Scout: How big of a difference on Preference

[killxmike]

How big a difference are the amateur preferences on scouts?

I have a dilemma:

My Scout is 59 years old, Good in Scout Majors and Excellent in everything else with Neutral preference.

A new scout just showed up with 0 experience @ only 42 years old and has Excellent in Scout Majors and Outstanding in everything else, however he has Favor Ability as his Amateur preference.

Would you still keep the neutral one? I understand, i think, what the difference in outlook is. I just am not sure of the degree of difference there would be.

[zonk84]

Depends...

Are you already a contender just looking to stay a contender?

Or are you rebuilding and hungry for impact prospects?

If the former, I might consider making the change... if the latter, you're probably better off staying away from 'ability'.

Personally, though - I think the best (albeit longest) way to judge your scout is simply performance... are your high draft picks hitting/pitching well? Assuming single player -- do you find lots of teams seeming to be highly interested in your 20/1 star 'prospects', while they don't think much of your 60-80/5 star prospects?

Personally, I prefer Neutral to Favor Tools in my scout - even when contending, I'm inevitably more interested in 'impact' prospects than I am a gaggle of average players...

I wouldn't replace a neutral with an ability for just a one-level bump across the board... now - if he had a legendary or two sprinkled in - I might very well consider it.

[NoOne]

as a human, i'd strongly suggest using neutral.

if you are rebuilding or whatever the current gear you are in, you make a better assessment of Tools vs Ability than the computer.... guaranteed with just an average IQ. you will see that highly rated 18year old and prefer him because he's younger and fits what you want... not because the scout amplifies tools or ability of the player in the overall or whatever it influences (view of feedback).

if you let the AI do your drafting, then you might want to think about picking non-neutral based on your preferences.

other exceptions to the rule? sure, if they are that amazing in their scouting ability relative to other choices... there is a break-even point (horizon).

[killxmike]

I play single player yes.

I prefer always rebuilding That is, I usually control poor teams so I'm continuously in need of prospects. For Example at this time I am controlling the Miami Marlins and after year 2 I already have flipped out all 3 high priced outfielders and have prospects ready to come in. I can't afford Stanton and his $25+ million in my budget

I just didn't want to have me making decisions based on a scout giving me subpar scouting reports because he is Excellent and not Outstanding.

[craftdr]

I can't offer much in the way of advice, input, or well anything useful but it's a great question. I've been playing since version 11 and I don't think I've ever seen anything concrete on this or been able to figure it out on my own . I've tended to gravitate to Neutral just because I figured it was the safest bet.


Unfortunately, I started a game in the new Challenge mode and I can't afford to fire my Heavily Favor Tools scout that the Braves have on staff so am extremely interested to read others thoughts on the topic (Changing my existing scout in commissioner mode was the only thing I ever did that I considered "cheating" but that's off the table in this mode).

[NoOne]

i would consider what you have experienced and probably have deduced:

scouting accuracy is different at each level, even everything else remains the same.

e.g. an 18year old is less accurate than a 6year mlb vet.

short and sweet from below: anyway, think of how the sensitivity of the inaccuracy changes and why it does... account for play style... pick the best path.

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you will be hard pressed to find any MLB player so overinflated or underinflated as you will find in the rookie leagues -- but it's age, too... so a 21y.o. with 3 years MiL experience isn't the same as an 18y.o. year 1 in Rookie leauge.

it is really age as well as service time, and highly correlated to league level due to that fact. obviously a 21y.o. you draft will become more accurate in scouting sooner than an 18y.o. you draft. but a freshly drafted guy is more likely to be inaccurate and a greater margin of difference.

IMO, that would lead me to skimp more on mlb scouting than amatuers when selecting a scout based on you always rebuilding, as you say.

mlb scouting can be very accurate on normal and you get a much high chance of having a good track record to back the ratings up... you pretty much know what you are getting even if 'off' a bit on the ratings... at that point most inaccuracies follow a TCR/age (random change) unless really young and developing still.

anyway, think of how the sensitivity of the inaccuracy changes and why it does... account for play style... pick the best path.

[zonk84]

Wholly concur on scouting budget -- the out-of-the-box spread is way off, I always adjust this radically the other way.

One other thing I do -- it's probably overkill - but I go nuts with players lists based on my scout's analysis... I.e., I'll scout the "OSA top 10 prospects for the draft", then shortlist them into "guys he likes" and "guys he doesn't like" and periodically track their progress. I also use the "Scout Recommendation" button all the time in drafts - not to actually PICK those players (more often than not - especially in the first 10-15 rounds, I go with my own choice... albeit based on his scouting report) - but to add them to more player lists for later review and see where he was right/I was wrong or vice versa.

I suppose this part ought to go into the suggestions forum - but I really wish the scout info pane would do this automatically -- record and track guys my scout specifically recommended.... Of course - for this to be really useful, I think there would need to be another enhancement for scouts -- specifically, ordering criteria like "best available talent regardless of need or demand", "biggest organization needs", "signability", etc