I'm relatively new to baseball and have not yet caught on to all the lingo. A couple of those in relation to
OOTP are "ability" and "tools". Both are options for scouts to favor, but I'm not quite sure what each means to my teams, in layman's terms.
I looked in the manual and saw that "ability" gives you more of a "moneyball" player. I know that that is a book and that it has to do with sabermetrics, but beyond that, I'm lost. It also says that in theory, a preference towards "tools" slants ratings more towards star players.
In practice, how does that really affect the overall/potential ratings that the scouts give players? If they favor ability, does that mean they'll give 5 stars out to anyone who would be a good player to have at a particular position (meaning they don't mind spreading 5-star ratings around freely)? If they favor tools, does that mean that they reserve their 5-star ratings for the best of the best and you'd be lucky or broke to have more than a couple on your team?
I guess I'm just looking for a bit more direction as to the difference between these two. Any help would be appreciated.