In the long run yeah he's probably going to regress, and he might not be able to win a playoff game against elite hitters. However I've been finding that those types (very high Control and good Pitch ratings) can eat up some useful Major League innings. Might also be the talent level of the league is down. We all want to find stud hitters, but if every team has only three or four at best...

I just signed a nice catcher (91 pitch calling 81 arm accuracy and 73 arm str) with a good bat....wondering how much it will impact my pitching this year with him behind the plate?

I have a newbie question about setting budgets! I know I can go default or use the previous owner's season to adjust with. My dilemma is that if I use the previous owner's budget I can max out Training and almost medical and advanced(which would help me being new). On the flip side I would not be able to have any HS or College scouting above 10 million. My problem is I have 2 type A and 3 B free agents . That is potentially 7 more picks in the draft this upcoming season. Do I use default to get 15 million in HS and College for the potential picks OR use the owner's previous season to maximize training, almost medical and advanced. Thanks in advance for helping a newbie out.

Oof. That is a good question. For me, I think I would go with the scouting to get the prospects and then slowly build up Medical / Training ASAP. Losing the A's and B's on crummy prospects would be tough and you can't punt on all of them.

New owner, new world and team and I have a dilemma already. I am setting budgets to begin the season. With the default or the previous owners budget the max scouting I can get is 15 million for HS or College. My problem is the team has the #1 pick and I feel that it would not be as good of course with the limited scouting I can have. What would the best thing to do be? Thanks in advance.

My advice? 15M gets you alright scouting but of course not max. Your projections will be off. ALL projections will be off for all players. With the number one pick the only thing you care about is getting the best one. The scouting should NOT show you a #1 who is a lot worse than the #2 or the #3. What could very well happen is that you see only the #3 and maybe you don't see the #1 and even the #2 as well. So I'd say take your chance and when the draft comes up, if you don't see a #1 you can get excited about, you can punt the pick.

Question for the injury experts. I've never run a Med budget before but finally experimenting with it on one of my teams. I've got a HoF level SP that got elbow tendonitis and took about -4 to his main pitching ratings. He's eligible to come off the 60 day DL soon. Will keeping him on the DL get me much more recovery with that injury or nah?

Are you at 20M Medical?

Posted by damag on 9/17/2023 9:28:00 AM (view original):
My advice? 15M gets you alright scouting but of course not max. Your projections will be off. ALL projections will be off for all players. With the number one pick the only thing you care about is getting the best one. The scouting should NOT show you a #1 who is a lot worse than the #2 or the #3. What could very well happen is that you see only the #3 and maybe you don't see the #1 and even the #2 as well. So I'd say take your chance and when the draft comes up, if you don't see a #1 you can get excited about, you can punt the pick.

Thanks I appreciate the input. My only worry is that the team will be a middle of the road team and thus getting me a 15-20 round pick next season. If I was told correctly if the "potential punted pick" works out than I get a pick 1 lower than my original one for the next season. So instead of a 1st pick I will get a lower pick for sure. Of course it is a crap shoot on draft prospects for sure. I was also told that it is not always a guarantee that the potential unsignable players won't sign either. I can not in good faith(or conscience) lose on purpose to make sure I get a high pick next season. So I guess the best thing to do is see how the draft pool is and go from there :)

@AverageJoe26 - Regardless of what your "true" pick is next season, if you successfully punt the #1 this season (offer the player's full demand, have it outright rejected, and do not offer again), you will then have the #2 pick as Type D compensation next season.

I've never done it - I've punted on lower picks in my drafts - but many owners have thought about punting on #1. Maybe ask someone who's done so successfully.

Posted by damag on 9/17/2023 10:38:00 AM (view original):
Are you at 20M Medical?

Whoops, forgot to mention that. Working my way up to it. Currently at $15M

Posted by brianplath on 9/17/2023 12:30:00 PM (view original):

Posted by damag on 9/17/2023 10:38:00 AM (view original):
Are you at 20M Medical?

Whoops, forgot to mention that. Working my way up to it. Currently at $15M

I’m sure that at 20M I could leave him on the 60-day till he gets a second recovery. Not sure you’ll get that at 15.

Need hockey1984 to weigh in on this.

Posted by brianplath on 9/17/2023 10:27:00 AM (view original):
Question for the injury experts. I've never run a Med budget before but finally experimenting with it on one of my teams. I've got a HoF level SP that got elbow tendonitis and took about -4 to his main pitching ratings. He's eligible to come off the 60 day DL soon. Will keeping him on the DL get me much more recovery with that injury or nah?

My experience with that injury is that the pitcher doesn't recover what they lost on the 60-day DL even with $20M in medical. I haven't been keeping track recently, but I don't think anything has changed. I show normally only 1 cycle for recovery. It could have been that all of the pitchers that I tracked were hurt during the season where they could only get 1 recovery cycle. I have seen 1 to 4 points lost in the different categories but the recovery was only 1 point back and not in all of the categories that lost points. Take all of this with a box of salt since someone else may know more than I.

Posted by brianplath on 9/17/2023 12:30:00 PM (view original):

Posted by damag on 9/17/2023 10:38:00 AM (view original):
Are you at 20M Medical?

Whoops, forgot to mention that. Working my way up to it. Currently at $15M

My understanding is you have to be at 20 to get the extra bumps. I have an outfielder that got 3 recovery bumps this season for an ACL. I was tempted to leave him on to see if he got another one but I needed his bat. The players makeup impacts this as well.

Posted by brianplath on 9/17/2023 10:27:00 AM (view original):
Question for the injury experts. I've never run a Med budget before but finally experimenting with it on one of my teams. I've got a HoF level SP that got elbow tendonitis and took about -4 to his main pitching ratings. He's eligible to come off the 60 day DL soon. Will keeping him on the DL get me much more recovery with that injury or nah?

I haven't done 15 million medical in forever. My best advice is if you are having a season where you will need him to make the playoffs, take him off the DL as soon as you can. If you won't need him and are either safely in or have determined you are out of the running, keep him on until you get a 'regular season' update rather then a 'injury recovery' update.