Started HBD, but was thrown off buy the complexity of the many different ratings. Is there a scale out there that shows what is very bad, bad, average, good, and very good for each rating. Similarly, is there a guide that shows how much each rating matters and in what case?

I remember that feeling cub. If you search the forums by the title of any particular rating you should find multiple threads on the topic that go in depth. The info is out there it is just spread out.

A scale is hard to do because in many instances a low rating can be mitigated by high ratings elsewhere.

For defense, HBD's recommended ratings are a really good starting point. If you don't know where to find this, go to "Roster Management" page, then click on the position next to the player name.

Look at league leaders and other worlds stats. You can get a feel of wht each stat does. However there are always exceptions. Main reason i like HBD is the complexity.

In most cases 80 or above is good.

For hitters, I consider 70 "league average" for contact, power, splits, eye.

For pitchers, I like at least 70 splits and one pitch over 80. But pitching is a lot more complicated. I don't mind low control if splits/pitches are high. I don't mind having zero pitches over 80 if P1-P4 is like 75/72/64/58. I don't mind splits of 58/72 if control/pitches are good. I'll take an average pitcher is he has high velocity/groundball ratings.