[Tiger Fan]

In the online league I am a member of, all ratings are turned off although I believe some other leagues have the "other ratings" visible so you can see fielding and running skills.

In our league GM's rely on the written scouting reports and stats as well as secondary items like the prospect pipeline and top players reports. I also find I lean heavily on things like the number of pitches a pitcher possesses, is a groundball or flyball guy as well as noticing bumps in velocity as those notes are visible.

I think most in that league find a bit of a learning curve getting to know the players with only stats but once you get a couple of seasons in you start to get a decent idea (or we hope it's a decent idea) of how each player performs.

We have the luxury of a commissioner who does not run a team - and honestly, I see no other way a stats-only league can work properly because the commissioner has the ability to peak behind the curtain and see the ratings.

I am not sure of the exact settings he uses (he keeps that a secret) but I imagine our scouting accuracy is set to average or perhaps even low to give a bit more uncertainty to the proceedings.

Keep past season minor defensive stats is enabled and I would say necessary if you have the other ratings turned off as they are necessary to help gauge defensive talent. Full coaching and scouting system is enabled and out league also hides player personality ratings (although you can get all the basic info from the personality & morale team reports.

It took a little while to get comfortable with it, but I now only enjoy playing stats-only. It makes the draft an awful lot more fun (you can use your scouts draft list to help in online drafts) and a real challenge.