What good is my stupid scout?

[Critical Mass]

I have a scout that has pretty good ratings. His International Scouting is "Good", and everything else is either "Excellent" or higher

Why is it I will wait months for him to find a prospect internationally, and when he finds one and sends me an email telling me we may want to keep an eye on this guy, I get:

SUMMARY: May have a big-league career -- in the broadcast booth
STUFF: Below average stuff
MOVEMENT: Throws dead straight
CONTROL: Inconsistent
PERSONALITY: Introverted

Is this what I'm paying him for? It's bad enough I'm paying all this money to scout other countries, and this is the best he can come up with? I can go out to any college in the world and get the same result myself. Why do I have this scout?

[Matt Arnold]

You get that occasionally, but I've also found 5* gems. It's much better in 12 than 11 - every year my scout routinely turns up 3-4 legitimate prospects.

[Dr. dru]

Originally Posted by Critical Mass

I have a scout that has pretty good ratings. His International Scouting is "Good", and everything else is either "Excellent" or higher

Why is it I will wait months for him to find a prospect internationally, and when he finds one and sends me an email telling me we may want to keep an eye on this guy, I get:

SUMMARY: May have a big-league career -- in the broadcast booth
STUFF: Below average stuff
MOVEMENT: Throws dead straight
CONTROL: Inconsistent
PERSONALITY: Introverted

Is this what I'm paying him for? It's bad enough I'm paying all this money to scout other countries, and this is the best he can come up with? I can go out to any college in the world and get the same result myself. Why do I have this scout?

Turn scouting off. Once you do you'll never go back. Scouting is pretty much worthless in this game.

[damientheomen3]

Originally Posted by Dr. dru

Turn scouting off. Once you do you'll never go back. Scouting is pretty much worthless in this game.

Glad to see you've run tests to find that in 100% of cases, a person who has turned off scouting will never ever go back. As for me...

I love scouting. When I first got into the second gen OOTP games I hated scouting and turned it off, but OOTP 12's new international scouting system and my want for a new challenge (played with ratings off) led me to turn it back on. Now I use it in all of my leagues in which I am to hold a GM role (but prefer to leave it off in leagues created specifically to 'watch what happens').

[PSUColonel]

Originally Posted by damientheomen3

Glad to see you've run tests to find that in 100% of cases, a person who has turned off scouting will never ever go back. As for me...

I love scouting. When I first got into the second gen OOTP games I hated scouting and turned it off, but OOTP 12's new international scouting system and my want for a new challenge (played with ratings off) led me to turn it back on. Now I use it in all of my leagues in which I am to hold a GM role (but prefer to leave it off in leagues created specifically to 'watch what happens').

Do you play stats only?

[mouse001]

As per my other thread, I play stats (almost) only and use a 1-5 scale for scouting. It creates just enough of a thread of support without worrying about ratings.

I ignore written reports, I think they are useless. A quick glance at a few ratings will tell me what I need to know, why bother reading a paragraph about it?

I also don't too much stock in personality ratings. If I'm drafting and there's two guys I'm stuck on, one with high work ethic and the other is cocky I'll go for option a but I don't hold the hammer of judgment over players for that

[PSUColonel]

Originally Posted by mouse001

As per my other thread, I play stats (almost) only and use a 1-5 scale for scouting. It creates just enough of a thread of support without worrying about ratings.

I ignore written reports, I think they are useless. A quick glance at a few ratings will tell me what I need to know, why bother reading a paragraph about it

Because they often don't match up...I posted in the other thread

[DanDiaz]

Most international prospects don't pan out. Baseball America ran an article about the success rate of top intl singings comparing them to top draft pics. I don't remember the exact success rate, but it was low, I think in the 30%s for top intl singings, at best.

I play with scouting on.

I put most of my budget into international scouting and get 5 sometimes 8 prospects a year, most will stink, but I get at least a stud ever 2 years and often every year.

If you are a winning team, you will get better prospects from the intl market than from the draft.

Some years my best intl prospect would be a top 5 pick in the draft.

[PSUColonel]

Originally Posted by mouse001

As per my other thread, I play stats (almost) only and use a 1-5 scale for scouting. It creates just enough of a thread of support without worrying about ratings.

I ignore written reports, I think they are useless. A quick glance at a few ratings will tell me what I need to know, why bother reading a paragraph about it?

I also don't too much stock in personality ratings. If I'm drafting and there's two guys I'm stuck on, one with high work ethic and the other is cocky I'll go for option a but I don't hold the hammer of judgment over players for that

Why do these written reports exist?

[robc]

Originally Posted by PSUColonel

Why do these written reports exist?

I thought they were there because some people think reading the text gives then better immersion then just looking at numbers. Kind of like the PbP. I didn't think it told you anything that you don't get from the numbers.

[Critical Mass]

Actually, I find them useful. I've had pitchers who were studs for years, and at age 36 their contract is up, and I'm ready to renew automatically, because they were lifers with my team, but the scout now says, "Average arm out of the pen". This caused me to take a closer look at his numbers (I use stats only) and notice that his ERA and WHIP had gone up a little bit over the past two years.

I make a polite offer (which gets refused) and tearfully let him go to another team... where he suddenly posts a +4.00ERA the next year, and then gets dropped to AAA, all at the tune of (usually) $20M per year for the next 3-4 years.

So, yes, I read the reports. They don't often tell the whole story, but they make my job a little easier.

[PSUColonel]

Originally Posted by robc

I thought they were there because some people think reading the text gives then better immersion then just looking at numbers. Kind of like the PbP. I didn't think it told you anything that you don't get from the numbers.

The problem is that the numbers and the reports often disagree with each other...but apparently nobody seems to care.

[Mntwins]

I love using the scouting system. My scout has fantastic ratings yet he is dumb as a brick.
I love it because it makes the game challenging.

[PSUColonel]

Originally Posted by Mntwins

I love using the scouting system. My scout has fantastic ratings yet he is dumb as a brick.
I love it because it makes the game challenging.

So do I, but the ratings & the text should correspond better.

[robc]

Originally Posted by PSUColonel

The problem is that the numbers and the reports often disagree with each other...but apparently nobody seems to care.

I agree with you. The numbers and text should agree. I just don't use the text.

[JMDurron]

My scout is worth his weight in gold for the international signings alone, I'm looking at my top CL and 2B prospects (both rated 75-80 POT depending on my Scout's mood that month) being from his "scouting trips." I have scouting enabled essentially just for digging up the hidden players.

[polydamas]

My best pitcher was found in the Dominican Republic. Have a look at his stats.

So was my closer.

[JMDurron]

Out of curiosity, what made you promote him from AA to AAA when you did? I ask because you promoted him up from S A, A, and AAA during/after a dominant season, but you promoted him from AA to AAA after a bit of a lackluster campaign. Was that a scout recommendation from the minor league report, or just intuition on your part?

[polydamas]

Originally Posted by JMDurron

Out of curiosity, what made you promote him from AA to AAA when you did? I ask because you promoted him up from S A, A, and AAA during/after a dominant season, but you promoted him from AA to AAA after a bit of a lackluster campaign. Was that a scout recommendation from the minor league report, or just intuition on your part?

Well, my AAA rotation was just plain bad (due to me trading away a lot of guys) and at the time my AA team was pretty awful, so Cervantes was actually one of the best options available.



Familia I never really had very much confidence in and I ended up trading him to the Marlins. Matz was one of my top prospects and I tried very hard not to ruin him by rushing him to the top too fast (eventually I traded him to the Brewers in an admitted stupid trade).

So, I promoted Cervantes AND Matz, because nothing else was really available and the entire team had an awful year.

[PSUColonel]

He doesn't look like he's from the D.R. Is the "race" problem still around?