Best spending values in BMO?

[Clay Dreslough]

What have you found to be the best places to spend your money?

[nysteinbrenner]

Since the implementation of the player draft, spending money on farm system and scouting are nothing more than a crapshoot. I've taken to waiting until flamethrowers hit the FA market, then paying a premium for them.

While I like the draft, it seems to be conducted in a more NFL- or NBA-style in that if you pick #1 or #2, you're just about guaranteed a stud in the first round (and maybe the second), while if you draft #24, you might as well release half the guys you draft immediately afterward. Real MLB drafts aren't like that.

[Kotoll]

Defense. Sure pitching is great but great defense makes a 80 rated pitcher a 90. Offensive, you will need it without a decent defense.


Defense slightly first to pitching.

[Austin Mad Cows]

I would say Medical Staff. I have seen many GM;s that make a significant investment on a player(s) they get hurt and end up sitting on the DL. Now with minor leaguers going down as well its even more important.

I'd say if your not at least in the top five in your league its a **** shoot for a serious injury.

[Trucoug]

I try to look for defense first. If the team can defend, they can make the pitcher better and the team will then require less offense to keep them in the game.

[boomboom]

#1: defense
#2: pitching
#3: Scouting

[robinhoodnik]

1 Scouting. If I can't see how my players are advancing It's hard to make profitable trades and acquire others to complement my teams.
2 Farm. I regularly go trolling through the FA markets looking for castoffs with good upside to take a gamble on. When I can devote enough recources to this, it goes hand in hand with my scouting. I often pick up 48+++ and 50's with multiple +'s from the later rounds of the draft and develop them for a year or two. Often these guys bring rewards in the form of trade bait when thier peaks get above 80. Some I keep for my own teams.
3 I tend to pay for hitting and speed. I try (but don't always succeed) to get guys with at least 80's in contact and eye, a plus for me is speed above 82. You can usually go back later and get someone with power to DH or convert to 1B.

[Bgsexy66]

1 Scouting. If I can't see how my players are advancing It's hard to make profitable trades and acquire others to complement my teams.
2 Farm. I regularly go trolling through the FA markets looking for castoffs with good upside to take a gamble on. When I can devote enough recources to this, it goes hand in hand with my scouting. I often pick up 48+++ and 50's with multiple +'s from the later rounds of the draft and develop them for a year or two. Often these guys bring rewards in the form of trade bait when thier peaks get above 80. Some I keep for my own teams.
3 I tend to pay for hitting and speed. I try (but don't always succeed) to get guys with at least 80's in contact and eye, a plus for me is speed above 82. You can usually go back later and get someone with power to DH or convert to 1B.
I agree With Robinhoodnik to a certain extent, However I base my team/s around my pitching staff. Without Pitchers who are at least semi-talented your team is dicked. I'd rather have awesome pitchers compared to almost anything else a player can provide. On another note if the AI could understand heart, soul, human resiliance {Spelling) then my mind would change on this situation.

[Kotoll]

You just said the key, semi-talented. ;)

[robinhoodnik]

I agree With Robinhoodnik to a certain extent, However I base my team/s around my pitching staff. Without Pitchers who are at least semi-talented your team is dicked. I'd rather have awesome pitchers compared to almost anything else a player can provide. On another note if the AI could understand heart, soul, human resiliance {Spelling) then my mind would change on this situation.
I usually have lower level teams so stellar pitching is out. Hitting is always out there if you know where to look. I found it easy to stay at or near the top if you get a bigger market team and just keep it rolling. Any idiot can trade for Peavy and or Beckett and make a run . I kinda like to strip a team to it's bones and re-build. I don't win a lot doing it, but I have fun. Baseball is fun. Anything else you can think of that consumes as much time as baseball? If you answered yes, you arent as motivated to find every nuance as those who answered no.

[Bgsexy66]

I usually have lower level teams so stellar pitching is out. Hitting is always out there if you know where to look. I found it easy to stay at or near the top if you get a bigger market team and just keep it rolling. Any idiot can trade for Peavy and or Beckett and make a run . I kinda like to strip a team to it's bones and re-build. I don't win a lot doing it, but I have fun. Baseball is fun. Anything else you can think of that consumes as much time as baseball? If you answered yes, you arent as motivated to find every nuance as those who answered no.
I don't go for a peavy or a beckett. I look for players who are like Greinke and Kazmir who have yet to reach their peaks, but are good enough to win at least 12 games a year.

[Hash1]

(from best to worst)

This list does not mean that they are the most effective, but just the best places to spend big bucks

Hitting- It'll cost me some big bucks to find a guy who is A+ in defense and that can hit really well. I don't need to have a team full of guys like this but 2-3 of them is still pricy.

Medical- I'm sure some people have noticed that I'm always at least in the top 3 in medical.(usually 1st) it seems like medical does indeed have a huge impact on the length and severity of injuries. Nothing is worse than signing a guy to a large 7 year contract just to see him get a career changing injury.

Pitching- I definitely care way more about pitching than hitting, but I pay my pitchers less than my hitters. I like to always have one ace and the rest are usually old veteran pitchers that other teams don't want to give a chance. With great defense on your team they can still easily compete with any other pitching staff in the league.

Farm- It's a good thing to invest in if you actually have some players with some potential. If my minor league system isn't stacked I will usually just settle with being 5th-10th in farm

Scouting - Overrated imo. I don't really see the point in investing too much when I can be 15th in scouting in a league and have +/-1 ratings

Defense- This is by far the most effective thing you can have on your team imo. Defense has waaaay to much impact on your team. When I can have a bunch of 60-70 overall pitchers have their ERA in the low 3's you know something is wrong. You can usually find defensive gems via FA for a really cheap price.

Here is my list for what are the most effective on a team:

Defense
pitching
medical
hitting
farm
scouting

[Clay Dreslough]

While I like the draft, it seems to be conducted in a more NFL- or NBA-style in that if you pick #1 or #2, you're just about guaranteed a stud in the first round (and maybe the second), while if you draft #24, you might as well release half the guys you draft immediately afterward. Real MLB drafts aren't like that.

I want the draft and farm systems to be manageable. So, 6 rounds instead of 50 or so like in the real MLB. That means it's going to look more like the NFL which has 7 rounds.

Just as important, I want to give a boost to the teams that finish poorly.

[robinhoodnik]

High Heat had a draft in its second to last year that was just ridiculous. It seemed to go on forever. I cannot remember how many rounds it went now nor can I check (I sold that game to EB) but it was definately too many. I don't know if they improved it with the last release either, since after 3 days of messing with it's various patches, nuances, and crashes I sold it too. At least Curts pitch got something out of it, so I guess some good was done by that miserable title.

[robinhoodnik]

I want the draft and farm systems to be manageable. So, 6 rounds instead of 50 or so like in the real MLB. That means it's going to look more like the NFL which has 7 rounds.

Just as important, I want to give a boost to the teams that finish poorly.
Is this on the slate for the next BBMO? I think that this will be another huge addition to the game.

[Oswalt44]

#1 - defense - the pitching is worthless without it
#2 - pitching - goes hand in hand with the defense
#3 - farm system - developing talent internally saves so much money it's unreal

Clay - it'd be great if there could be wild cards thrown into the later rounds of the draft where teams with good scouting can cash in on a guy in say the 4th round that the other teams might have passed over. It'd be nice for prospects to have the ability to start say as a 58ov player drafted in the 5th round, then jump up to 81ov or something in the first season in the minors if the scouting was correct. It'd also be nice the other way, drafting a guy in the mid 1st round at we'll say 83ov (95 pot) and if he has a bad year can drop to like 74ov but still keep a similar potential.

I don't know if it makes sense, but prospects are extremely predictable and it'd be nice to throw maybe 3 guys per draft that go in the late rounds and end up as good as the 1st rounders.

[dismaldream]

#1 - defense - the pitching is worthless without it
#2 - pitching - goes hand in hand with the defense
#3 - farm system - developing talent internally saves so much money it's unreal


perfect. This is what i spend on most as well - in that same order.

[dismaldream]

Clay - it'd be great if there could be wild cards thrown into the later rounds of the draft where teams with good scouting can cash in on a guy in say the 4th round that the other teams might have passed over. It'd be nice for prospects to have the ability to start say as a 58ov player drafted in the 5th round, then jump up to 81ov or something in the first season in the minors if the scouting was correct. It'd also be nice the other way, drafting a guy in the mid 1st round at we'll say 83ov (95 pot) and if he has a bad year can drop to like 74ov but still keep a similar potential.

I don't know if it makes sense, but prospects are extremely predictable and it'd be nice to throw maybe 3 guys per draft that go in the late rounds and end up as good as the 1st rounders.

Yeah, itd be nice to see some late round draft picks and even unselected players shock the league

We need some surprises:
Mike Piazza - 62nd rd
John Smoltz - 22nd rd
Don Mattingly - 19th rd
Keith Hernandez - 42nd rd
Jeff Kent - 20th rd
Jose Canseco - 15th rd
Roy Oswalt - 23rd rd
Bobby Bonilla - undrafted
Eric Gagne - undrafted
Larry Walker - undrafted
Mark Buehrle - 37th rd

[daves]

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