Minoe League System Question

[mantis1]

Hello all. I've played one season of OOTP 2007 and really like it. I just have a quick question, so that I can get the most out of my playing experience.

After my first season, I tried to trade my # 3 starter for some prospects. Before I did so, I checked out the minor league systems for a few teams to see if I could get a young catcher. However, much to my surprise, the minor league systems of these teams was completely barren of talent, while my system was stocked full of players who were more than two stars (I had a good first draft).

So, my question is: are the other teams not drafting well, or am I just seeing these things because I haven't scouted the other teams enough? It shouldn't be this, because some teams still retained players with more than two stars . . .

Any help would be much-appreciated. Thanks, in advance.

[Charlie Hough]

You haven't scouted the other teams sufficiently. If you have scouting turned on, then the ratings you see are only as accurate and thorough as your scouts have been.

You'll notice an even more dramatic difference with scouting turned off in historical play. I just created a historical league loaded with great players and future greats, but until I turned scouting off, all the initial scouting showed those players as having only one or two stars. Presumably, your scouts have to see all these players enough to start revealing more of their true value.

[injury log]

I'm not sure I agree completely with Charlie. I think this often happens, for a systemic reason: you draft, sign and trade for players your scouts rate highly, not the ones they rate poorly, so naturally your system is full of players your scouts like. Other teams probably don't think as highly of your players, and think more highly of their own. This is especially evident in the draft; you'll usually be able to find guys one of your scouts rates as a 3 or 4-star player late in the draft, but you won't be able to trade the guy after the draft- other teams don't want him. And often enough the scout is wrong, the other teams right, and the player maxes out at AA.

This is much like real life, and, as one often reads in Baseball America chats, is the reason prospect-for-prospect trades rarely happen. Teams like their own guys, and value them more highly than similar guys in other orgs. There are other possible explanations, but this one seems plausible to me.

Of course, there is at least one other possible explanation for what you're seeing. If you've been scouting other countries, and acquiring ten prospects for each player you trade, naturally your system will be stacked. Check the Baseball America top prospect list or Minor League System Report to get a rough idea of how the cream of your system compares with the rest of the league (the Minor League System Report doesn't really take system depth into account, just the top 100 prospects in the league).

[mantis1]

Thanks, guys.

I tend to agree that I haven't scouted the other organizations enough, and I also believe that my scouts may have liked my own players more than the others I could have drafted.

So, with that being said, I want to ask you guys a couple of more things:
1. Because it takes 62 days to scout a team, do you guys just stay away from trading altogether (keeping your scouts busy signing foreign talent is a very smart thing to do - at least it has been for me)?

2. How do you guys draft the right players? I don't want to draft a four-star player in round 20 if he's going to max out at AA.

I'm enjoying this discussion, and I hope I haven't asked too many newbie questions; in general, I like discussing this game. It's that good.

[Curtis]

62 days would be the time to scout an organization, not a team. If you quckscouted the same organization it would probably take about 34 days. Scouting a particular team would be in the vicinity of 8-10 days, and about 5 for a quickscout. Quickscouts ARE less accurate, but save much time. You could save even more by quickscouting just the individual players that most interest you. You could do those while simultaneously engaged in other scouting tasks, and could churn through many per day.

I don't think there is a good way to 'game' a draft. If there was, it would make for a pretty boring (because too easy to win) game. You can't predict who's going to boom and who's going to bust.

My prefered scouting strategy for the draft is to use all six of my major league scouts on it and make a list (shortlist) of every draftee who gets on any of their top twenty lists. I don't care whether they're slotted in at one or twenty. For every scout who mentions them, I give them one point, so everyone will have zero to six points at the end. When my position in the draft comes up I delete from the shortlist everyone who's already been selected. From those who remain, I choose among the ones with the most points. If I'm overloaded at a position I might skip down to the next point level to make my selection. I tend to draft for needs, rather than taking the best available and dealing them to fill my holes.

One of the other regular posters uses a similar system, but gives twenty points for being named number one on a scout's list, nineteen for second place, eighteen for third and so on. For him the top score would be 120 and the bottom zero. I'm sure there are many other prefered methods of drafting.

[injury log]

Originally Posted by mantis1

1. Because it takes 62 days to scout a team, do you guys just stay away from trading altogether (keeping your scouts busy signing foreign talent is a very smart thing to do - at least it has been for me)?

2. How do you guys draft the right players? I don't want to draft a four-star player in round 20 if he's going to max out at AA.

1- It's certainly difficult to have up-to-date scouting reports on all players in your universe. If I have a particular need (say a good 2B), I'll often scan the league for guys who might fit the bill, looking at stats, and just scout the interesting players individually, which can be done in a day or two. If I want to trade a veteran for prospects, I'll check the BA top 10 prospects for a team I might trade with, and quickscout interesting players. That said, I don't use scouts much anymore- with less information about ratings, the game becomes a greater challenge. International scouting is certainly the most profitable way to use scouts, especially if you send them to nations with Excellent baseball quality. Sending all six scouts to Canada, Japan, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Mexico and the Dominican Republic almost guarantees you'll have a monster team within three or four years (which can be fun, of course, depending how you like to play). I now impose pretty severe limits on how I use international scouting, though I find it too interesting a feature to disable entirely.

2- As in real life, drafting involves a lot of luck, and if there is an optimal strategy, I doubt any of us know what it is. As Curtis' method suggests, the most reliable choices are the players your scouts agree on. Past the first or second round, though, there's rarely anyone left who all your scouts consider a good prospect, normally with the exception of relief pitchers. The OOTP development model is pretty harsh on teenage players, so the safer bets are generally the 20-22 year olds, even when they have lower potential than a 17 year old. If you use player personality ratings, attributes like work ethic have at least a small effect on player development, and I know that some people draft largely based on personality ratings (much like the Orioles have done recently). I don't, but I like that the game is complex enough that many of us can have different drafting strategies, and none of us is completely sure our methods are best. That sounds like real life!

[mantis1]

Thanks for all the help, guys.

That is a really good drafting strategy, Curtis. I think I'm going to implement it, because it makes sense to draft guys that all your scouts agree upon.

This game is really good . . .

I hope to see you guys on the forum again. Thanks again.