Interested in #3 there crickett...

#1 (and it's a biggie) Understand player movement rules in MLB. I have learned an enormous amount in terms of 40-man roster, waivers vs. release, options years, arbitration rules (except Super 2, which isn't a part of HBD), to name a few.

#2 Learn what all the player ratings are and what mean.

#3 With the use of previous seasons in your world, see what the leaders in various statistical categories have in common. This will help you to understand what separates good players from the crap... and the outstanding.

#4 Go to every screen for your team at least once. I don't pretend to use them all, but if you don't know what tools you have to use, you'll just feel like you're drowning all the time. You'll be amazed at how much control you have.

#5 Have fun. You'd be amazed how many people seem to take this game way too seriously. :)

As an aside, many people learn this game without a mentor. Personally, I looked at what successful owners were doing (sometimes just in a specific area, like defence or pitching), but I never asked for advice.

I found that building a winner on the back of my own mistakes (and there were many) was more rewarding than what I imagine asking someone how to build a winner would be.

The key is to not get discouraged. Learning from your mistakes is important.

1. Defense
2. Pitchers: High control w/50+splits and great #1/2/3 Pitches(90+)
3. Contact/Eye/baserunning and speed= runs
4. Don't trade unless you know what's up
5. The Ask MikeT23 thread- Go there and ask him.

Quote: Originally Posted By crickett13 on 2/25/2010
1) Avoid trading early on. For some people trading is one of the most fun parts of the game but untill you understand the ratings system avoid it.

2) If you feel you must consider trading Do not accept any unsolicited trades without putting the player on the trade block and mentioning in the world chat that you may be willing to trade the player. If someone offers a newbie an unsoliceited trade there is a 99.8% chance their intentions are not good.

3) Find out what owners do not hate coach hiring. There is a reason they don't hate it. Ask them why.

4) Understand that ratings work together. For instance a 99 power does not mean that a player should hit a lot of home runs. If other ratings are low it could just mean that he hits a lot of really impresive Pop ups.

5) Total ratings do not mean much at all untill you understand the game better so do not use them for now. You can have a starting pitcher with an 81 total who is garbage and a closer with a 68 total who is a stud.

To me, this one is the low hanging fruit. If you put a guy on the market, and multiple owners are making offers to you, then market forces dictate that you will get good offers (especially through counteroffering and letting them know that you have multiple offers). Even if you aren't comfortable with the ratings and don't know which one to pick, you're unlikely to get totally fleeced. I also like the idea, if you must trade, of identifying guys you want, and then going and getting them. Even if you overpay a little, the worst case scenario is you overpayed for something you wanted that has value to you.

4 more things:

1) OVRs mean little, and they mean nothing when comparing players at different positions. A 70 OVR C or DH could be a 3-time MVP/surefire HOFer. A 70 OVR SS either can't hit at all or can't field the SS position (or both). This is the sort of stuff that takes time to learn.

2) A player's correct defensive position is determined by his 4 key defensive ratings (range, glove, arm strength, arm acc), not by what is listed. Find the positional recs, print them out, and for a while, have them at hand. This is especially valluable if the guy who owned your club before you wasn't big on asigning correct positions to his minor league prospects. It makes a big difference when you realize that that no-hit, high-OVR Right Field prospect is really a 3B or maybe a SS, and his bat really plays at those positions. It also is very helpful in FA- you need to avoid paying good money for the aging SS whose defense no longer merits the SS label at all.

3) Max out Advanced Scouting. There are 4 types of scouting budgets. With a new team you will start at $10m for each, and can move each up to $4m in either direction each season. The min is $0 and the max is $20m. The 4 types of scouting are High School, College, International, and Advanced. The first 3 are types of Amateur scouting, and I won't get into them. Advanced Scouting yields projections for professional players under age 27 (yours and other teams'). Eventually, you'll be able to figure out what a young player will look like fully developed, and you'll cut this budget to save money. At first, you need projections, and you need them to be as good as possible. In your first season, that means $14m Advanced Scouting. Then understand these 2 things about the projections you see: (a) If a guy has stopped improving year-over-year, or you can see 4 Spring Trainings on his player card, he's done improving and ignore the projections, and (b) At $14m, your projections will be decent but not great, and good prospects may look like star prospects and vice versa.

4) Inintial Free Agent demands will drop by well over 50% between the opening of FA and the middle of Spring Training for guys who are not getting offers at their initial asking price. And there will still be some usefull mid-back of the roster guys to be had. You don't have to have every roster slot set in stone by the end of FA/Rule 5. In fact you probably should always have 1 or 2 open, sometimes more.

Quote: Originally Posted By gjello10 on 2/25/2010

Quote: Originally Posted By crickett13 on 2/25/2010

1) Avoid trading early on. For some people trading is one of the most fun parts of the game but untill you understand the ratings system avoid it.

2) If you feel you must consider trading Do not accept any unsolicited trades without putting the player on the trade block and mentioning in the world chat that you may be willing to trade the player. If someone offers a newbie an unsoliceited trade there is a 99.8% chance their intentions are not good.

3) Find out what owners do not hate coach hiring. There is a reason they don't hate it. Ask them why.

4) Understand that ratings work together. For instance a 99 power does not mean that a player should hit a lot of home runs. If other ratings are low it could just mean that he hits a lot of really impresive Pop ups.

5) Total ratings do not mean much at all untill you understand the game better so do not use them for now. You can have a starting pitcher with an 81 total who is garbage and a closer with a 68 total who is a stud.

To me, this one is the low hanging fruit. If you put a guy on the market, and multiple owners are making offers to you, then market forces dictate that you will get good offers (especially through counteroffering and letting them know that you have multiple offers). Even if you aren't comfortable with the ratings and don't know which one to pick, you're unlikely to get totally fleeced. I also like the idea, if you must trade, of identifying guys you want, and then going and getting them. Even if you overpay a little, the worst case scenario is you overpayed for something you wanted that has value to you.

4 more things:

1) OVRs mean little, and they mean nothing when comparing players at different positions. A 70 OVR C or DH could be a 3-time MVP/surefire HOFer. A 70 OVR SS either can't hit at all or can't field the SS position (or both). This is the sort of stuff that takes time to learn.

2) A player's correct defensive position is determined by his 4 key defensive ratings (range, glove, arm strength, arm acc), not by what is listed. Find the positional recs, print them out, and for a while, have them at hand. This is especially valluable if the guy who owned your club before you wasn't big on asigning correct positions to his minor league prospects. It makes a big difference when you realize that that no-hit, high-OVR Right Field prospect is really a 3B or maybe a SS, and his bat really plays at those positions. It also is very helpful in FA- you need to avoid paying good money for the aging SS whose defense no longer merits the SS label at all.

3) Max out Advanced Scouting. There are 4 types of scouting budgets. With a new team you will start at $10m for each, and can move each up to $4m in either direction each season. The min is $0 and the max is $20m. The 4 types of scouting are High School, College, International, and Advanced. The first 3 are types of Amateur scouting, and I won't get into them. Advanced Scouting yields projections for professional players under age 27 (yours and other teams'). Eventually, you'll be able to figure out what a young player will look like fully developed, and you'll cut this budget to save money. At first, you need projections, and you need them to be as good as possible. In your first season, that means $14m Advanced Scouting. Then understand these 2 things about the projections you see: (a) If a guy has stopped improving year-over-year, or you can see 4 Spring Trainings on his player card, he's done improving and ignore the projections, and (b) At $14m, your projections will be decent but not great, and good prospects may look like star prospects and vice versa.

4) Inintial Free Agent demands will drop by well over 50% between the opening of FA and the middle of Spring Training for guys who are not getting offers at their initial asking price. And there will still be some usefull mid-back of the roster guys to be had. You don't have to have every roster slot set in stone by the end of FA/Rule 5. In fact you probably should always have 1 or 2 open, sometimes more.

Does the money I put into the scouting effect the projections that I will see? I mean if I put more money into the scouting than another team am I going to see more accurate projections than the other team?

Yes.

yes

knock on wood

Thats how all scouting works (IFA, HS, COLL and ADV)

Quote: Originally Posted By firemanrob on 2/25/2010Thats how all scouting works (IFA, HS, COLL and ADV

Not entirely true.

For International, High School, and College you will see both more players (be it in the draft, or in the IFA market) and more accurate projections.

Advanced scouting acts on all players currently assigned to teams in your world, and will be more accurate based on the $ assigned to that budget line item.

Quote: Originally Posted By firemanrob on 2/25/2010Thats how all scouting works (IFA, HS, COLL and ADV

Except for the part where amateur scouting allows you to see more prospects the more you spend, as well as have better projections.

Wow... thunderstruck TWICE on one page.

Well done, gj.

His question isn't what amateur scouting does, it was whether it gives you more accurate projections. My statement answers that accurately. Now does it have other effects, sure.

Taking an online class- it requires little of my attention.