It looks like MLB is going to go towards a world wide draft, and for the competitive balance for HBD this may be an area to pursue.
1. We are already a step behind what MLB is doing. They have scrapped the Type A/B system and moved to a Qualifying Offer. Moving to this would be helpful for HBD. There are a lot of quality players who do not end up on teams because of the draft pick compensation tied to them. There should be very few players who are tied to compensation, and the owners should only get compensation for losing a guy they want to keep. A lot of times players are sent packing because you can either get a pick, or wait out the market and sign these guys for below market value. I have seen numerous Type B pitchers get 2 to 4 times the money than a similar pitcher who get the Type A label. I game the draft/compensation system myself, but think it would be better for leagues if this were to go away.
2. Create a world wide draft. Part of the allure of tanking a team is you can spend no money on your ML team, and transfer it into international. Then while sucking at the ML level and getting high picks in the draft, which are usually locks for an All-Star bid, you also get to sign the best international players, which are usually locks for an All-Star bid. A team can conceivably get both the best amateur prospect plus the best international prospect. By combining the two pools into a larger pool, you deepen the draft making later picks more valuable, while no longer encouraging owners to dump money out of what should be their budgets for ML players. This would make the competitive balance of a league better.
3. Scouting is stupid. Advanced scouting is next to worthless. It is usually better to use your budget on one scouting area (college/high school) as opposed to splitting that money up. You can usually tell by an International players bonus demands whether they are going to be good or not. The whole system needs a change. Many changes have been suggested before, so I'm sure this is similar to other suggestions.
a. Remove all ratings from player profiles for players not on your team, and projected ratings all together. FC Dynasty (soccer) does this, and something similar would good for HBD. Part of the problem with Adv. Scouting is I can look at the ratings and development of a player and make a reliable determination of where he is going to end up, so I don't need to spend money there because I can do it myself. If I want those ratings for a player, I should have to pay for them.
b. Replace the College/High School/International budgets with a regional budget. Divide the map into certain regions (Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Northwest, Southwest, Asia, Latin America, Europe) and then I can distribute money accordingly. However much money I spend in will give X number of prospects out of that region. If I want numbers, I pay for that by sending advance scouts.
3 (synposis). There should be two scouting budgets, Regional and Advance. The regional budget populates your draft list with players. The advanced budget gives you the numbers. By doing this, it would make Scouting Budgets have value. It would give those who spend more in these areas an advantage by possibly being able to find players in later rounds, or facilitate trades.
Overall, I think a worldwide draft makes sense even if the rest of the draft/scouting system were to remain the same. There are probably holes within my scouting ideas, and there are always going to be ways to game the system, but the current system should be repaired. I would like to hear ideas from others.