We in Say Hey are in our 16th season since merging and our regular season just started. As I do as commish, I checked the free-agent pools in the minors as the season began. The pitching pool was woefully thin (maybe 20 players) and the position players pool wasn't much better, but my concern was about pitching as many of our franchises would be looking to fill out pitching staffs. (As the time of writing this post, Say Hey has 6 position players and zero pitchers in the free-agent pool.)

My hope was to submit a ticket to WIS and have players generated to restock the pool, both pitching and position players. In summary, I was told no. There was a solid back-and-forth, but I was told that this never happens. So now franchises throughout Say Hey will be forced to dig through the tryout camp to fill out pitching staffs. Unfortunately, the players there are worthy of no higher than High A for any extended period of time.

I know this subject has been touched on previously, but I wonder how many worlds experience this problem and have any suggestions on how to deal with this. Also, have any other worlds had players generated to restock the minors free-agent pool?

Is there possibly a handful of veteran owners that are hogging the minor league free agents? Or, it is just a shallow pool overall situation?

This happens in all my worlds, every season. I just sign a bunch of tryout camp pitchers... it's not a big deal from my perspective.

If your world cares, owners with prospect $$ left over at the end of the season can sign all their low draft picks and all the bottom-feeding INTLs. Those players either fill out your minors the next season, or you can release them immediately and they'll help the minor league FA pool the next season.

"If your world cares" is exactly the point. This situation exists in the first place because your owners aren't signing their draft picks and managing their minor league teams.

I try to sign as many as possible to help. Not sure how you make people care and monitoring would be time consuming.

Here is how you make people care:

Late round gem
Late round gem
Late round gem
Late round gem
Late round gem

Damag said it best.

Posted by tlowster on 7/29/2020 5:17:00 PM (view original):
Here is how you make people care:

Late round gem
Late round gem
Late round gem
Late round gem
Late round gem

Were these all unscouted players you moved up in the draft?

Posted by tlowster on 7/29/2020 5:17:00 PM (view original):
Here is how you make people care:

Late round gem
Late round gem
Late round gem
Late round gem
Late round gem

Are all of these Diamonds in the Rough? I have a hard time believing players with those ratings fall to the 20th round or later.

Posted by drummer_66 on 7/30/2020 10:46:00 PM (view original):

Posted by tlowster on 7/29/2020 5:17:00 PM (view original):
Here is how you make people care:

Late round gem
Late round gem
Late round gem
Late round gem
Late round gem

Are all of these Diamonds in the Rough? I have a hard time believing players with those ratings fall to the 20th round or later.

They don't have a blue diamond in the upper left corner of their picture. DITR's have that. Late round steals happen these days, after WIS made a few changes 4-5 years ago per MikeT's suggestions.

Posted by tlowster on 7/29/2020 5:17:00 PM (view original):
Here is how you make people care:

Late round gem
Late round gem
Late round gem
Late round gem
Late round gem

My point was that there is some incentive to sign those lottery picks at the end of the draft. Ninety-nine percent of the time, they are garbage players that take up space on a rookie or low A roster. However, every now and then you can find a guy. It doesn't have to be one of the above, the above are extreme long shots (less than one percent shot to get a guy like the above), but you could end up getting guys like the below as well -- not super studs, but will help you out at the MLB level for very little initial investment.

If you are looking to get owners in your World to sign their draft picks, show them the above or the below guys and that will draw their attention.

Late round Mlb player
Late round Mlb player
Late round Mlb player
Late round MLb player

Posted by dschang on 7/30/2020 10:10:00 PM (view original):

Posted by tlowster on 7/29/2020 5:17:00 PM (view original):
Here is how you make people care:

Late round gem
Late round gem
Late round gem
Late round gem
Late round gem

Were these all unscouted players you moved up in the draft?

These are not my players. These are players that people have posted to boards over the last three years or so that I have saved down to a spreadsheet.

Posted by tlowster on 7/30/2020 11:49:00 PM (view original):

Posted by dschang on 7/30/2020 10:10:00 PM (view original):

Posted by tlowster on 7/29/2020 5:17:00 PM (view original):
Here is how you make people care:

Late round gem
Late round gem
Late round gem
Late round gem
Late round gem

Were these all unscouted players you moved up in the draft?

These are not my players. These are players that people have posted to boards over the last three years or so that I have saved down to a spreadsheet.

Most of my drafts, the bottom half is scouted so I see the numbers and obviously have never had a 'gem' that way.
I do realize when you're scouting budget is super low you will have some players that have question marks because they're not scouted enough.
Yes I always sign those players because as you say - you never know and they are relatively cheap. I don't know why someone would not do this.

I tried really hard one year to replace everyone outside of rounds 3-4 with ????? (not scouted players).
It is so time consuming - i never did it again.

Man, I thought I grabbed a late round steal this year with Player Profile: Brett Fitzgerald - Hardball Dynasty Baseball | WhatIfSports but some of the players posted in this thread are INSANE!
I rarely draft more than 1 ??? player per season because of my scouting budget but I always sign them in hopes of a Christmas present. Fitzgerald is the first time its ever paid off.

Posted by bripat42 on 7/31/2020 12:47:00 PM (view original):

Posted by drummer_66 on 7/30/2020 10:46:00 PM (view original):

Posted by tlowster on 7/29/2020 5:17:00 PM (view original):
Here is how you make people care:

Late round gem
Late round gem
Late round gem
Late round gem
Late round gem

Are all of these Diamonds in the Rough? I have a hard time believing players with those ratings fall to the 20th round or later.

I got Clint Stynes in the 25th round a season ago. He's not a stud, but he's got a shot at making it as a mopup guy at the ML level, depending on how he develops. No, he's not a diamond in the rough.

Not bad on Stynes He looks like he has a chance at LRB or SUB or better depending on the rest of the team. Was he a ?????? or did you at least see his age and Arm side?