Solo leagues, scout and coaches

[SittingDuck]

Does anyone playing a solo league use coaches and/or scouts?

I was wondering what the big argument against using them is?

[endgame]

I have always used them, without exception, FWIW.

[cibl commish]

Always in solo leagues

[tysok]

Originally Posted by SittingDuck

Does anyone playing a solo league use coaches and/or scouts?

I was wondering what the big argument against using them is?

Only one I can think of is that it's very easy to pack your staff with the best coaches and scouts there are in the game. There's no bidding process, if you see the best you can get the best without any difficulty.

I always use coaches and scouts, just cuz.

[1998 Yankees]

Originally Posted by tysok

Only one I can think of is that it's very easy to pack your staff with the best coaches and scouts there are in the game. There's no bidding process, if you see the best you can get the best without any difficulty.

Aside from the work involved in maintenance, this is also my best argument against using them. Unless you are good at applying "house rules" in a solo environment (who's going to know if I cheat, hee, hee?) the tendency is to always end up with blue-colored ratings across the board and that is one reason why people complain sometimes that the game is too easy to dominate.

[CRTsports.com]

Same here. Have always used coaches and scouts!

[SittingDuck]

Yah, thanks. I really am going to have to build some House Rules. Anyone have a good thread on those? I am going to do a little searching in the meantime.

[BruceM]

Just do a search on "House Rules". You should find plenty of threads.

[1998 Yankees]

Originally Posted by SittingDuck

Yah, thanks. I really am going to have to build some House Rules. Anyone have a good thread on those? I am going to do a little searching in the meantime.

Actually, self-imposed House Rules are not hard to come by if your primary goal is to have realistic results rather than to win at all costs. You think to yourself, "what would really happen in this situation?" Would a rational GM trade this 5-star potential prospect for the washed-up guy that I am offering? Or, back to the topic, is it realistic for me to have top-rated coaches and scouts in every position? Thinking like that, you lay off a bit. Then, when you do win under your own House Rules, it is satisfying indeed.

[SittingDuck]

One thing I did in PSBB, which has a poor trade system (most games do, I guess), is try to enrich the other team somewhat. This is good for my sense of challenge in the future anyhow. I try to look at it from the other GM's standpoint and put together a package that would serve them now and in the future.

I've searched and found some house rules mentioned in non-house rules titled threads. Not much in the way of thread titles to let you know if anything is really about house rules. I guess it's all about how guys title their threads.

Anyhow, I'm considering - while I'm doing this - creating a main 'House Rules' thread where I do a lot of quoting from various posters in these threads and hopefully compile people's comments into one thread.

[MizzouRah]

I never used to, but after reading this feature for ootp 9, I'll definitely use them.

Improved Personnel Contracts: Personnel now go through a contract system more similar to that of players, although not quite as complex. A huge improvement especially for online leagues, where teams will now have to bid for the services of the best personnel, instead of getting them on a "first-come, first-served" basis.

[Kemp]

I like teams in my fictional solo league to have a certain "personality". That is, for organizations to be "pitching oriented", "hitting oriented", etc. So while I use scouts, I manually edit them for each team and then lock them up to long-term deals.

For example, in my league "Fort Collins" tends to be a good offensive team with poor pitching. So I edit all their scouts to be good at finding offensive players and mediocre/poor at finding pitchers. They'll still luck into finding SOME pitchers, but for the most part they'll struggle a bit there.

There's some tweaking necessary year to year (as scouts ratings change) but I have a small league (10 teams) so it's no big deal.

[SittingDuck]

Originally Posted by Kemp

I like teams in my fictional solo league to have a certain "personality". That is, for organizations to be "pitching oriented", "hitting oriented", etc. So while I use scouts, I manually edit them for each team and then lock them up to long-term deals.

For example, in my league "Fort Collins" tends to be a good offensive team with poor pitching. So I edit all their scouts to be good at finding offensive players and mediocre/poor at finding pitchers. They'll still luck into finding SOME pitchers, but for the most part they'll struggle a bit there.

There's some tweaking necessary year to year (as scouts ratings change) but I have a small league (10 teams) so it's no big deal.

That's pretty interesting.

[BruceM]

Originally Posted by Kemp

I like teams in my fictional solo league to have a certain "personality". That is, for organizations to be "pitching oriented", "hitting oriented", etc. So while I use scouts, I manually edit them for each team and then lock them up to long-term deals.

For example, in my league "Fort Collins" tends to be a good offensive team with poor pitching. So I edit all their scouts to be good at finding offensive players and mediocre/poor at finding pitchers. They'll still luck into finding SOME pitchers, but for the most part they'll struggle a bit there.

There's some tweaking necessary year to year (as scouts ratings change) but I have a small league (10 teams) so it's no big deal.

Just wondering, have you ever tried reversing that, give the team scouts that are good at finding pitching and mediocre/poor at finding hitting just to see how long it takes before the trend reverses itself for the team?

Might be an interesting study.

[Kemp]

Originally Posted by BruceM

Just wondering, have you ever tried reversing that, give the team scouts that are good at finding pitching and mediocre/poor at finding hitting just to see how long it takes before the trend reverses itself for the team?

Might be an interesting study.

No, I've never tried that.

[Khrog]

Originally Posted by Kemp

I like teams in my fictional solo league to have a certain "personality". That is, for organizations to be "pitching oriented", "hitting oriented", etc. So while I use scouts, I manually edit them for each team and then lock them up to long-term deals.

For example, in my league "Fort Collins" tends to be a good offensive team with poor pitching. So I edit all their scouts to be good at finding offensive players and mediocre/poor at finding pitchers. They'll still luck into finding SOME pitchers, but for the most part they'll struggle a bit there.

There's some tweaking necessary year to year (as scouts ratings change) but I have a small league (10 teams) so it's no big deal.

I may have to incorporate that idea into my future solo leagues. I would probably go a step further and set the coaches to be young w/ very long term deals...only issue would be "better coaches" getting positions on other teams.

[Kemp]

Originally Posted by Khrog

I may have to incorporate that idea into my future solo leagues. I would probably go a step further and set the coaches to be young w/ very long term deals...only issue would be "better coaches" getting positions on other teams.

Yes, if you use coaches you'd probably want to do the same. I don't use them in my solo league.

[Purple Cowboy]

Hey Kemp, have you noticed anything in your results? Have the clubs with better pitching scouting done better than those with the better bats? Cool idea, BTW.

[Kemp]

Originally Posted by Purple Cowboy

Hey Kemp, have you noticed anything in your results? Have the clubs with better pitching scouting done better than those with the better bats? Cool idea, BTW.

Well I've noticed trends in my league BUT I tend to play with very "different" rules. I use....
3 man rotations
22 man rosters
108 game schedule
Very low injuries
Good durability/stamina for pitchers
A little less offense (think 1980's type numbers)

As a result, SP's tend to be a bit more valuable because a really good one might make 35 starts and throw 250 innings with an era around 2.30.

[christian troy]

I think the improved personnel contracts is a huge addition to the game. I find it is really hard to apply house rules when it comes to signing coaches and scouts. Hopefully with this new system things will be more realistic. I suspect that it will still be possible to stock your positions with blue chip scouts and coaches, but if you have to outbid the other teams it may end up eating into your budget for players (particularly if you are a small market team).
Does anyone know how the new system will work? Either way we will find out soon !