I am a newb. Based on the research I have done so far it appears to me that IFA's are a complete waste. My reason for thinking this is that based on what I have read a stud IFA is going to take 20M in prospect cash to sign. So in truth

20 Million Intl. Scouting
20 Million Prospect Budget
Plus 12 Million in order to transfer 6 million back to sign your draft picks OR you forfit your draft picks.

So in this situation, it seems that signing a good IFA is going to cost you 40 Million Plus... Is that worth it?

It's a gamble. Depending on what the rest of the owners in your league do, you can pull a stud IFA for under 20M. They're expensive and you run the risk of getting screwed, but if you hit the jackpot it's well worth it.

Stud players are hard to come by without tanking

Not all will break the bank. Plus, it's not as if you can put 0 in International Scout, because then you won't see anyone outside of the US in the draft.

So, could you technically set your college and highschool at 0 and draft only internationals in the draft?

You can put 0 in the IFA budget, you just won't see any IFA's at all. That's almost a blessing, because then you aren't pestered with countless emails about crappy prospects asking for $50,000 contracts.
The IFA budget won't affect your draft at all.

if you plan to win for several seasons in a row, IFAs are the only way to build from within ... you aren't drafting high, and if you sign any Type As, you are really not drafting anybody

You do not see international players in the draft. Only domestic players.

IFA's are not a waste, but they can be expensive, especially the studs.

Dollar for dollar, you get much more value from the draft. But with the draft, you are limited only to the 25 or so guys who you select on draft day. With IFA's, it's an open market so if you budget high enough to see most of the top guys, you can bid on as many as you can afford.

All of my IFA budgets are at 0. There may be a couple of leagues that cap prospect money that I would toss money at.

It's a good strategy for teams with low draft positions. In my opinion, I'd rather invest my money in true studs than in moderately good players. If I put a lot of money into IFAs and nab one really great one per year, I can build a team around those guys using low 1st/2nd round draft picks, trades, and FAs. The only other way to get those stud quality players is through FA (expensive) and having a very high draft pick with tons of scouting.

I usually punt IFA and just try to draft well. When you don't, you can get burned (you won't always, you can sometimes land a MASSIVE superstar) and end the season with $10m+ sitting there with no one to spend it on because you never see anyone worth your $.

If you have read that

a) you must put 20 mil in scouting to see stud IFA's

b) All stud IFA's will cost 20 mil

c) You should only sign stud IFA's that will cost 15 mil or more and ignore all others.

then you are reading the wrong posts.

Quote: Originally Posted By shobob on 6/04/2010
Stud players are hard to come by without tanking

Not in the IFA market. With a $20M IFA budget you can usually get one star player a year.

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You should compare the cost of that IFA to how you would get a similarly skilled player in FA. IFA aquisition costs plus first 5 yrs of salary at ML level can certainly go over $40M, but what will that player cost in FA? $10, $12, $15M/yr for 5 yrs? More? Plus a possible signing bonus?