Is advance scouting more beneficial to an up and coming team or a team poised to make a run? And is training more beneficial the same scenario? Last season a team with a 2 A.S. won the world series.

Its more useful for a team looking to make a lot of trades....but more specifically, a team looking to make a lot of trades for guys with only 1 year or maybe 2 years pro. If they're older than that, the projections are less useful as eyeballing how they will turn out becomes more useful.

AS is really kind of a security blanket, albeit maybe a useful one if you're new. It takes a little work, but you can work around everything AS does for you.

To get (and keep) a good read on projected ratings for your own prospects, copy their projected into a spreadsheet before they're drafted or signed (in the case of IFA's). Remember, before they're drafted or signed, the ratings you're seeing are from the HS, college, or int'l scouts (not AS). Once drafted/signed, the ratings you see are from AS. So, if your HS, college, Int'l scouting is relatively high and AS low, you can still get a fairly accurate look at proj like this. Make sure you cc to spreadsheet BEFORE draft/signing...once that happens, those "scouting reports" are gone.

You COULD do the same thing with all players in the amateur draft and all the IFA's you see. Put 'em in a spreadsheet before draft/signing, and 2 seasons later when you're looking to trade for a guy, you have good idea of his projected.

You can also estimate ratings from a player's development in his 2nd pro season. See this thread. Temper this by checking what round a player was drafted in or what the IFA bonus was.

For the above reasons (though copying ratings is too much work for me) Adv Scouting is a waste of money. I get to 20 on training ASAP when I take over an existing team and until I get there I am looking to trade and/or not re-sign any player over 33, esp ones with low makeup.

Training is good for old or young teams as it improves things such as stamina, velocity, power and durability and prevents their decline as well.