Drafting and scouting
 

I'm just playing GM in my franchise. Just for kicks, I cranked the scouting accuracy up to 100%. It's still quite faulty. In general, they seem to value defensive ratings at a premium.

I think I've only had two seasons where I ended up picking high enough to get highly rated players other than relievers or relievers disguised as starters. I honestly can't think of a 1st round pick I've made other than a reliever that he turned out to be a good player for me. In the case of one guy I drafted, the scout (and one with excellent ratings at that) said he would be an above average regular. The next season he was a 23yo 1 star mired in rookie league. A second scouting report run on him at that time said he wouldn't amount to anything. Why the huge discrepancy in the course of only a year? I could see a kid having a tough year, but if the tools are still there...

On the flip side, I've had a few 1 or 2 star AAA guys with the batting ratings to back such a star rating go bonkers and turn into Miguel Cabrera when I put them in the majors out of necessity (usually injuries). The next season, they've got all high batting ratings and in the years beyond that they are a 4+ WAR player.

I almost would rather not have a scout bothering with messages since they can't do their job well, but then I assume you can't find players for your international complex (pretty much lottery tickets though).

I'm increasingly of the mind that the scout's written assessments of players are pretty much worthless and should be ignored. You can get completely contradictory assessments in the same breath, like "Overall = Lacks the skills to compete at the major league level" and then "Power = Could really do some damage at the major league level". Um, OK.

Other times the written assessments combined with the overall rating (5 stars or whatever system) seem to flat out contradict the ability ratings the scout has given the player. I recently had a young 1B in AAA doing real damage -- OPS over 1.000 and 4.1 WAR, pretty much over the course of the whole season. His Contact / Power / Eye ratings were solid. But my scout had him overall rated at a single star with potential of 1.5 stars, with the overall "Destined to be a career minor leaguer" assessment. It was doubly weird because this 1B-man had been in my minors system for a few seasons and had done nothing but compete solidly if not really well. Yet his overall ranking from the scout kept *decreasing* to the current 1 star. I just don't get it. Bug?

Overall I like scouting and don't want to turn it off. I'm just more and more trying not to be biased by the scout's written assessments and stick to the ability ratings and stats.

You might try lowering your Talent Change Randomness (TCR) setting if you want more predictability in how your draft picks develop.