Has anyone ever played with no overall ratings?

[aborelli24]

I've always been interested in playing with no overall ratings, with the goal of making it feel more realistic. Obviously, there would still be 20-80 scale ratings from each of the hitters/pitchers tools but no overall rating for any player. Has anyone out there done/enjoyed this? Would love to hear more about your experience.

[HerbD]

I ran an online league for years that had no hitting or pitching ratings and I am currently in a league that uses no ratings.

[slugga27]

Yes. I play stats-only, but have “Other” ratings (speed, fielding, etc.) visible. Been playing that way for over ten years. I love it, because I’m not making decisions based on…John Smith is a 75 and Jim Smith is a 70; therefore John starts over Jim.


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[ubernoob]

I play at least 2-3 saves each year as stats only with a full feeder league set up to draft from, so you have stats based drafting to do.

The only ratings I leave on are the other ratings, because it's the only way to determine speed/fielding at the outset but I turn off overall/potential and then the stuff like contact/power/eye/etc.

I'm trying to think of the settings I normally use.

I load up all the international leagues, and give the *** and the KBO feeder leagues to draft from (though you can't quite replicate how the KBO draft works.) I turn off "Generate International Established Free Agents" and "Generate Free Agents from Independent Leagues" because I have both international and independents loaded up.

I leave league evo on, but I turn off expansion/relocation/nickname change.

I keep scouting at normal, I personally like frequent scouting reports and incorporate stats into them.

I turn off Current Ratings and Potential Ratings, leave the other ratings at 20-80. Sometimes I leave Overall and Talent ratings on stars, sometimes I turn them off completely.

The other settings I'll tweak on a per game basis (slightly faster development/slower aging and I generally change the Player Evalation AI to something like 5/60/25/10.) Trading I bump up to either the middle between the default and Hard (so like 75% of the bar) or all the way up to the Hard line. Trading Preference will be the inverse (so if difficulty is 100%, favor prospects is at 75. If Difficulty is 75%, favor prospects will be 100%.) I'll also turn up the talent change randomness, normally to 150 or so.

IDK if any of these are good settings but I enjoy them.

[progen]

Originally Posted by aborelli24

I've always been interested in playing with no overall ratings, with the goal of making it feel more realistic. Obviously, there would still be 20-80 scale ratings from each of the hitters/pitchers tools but no overall rating for any player. Has anyone out there done/enjoyed this? Would love to hear more about your experience.

It's the only way I play. Like previous posts, I do leave on the "other ratings", but I've found it makes me pay much more attention to a players stats across the board, and slows down my play during a season. And I always felt it makes the draft much more challenging.

The other thing I do is, I never look at the email that you get a month before the draft, and then the day of the draft, that lists the top picks. And I never look at the mock draft. I don't want to be swayed by those listings. I will check with my scout on a recommendation during the draft, but don't always go with the player or players he suggests. There's always discussion about this, and in the end, it's to each his own.

As far as ratings, I currently, use 2-65-22-11. That can certainly be open for another discussion as well. And absolutely no stars. So glad you can turn them off in this game. The issue you'll come across with stats only, is international signings, as you have no stats to go on, so I simply go with my scouts recommendations on that.

[PSUColonel]

It's not a bad way to play IMO. I am not as extreme as others in this thread, as to me, scouting is still a very real part of baseball and player evaluation. Therefore, I think it's very reasonable to play without overall and potential ratings, and WITH the current and future tool grades.

The overall ratings are not always the best way to evaluate player, and yes, I hate having two good players, one who may be a 70, and the other a 75. What's the difference?

I would certainly be open to the developers coming up with another overall and potential scale. (one much closer to what's actually used.) Something more in line with:

20, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 80.

This is closer to what scouts actually use. The only use deviations of 5 when closer to the median average. I realize they will likely say the star system is very close to this (only one off) but I really hate stars and prefer to use a system scouts actually use.

[jameslacy8]

I like this idea with maybe overall ratings.....But potential ratings too? Wouldn't you get that from your scout?

[waittilnextyear]

Originally Posted by jameslacy8

I like this idea with maybe overall ratings.....But potential ratings too? Wouldn't you get that from your scout?

You could always muddy the waters by changing your level of scouting accuracy. Scouting can be turned off as well, if you want to go full-bore into stats-only.

One thing I could never quite get over with stats-only is how dull the player pages look with no colorful ratings on them. I think if there was a way to put something else there graphically, then it would be even more attractive of an option to me.

[Bluenoser]

Originally Posted by PSUColonel

It's not a bad way to play IMO. I am not as extreme as others in this thread, as to me, scouting is still a very real part of baseball and player evaluation. Therefore, I think it's very reasonable to play without overall and potential ratings, and WITH the current and future tool grades.

The overall ratings are not always the best way to evaluate player, and yes, I hate having two good players, one who may be a 70, and the other a 75. What's the difference?

I would certainly be open to the developers coming up with another overall and potential scale. (one much closer to what's actually used.) Something more in line with:

20, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 80.

This is closer to what scouts actually use. The only use deviations of 5 when closer to the median average. I realize they will likely say the star system is very close to this (only one off) but I really hate stars and prefer to use a system scouts actually use.

Not much difference in that and what's in the game now. We already have the option to view them in increments of 5.

[jameslacy3509]

I am thinking more in the vein of trying to make is as realistic as possible. Stats are definitely way more important than ratings for sure. I feeling like cutting of potential ratings goes beyond that to an even more difficult level since you are limiting even more what your scouts can communicate about potential. Is this an accurate understanding?

[PSUColonel]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

Not much difference in that and what's in the game now. We already have the option to view them in increments of 5.

I know this…but scouts basically never use 25 or 75….OOTP does it all the time.

[PSUColonel]

Originally Posted by jameslacy3509

I am thinking more in the vein of trying to make is as realistic as possible. Stats are definitely way more important than ratings for sure. I feeling like cutting of potential ratings goes beyond that to an even more difficult level since you are limiting even more what your scouts can communicate about potential. Is this an accurate understanding?

My honest opinion is there are some people out there who don’t care as much about reality (and that’s fine for them) and are just kind of “numbers people” and therefore don’t care about scouting. Think of it as art vs science. There are simply some types of people who are into science and have no time for art….when in reality (at least IMO) reality is comprised of both.

This is likely why I’m probably on a never ending quest to get the best AI evaluation settings possible LOL

[Antonin]

Originally Posted by waittilnextyear

...One thing I could never quite get over with stats-only is how dull the player pages look with no colorful ratings on them. I think if there was a way to put something else there graphically, then it would be even more attractive of an option to me.

Yes indeed! That is something I have requested in the past. I think it would make more people likely to be interested in playing "stats only." There are some people here who absolutely love that style of play, but I have not tried it because the player page just looks so empty.

[Syd Thrift]

I also use stats only and part of why I do that is because I don’t like how the OOTP scouting system works. I’ve made many posts over the years about what its issues are but for now I’m just going to avoid them as much as I can, although I do read the text reports the game still generates when you turn those off (and I temporarily turn potentials on for Draft Day).

Even having POTs is problematic because players basically never have actual ratings higher than their POTs for a significant length of time and so as such for veterans you can basically treat them like actual ratings, which is exactly what I don’t want to see.

[SalukiFin]

There are many different scouting systems used by different organizations at different times. Looking at the top row of image searches for "mlb scouting report", you see letter grades, single digit numbers, and double digit increments of 5, including a report of a player having 25 speed. Now, most of these are not recent, but those are under lock unless you're seeing something different. So how can we know what a "real scout" uses, and if we know what one organization uses, how can we know that all are the same? I guess what I'm getting at is that OOTP is fine to use 25 and 75, and for any developer coming across this thread, my vote is that more time be spent on options in other areas.

[Galeg]

I have played a bit with POT hidden and found it interesting, but I haven't settled on a favored approach to game setup yet. I would like to see the written scout reports be more varied and interesting. I'd fire my scouts if they only identified 3 viable SPs in an entire draft class and said every other pitcher was an emergency fill-in at best. OVR and POT can be pretty misleading because I've found players get a huge boost based on fielding ratings that doesn't translate to actual value.

[BKL]

Originally Posted by Antonin

Yes indeed! That is something I have requested in the past. I think it would make more people likely to be interested in playing "stats only." There are some people here who absolutely love that style of play, but I have not tried it because the player page just looks so empty.

I agree completely! I have played with "Stats Only" now for about five years and love playing that way. It forces me to take such deeper look at players, prospects, free agency, etc. In the past, it was too easy just to pick the player with the best ratings. I know it's a matter of preference.

One thing I would love to see is the ability to adjust the player pages, similar to how you adjust the manager or home screen - where you can customize that page to your liking. This option would be great for everyone, not just "stats only" players.

[progen]

Originally Posted by BKL

I agree completely! I have played with "Stats Only" now for about five years and love playing that way. It forces me to take such deeper look at players, prospects, free agency, etc. In the past, it was too easy just to pick the player with the best ratings. I know it's a matter of preference.

One thing I would love to see is the ability to adjust the player pages, similar to how you adjust the manager or home screen - where you can customize that page to your liking. This option would be great for everyone, not just "stats only" players.

Agree. I was in more than a half dozen online leagues back in the day, but got tired real quick of the league using stars, and all ratings turned on. Sadly, there just aren't that many leagues that are stats only. So I play solo only. Majority of leagues, not worth my time. Just my opinion, but I always felt stars, and all ratings turned on is the "lazy" mans way of playing this game. You really do need to take a much deeper look at players stats, and trending over the seasons.

And this may be trivia, but after buying version 5, stars are the main reason I won't buy the hockey game. No way to turn off stars, no thanks.

[ryanivr]

This is how I play exclusively. I find it to be a nice balance between playing with ratings/stats-only. Potentials only is the only way to do it, for me.

[Scipio Africanus]

I like the idea of playing stats-only -- but I feel like I need something to compensate for the fact that I'm not actually sitting in the dugout watching them play nor seeing them in practice every day.