How Do You All Break Down Your Scouting Budget?

[gfas]

I started off in a rebuild so I went with something like:
Major league: 20%
Minor league: 35%
Amateur: 25%
International: 20%

After a few years when the draft isn't as loaded I chopped amateur down and bumped up international and major league.

Just curious what the rest of you go with.

[MrBojangles]

How much of an affect does changing the percentages really have?

[Elf Marine]

I couldn't get myself interested in it so left it to my Asst. GM. I wrote a budget once in real life for a military base. I can't find a way to be excited about a computer scouting budget that is simple. lol I am watching though to see what logic seems to be employed and if there are any comments from above. If negative comments I guess I'll take over on it.

[gfas]

Originally Posted by MrBojangles

How much of an affect does changing the percentages really have?

I'm assuming that if it's there, it'll have some sort of effect on scouting accuracy. Can't imagine it's just window dressing

[NoOne]

it will take you a few seconds to think about and do. after that it takes a minimum amount of attention each year. worry less about a % and a minimum amount of $$$ that is needed for those results to be as good as you need them... e.g. i make sure my majors scouting is as high as anyone else in the league - as a minimum threshold... i fully intend to outpsend them when possible.

the more you spend on various aspects the better the results. so, what is important to you? are they equal? -- very easy questions to establish the allotment of scouting budget.

before that you simply should spend as much as you can each year on scouting and development after signing players and such. i do try to make my "Max cash" limit as profit, but breaking even is cool too. for development i'd spend as much as the largest budget you can find, and more if you can afford it.

if you don't believe they are all equal: if the budget is slim in aparticular year, you may not be able to just apply your percentages. in this situation i'd look at a minimum $$$ value you want for the important parts and let the other parts suffer.

Int'l FA discoveries - i value the least. i will gut this when i have to. when i have a cheap payroll i will spend like a drunken sailor here, though.

Amateurs - very important when i have top-10 picks in the draft... so not often do i spend boku bucks here. i am willing to lower this when i have at least a 1-year window when drafting is not very important. 3rd or 2nd highest budget in general.

Minors - you want better development? well, knowing their ratings better will help with promotions... also, my trade targets are more likely to be prospects. this wil range from 3rd highest to 2nd highest portion, depending.

Majors - i think this is the most important, and not just for obvious reasons. the ratings are more accurate, of course. However, i think the biggest by-product is an AI manager making better decisions on the field based on better information. if you play out your games, then it's not as important for you, since you are the "AI" in this case.

e.g. if the scout says the guy has a 2/10 avoid K's and he is really a 4/10 that's a big deal to related GM strategies in quite a few situations. that will shift the percentages of what is likely and therefore shift the strategy employed to get the guy out.

Never skimp on the majors, unless you know your team is crap. even then, it will adversely affect signing FAs and trades... but historical knowledge will be enough for a human, not an AI. We can just look up old scouting reports from the previous year's budget and be fairly confident about the player - unless aging and TCR took place beyond expectations.


About spending "more" than the largest budget you find:

why do i say this? maybe i am assuming too much, but as some point there is likely a point of negligible returns and you are likely just pissing your money down a drain for a .01% improvement. but, spending more than others assures you are better than them at it. that mostly applies to development... since scouting is split between 4 things, i'd spend as much as you can there, because you're likely never getting close to the max. for development budget, i wouldn't worry about negligible returns unless you are nearing 75-100%... (which is like 4X the baseline or whatever).

[MikeS21]

I guess it all depends on what you want out of the game. Honestly, I could care less about spending money on major league scouting. I put the bulk of spending on the other three areas. One thing I do attempt to accomplish is to free up enough cash to raise my total scouting budgets. I hire the most highly rated scout I can find - someone who is well respected and very good at his job and then put him to work scouring young players.

I want to build my team through drafts and development, and then I want to trade players for prospects when they get too expensive to re-sign. I never sign FA's. Why sign a expensive guy when I have younger, cheaper, and better players at AAA?

Right now, my settings are at (Maximum Scouting budget allowed):

Major league: 5%
Minor league: 35%
Amateur: 35%
International: 25%

[chazzycat]

It really depends on what phase your franchise is in. For a rebuilding team with high draft picks, amateur scouting would be pretty important. But for a contender with a strong record and/or who signs compensation-eligible free agents, your draft picks will be much lower or non-existent, so amateur scouting is much less important.

Likewise if you are rebuilding you'd want to keep a close eye on your minor leagues development, so minors scouting would be pretty key. Whereas if you're in win-now mode and your farm system is bare anyway, minor scouting isn't as important.

I also think most of the comments so far are underrating international scouting. International free agents and scouting discoveries are both pretty good ways to stockpile talent for contenders who won't get much out of the draft. Even half-star scouting discoveries can turn into great players years later.

Also, with international free agents, you can only "go big" every OTHER year, due to the strict penalties imposed if you go over the limit. So my strategy is to go all-in every other year, buying up as much talent as my budget allows. In those years I raise my international budget a bit, then lower it down for the following year where I can't spend money anyways.

[NoOne]

Originally Posted by MikeS21

I guess it all depends on what you want out of the game. Honestly, I could care less about spending money on major league scouting. I put the bulk of spending on the other three areas. One thing I do attempt to accomplish is to free up enough cash to raise my total scouting budgets. I hire the most highly rated scout I can find - someone who is well respected and very good at his job and then put him to work scouring young players.

I want to build my team through drafts and development, and then I want to trade players for prospects when they get too expensive to re-sign. I never sign FA's. Why sign a expensive guy when I have younger, cheaper, and better players at AAA?

Right now, my settings are at (Maximum Scouting budget allowed):

Major league: 5%
Minor league: 35%
Amateur: 35%
International: 25%

* If you simulate games - AI manages the game - your major league scouting budget will significantly impact your manager's decisions.

I also max the budget when i can, but not everyone likes playing with a large market / big budget team. you definitely can't do that with every team each year... if i need 10M and i am oakland, i'll short the scouting or some other similar expence to sign the player - when properly motivated to do so.

if you play games out... no big deal. you are used to the inaccuracies of a 5% major league scouting budget and you focus on kids - always a great idea even with a big-budget market. FAs typically have a track record, so it's easy to see when your scout is wrong - also their salary demand and willingness of other teams to pay it will tell you when a scout is likely wrong. you always have OSA scouting, too... it makes sense that if you drop below OSA-level accuracy, you might as well just Zero out the budget.


*** remember the percentages don't tell you anything... it's the dollar amount value. you guys should be giving $$$ totals that you use for each.

If i recall, this is the typical max individual budgets the AI does in a 30T league any given year:

6.X Mill - is top-end for majors
5.X Mill - is top-end for minors
~6M - is top-end for amateurs
~5M - is top-end for int'l

if i recall, you can fit it into a 24M max scouting budget and still have the most or equal to the most money in each.

Spend those amounts or over those amounts and you are likely the best in the league at it with an excellent scout.

[gfas]

Originally Posted by NoOne

*

6.X Mill - is top-end for majors
5.X Mill - is top-end for minors
~6M - is top-end for amateurs
~5M - is top-end for int'l

if i recall, you can fit it into a 24M max scouting budget and still have the most or equal to the most money in each.

Spend those amounts or over those amounts and you are likely the best in the league at it with an excellent scout.

Ok this is interesting. I had not seen these figures before but I always max out my scouting budget at 24M. My question would be that if you go above these dollar amounts for any individual category, would that basically be the point of diminishing returns? Not sure if that's possible to definitively answer, but would that be the best guess?

[NoOne]

Originally Posted by gfas

Ok this is interesting. I had not seen these figures before but I always max out my scouting budget at 24M. My question would be that if you go above these dollar amounts for any individual category, would that basically be the point of diminishing returns? Not sure if that's possible to definitively answer, but would that be the best guess?

i wasn't intimating that. in fact, if you spread it out, i would be confident you are not near diminishing returns.

if you are dumping 20M into one, i'd feel differently... . 10M? i'm not sure. the the only real answer - No Idea.

you'd have to take a sample of players, write down their real ratings, compare to scout ratings, then re-run scouting with new budget. since we can't change this particular budget while it is in use, you have to use multiple teams with the same rated and different scouting figures.

i guess measure by %error? but, you could figure it out that way... totally not worth it, imo. just keep spending as much as you can. most years you can't max it out unless you're a 16-20market or something.

[Sabres2000]

rookie question... reading through these threads and i keep on reading people using max budget how do u know what ur max budget is..

[PSUColonel]

I don't usually spend as much on the major leagues since you have a much better idea about those players anyway.

[wsenkow]

Originally Posted by NoOne

Majors - i think this is the most important, and not just for obvious reasons. the ratings are more accurate, of course. However, i think the biggest by-product is an AI manager making better decisions on the field based on better information.

I raise the 'majors' percentage a lot if I feel my club will contend. In previous versions I was unaware of such financial strategy and although I would make it into post-season occasionally, more often than not I got swept even by teams of lesser records. Now I can at least get further into the playoffs. How much of that additional success can be attributed to scouting, I am not sure.

[jpeters1734]

Question when do these figures take effect? When the season ends and you're able to edit the budget, are you simply editing the budget for the next season? So if my ML budget is 25% and once the offseason hits I change it to 100%, what amount do they use on January 1st?

[nroyce1]

Just came across this. There seems to be a lot of good information here. i have a tendency to have minor league scouting as my highest percentage.

[NoOne]

Originally Posted by jpeters1734

Question when do these figures take effect? When the season ends and you're able to edit the budget, are you simply editing the budget for the next season? So if my ML budget is 25% and once the offseason hits I change it to 100%, what amount do they use on January 1st?

it's during the offseason when you can change it... during this time it's probably carrying over the values from the preivous season, otherwise there's be an opportunity to abuse it... as you look at mLB FA change it to 100% majors and then change it back to minors when looking at MiL guys, etc...

----------other stuff from above
i think it's the preseason when it locks? maybe spring training... but wheneer it locks, that's the values it functions off of until the next time it locks -- educated guess with good reasoning.

Even though i do like to put alot of money in the majors, the things people say about htem being a more known quantity is true, too.... i see that as hitting a point of diminishing returns earlier than say for MiL scouting.

given the same dollar amounts, scouting a major league will be more accurate than a MiL or a prospect. that is most defintely part of the game.

i stil llike to put a healthy chunk of money into the majors for the same reasons i gave above.

Each (well 3 of the 4 for sure) is very important, and can change in importance depending on where you are in your organizational life cycle. so, if you don't have any prospects, you may want to reduce mil budget for a year or two - but i wouldn't get to drastic on the "give and take relative on context" adjustments.

i'd still pick out a minimum for any category that you are unwilling to drop below. i'm willing to drop international scouting to almost nothign, but the others i would never do such a thing.

althoguh when i am winnign i will sacrifice amatuer draft $ for international scouting... regardless i am spending as much as i can every other year on international amatuers... may skip 2 years if they look like crap but with bad ascouting who knows, lol. buying every other year hedges that problem significantly and makes the scouting budget virtually a non-factor (decent discoveries are so rare anyway - but the july 2nd ones ar way more often decent to great)

think of how you play relative to the choices you make... you may find that the way you do some things may completely trivialize one of the scouting budgets and there's no reason to put much money into that one.

my majors and minors mostly stay the same... even if i don't have many prospects that just means i'm more likely to trade older talent for younger talent when the cupboard is bare. so for me, it's just ama drafe and international scouting that changes due to context. i don't expect all to do the same... decisions that create synergy is the goal... if you are whimsical in how you do things, good luck :P

[old fat bald guy]

Does anybody else look at the scout's ratings and let him spend more on the things he does best? That's my approach. Wouldn't say it's been wildly successful.