Player Development (Non-linear - force ADV to be important):
Have some (or most) players develop with jumps and plateaus. This would be much more realistic, especially with respect to pitchers. It would also mean that owners would need the scouts input as opposed to applying the all-too-easy to predict development patterns that exist now (allowing many owners to go to 0 in ADV – me included). If a pitcher suddenly finds his command or adds a few feet to his fastball (like Michael Pineda did last year and is showing this year), his ratings take a huge jump, perhaps exceeding initial projections. Development patterns would be individual to each player (maybe you only program 10-12 ‘patterns’, but make them time themselves differently. Allow a handful of players to actually exceed expectations.
Public Budget Information ("True-up the bidding")
Hide all categories, but only show what is actually spent. Hide transfer amounts. This would encourage honest top-level bidding from the start for free agents, and especially international free agents. I should not know what another team’s budget is for anything is. If a trade offer butts up against another team’s cap, then it comes up in the discussions or in a counter offer.
How to Make Scouting Itself Relevant
Create Scouting groups or companies instead of just budgets (e.g. ABC Scouting Co.).
Provide 4 ratings for each company that vary – none of the ratings can be 0 and none can be maxed across the board. For example ABC Scouting could have ratings of 80/70/35/65 in INT/COL/HS/ADV and cost 35M. Another might have ratings of 70/20/20/40 and 15M. Sign the scouting companies for up to three seasons. For budgeting, combine scouting into a single category that you can transfer into and out of. For this reason, you would have to depend on your own scouts to determine value (instead of looking at a 1st round pick from 1 or 2 seasons ago and concluding that he is worthwhile because of the budget the original drafting team used). You wouldn’t have access to other team’s scouting team ratings unless you kept track of them in the bidding process. Bid on scouting companies in the offseason, much like hiring coaches, but do it in a shorter cycle and finish before FA. Make it easier in terms of competition though so this doesn’t become the hassle that coach hiring is. There should be more companies than open positions so owners can pick a reasonable combination, though not necessarily exactly, of the elements they’re looking for. Simply have the total cost of the scouting companies reflect the overall total rating of the scouting company.
DITR’s (Incentivize the Minors)
Increase the chances of DITR’s by tying them to the roster sizes you carry in the minors. The would help to make DITR’s relevant while at the same helping to ensure minor league teams are filled. This will increase the overall quality of the product by providing a more realistic game experience. Minors would be competitive and there would incentive to have a functional roster. Make some the tryout camp pitchers potential DITR’s – much like the occasional independent league pitchers that make the big leagues from time to time.