OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post - Unprecedented success -- the tale of a Seattle Mariners' dynasty

GM_CheatSheets · 09-14-2018, 11:59 PM

Scouting and development also played an important role in building a dynasty poised for long-term success. In my opinion, my scout is usually the most important individual in my organization as a lot of my successes or failures will ultimately trace back to him. There are few things I dread more than a reliable scout retiring or refusing to re-sign with my organization (usually to take on a GM role in another organization).

I prefer my scout to "heavily favor tools" and to be a talented evaluator of, in order, amateurs, international amateurs, major leaguers, and minor leaguers.

For this franchise, I've kept my scouting budget and scouting budget distribution the same every year. I've spent $20 million on scouting ($8 million league baseline and $24 million max). I've distributed the budget with 29% MLB, 18% MiLB, 33% amateurs, and 20% international.

I didn't keep detailed records of my scouts, but Dominique Rodgers accounted for the longest stretch from 2024 to 2031. When I hired him, he had no coaching experience but good potential. In 2032, he refused to entertain another extension. Regrettably, I forgot to promote him immediately after the playoffs ended to Assistant GM. As a result, he decided to leave my organization entirely to become the GM of the Baltimore Orioles. His most notable ratings are an "outstanding" ability to scout international talent, as well as major leaguers.

My current scout, Lonnie Goldberg, previously served as the scouting director for Kansas City. He is rated "excellent" at scouting amateur talent, as well as major leaguers.

In previous simulations, I've maxed out my development budget. For this franchise, I've decided to keep my player development budget in line with the league average of $12 million.

To maximize the quality of talent entering my player development pipeline, I followed the five part strategy listed below.

1. Maximize compensation picks. Especially when I'm in a rebuilding mode, and even when I'm contending, I try to keep track of which of my players are compensation eligible in 1-2 years. Occasionally, I am able to turn short term contracts for closers into a comp pick. I have also had some success trading for players with a year and a half left on their contract. I very rarely sign players to extensions and prefer to give the next player in my prospect pipeline a shot and get a compensation pick in return.

2. Set amateur draft signing budget to $8 million. Setting a large signing budget allows me to go after players who fall due to high demands. In cases of "impossible" demand players, I've found that generally offering them a little more than twice the demand that appears in the negotiate contract screen. I tend to favor a best player available type of approach roughly using the ratings from my custom spreadsheets. I noticed that I've developed a tendency to target younger players in the draft. I'm not sure if this is because of my scout "highly favoring tools" or due to my personal selection.

3. Sign the top international amateur free agent every year. This is a new trick with the spending limits on international amateurs. I've found that I'm able to sign any player who I offer $5 million. I use my spreadsheet to determine the top few prospects in the international amateur class every year and make my top target a $5 million offer.

4. International scouting discoveries are a bit out of my control, but can be an essential talent source. The only two ways I know to influence this are to spend more money on international scouting and to have a scout that is skilled at international talent evaluation.

5. Trade from your depth to fill organizational holes. One of the byproducts of taking a best player available approach is that you might build considerable depth at a few positions while others are more scarce. By using my spreadsheet, my system is usually stacked with players that other teams are interested in in just a few short years. Identifying potential targets is a little difficult. One way I do this is to shop around some of my talented young players to see who other teams might make available. From there, I pull the player I shopped out of the trade and add in a quality prospect from one of my depth areas and use the "make trade work now" button to see how close we are to a deal. I try to stay to 1-for-1, 2-for-1, 2-for-2, and 3-for-2 deals. Otherwise it is easy to unrealistically trade a bunch of quantity for quality.

I've found that the AI tends to undervalue players who are in their mid 20's and still in the low minors. I've traded for several players of this profile who my scout was high. Several of them have gone on to perform well after immediate promotions to the high minors. A few have also succeeded in the majors.

While I think that this strategy should work well overall, it is important to be aware of your scout's talents and tendencies. If you are working with limited money or want to limit the amount of time you invest in game play, I would focus on one or two of the strategies outlined above. For example, if your scout is really talented at evaluating international players, you can direct a large portion of your scouting budget to international players and focus on numbers three and four above.

If you are willing to take the time to do all of these, another way to approach it is to invest more money into the areas that your scout is weaker at. Theoretically, this could help to balance out the strengths and weaknesses. Anecdotally, I feel that a scout who is talented at amateur scouting will still scout amateur talent well on a limited budget. Or, at least, you can still have a quality amateur scouting operation without investing quite as much money into it.

09-14-2018, 11:59 PM	#7
GM_CheatSheets Minors (Double A) Join Date: Dec 2016 Posts: 171	The Player Development Pipeline Scouting and development also played an important role in building a dynasty poised for long-term success. In my opinion, my scout is usually the most important individual in my organization as a lot of my successes or failures will ultimately trace back to him. There are few things I dread more than a reliable scout retiring or refusing to re-sign with my organization (usually to take on a GM role in another organization). I prefer my scout to "heavily favor tools" and to be a talented evaluator of, in order, amateurs, international amateurs, major leaguers, and minor leaguers. For this franchise, I've kept my scouting budget and scouting budget distribution the same every year. I've spent $20 million on scouting ($8 million league baseline and $24 million max). I've distributed the budget with 29% MLB, 18% MiLB, 33% amateurs, and 20% international. I didn't keep detailed records of my scouts, but Dominique Rodgers accounted for the longest stretch from 2024 to 2031. When I hired him, he had no coaching experience but good potential. In 2032, he refused to entertain another extension. Regrettably, I forgot to promote him immediately after the playoffs ended to Assistant GM. As a result, he decided to leave my organization entirely to become the GM of the Baltimore Orioles. His most notable ratings are an "outstanding" ability to scout international talent, as well as major leaguers. My current scout, Lonnie Goldberg, previously served as the scouting director for Kansas City. He is rated "excellent" at scouting amateur talent, as well as major leaguers. In previous simulations, I've maxed out my development budget. For this franchise, I've decided to keep my player development budget in line with the league average of $12 million. To maximize the quality of talent entering my player development pipeline, I followed the five part strategy listed below. 1. Maximize compensation picks. Especially when I'm in a rebuilding mode, and even when I'm contending, I try to keep track of which of my players are compensation eligible in 1-2 years. Occasionally, I am able to turn short term contracts for closers into a comp pick. I have also had some success trading for players with a year and a half left on their contract. I very rarely sign players to extensions and prefer to give the next player in my prospect pipeline a shot and get a compensation pick in return. 2. Set amateur draft signing budget to $8 million. Setting a large signing budget allows me to go after players who fall due to high demands. In cases of "impossible" demand players, I've found that generally offering them a little more than twice the demand that appears in the negotiate contract screen. I tend to favor a best player available type of approach roughly using the ratings from my custom spreadsheets. I noticed that I've developed a tendency to target younger players in the draft. I'm not sure if this is because of my scout "highly favoring tools" or due to my personal selection. 3. Sign the top international amateur free agent every year. This is a new trick with the spending limits on international amateurs. I've found that I'm able to sign any player who I offer $5 million. I use my spreadsheet to determine the top few prospects in the international amateur class every year and make my top target a $5 million offer. 4. International scouting discoveries are a bit out of my control, but can be an essential talent source. The only two ways I know to influence this are to spend more money on international scouting and to have a scout that is skilled at international talent evaluation. 5. Trade from your depth to fill organizational holes. One of the byproducts of taking a best player available approach is that you might build considerable depth at a few positions while others are more scarce. By using my spreadsheet, my system is usually stacked with players that other teams are interested in in just a few short years. Identifying potential targets is a little difficult. One way I do this is to shop around some of my talented young players to see who other teams might make available. From there, I pull the player I shopped out of the trade and add in a quality prospect from one of my depth areas and use the "make trade work now" button to see how close we are to a deal. I try to stay to 1-for-1, 2-for-1, 2-for-2, and 3-for-2 deals. Otherwise it is easy to unrealistically trade a bunch of quantity for quality. I've found that the AI tends to undervalue players who are in their mid 20's and still in the low minors. I've traded for several players of this profile who my scout was high. Several of them have gone on to perform well after immediate promotions to the high minors. A few have also succeeded in the majors. While I think that this strategy should work well overall, it is important to be aware of your scout's talents and tendencies. If you are working with limited money or want to limit the amount of time you invest in game play, I would focus on one or two of the strategies outlined above. For example, if your scout is really talented at evaluating international players, you can direct a large portion of your scouting budget to international players and focus on numbers three and four above. If you are willing to take the time to do all of these, another way to approach it is to invest more money into the areas that your scout is weaker at. Theoretically, this could help to balance out the strengths and weaknesses. Anecdotally, I feel that a scout who is talented at amateur scouting will still scout amateur talent well on a limited budget. Or, at least, you can still have a quality amateur scouting operation without investing quite as much money into it.