Scouting Budget and Personnel

[opie]

In my first season playing OOTP and trying to learn the nuances of the scouting budget and personnel.

1) If my scouting director is average across the board (favor tools, $24,800 salary, contract through this season) and there's an available guy that's average, good, average, average (neutral), should I fire my guy and hire him? Both have fair reputations. And how do I know how much he's going to want?

2) Any tips on scouting budget? It looks like my budget is below the league scouting budget baseline -- should I set it between the baseline and the max? What tips do you have for a new owner as far as the scouting sliders?

[NoOne]

1) definitely... eat the loss in all but extreme circumstances..

i wouldn't sacrifice signing an elite player.. .but a slight downgrade to a bench player no problem type thing.

2) you can set these budgets after you finish FA signings and promotions to MLB...

you should have your budgets known and set and add as much as you can to scouting and development... you likely have a max cash on hand carryover of $10M, if default

(don't change this, it is a good thing to limit or you get an "opposite" world where extensions are more expensive than FA 99% of the time)

i never do july trading, but if you do, leave some wiggle room, otherwise set spending budgets for scouting, development and IAFA spending as high as you can allot.

spend as much as you can after you sign your players and have a 25man + depth for overcoming reasonable amount of injuries... it's not cost effective to try to combat a slew of injuries.. those years are simply lost.

[NoOne]

...

[opie]

Thank you. If your team was a borderline playoff team, would you rather have a scout that was good in scouting the minors (and avg in the others), or good at scouting international and amateurs (and avg at the others)? Also, neutral amateur preference, or highly favor tools? Does years of experience matter? And what's the difference between spending more scouting budget in an area vs. having a higher ranked scouting director in that area?

[NoOne]

i mostly trade for my best players, and they are MiL prospects when i procure them. so i always spend alot on MiL scouting + a scout that's excellent or legendary in that aspect too. so, it should depend on how you play to some extent.

if you consistently win, this is where you'll get your best players too, most likely.

i spend enough on majors to give my manager accurate info for choices like holding runners, and whatever other decisiosn take into consideration the two+ players invovled on the field at that time.

i generally spend more on mil than amateur scouting.. but it's close. if am drafting 1-10ish, i might reverse that spending for that 1 year.

i zero out int'l scouting. i don't have any of those leagues turned on.

int'l stuff:
if you don't have pro international leagues active, this makes the investment virtually worthless. it's only affecting scouting discoveries and nothign else without those leagues active. (the created IFA and IAFA are not int'l scouting from what i know.. unless it changed in ootp'19's release)

even if it does affect the created iafa, it's incredibly inaccurate dueto 16-17year olds. you are still better off buying in bulk instead of signing just 1 or 2 players.

years of exp on scout:
not sure on years of exp of scout.. i would think it's a secondary factor to the scouting ratings themselves... a small weighted effect most likely for experience. it's a short-term problem even if it has an effect. always go with the higher ceiling scout based on his ratings.

tools vs ability:
if it's for your eyes and not delegating, i recommend neutral... if you delegate, skew it the way you want.. tools is higher potential / higher risk type choices, ie high schoolers if they look good.

if i am doing the drafting, i will skew it the way i want in my own brain without ai interference. it's clearer information that way. i'd rather see non adjusted ratings and choose when to go with the HS kid over the college kid or vice versa.

you'll ahve to recognize that a "18" year old could gain significan velocity and his stuff potential rating will sky-rocket. also, more likely tehy fizzle out and no guarantees they do gain any velocity at all. again, i'd rather look at teh raw data than some glorified version due to highly favoring this or that.

budget:
it's all part of same equation.. money + scouting ability = accuracy. spend as much as you can afford withotu sacrificing any core players or ability ot pay them when they are ready for extensions etc...

i always et development, scouting and iafa budgets after i have my 25man and depth taken care of during offseason. leave wiggle room if you think you'll do a trade by the deadline etc.