I know there is another topic in regards to IFA quality but this topic is in regards to the ridiculousness of not being able to see the "superstar" prospects (basically 80+ OVR and most certainly 90+). 

In my world, I have 16 into Inty Scouting and had $30+M to spend on prospects (not counting $6M saved for the draft).  Of the 4-5 players that were 80+ OVR, I saw only 1.  I also missed a future HOF SP with 90+ OVR and 98-90 L-R...who, at the time, I would've easily outbid all of the other teams in my world.

My question is, if this game is supposed to approximate what a real world GM would have in front of him, wouldn't it be reasonable to expect that we should all be able to see the higher rated prospects or AT THE VERY LEAST the superstar/phenom ones?  Case in point, the entire baseball world knew about Aroldis Chapman well before he signed with Cincinnati.  http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4491904  As such, shouldn't all GMs have known about Chapman and had a chance to sign him?

Further case in point, Ichiro Suzuki...everybody that follows baseball knew about Ichiro years and years before he signed with the Mariners.

I can understand having it be somewhat random for the "Average" to "Above Average" prospects but certainly not for the most sought after players.  I admit this sounds like a rant off of a personal experience (basically, a wasted season for me in terms of not signing any superstar IFAs in a year that I needed to), but I have thought about this for a few weeks now and it just doesn't seem "realistic" to me.

If everyone can see the superstars, the smart owner would budget 1m in IFA and chase the superstars.  

I can see top IFA's being missed in real life, you cant scout the entire world all at once, maybe the guy you missed was nursing a bruised thumb the day your scout went, day after someone else sees him and signs him on the spot, it could happen. It makes less sense for the HS/College draft, but I can see the logic in the collusion/no budget arguement. I just think they could have come up with a better solution, which would have solved some of the other problems at the same time.

WIS has taken the risk out signing a guy, and placed the risk in your ability to see that guy.  There are no Roy Oswalt or Albert Pujols types in this game, mid round selections that go on to post hall of fame careers.  There are no Miggie Cabera's signing for peanuts on the IFA market and developing into stars.  No good world is going to have a Johan Santana or Josh Hamilton type talent available in the Rule 5 draft.  If you have decent scouting, you can pretty well predict who's got hall of fame stuff, border line all-star skills, fringe major league skills, or will never be anything more than minor league fodder.  There's no risk to signing a guy.

You say you want it to be more life like in that you couldn't see the 90+ hall of fame stud, well in real life there are no virtually garunteed hall of fame talent sitting out there.  All players, no matter how talented have question marks and risk.  Its a long way from a 16 year old IFA to major league baseball.  There's a ton of work to be done b/w the draft and arriving at the show.   Just look at the success rate of 1st round picks.  Its terrible, relatively speaking, even amongst top 10 picks.

that's the trade off in this game, you draft a guy, you sign an IFA, you promote and coach him up reasonable well, and you know what you'll have more or less in 3-4 seasons.  You don't have to worry about him getting home sick, having a huge ego, taking a ride on nose candy island, etc..  On the flip side, despite having $20 mil in scouting, you might miss the most talented player out there.  The way its set up, probably helps retain customers in the long run.  Imagine having the #1 pick 2 seasons in a row, plus a couple of top shelf IFAs and watching them turn into the dredge that the pirates drafted thru much of the late 90s?

Posted by MikeT23 on 6/6/2011 1:31:00 PM (view original):
If everyone can see the superstars, the smart owner would budget 1m in IFA and chase the superstars.  

Not sure what you are talking about.  I am not smart and I do this now.  If he has a 3.5 mil or more desired bonus and he isn't a SS I know he's good and go after him.  I may not know why he is good, but his talent isn't in question.

Posted by topoftheworl on 6/6/2011 3:18:00 PM (view original):

Posted by MikeT23 on 6/6/2011 1:31:00 PM (view original):
If everyone can see the superstars, the smart owner would budget 1m in IFA and chase the superstars.  

Not sure what you are talking about.  I am not smart and I do this now.  If he has a 3.5 mil or more desired bonus and he isn't a SS I know he's good and go after him.  I may not know why he is good, but his talent isn't in question.

Now, budgeting 1 million in scouting minimizes the chances that you would see the superstar in the first place.  The OP is suggesting that everyone should be able to see the superstars, regardless of their scouting.

If you have 1 million in IFA scouting, you'll see virtually NO IFAs.

Posted by topoftheworl on 6/6/2011 3:18:00 PM (view original):

Posted by MikeT23 on 6/6/2011 1:31:00 PM (view original):
If everyone can see the superstars, the smart owner would budget 1m in IFA and chase the superstars.  

Not sure what you are talking about.  I am not smart and I do this now.  If he has a 3.5 mil or more desired bonus and he isn't a SS I know he's good and go after him.  I may not know why he is good, but his talent isn't in question.

And that's the biggest problem with IFA.  They should all start with the same minimal demand.

The other issue is that this proposed "realism" isn't really all that realistic.  The OPs "case in points" pretty much run the breadth of the guys that "everyone" knows about - that being the big-name Japanese FAs, and the Cuban defectors.  That's nowhere even close to covering all of the international superstars.

Since everyone else knew what I was talking about, I won't bother explaining it. 

Good thoughts all around...I really do think that WIS needs to let us all see at least the guys with 90+ OVR...there is no way you will miss someone like that in the real world even if you have no international scouts and just catch the guy on ESPN.

Like if I was a real life GM and I saw a guy on ESPN being touted as a rare talent...I would at least have his name in my head not to mention have called a few free agent scouts or have sent my guys down to take a look at him.  Its just unfathomable to believe that someone being talked about as "the next big thing" would be unknown to anyone running a team.

It would require a complete overhaul to the engine but, IMO, they should show all IFA to everyone.   All should start at 100k and the projections you see would be based on how much IFA scouting you had budgeted.  That way, you'd see the stud IFA but think he's a HiA replacement.

Of course, then you get into collusion but that solves your immediate problem.

So you wouldnt see current ratings either?

Not with my overhaul idea.  But it would require replacing numbers with letters.   A-F in each category.   A might equal 85-100, F might equal 0-20.