Why do ratings fluctuate so much

[renojedi]

I realize that the SISA ratings are way inaccurate and once a player is actually scouted by a team scout, his numbers can change quite a bit.

What I don't understand is why a guy scouted by my scout has one set of ratings and a couple of weeks later, they are totally different.

I had a pitcher in AAA scouted at 12-10-10. So I brought him up and a month later, he dropped to 4-10-10. And it is not just guys brought up as I have seen the same thing with guys in the bigs the whole town.

So why does that happen and are there any general scouting tips to help me get a better idea of what my players are really rated?

[Kelric]

Originally Posted by renojedi

I realize that the SISA ratings are way inaccurate and once a player is actually scouted by a team scout, his numbers can change quite a bit.

What I don't understand is why a guy scouted by my scout has one set of ratings and a couple of weeks later, they are totally different.

I had a pitcher in AAA scouted at 12-10-10. So I brought him up and a month later, he dropped to 4-10-10. And it is not just guys brought up as I have seen the same thing with guys in the bigs the whole town.

So why does that happen and are there any general scouting tips to help me get a better idea of what my players are really rated?

Scouting tip: Turn scouting off. Seriously.

Anyways, with less snarkiness, sometimes guys just get worse (or better) with absolutely no reasoning behind it. Not much to say there.

[1998 Yankees]

There is a setting in Player Options called Talent Change Randomness which, according to the manual, "allows you to adjust the frequency, not the severity, of talent changes. A setting of 200 is twice as many as the default 100; a setting of 50 is half as many as the default, and a setting of 1 will mean very, very few talent changes. 200 is the maximum value."

That's frequency, not severity, so you will still see some significant and rapid talent changes with scouting on or off, but less of them.

[renojedi]

OK, thanks, I'll look to change that setting when I get home tonight. What setting do most of you long time players use?

I had another frustration with this last night. I signed a 32-year old player who was 10-17-10 (after scouting him with my scout so I didn't get the jacked up SISA rating) and within two weeks he was 4-10-8.

Another question--so what do you guys look at to make sure you sign free agents who aren't going to take a nose dive like that?

[Kelric]

Originally Posted by renojedi

OK, thanks, I'll look to change that setting when I get home tonight. What setting do most of you long time players use?

I had another frustration with this last night. I signed a 32-year old player who was 10-17-10 (after scouting him with my scout so I didn't get the jacked up SISA rating) and within two weeks he was 4-10-8.

Another question--so what do you guys look at to make sure you sign free agents who aren't going to take a nose dive like that?

I play with it at 100 for fictional and current leagues, at 75 for historical leagues. I don't use recalc for historical leagues, since I do want some randomness, but I prefer seeing good players stay good.

It's generally just a sign-and-pray strategy for me when signing free agents. Unless, of course, Intelligence & Work Ethic are turned on. In that case I'll usually only sign guys who have high ratings in both, unless their ability is too good to pass up.

[1998 Yankees]

renojedi, I thought you might be interested in this tidbit from the e-mail announcement of the OOTP 9 pre-order offer:

Improved Player Development: The player development and aging engine has been enhanced. We have eliminated those aggravating sudden talent "jumps" or "bumps," resulting in a vast array of realistic career arcs.

Somebody posted the entire e-mail in a thread on the General Discussions board, if you did not receive it and want to read the rest of it.

[renojedi]

Thanks for sending that. Apparently I am not the only one dealing with an "aggravating" situation