New user here who had tried out the free OOTP5 in the past.
I've got 8.0.0.13 version installed.
I've run into some strange things. I'm not sure if they are program bugs or user error.
1. Running a historical league start (1983) with initial player draft and amateur draft, after the 1st amateur draft, I noticed players drafted by other teams did not appear in my draft pool. I thought perhaps my scouts just didn't 'discover' these players, but I noticed some players of note were drafted in the rounds after the draft ended due to lack of players. i.e draft lasted 5 rounds, Roger Clemens history shows him drafted in 9th round. I have the amateur draft set to 10 rounds.
Pass.
2. Another league I set up and quickly abandoned due to the fact I could not assign scouting tasks to a few of my scouts. I got message stating 'can only assign tasks to scouts on your team.' I tried firing them, but the 'fire person' option did not come up when I clicked on the scout. These scouts appeared on my team's personnel page with their relevant contract info, etc.
This sounds like the usual new game player error of not actually being in charge of a team; that is, employed by it. You cannot even assign scouting tasks when you are "Acting As" commissioner, which I bet you are doing instead.
I also have some general idiot questions:
3. In spring training, there are no player development options. Am I missing something, or was that feature abandoned?
No, that was left out in the transition of the game from version 6.5 to 2006 and has not been brought back since. There was some recent talk about doing so, but that was members only, not developers.
4. What is the difference between the off-season and the pre-season?
Off-season comes before pre-season. Off-season is for stuff like salary arbitration, free agent negotiations, Rule V Draft, winter meetings, etc. Pre-season is generally when you can make changes to your league structures, rules, and options.
5. What's the point of scouting a nation? Does the scout just scout existing players from that nation? Why not just have your scouts cover all the leagues/organizations if that's the case? Nothing seems to happen when I assign a scout to a nation either.
First, make sure you can do so; this option is set upon league creation and cannot be changed thereafter. Look in Game, Game Setup, Player & Picture Options. The option itself will be grayed out: "Create and maintain hidden players." If it is checked, you are in business. If it is not, don't bother sending scouts to scout nations, even if the game allows it. The point is to make some additional excitement by discovering a hidden player in a country that does not have a league based in it. The player is either discovered or rots away hidden in the jungle, so to speak. Much depends on the quality of baseball in that country; see Manager, Explore World for an idea of that.
6. In my 1983 game, after starting with an 85-77 season, why would I get a rating of 6 out of 100? Does it even matter?
God, do you stink! (Just kidding 
). It could be that the game was expecting a much better record from you given the quality of your players, the quality of your competition, and the amount of your payroll.
7. Is it normal for high level players to command $8 million contracts in 1984? Seems a little odd considering Kirby Puckett signed the first $3 million deal in 1993 or something like that. And out of proportion to the league income. I've got the finances set to 1983 and update yearly.
Pass.
8. I managed a team in a league with no affiliates. I was unable to sign players to minor league contracts, but other teams in the league had their reserve rosters filled with guys they were signing to minor league contracts. They were not just players that were drafted and immediately placed on the reserve roster, but players the teams were signing as free agents. Further, relatively few players appeared on my available free agents screen, yet other teams were signing them left and right.
See answer to question #2.
8b. Players who appear in the news ticker as negotiating a contract with a team who are arbitration eligible but not free agents can be offered a contract when clicking on their name in the news story.
Pass.
9. Is there anyway to limit the # of players a team can have on a reserve roster. These teams had 50+ guys on their reserve rosters after a year or two.
Good question. Don't know the answer, but I see what you mean; the secondary roster size maximum option is grayed out if there are no minor league affiliates.
10. Hiring coaches. There doesn't seem to be a negotiation period for coaches, meaning that I can automatically hire all the best coaches(other than those that refuse to work for my organization) without competition from the other teams.
I hope I'm doing something wrong here.
Unfortunately for all of us, no. It's been criticized as being too monotonous and easy to exploit. It's one of the areas of improvement being mentioned for OOTP 9 by the developers.
There also seems to be tons of smaller bugs, most of which are inconsequential probably. For example, in play game mode, sometimes the infield and outfield depth windows are active when my team is at bat. Stats on the player screen very often differ from those on the roster screen.
Pass.
Thanks for any help or comments!