OOTP 9 scouting

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#1 Post by **Hitmen** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 2:45 pm

I was talking with John about scouting in OOTP9, and decided to do some test conversions and research. I could have sworn I read some information on the OOTP forums, but I couldn't find it.

For those of you who haven't upgraded yet or played with OOTP9, scouting is completely different. The online manual covers the concepts, but doesn't really mention league conversions from OOTP8

Only your head scout will "convert" to OOTP9. Your other scouts at the major and minor league levels seem to disappear. Your head scout will convert his ratings to the new ratings as follows*:

Scout Hitting becomes Scout Majors
Scout Pitching becomes Scout Minors
Scout Hitting Potential becomes Scout Amateurs
Scout Pitching Potential becomes Scout International

Scout Fielding doesn't seem to do anything. The "favor" rating in OOTP9 appears to be random as well - I imported the same head scout a couple of times, and he favored tools once, favored neutral another, etc...

Remember too that the new scouting model relies on a scouting budget. So, when your other scouts disappear, you save their salaries! However, you have to throw money into scouting. The default league average on conversion is $2 million. If your non-head scouts currently have a total salary of less than $2 million, then after conversion, your budget will take a hit. You can alter your scouting budget in preseason only. According to the game, if you have a projected negative balance, you will be forced to cut your scouting budget to less than half of the league average.

Now, as to how much the scouting budget helps and how much putting money into different areas help, who knows...it's a combination of budget, scouting director ratings, and budget in an area compared to the league average in that area, it looks like. I personally think that with the new scouting and development reports, scouting will be important, but someone putting $10 million into their budget as opposed to someone putting $1 million may not be a huge difference - it will weigh heavily on the scout ratings. If your scout is rated low at international scouting, I'm not sure throwing a ton of money at international scouting will help - I'm more worried that it will bring in more international busts then hidden gems. That's just my opinion, and I haven't tried simming hundreds of seasons to prove or disprove, so take this as opinion and not fact.

*These are not official findings of OOTP and are based solely on my own research. Please see the online manual and/or the OOTP forums to try to get more information. This thread also has some decent info on scouting questions

#2 Post by **Hitmen** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 2:56 pm

First update

I set my scouting budget to make my projected balance exactly $0 and it was fine. I tried to set it $1 higher, and it reverted to half the league average. Basically, it appears that if you have projected budget room, you can use it all for scouting if you want, but as soon as you try to go over budget (or are over budget), you can only set it to half the league average.

#3 Post by **Hitmen** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 2:59 pm

As an aside, I have to say I love the advanced info tab on the front office. You can find out who your most and least cost effective players are
(VORP / salary * league minimum salary). We'll soon find out if Ollie is cost-effective in months not named October.

#4 Post by **John** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 3:09 pm

This is great info; thanks for posting it, Matt.

#5 Post by **Hitmen** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 3:14 pm

Next test...scout director has 18/20 rating on international. I put 100% of my budget into international (6.5 million). I thien took control of all teams and left their settings at $2 million scouting budget and 10% in international.

I get emails every day about international players (since I GM every team, that's expected). Most are average to below average potential though. I wish there was a setting to not get messages about that 20-year old reliever from Timbuktu who has a potential of .5 stars with a scouting report that looks like the scout was scouting me

I then ran the season just through the preseason to start.

I am getting 4-5 star rated prospects about once per week or two. One is from my director, another is from a different team with a slightly lower rated international scout. Another from another team with a 20/20 rating internationally.

Basically, by spring training, the league scouts have found 3 international players with 4-5 star ratings.

1 by my guy - 18/20 rated with a $6.5 million dollar budget all in international

2 by other guys (15/20 and 20/20 rated, both with $2 million budget and only $200,000 in international).

Yes, it's only a 7 week sample, but my 32.5 times higher international budget didn't seem to give me a 32.5x advantage in finding international studs.

I'm going to keep this up for a few more weeks, maybe for a season, but the constant messages about that .5 star prospect get annoying from 30 teams

#6 Post by **Hitmen** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 3:23 pm

Once pre-season games started, reports seemed to slow down a bit compared to the off season.

I have had two players suspended for arguing 3rd strike calls in the pre-season though, a 2 for a brawl. Of course that's for all 30 teams, so not a bad ratio. But the brawl - the middle reliever got 11 games, same as the RF. I thought usually pitchers got more games than position players. And 11 games is a lot. We need a players union

Onto the regular season. Still waiting for that 16-year-old (wink, wink) Dominican shortstop with 5-tool ratings all at least 19 to show up at my doorstep. Otherwise, my apparently overpaid scouting director has some 'splaining to do.

#7 Post by **Hitmen** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 3:24 pm

5 owners think I should win it all this year, and another 8 make the playoffs.

Someone's going to be disappointed.

#8 Post by **Hitmen** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 3:32 pm

I signed some FAs to put me to a negative projected balance, to see if that affected scouting. It didn't change the budget, so it appears you can go negative once the preseason is done, since the scouting budget for the year is already set. But if you are or go negative during the pre-season, your budget is limited.

#9 Post by **Hitmen** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 3:33 pm

Ooh, 2 days into the season and I have another 4.5 prospect from my overbudgeted scouting department. Let's see the other teams do THAT!

#10 Post by **Hitmen** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 3:35 pm

And a 2.5 prospect a week later, with no other scouts apparently working.

#11 Post by **Hitmen** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 3:37 pm

Maybe the budget has to do with trips. He went from the Dominican (reliever, not shortstop) to Japan and back in less than a week.

And then one more week, and he returns with a 3.0 Canadian prospect. No reports from other scouts right now.

#12 Post by **Hitmen** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 3:40 pm

Finally, some other scouts have left the country. My first 1.0 star catcher from the UAE.

Meh.

#13 Post by **Hitmen** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 3:52 pm

The $$$$ seems to have increased the frequency of reports, though not all are gems. I simmed to the amateur draft, and my director was WAYYYY off compared to other scouts who actually had money in their amateur scouting budget.

All in all, try to plan ahead as to which scout you want as your head scout before conversion based on what you prefer: majors, minors, amateur or international. And I would spend money where your scout's strengths are. Throwing a ton of money at an area where your scout is terrible will not improve your scouting. It might help a little, but I don't think it overcomes deficiencies, especially at the amounts we would realistically be using in our budgets in PEBA.

#14 Post by **Hitmen** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 4:20 pm

I do love the scouting reports now though (some taken from reports I got, some culled from the xml file...

"SPEED: Slow as molasses. Warn the third base coach ahead of time."

"EYE: A walking advertisement for eyeglasses."

"Swings at everything, including pickoff attempts."

"This kid probably couldn't hit in a T-ball league, I have no idea what he's doing here."

"I spoke to his T-ball coach. He couldn't hit then, either."

"This guy has no idea where the ball is going once it leaves his hand. No mascot is safe."

"Threw a strike once.... while bowling."

"Likely to have neck injuries as he turns his head to watch yet another pitch leave the park."

"If this guy is in your bullpen, he'd better be wearing a janitor's outfit. I don't know what else to say."

"This guy should be a con-artist since he somehow fooled scouts into thinking he has talent."

"If ever there was something like 'minus fastball', this guy has it."

"This guy is a pitching machine - like the kind we use for batting practice! No deception and easy to hit."

"His fastball might break through a wet paper bag."

"A liability in the field, who looks like he's wearing his glove on the wrong hand."

and one of my favorite gems

"CONTACT: Mastenbroek could probably raise his average if he closed his eyes while swinging."

#15 Post by **John** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 7:37 pm

Hitmen wrote:"This kid probably couldn't hit in a T-ball league, I have no idea what he's doing here."

"I spoke to his T-ball coach. He couldn't hit then, either."

Hitmen wrote:"Threw a strike once.... while bowling."