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chazzycat · 06-25-2019, 04:37 PM

Honestly it can be pretty tough to really know what's happening sometimes. Scouting information is imperfect. Players talent levels can also just randomly change at any moment. And of course stats can fluctuate a huge degree just from pure luck...especially when it comes to batting averages, most people underestimate the amount of pure, random chance involved in baseball.

So you kinda gotta accept there will be this "fog of war" preventing you from having complete knowledge, and not try to understand everything. But there are SOME things that help:

1) Understand MLB's aging curves. OOTP is pretty realistic...father time is not kind to ballplayers. Especially after age 30 or so they can fall off quickly sometimes. Kind of sounds like that's what happened with Puig....assuming you signed him in 2020 that would have been his age 29 season, so one good season following by decline shouldn't be a shock. Not that it works out that precisely every time...far from it...but yeah generally you want to avoid giving long contracts to aging players.

2) Understand the stats and how they relate to ratings. For example you mention Andrew Toles had a good batting average despite bad eye and power ratings. Well, those ratings have nothing to do with batting average. That comes from the contact rating. Eye rating = walk rate, power rating = Home Runs. I recommend setting up a stat view called "ratings vs results" showing both ratings AND stats on the same screen. This really helps me to understand the relationship between the ratings and the stats.

3) Consider upgrading your head scout and/or scouting budget if possible. This helps get you better information which makes the entire game much easier.

For your last question...yeah there is a huge amount of random luck involved with prospects as well. All you can really do is try to set things up as best as possible and keep trying to acquire talent...don't put all your hope in one prospect. By "set things up as best as possible" I mean:

1) Aligning your coaching staff with the types of talent you're drafting - contact hitters, power pitchers, etc.
2) Keeping an eye on the relationship tab when hiring coaches & managers, especially when it comes to your top prospects
3) Setting your player development budget as high as possible

The pace of moving players through your minor league system is fairly complex. Honestly you could put a TON of effort into that without seeing a lot of benefit...I usually let the AI manage my farm system (except hiring personnel) and doesn't seem to hurt them too badly.

And last but not least I'll leave you with my 2 favorite tips for stockpiling talent:

1) every draft, filter to the pitchers and sort by hitting attributes like "contact potential". Often times you will find extremely good hitting prospects who are getting drafted as crappy pitching prospects instead. You can get 5 star prospects this way, well after the first round.
2) Set your international FA budget to $5M. Every July 2nd, pick your favorite prospect and give him the whole $5M upfront on day 1. This seems to make him choose your team over the others every time. So this is basically a guaranteed 1 top prospect per year.

06-25-2019, 04:37 PM	#6
chazzycat All Star Starter Join Date: Dec 2014 Posts: 1,685	Honestly it can be pretty tough to really know what's happening sometimes. Scouting information is imperfect. Players talent levels can also just randomly change at any moment. And of course stats can fluctuate a huge degree just from pure luck...especially when it comes to batting averages, most people underestimate the amount of pure, random chance involved in baseball. So you kinda gotta accept there will be this "fog of war" preventing you from having complete knowledge, and not try to understand everything. But there are SOME things that help: 1) Understand MLB's aging curves. OOTP is pretty realistic...father time is not kind to ballplayers. Especially after age 30 or so they can fall off quickly sometimes. Kind of sounds like that's what happened with Puig....assuming you signed him in 2020 that would have been his age 29 season, so one good season following by decline shouldn't be a shock. Not that it works out that precisely every time...far from it...but yeah generally you want to avoid giving long contracts to aging players. 2) Understand the stats and how they relate to ratings. For example you mention Andrew Toles had a good batting average despite bad eye and power ratings. Well, those ratings have nothing to do with batting average. That comes from the contact rating. Eye rating = walk rate, power rating = Home Runs. I recommend setting up a stat view called "ratings vs results" showing both ratings AND stats on the same screen. This really helps me to understand the relationship between the ratings and the stats. 3) Consider upgrading your head scout and/or scouting budget if possible. This helps get you better information which makes the entire game much easier. For your last question...yeah there is a huge amount of random luck involved with prospects as well. All you can really do is try to set things up as best as possible and keep trying to acquire talent...don't put all your hope in one prospect. By "set things up as best as possible" I mean: 1) Aligning your coaching staff with the types of talent you're drafting - contact hitters, power pitchers, etc. 2) Keeping an eye on the relationship tab when hiring coaches & managers, especially when it comes to your top prospects 3) Setting your player development budget as high as possible The pace of moving players through your minor league system is fairly complex. Honestly you could put a TON of effort into that without seeing a lot of benefit...I usually let the AI manage my farm system (except hiring personnel) and doesn't seem to hurt them too badly. And last but not least I'll leave you with my 2 favorite tips for stockpiling talent: 1) every draft, filter to the pitchers and sort by hitting attributes like "contact potential". Often times you will find extremely good hitting prospects who are getting drafted as crappy pitching prospects instead. You can get 5 star prospects this way, well after the first round. 2) Set your international FA budget to $5M. Every July 2nd, pick your favorite prospect and give him the whole $5M upfront on day 1. This seems to make him choose your team over the others every time. So this is basically a guaranteed 1 top prospect per year.