Is it me? Or does it seem like the IFA are not what they used to be. You can find some that will help. But I don't seem to see the stars like before.

I had one season where noone was worth over $10 Mil, the next season I signed a future HOF pitcher for $20 Mil... It just varies greatly from year to year

This probably isn't what you're implying, but to be clear for anyone else reading, the amount of money in your prospect budget has nothing to do with what International Free Agents you see.

And you can't look at just what IFAs you can see, you have to look at all the IFA signings.  Even with $20MM in IFA Scouting, you're not going to see all IFAs.  In every season I've played in there has been an IFA signing that would have been a top 10 draft pick in the Amatuer draft.  I may not have seen them all before they signed, but they were there nonetheless.

arlen disagrees.

http://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?TopicID=439790&Page=1&TopicsTimeframe=30


This is the brother of the "Are injuries up?" thread.   Because it happens to you, it jumps out.  Someone is thinking "I can't believe how many great IFA are coming thru the system!"

I'm not a big IFA player, so looking at this somewhat objectively.... I agree that IFAs are down... but I like it. The IFA market seemed to reap more superstars than the draft, so too many teams were tanking the draft to save for that one IFA. The last 2 or 3 seasons in each of my worlds seem more in line with reasonability,

There are people who tank the draft to afford an expensive payroll budget.  Is that any better?

Yes.  They're trying to win games at the BL level.   It only becomes a problem if they leave the world.

And, even then, it's not that big of a problem.  It just forces the next owner to adopt a temporary strategy that they might not like in order to remain competitive.