1) In general, is there a good resource for whatever the experts believe that isn't in the guide? I saw some stuff in the User Suggestions that makes me think there's a lot of that.
2) I'm in a new world. It looks like my best guy at a position is in AA. Am I going to break him somehow or get lesser production or development than it looks like I would if I promoted him straight to the majors? My fifth best SP (by current rating anyway, and before free agency) is 67 current, 88 projected, in Low A. Should I not be using him yet?
3) Is a player with multiple positions equally good at all of them?
4) I'm guessing from comparing overall ratings to individual categories that vsL/vsR are more relevant that contact or power. To what extent is that true?

1/ The guide tells you how the game is structured. Reading these forums will help you find out the things experienced users talk about which are not covered in the guide. More or less, what we discuss is how we think the game "really works."
There's a dynamic/live element to it, in that each world plays differently depending on what the users in it do. A very broad example, say you play in a world in which none of the owners will even consider using pitchers with less than 70 vsL/vsR. Compare that to a world in which lots of owners will find pitchers with 50 splits useful. The two worlds will play differently and generate different statistics.
It's always helpful to find a mentor, someone you can trust, probably outside of your world although it also helps to have a good relationship with one or two other owners in the same world.
Your other questions tell me you're on the right track; I always believe that Player Evaluation is the hardest thing to learn about the game and once you have your own handle on it, it will influence everything else you do.

2/ Age/level/talent depends on the player. If a 20 yr old is one of your best SPs you can certainly use him in the majors. He'll get better coaching but he'll start running his service time clock which can get him to free agency at an earlier age. One thing you have to do is that if you promote a young (under-25) player to the majors you have to give him regular playing time to keep him developing. Don't leave him on the bench.
Also, there's a whole lot more to player stats than just 67 overall in Low A. If that pitcher is 20 yrs old you may very well want to just let him develop for a few more seasons. Stamina and Durability - for position players as well as pitchers - plays very heavily into Overall Rating. Some players get high Overalls just because they can play a lot.

3/ Positions are Owner-defined. YOU designate what position players play on the Roster page. The AI will give recommendations but again it's owner dependent. Some owners (like me) won't use a SS who isn't all-85s fielding ratings. Others won't use a Catcher with pitch calling below 70.

4/ vsL/vsR is generally the most important rating for player performance for both pitchers and hitters, but again, the ratings are dynamic. They influence one another, and the composite of them is what determines "how a player plays."

Posted by wilykat on 4/9/2020 4:36:00 AM (view original):
1) In general, is there a good resource for whatever the experts believe that isn't in the guide? I saw some stuff in the User Suggestions that makes me think there's a lot of that.
2) I'm in a new world. It looks like my best guy at a position is in AA. Am I going to break him somehow or get lesser production or development than it looks like I would if I promoted him straight to the majors? My fifth best SP (by current rating anyway, and before free agency) is 67 current, 88 projected, in Low A. Should I not be using him yet?
3) Is a player with multiple positions equally good at all of them?
4) I'm guessing from comparing overall ratings to individual categories that vsL/vsR are more relevant that contact or power. To what extent is that true?

2) You can look at other teams in your world that have been successful as a guide, but for development purposes the critical factors are that you don't demote in the minors (unless during offseason if needed) and that you avoid repeating more than half a season at a given lower minor league level (unless the player has no hopes to reach even the AAA level). Don't decide too much on overall rating, but I think you'll find most pitchers with overalls in the 60+ range are at AA/AAA or higher.

3) No -- look at the suggested defensive levels -- the ones where your guy is at or exceeding most of them will play that position the best. You can change what positions you want him considered for by clicking on the position underlined link on your roster. It will also make recommendations for you, with the projected ratings quality depending on your advanced scouting budget.

4) I personally put the main offensive categories as equal with some favoritism to power but it depends on your stadium and how you play in it.

Posted by wilykat on 4/9/2020 4:36:00 AM (view original):
1) In general, is there a good resource for whatever the experts believe that isn't in the guide? I saw some stuff in the User Suggestions that makes me think there's a lot of that.
2) I'm in a new world. It looks like my best guy at a position is in AA. Am I going to break him somehow or get lesser production or development than it looks like I would if I promoted him straight to the majors? My fifth best SP (by current rating anyway, and before free agency) is 67 current, 88 projected, in Low A. Should I not be using him yet?
3) Is a player with multiple positions equally good at all of them?
4) I'm guessing from comparing overall ratings to individual categories that vsL/vsR are more relevant that contact or power. To what extent is that true?

Trying not to repeat the other answers, so

1. Feel free to sitemail me if you (or any other new players) have any questions. It can be a lot, but once you get it down it's really a fun game. I convinced my best friend to play this season so I'm used to fielding new questions lol.
2. Be careful about "Projected Ratings". Your projected ratings tie to how much you put in your "Advanced Scouting" Budget. If put anything less than 14-16 there, I wouldn't really trust it. I got burned a lot at first seeing those high projections and thinking they were gold. I would concentrate more on how many years the prospect has played and what was his recent development like.
3. I feel like where you play guys is a lot of personal preference. Pay attention to their ratings as previously mentioned. If you need a baseline of what ratings tie to each position go to edit rosters and click on the position of the player and it will give you the recommended ratings for each. From there is really about whether you care more about a good fielding team, or want to sacrifice fielding for hitting, etc.
4. Again probably a little personal preference here. I personally value power the most, then vsr, then eye, then vsl. But I also play in a hitters ballpark, so I shoot to get home run hitters. I also like to stack high eye guys at the top of the lineup to get people on base for my sluggers.

Posted by pray4pro on 4/9/2020 9:53:00 AM (view original):

Posted by wilykat on 4/9/2020 4:36:00 AM (view original):
1) In general, is there a good resource for whatever the experts believe that isn't in the guide? I saw some stuff in the User Suggestions that makes me think there's a lot of that.
2) I'm in a new world. It looks like my best guy at a position is in AA. Am I going to break him somehow or get lesser production or development than it looks like I would if I promoted him straight to the majors? My fifth best SP (by current rating anyway, and before free agency) is 67 current, 88 projected, in Low A. Should I not be using him yet?
3) Is a player with multiple positions equally good at all of them?
4) I'm guessing from comparing overall ratings to individual categories that vsL/vsR are more relevant that contact or power. To what extent is that true?

Trying not to repeat the other answers, so

1. Feel free to sitemail me if you (or any other new players) have any questions. It can be a lot, but once you get it down it's really a fun game. I convinced my best friend to play this season so I'm used to fielding new questions lol.
2. Be careful about "Projected Ratings". Your projected ratings tie to how much you put in your "Advanced Scouting" Budget. If put anything less than 14-16 there, I wouldn't really trust it. I got burned a lot at first seeing those high projections and thinking they were gold. I would concentrate more on how many years the prospect has played and what was his recent development like.
3. I feel like where you play guys is a lot of personal preference. Pay attention to their ratings as previously mentioned. If you need a baseline of what ratings tie to each position go to edit rosters and click on the position of the player and it will give you the recommended ratings for each. From there is really about whether you care more about a good fielding team, or want to sacrifice fielding for hitting, etc.
4. Again probably a little personal preference here. I personally value power the most, then vsr, then eye, then vsl. But I also play in a hitters ballpark, so I shoot to get home run hitters. I also like to stack high eye guys at the top of the lineup to get people on base for my sluggers.

I will add that even at $20M in advanced scouting, the projected ratings are still unreliable on the high side typically. I would recommend deducting 10% or so from the guy is projected to be to get a more realistic view.

That's interesting. The impression I got from some other sources was that Advanced Scouting was kind of worthless. Is it just because as strikeout26 said it's not very accurate even if you sink money into it?

And thanks for the pointer to the recommended ratings for defense. It looks like this guy really can play anything he needs to.

Advanced scouting is somewhat fuzzy as are any scouting projections, even at 20 mil. Question is, what do you use Advanced for? It's largely for unknown players outside of your own system... or maybe if you've taken over a team you know nothing about. Players you drafted, you have an idea of their value and why you drafted them. Same with your International Free Agents. Someone once said Advanced is most useful if you make a habit of trading for other teams' players. But for most experienced owners, we eventually (hopefully) learn how players develop and are likely to develop, so we generally set our own projections in our heads.

So Advanced is not "worthless", as is... it's just that we usually find something more immediate we can use that 20 million dollars for.

Posted in elsewhere, HBD is a money (resource) game. With $$ budgeted to one area, a $$ is deducted from somewhere else. Hence the reason, most choose either HS or COLL, because the one you dont budget that $$ can go elsewhere. Coaches is an area where you can get differences in philosophy: some will budget the min $6 and accept results from the qual of coach you get; others may split it with $9-10, which likely gets upper end ML; and others will budget $12 and have the highest paid coaches at each level.

ADV has its uses, but damag explanation is how sometimes ADV is the first category that might get pinched.

Posted by wilykat on 4/9/2020 1:41:00 PM (view original):
That's interesting. The impression I got from some other sources was that Advanced Scouting was kind of worthless. Is it just because as strikeout26 said it's not very accurate even if you sink money into it?

And thanks for the pointer to the recommended ratings for defense. It looks like this guy really can play anything he needs to.

I took a peek at your world, and your mates gave you good advice -- THAT guy is face of franchise, future HOFer (but probably not a SS)

Agreed, Moya is a solid player, but definitely not a SS. He can play anywhere accept C/SS.

@damag re "The guide tells you how the game is structured. Reading these forums will help you find out the things experienced users talk about which are not covered in the guide.": I also get the impression that there hasn't been much development done on the game recently. If I was going to go back through the forum and read older posts, what's the point at which older posts apply to an old version of the game that isn't meaningful? It seemed like there was some complaining in the user suggestions thread about changes in injury recovery, but the changelog post looks like it hasn't been touched since 2016. Is there some point before 2016 where it's still useful?

Yes, anything said over at LEAST the past five years is pertinent.

Posted by strikeout26 on 4/9/2020 3:27:00 PM (view original):
Agreed, Moya is a solid player, but definitely not a SS. He can play anywhere accept C/SS.

Would you play him at CF?

Posted by dschang on 4/10/2020 1:11:00 AM (view original):

Posted by strikeout26 on 4/9/2020 3:27:00 PM (view original):
Agreed, Moya is a solid player, but definitely not a SS. He can play anywhere accept C/SS.

Would you play him at CF?

No, good point. Anywhere except C/SS/CF