Getting back into HBD.

What is the reason so many owners budget 20/0 or 0/20 for high school/college scouting?

Are international prospects often overpaid?

i have the 17th pick in the amateur draft, so will $6million be plenty to sign all of my rookies?

I have pretty much the same question.. Getting back into HBD and the team i have has the 27th pick. My team has had 90+ wins the last two seasons. Should i skimp on HS/coll/int prospects and put more into payroll since I'm already a developed team? or keep it somewhere in between just in case?

Posted by andrew5975 on 4/19/2019 9:04:00 AM (view original):
Getting back into HBD.

What is the reason so many owners budget 20/0 or 0/20 for high school/college scouting?

Are international prospects often overpaid?

i have the 17th pick in the amateur draft, so will $6million be plenty to sign all of my rookies?

Personal choice. The higher the budget the more "likely" you are to see the players and there "closer" projections.

Depends on the world and what you consider overpaid. 20-30 million for a stud is not uncommon in most worlds.

Depends what you set your draft settings to. Look what similar positions and setting got paid in previous seasons.

Posted by Kidkent225 on 4/19/2019 9:18:00 AM (view original):
I have pretty much the same question.. Getting back into HBD and the team i have has the 27th pick. My team has had 90+ wins the last two seasons. Should i skimp on HS/coll/int prospects and put more into payroll since I'm already a developed team? or keep it somewhere in between just in case?

Just in case of what? Depends on what your plans are, quality of your team, age of your team, realistic future ml players in the minors, potential leaving fa's etc. The question is to vague to answer for you.

Posted by andrew5975 on 4/19/2019 9:04:00 AM (view original):
Getting back into HBD.

What is the reason so many owners budget 20/0 or 0/20 for high school/college scouting?

Are international prospects often overpaid?

i have the 17th pick in the amateur draft, so will $6million be plenty to sign all of my rookies?

1/ Re: 20/0... scouting used to show you current ratings as well as projections. Few years ago Admin realized that veteran owners could do their own projections based on currents, you could budget 10/10 and see all you needed to. So they removed currents and weakened the scouting. Anything less than 16 mil projections start getting pretty fuzzy. So if you want relatively reliable scouting, you have to put 20 or close to that into it, which usually means choosing between HS players or College players. End result, the first round of the draft goes deeper as not everyone is picking from the same pool so top players slide down a bit.

2/ $6 mil will be enough to sign all your rookies if you only draft "Will sign for slot money" players. A "might sign if the deal is right" or "Undecided" player can double his original ask in negotiations... maybe more. Even just one of those guys can eat your budget.

3/ Anyone can complain about Internationals being overpaid but IMO you have to decide what your strategy will be at budget time. You can stay out, you can save a few bucks to pick up some lottery ticket players, you can try to pick up a second tier guy when other owners are hoarding bucks for the top boys, or you can go all in. Is it worth it? Internationals are the only place I've seen immediate obvious HOF level prospects. You get to decide if that's worth it.

Thank you so much for the responses. I appreciate it!

Would you say that the premise regarding 16 million international scouting budget is similar to that of high school and college, in that anything less than that may result in scouting numbers that are not very accurate?

I think I'd agree with that. You will find other owners who say all projections are too fuzzy now. You will also find other owners who say Internationals are more fuzzy than College/HS. I think one problem is that when you look at the draft, you see all the players at the same time so you can at least compare individual players to the group. Whether the projections are accurate or not, you use them to sort rankings. When you look at an International, you generally look at them one at a time.
Another thing I think not enough owners consider or are aware of, older IFAs don't progress/grow much. When you sign an IFA 21 years or older, you're pretty much getting him fully formed.

Posted by damag on 4/19/2019 10:12:00 AM (view original):

Posted by andrew5975 on 4/19/2019 9:04:00 AM (view original):
Getting back into HBD.

What is the reason so many owners budget 20/0 or 0/20 for high school/college scouting?

Are international prospects often overpaid?

i have the 17th pick in the amateur draft, so will $6million be plenty to sign all of my rookies?

1/ Re: 20/0... scouting used to show you current ratings as well as projections. Few years ago Admin realized that veteran owners could do their own projections based on currents, you could budget 10/10 and see all you needed to. So they removed currents and weakened the scouting. Anything less than 16 mil projections start getting pretty fuzzy. So if you want relatively reliable scouting, you have to put 20 or close to that into it, which usually means choosing between HS players or College players. End result, the first round of the draft goes deeper as not everyone is picking from the same pool so top players slide down a bit.

2/ $6 mil will be enough to sign all your rookies if you only draft "Will sign for slot money" players. A "might sign if the deal is right" or "Undecided" player can double his original ask in negotiations... maybe more. Even just one of those guys can eat your budget.

3/ Anyone can complain about Internationals being overpaid but IMO you have to decide what your strategy will be at budget time. You can stay out, you can save a few bucks to pick up some lottery ticket players, you can try to pick up a second tier guy when other owners are hoarding bucks for the top boys, or you can go all in. Is it worth it? Internationals are the only place I've seen immediate obvious HOF level prospects. You get to decide if that's worth it.

Excellent post by Damag above.

For item 01, I would also add that choosing High School or College makes sense because, unless you have comp picks, you will only have two picks (1st and 2nd round) where you are going to pick a future MLB player. Typically, with few exceptions (DITR, low durability C, low innings pitcher, un-recruited player that nobody saw etc.), anybody picked past the 2nd round will not make the MLB. It just doesn't make sense to drop $16 in both College and High School if you are getting two total picks that might make the MLB.

Also, make sure to check World/Finances/Budget Analysis. If you look at the previous season and scroll down to the bottom, you will see the league averages in scouting for each category. This can change a bit from season to season, but it typically doesn't move much. Based on the averages, you might be able to find yourself a slight advantage if you see that the league average for one of the scouting is low - find an inefficiency.