gehrig, on your question about starting a league with a 'bad' scout, it's one of the few exceptions I make to the 'whatever happens, happens' dictum I adhere to in the game. Assuming we're talking about the inaugural, if your philosophy is to start with at least adequate or better - and you don't always get that on league creation, you're right - I don't have any problem with mitigating tools with an appropriate balance applied. In the case you've described, edit the scout's abilities to what you deem is acceptable and as a consequence, assign a compensatory penalty proportionate to your adjustment.
The coupling can be infinite in its possibilities. Some, IMHO, realistic exchanges: for each level of accuracy I increase my scout, deduct 750K from my development allowance; for each level I increase the scout's talent/s, increase his salary by X dollars and/or add to the length of his contract; increase his awareness at the major league level, decrease it at the international level, etc... Ultimately, your call, with balance and integrity in mind. As I said, it's a rare incident that allows me to depart from allowing the game's dictated destiny to prevail.
Edit: I'd better add that you do need to exercise caution on what that investment actually returns. The ratings and estimates given in the pool are not impervious to change- sometimes drastic -once you advance to the next day. If the teams don't have any players, an accurate assessment of any global nature can't be relied upon. The overall is a best guess by your scout based on a dynamic pool and it may or may not be realized in the selection of those players. Again, only my
Edit: I should add you'll need to run a re-scout in order to implement those changes.