I’m not an altogether newbie (feel like one though) and I continue to struggle with where to put my dollars into my budget. Does anyone have some suggestions on a best approach to where dollars should be allocated? Medical, coaching (does it matter, really?) , training, advanced scouting? I seem to struggle with prospects developing to their fullest potential or evaluating their potential accurately.

Appreciate any guidance experienced players may have. Thanks in advanced.

I believe that 20 Medical and 20 Training is important. Finding the best coaches at each level is also important, and I generally budget between 12 and 14 depending on how many of my current coaches are ones I wish to keep around, and will stay around. The best thing you can do for development is maximizing appearances and ensuring you continue to promote guys on time. I've been doing an extended rebuild through the draft only, with little success, spending 20/20 in C/HS Scouting, and 0 in International. I'm probably changing my strategy to spend less on the draft and more on payroll. There are always pretty good FAs available at reasonable prices.

First off, thank you for your insight.
So for a long time I’ve been putting 20 into training but being chintzy on medical. Sounds like I should try to max out on both.

I’ve been putting more money to college draft than HS thinking they might develop faster. Not sure if that’s accurate.

Also putting 20 to prospects. I’ve noticed that many teams will max out on prospects and put a lot towards payroll. Then they’ll take the unused portion of the payroll and spend over 20+ for the very best international prospects. Feel like this cuts out a lot of people from being able to get the best prospects to rebuild but I guess it’s part of the strategy.

But if they max out on prospects at 20, shouldn’t they be maxing out on international scouting too?

You mentioned good FAs at reasonable prices. What do you look for to determine a solid FA? Past performance stats? Age? How they do against R vs L for pitchers/hitters? Overall rating?

Do you feel a better number for R vs L for pitchers/hitters is a better indicator of performance than overall number?

Sorry for so many questions but, like I said, I do appreciate the insight.

I run 20M training but only 10-12M medical. I get by with the lower medical because I never sign a free agent, int.free agent or trade for a player with a health rating lower than 50. I will also drop players in my top 100 draft list with health ratings under 50 out of the top 100 no matter how good they are. I may still get hit with a big injury slightly more often than those who run 20 medical but feel that having the extra 8-10M to use elsewhere is better.

A college player's current ratings start out a little higher than a HS player because the game assumes they develop some while in college. This means they need less development time because they are closer to their max potential when drafted. However, college players are 1-4 years older than HS players when drafted and in general reach their peaks 1-3 years older than HS players.

Those who do player salary such that they can transfer some into the prospect budget usually do spend 18-20M on Int. scouting.

Current/projected overall rating can be deceptive. This is because durability for position players and dur/stamina combo for pitchers can have a big impact on it.

My budgets change depending on if I'm rebuilding or contending. If rebuilding, I max HS, Col, Int'l, and prospect salary. The rest are always the same for me - $6M coaching (unless I need a fielidng coach, then it's $9M. You can get good ML coaches for min salary the last day of coaches hiring). $0 Adv. scouting, $20M training, $0M Medical (try to draft/sign high health guys).

If I'm competing I lower all out all prospect scouting budgets to $0M and prospect payroll to $6M to sign high end FA's.

I've found min/maxing back and forth like this works best for my play style.

Appreciate all this feedback. Really interesting the different approaches people have, health, scouting etc.

I’ve been putting more money to college scouting because they are more major league ready, but hadn’t thought about the downside they they don’t have as long to develop.

Are there any methods that anyone uses to help prospects reach their max potential? I know promoting, getting at bats, innings pitched, but are there other things to look for? Is that we’re the training budget comes into play?

One thing I'd add about College vs HS, with 20M scouting in College you get projections for a full 500 prospects or close to it. In HS you see only about 200 or so - and many are complete trash, I mean like no shot at even making an Overall rating of 50.
In very broad terms, if you're drafting High School players you're hoping for a bigger bang at the top end. College, you're hoping for a deeper draft - and it leaves you with a more robust farm system (if you care about that).

Training budget keeps players healthy and injury free. Better coaching will help your prospects.

Posted by nycguy11 on 7/21/2023 9:52:00 AM (view original):
Appreciate all this feedback. Really interesting the different approaches people have, health, scouting etc.

I’ve been putting more money to college scouting because they are more major league ready, but hadn’t thought about the downside they they don’t have as long to develop.

Are there any methods that anyone uses to help prospects reach their max potential? I know promoting, getting at bats, innings pitched, but are there other things to look for? Is that we’re the training budget comes into play?

Yes, 20 in training is vital. Medical is also important, because that dictates how quickly players can recover from injuries. That said, I've been putting 16 in medical for a long time. I seem to be able to get by with it ok.

Worth noting that 20/20 medical and training will NOT prevent major injuries to players with very high Health, pitchers in particular. In theory, those allocations should lessen the duration and help with recovery.

Right. Makes sense. I guess it does if injury occurs to lessen the impact and gives the chance for a player to meet their full potential