense rankings based on who spends the greatest percentage of their overall revenue on each area. This way big market teams don't necessarily get all the best young talent, but they will get them when they establish themselves and the small market clubs can't afford them anymore. This would give small market clubs a better chance since at least they could have young inexperienced talent for at least a small period of time.

I also think major league experience should have a much greater effect than minor league experience. At least this way small market teams could go with youth develop their young players in the majors, and get the best young talent that way.

[kohut]

Just on a side note... DeShields they developed and dealt for Martinez who they dealt for Pavano.

I dont understand farm players and drafting. I spend a lot and get lots of junk while others spend less and get guys with A hitting and A power just like that. It dont make sense.

[Particleman]

I stand corrected. You are right kohul. Anyways I still think it needs to be easier for small market teams to get young talent one way or another.

[Farsight]

However the farm system works, there's one thing for certain:

SCOUTING SUCKS! :)

I don't recall ever getting an accurate scouting report... I have Embree as my closer, he has a 3.50 career ERA, and a 1.74 ERA this year... the scout says "I don't think he can put it all together"... Uhm, was he dropped on his head as a child? :)

I am spending 30 pts a year on scouting, 6th in my league... and have been for 3 seasons... and my scouts are as good as a batch of chimpanzees with darts...

I'm strongly considering dropping my Scouting budget to dead last in all my leagues... is there any reason not to???

[nevets72]

I agree that the scouting system is way too eratic, but I also do not think it can be canned. I have tried to knock all my scouting to zero in a league and was disappointed. While the scouts are inaccurate, it give a 'quick' look at the player. I use the stats to determine who I want. I would like to see more stats(aside). Scouting does limit the amount of time needed to research by a biit, and for those of us who log on while we work, it helps.

[Clay Dreslough]

Originally posted by Particleman
I also think major league experience should have a much greater effect than minor league experience. At least this way small market teams could go with youth develop their young players in the majors, and get the best young talent that way.

Could you explain what you mean by this?

Do you mean that we should track major league playing time, so you get to keep a hold on your minor leaguers longer? Or is it something else?

Thanks,

Clay

[Clay Dreslough]

The Farm System engine attempts to simulate two things:

1) An amateur draft that takes many, many rounds and occurs in many cases years before a player ever shows up on your AAA club in Baseball Mogul.

2) The process of players developing, and/or being traded, between the amateur draft and the point at which they become part of a Baseball Mogul.

Teams that finish poorly should get the best draft picks, and thus do well in #1. Teams that invest a lot should do well in #2.

So, the engine tries to mix both season finish and expenditures when assigning players. I'm getting the idea from this thread that it currently puts too much weight on Farm System expenditures, so I'm strongly considering tweaking it some.

Clay

[Godard]

I believe that the basic quality of players that show up should be slightly skewed towards the teams with bad records (but only slightly... is there much difference between the #5 pick and the #6 pick? Not usually!)


But the Farm System spending should definitely affect the development of those players.


If anything, Scouting (in real life) would affect the inital quality of the players you drafted more than Farm System spending. But this simulation shouldn't go there.

[Slugger222]

In MLB, scouting is little more than throwing darts most of the time. Chad Hermanson, Milton Bradley, are two examples of highly touted guys who have yet to pan out. JD Drew is living up to expectations. Albert Pujols, Paul Lo Duca and Raheal Furcal all greatly exceeded expectations - at least for a season. I'll throw in John Burckett as well.

The point is, the scouting should be used only as a guage. B+ may perform better than A-. C may hit 300. A+ may hit 250 - for a season. So what? These are approximates. They represent MLB, and the players are notoriously inconsistant - with a few exceptions.

There are reasons for the terms "Sophomore Slump", and "One Year Wonder" and "Three year curve."

(Generally speaking, the way a player performs in his third full year in the bigs is the way you can expect him to perform throughout his career. Emphasis on Generally)

The best thing to do is to watch your players perform, and put in the guys who are getting the job done.

I've only played one full season, but for the most part, the players with the better ratings have performed better. That is about all that you can expect, in my opinion.