[thenewchuckd]

Also, I don't have a good feel for international players but I sort of believe that scouts should be able to identify generational talent and have at least a good idea if players might make it to the bigs when spending top dollar.

My experience is international players just don't stand a chance in OOTP. Even if they can make it out of the complex decently rated (which is rare), they're going to struggle forever at rookie ball and likely never make it out of there. Sometimes the game even promotes them at 16 or 17 just so they can hit .200 at rookie ball.

I remember when the Jays splashed the cash on Vlad, it was known he would make it to the bigs. Sure he's struggling now but he made it & still might be a superstar.

(I speak mainly of positional players; sometimes with a weird development path I can get pitchers to the big leagues; usually 2-3 seasons of struggle in rookie ball where their ratings just drop, then they start to move up and their ratings do as well; often hitting the bigs with top ratings and even throwing lights out before taking a dive again; it is so predictable that it is funny if it wasn't so frustrating)