Newb Questions

[ragincajun]

Dealing with ratings:
1. Are massive rating changes normal? I'm seeing a lot of "crashes" with star players. Just switched from Astros to Yankees and Texiera went from 9's and 10's to 4's and 5's both from the league scout and my scout.

When looking at free agents, whose ratings are you using?
1. I hired a 10/9/10 scout this offseason to try to get the "best" look at players. Looked at a catcher in Free Agency and bid on him with 6-8 ratings. In two days, I got an e-mail saying he was signing with me. Go to my transaction page to find him. He's in my AAA with 3's and 4's for ratings. Huh?

What are "good" ratings on a 10 scale?
1. Back when I played OOTP before (3-6.5) a 5-6 was basically an "average" hitter. 7 started getting good, I'd always expect a .280 hitter there. 8 was a good bet for a .300 hitter. 9's and 10's were rare but would get you into the .310-.330 range. Now I'm seeing 6-7 are basically cup of coffee players for the most part that can't hit their weight.
2. Same with pitching. Before I'd think a 7/8/7 pitcher would be pretty dominant. Now it seems you need 8-10's to even be over a .500 pitcher.

Trade preferences?
1. I seem to recall an option to "favor veterans" or "favor prospects" when setting your trade settings in the older versions. Don't see that here in X. I tried to set to rebuilding mode hoping that would provide more prospect trades and teams after my vets, but I still seem to get xxx 35 year old OF for your 32yr old SP type trade. Am I missing the "favor prospects" button somewhere?

Roster control?
1. I have the roster depth charts and lineups set to be controlled by the AI manager (the AI Joe Torre). I'm playing only as the GM. I do have all roster moves (call ups etc) and contracts and trades to be handled only by me. However, spring training just started and I had 24/25 on my active roster with 32/40 on my 40 man roster. First day of Spring Training...still 32/40 on the 40 man, but all 32 are called up to the big league team. How does this happen if no transactions or moves are to be made except by me?

Anyway, would be interested on feedback on these; maybe some settings I could adjust or ways to change how I'm viewing these issues.

[TGH-Adfabre]

Originally Posted by ragincajun

Dealing with ratings:
1. Are massive rating changes normal? I'm seeing a lot of "crashes" with star players. Just switched from Astros to Yankees and Texiera went from 9's and 10's to 4's and 5's both from the league scout and my scout.
Kind of, depends on what you consider a crash. I have never played with scouts. I find the development model mixed with the injury model leaves me as clueless as I need to be when building my farm system.

When looking at free agents, whose ratings are you using?
1. I hired a 10/9/10 scout this offseason to try to get the "best" look at players. Looked at a catcher in Free Agency and bid on him with 6-8 ratings. In two days, I got an e-mail saying he was signing with me. Go to my transaction page to find him. He's in my AAA with 3's and 4's for ratings. Huh?
???? No clue how significant the effects of scouting can be.

What are "good" ratings on a 10 scale?
1. Back when I played OOTP before (3-6.5) a 5-6 was basically an "average" hitter. 7 started getting good, I'd always expect a .280 hitter there. 8 was a good bet for a .300 hitter. 9's and 10's were rare but would get you into the .310-.330 range. Now I'm seeing 6-7 are basically cup of coffee players for the most part that can't hit their weight.
This seems to depend largley on the talent of the pitchers in your league. That would be my guess. A 5-6 without exceptional talent elseware seems to be a backup in the leagues I've played in. I read a post a while back that CON is not the sole determining factor in a players AVG. CON mixed with POW, EYE and AVOID K was actually the formula. That said I do not know the other ratings to even make a guess. That said, neither do you. You know your scouts best guess at what he "thinks" they might be.

2. Same with pitching. Before I'd think a 7/8/7 pitcher would be pretty dominant. Now it seems you need 8-10's to even be over a .500 pitcher.
The same in reverse.
Trade preferences?
1. I seem to recall an option to "favor veterans" or "favor prospects" when setting your trade settings in the older versions. Don't see that here in X. I tried to set to rebuilding mode hoping that would provide more prospect trades and teams after my vets, but I still seem to get xxx 35 year old OF for your 32yr old SP type trade. Am I missing the "favor prospects" button somewhere?
Sorry, no clue.

Roster control?
1. I have the roster depth charts and lineups set to be controlled by the AI manager (the AI Joe Torre). I'm playing only as the GM. I do have all roster moves (call ups etc) and contracts and trades to be handled only by me. However, spring training just started and I had 24/25 on my active roster with 32/40 on my 40 man roster. First day of Spring Training...still 32/40 on the 40 man, but all 32 are called up to the big league team. How does this happen if no transactions or moves are to be made except by me?
See this thread-[COLOR="Blue"]"Spring Training???"[/COLOR]
Anyway, would be interested on feedback on these; maybe some settings I could adjust or ways to change how I'm viewing these issues.

Hopefully that helps a little.

[ryanivr]

Game Setup -> AI Options

That's where you'll find Trading Preference.

[ragincajun]

If I value prospects more, then do I set it to Favor Prospects or is the AI for the league as a whole? I want to try to tweak it to where the offers I get have prospects offered instead of 35 year old vets.

[AirmenSmith]

Originally Posted by ragincajun

If I value prospects more, then do I set it to Favor Prospects or is the AI for the league as a whole? I want to try to tweak it to where the offers I get have prospects offered instead of 35 year old vets.

The way I view it is that u are selecting what the ai wants. So set it to favor vets and then the computer will want to get/keep vets in trades. Thus not care as much for keeping prospects. That is how I view it at least.

[AirmenSmith]

As far as the spring training thing. It's a feature in game that forces all those guys onto ur active roster. No way to turn it off.

[AirmenSmith]

Now for scouts.

I use the scout that I hire. Never ever use the in game scouting it is not right by a long shot. One thing to do is make sure u have ur scout selected when viewing free agents and ur team. At the top of the pages there is an option to select ur scout or the games scout. Sometimes it will be on the league scout and not urs. One more thing, make sure that when u change teams u sim a few days because there are times when u have to give the scout, on the new team, time to actually scout the league.