I see this a lot in trade chatter. What's a decent prospect? Mid 70's projected starting pitcher? Low 70's  OF? Mid 70's 2B or 3B? If some of you vets could give me a baseline on your thinking  what "Decent" is I would appreciate it. I do know it is a subjective question and there isn't a cut and dry answer. Thanks!

A BL baseline would be 70 in the important categories.    Cnt, pwr, splits, eye for hitters and control, splits, P1, P2 for pitchers.   If you have a player who is 70 in each of those, he'll be somewhat successful at the BL level.     That doesn't mean a 46/85/65/65/60 guy can't hit at the BL level but look for 70s. 

Projections are another story.   If you have 10m in ADV, they're pointless.   If you know how to "self-project" a player, ADV doesn't matter as you can figure it out on your own.

You don't want to look at overall rating when evaluating players.  OVR often can be misleading.  An OVR 65 might actually provide more value than an OVR 79.  It all comes down to the individual ratings, and how you construct your roster.

So back to the original question . . . what makes up a "decent" prospect can be very subjective.  Your decent prospect might be my piece of crap.

For me, if it's a position player, it's someone who "has business being in a lineup." Someone who can play a position every game, or be a very good platoon player. For pitchers, he's either a better than average reliever, or if he's a starter, he wouldn't be confused for a long man. It's subjective, obviously. When someone asks for a "decent prospect" they're looking for someone who isn't going to end up being too much worse than the guy they're trading away, who is, at worst, "decent."

If someone is asking you for a "decent prospect", it's best to assume he wants your best young player.

I have noticed that when someone (includes myself) asks for a "decent prospect", that person ends up not getting what they want.

Posted by MikeT23 on 1/12/2015 3:13:00 PM (view original):
If someone is asking you for a "decent prospect", it's best to assume he wants your best young player.

. . . .while exaggerating every minor flaw to the point of making it sound like he's doing you a favor by taking him off your hands.

Yea. I understand the overall is not the best way to evaluate. I tend to try and look at the important categories, or what I deem important, I just spaced and didn't write out my question the best because my brain was working overtime looking at players. So I apologize.

Mike what do you mean by if you have 10m in advance that projections are pointless? Can you explain the theory behind that and what you mean please?

10 ADV is very inaccurate(I just checked and you have 10m).    16 will give you a decent idea but it's still going to be off a little.    If you're looking at a 3rd year pro and his projections show he's going to gain 15 in power, he isn't.   And you're likely to get something like that with 10m.   

Thanks. I searched one of your old posts and could see what your thoughts were when you expounded on the subject. Unfortunately I'm not good enough yet to project properly and just learning some things.

when I say "decent" I'm looking for a platoon player, a #5 starter or maybe a reliever with good ratings who can't pitch may innings or a guy who can't really hit well but can play D.  Basically, a big leaguer with warts.  If I'm wanting something more than that I ask for a "good" prospect and usually hear crickets.  FWIW, the reverse is usually more encouraging--I can trade "decent" prospects for good not great big leaguers with some regularity especially if they're nearing the end of their contract.  It's really hard to get people to part with prospects, even just 'decent' ones in my limited experience.

Posted by MikeT23 on 1/12/2015 3:28:00 PM (view original):
10 ADV is very inaccurate(I just checked and you have 10m).    16 will give you a decent idea but it's still going to be off a little.    If you're looking at a 3rd year pro and his projections show he's going to gain 15 in power, he isn't.   And you're likely to get something like that with 10m.   

I run 0 ADV on my own team, but I just checked a team with 10 mil ADV that I co-manage with another owner and was actually surprised to see how messed up some of the projections look.

In both cases (zero and ten) the thing I find needs to be looked out for is the wild overprojections.  You should know that a 25 year old isn't going to gain ten points in anything by age 27.

"Decent" to me means a guy that will be the 20th-25th man on a ML team someday.  Generally an all glove SS, platoon 1B/DH, defensive catcher, RP that can't pitch many innings, or an innings eater mopup guy.  Or at least this is what people are willing to part with in terms of prospects.  

For me, decent equals serviceable at BL lvl. I don't believe in tanking so I am scrapping for decent players until the last available dollar is spent. A decent player might be strong in one area but weak in another. It's not hard to find a strong defensive player with little bat. Those kind of players will keep your ERA down and win ball games. And occasionally those guys get hot with their bats... in which case... now you have a defensive specialist with a bat, albeit temporary. On the flip side, a strong bat with no fielding doesn't get hot in the field. Decent usually equates to fielding for me.