"Scouts Only" Ratings Option

[southside_hitmen]

Right now we have ratings options to:
1) turn scouts off completely and go only with OSA ratings
2) do a mix of OSA & Scouts ratings

However, we don't have the ability right now to do ratings as "Scouts Only" (with no OSA).

A nice option that OOTP could have is having "Scout only" ratings option. So basically, no OSA ratings on anyone. That way you would see individual scout differences instead of having one central ratings from OSA to go off of for everyone.

This also, I think, would be a nice "realistic" option in that there is nowhere in real life that a real GM asks "wait, before we make this trade, what does the MLB central scouting have this guy rated as?" since such a thing does not exist.

Honestly, a "Scouts Only" league with no OVR/POT (but WITH individual ratings) is probably the most "realistic" to being an actual GM. Most scouts will give you individual tools irl, but it's rarer to get an overall rating on players. If you look at pro scouting reports most (not all) will just have the 5 tools rated and a written summary.

[Syd Thrift]

Such a thing 100% exists.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_...couting_Bureau

[southside_hitmen]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

Such a thing 100% exists.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_...couting_Bureau

It actually is dead. They just do video and medicals now, no scouting

https://www.baseballamerica.com/stor...aining-scouts/

[BirdWatcher]

"It actually is dead. They just do video and medicals now, no scouting"


Though that is also likely due to the rise of modern independent advanced metrics sources, like Fangraphs, Baseball Prospectus, Baseball America, etc.

My understanding has always been that the OSA was meant as more of an aggregation of the various places IRL that non-proprietary, public information is available that contains projections, scouting ratings, and other evaluative information.

While it is almost surely true that teams rely most heavily on their own internal metrics and scouting, I also think the evidence is that they are very aware of other sources as well and how they weight that information is likely different organization to organization.

I'm speaking now to 21st century MLB realities, so perhaps your statement that "honestly, a "Scouts Only" league with no OVR/POT (but WITH individual ratings) is probably the most "realistic" to being an actual GM" might be true for earlier periods of baseball history, but I think it is blatantly not correct for the current day. In our current era, the more information the better. And no self-respecting GM would limit their intake of information for decision-making processes to a "scouts only" approach.

[southside_hitmen]

Yeah, I can dig that take ^

Again though, this would just be an option. The same way no scouts and OSA only is an option when playing.

So, if you want to replicate older periods of baseball, or if you prefer to play it that way in a modern league, you could. The same way you can turn off OVR/POT completely or go through other rating variations.

I think of it similar to how Football Manager or other games handle scouting, where you get a whiff of what "consensus" is on a player through other means like top players, positional strength report, etc... without being explicit.

It adds some more fog of war and makes the game less spreadsheet simulator if you can only rely on your in-house staff for ratings and such. And again, this option wouldn't be enforced or even the preferred one for some, but I think it would be a good option to have for those that want it.

EDIT: While I also agree that no self-respecting GM would limit their intake of info for decision making processes, the same holds true that they would not have no internal scouting at all and only rely on the wisdom of the crowd (i.e. No scouts, OSA only option) to make decisions. Yet, that is an option in the game.

[BirdWatcher]

Originally Posted by southside_hitmen

EDIT: While I also agree that no self-respecting GM would limit their intake of info for decision making processes, the same holds true that they would not have no internal scouting at all and only rely on the wisdom of the crowd (i.e. No scouts, OSA only option) to make decisions. Yet, that is an option in the game.

Agreed.