OOTP 21 First Look
 

Lots of cool new stuff.


Twitch

Im putting a beer tent in center field of the stadium I build.

I despise whoever wrote that copy. Way too many exclamation points.

Looks decent. Scouting and drafting does need an overhaul. Nothing about improving the AI though. Mostly just that they'll have the new rules in place.

In game AI or trade logic AI? In game AI has improved quite a bit over the past few years and Id imagine the 3 batter minimum for relief pitchers will improve it even more. Computer didnt really do a good job with lefty specialists.

Thank god the AI has stopped walking people on purpose to set up double plays now. OOTP forum people thought that was a great strategy:lol:

I preordered because I'm a sucker, but also because the improvements look pretty good and I'm glad I did if we're going to be out of sports for a while.

Something for online leagues, otherwise I don't care.

Trade logic, free agency. It's improved a lot over the years but I thought some areas need improvement.

They value relievers in a weird way. Like teams will pay big bucks for one and then want to trade them because they cost too much almost immediately. So if you have payroll, it doesn't take much to get one. I also felt like relievers should fluctuate much more than they do (talent randomness I guess).

I would also like teams that are contending to make a push to fill holes at the deadline. And for teams out of it to push to add prospects in return for their veterans. Too often see a first place team trade a good player for some prospects. Just not happening in real life.

In-game is fine. They didn't handle matchups well but like you said, the three batter rule should fix that.

I was annoyed with last years relief pitching as well. So much supply(high ratings) yet the computer will pay for them in the off season and trade good cheap relief pitchers during the season for cents on the dollar.

I'm going strictly fictional this year for the first time.

Release day for the folks who pre-ordered. The ballpark generator is clunky out of the box and unless you play with 3D, I think just using the online Park Gen tool someone else made is way easier for getting yourself some park factors to play with.

I haven't been able to play around with it much, yet, but I'm intrigued by the changes to college/HS recruits and might setup a league just to tinker with that more.

First time in years I've played this so early though, but the dearth of IRL sports has made me more interested in the distraction of text sims.

If I start a 3 level league on Uranus is it going to be affected by the coronavirus?

I think that's going to be an add-on.


Jokes aside, I actually like that the game is that flexible because while it's annoying the sorts of rabbit holes the team gets diverted onto sometimes, I like having almost limitless options for creating experimental leagues. Especially since those [global] features haven't changed since they were added like a decade ago back when OOTP was still with SI for that brief time.

I'm already engrossed into my fictional MLB world. I love that Miami has the highest payroll in my universe.


We missed the WC by 3 games as the Brewers won the NL Central. Washington beat Toronto in the World Series.


Speaking of Toronto, they had an impressive 111-51 record.


Scouting is much improved as well as drafting. I really love the prospect pipeline.


Watching a game from behind the pitcher then having the camera switch to an overhead view adds a bit more realism and more like a TV broadcast. There are also several views to choose from and you can also define your own view if you wish (and apply that view to all stadiums).


Being able to drag and rearrange stat columns is nice and you can finally add meaningful rows to the staff search, so it's much easier to find that coaching replacement.

The "three batter minimum rule" is really helping out the AI substitution logic in the NL. It was really lacking in previous versions, so much so that I almost started using the DH in the National League.

I actually did switch to the DH in OOTP 20 just for that reason alone.


Seems like it's much better in 21 like you stated with the 3 batter minimum rule in effect.

One thought that was missing in previous versions and again in this one is that for historical fictional sims (ie, real player creation mods/finances, but fake players), you have to do a lot of manual editing with stadiums, otherwise people will be stuck with 8000 seat stadiums forever. In true historical sims that's built into the game as teams get new stadiums when they're supposed to historically, but there's nothing for that in fictional players mode.

Yeah there's still way too much work you have to do to get leagues setup if you're not playing with MLB teams, which is annoying after all these years. I've been making a habit of saving more world templates and sharing them out, because it's a lot easier to edit once I have a stock setup of how I want to play, than having to use the wizard or doing it manually every single time.

I still haven't setup a league how I want quite yet, but have just been simming a few years to see how things are and I'm most intrigued by the ways that HS/College feeders will work now and how tracking players over time might be.

Once I get a league setup how I want, I'll be able to do that though, heh.

I haven't really dug too deep yet. Just simmed 4 seasons each with the Mets and the Pirates to see what's changed.

Draft wise, the player scouting seems a little off. Between the two teams I've gone through 3 scouting directors and 7-8 drafts and I've seen my scouts put a 65 overall (20-80 increments of 5) on maybe 2-3 players. I don't recall seeing a single 70 grade tool other than speed. This is all potential, not current.

My first draft had the top 2 players graded 55 overall. I thought it was a weak draft, but the next draft was similar. I changed scouts (also changed from a tools scout to a neutral) and upped the scouting budget and the next next draft wasn't any different. I started over with the Mets and more of the same. What's strange is the OOTP scouting grades seem more in line with what you'd expect to see. The top player in a typical draft is going to be a 65-70 with a rare player grading out higher and several 70 or higher tools scattered throughout a draft.

Nitpicking type stuff, but it does make it difficult to draft when your typical 1st rounder should have some (or at least a) standout tools, but instead you end up with a massive pool of 40+ players sitting with an overall player grade of 45-50 and no tools that stand out.

Anyone else seeing similar?

Anyone else getting extra thin draft pools? - OOTP Developments Forums

Seems a bit more buggy than usual. I rarely have had crashes in the past with OOTP. I am getting them quite often right now.

I haven't had any crashes thankfully, but I'm only playing fictional so I can't really say.

Do you play out your games?

I usually do and it could be because it is using a lot of my computers memory. My computer might be getting a bit outdated(2014)(16gb RAM). Been thinking about a new one.

I bought it, will eventually play. Just hard to get into baseball when there is no baseball.

Thanks, it was driving me crazy. The MLB draft is already random enough without essentially putting the same grade on players 3 through 70 on your draft board.

Decided to sim every season from the beginning through 2035. Currently in 2024 and maybe the best thing I have seen is in 2024 Wilmer Flores was second in the league with 114 RBI

Oh man! Must be something wrong with the game;)

Some other interesting stuff

Rougned Odor and Joey Gallo both hit over 600 homeruns. Gallo hit .181 in 12 MLB seasons, his highest being .210 and lowest being .144

Bonds is the all time HR king with 812

Trout had a HOF career, but finished 42nd in HR and missed the top 100 in RBI behind guys like Conforto, Goldschmidt, Bregman, Rendon, and Judge. He was 16th in WAR.

Maybe the oddest one I have come across. Computer generated player named Patrick O'Laughlin is the all time RBI leader with 3079!

Ricky Henderson was the all time SB leader. Billy Hamilton had an amazing career. Finishe 4th in career SB and hit .358. Upon further reflection it wasn't THAT Billy Hamilton though, this one played in the late 1800s

One good thing is that since you can't change pitchers when you're at bat, the wrong pitcher doesn't get credited with wins where you take the lead.

No, I almost never do. Purely a sim player.

This is fixed if you have a scout that favors tools rather than ability. I get that a scout that favors tools is going to love some young multi-tool prospects, but any scout that puts nothing higher than a 55 on multiple drafts in a row is probably going to find himself out of work.

The draft as a whole is also kind of screwed up now. It's producing really deep classes for pitchers, but only a couple of 1st round level position talents each year. Supposedly fixed in a beta patch that isn't available on steam yet though.

The pop up ads when opening up the game have become quite annoying.

Open the game, main screen -> settings -> misc -> display latest news from ootp -> disabled

No more popups ;)

I've never been a big fan of the default settings for "Player Evaluation AI Settings". I've tried various combinations, and 0/50/25/25 and 25/25/25/25 have given me the best results. Seems to help the AI make better decisions. I also set trading difficulty to "very hard" and "heavily favor prospects". I use the 2018 league totals modifiers and do the auto-calc every five years. The 2020 settings will give you multiple guys hitting 60 and 70 HR's per year after a few seasons. 2018 seems to feel right, my league usually has one or two guys in the 50's for HR's and the league ERA is typically in the low 4's.

Those are the only modifiers I mess with. I'm giving some consideration to tinkering with the age modifiers. There seem to be way too many guys in their mid 30's asking for multi-year contracts @20 mil per year. Modern MLB is a young man's game. The players develop quickly and you don't see a lot of guys in their mid to late 30's playing anymore. Also, they don't typically spend six or seven years in the minors before getting called up.

I have been trying to get into playing this, but the changes (or bugs) with the draft make it such a killjoy, I usually fold my league after getting to the second draft (first year guys are pre-generated).

The last few versions, I have played 70-100 years, but this year it just feels like there are too many draftees that will be average to below-average starters and maybe 3-5 above average to great potential guys in the draft. Maybe that is realistic, but the international signees still offer star potential players and it seems like 1st round guys, if they reach their potential, should be better than a lot of the starting players on most teams (I typically play as the Pirates and they seem to start with two above average hitters in Bell and Frazier). This last game, I had a disappointing season and had like the 12th overall pick and there were only 2.5 star potential hitters and starters and then a few 3.5-4 star middle relievers. With the 12th overall pick, you'd like to at least find someone that you can dream on, rather than a 5th starter or back up position player (if they reach they full potential).

Hope they continue to tweak it.

I've messed with the draft quite a bit over a 30 season sim. It's broken at the moment. Way more good pitchers are coming out of the drafts than good hitters. It was supposedly addressed in a recent update, but I'm still seeing at least four times as many 50+ (20-80 scale) pitchers than hitters. The primary difference seems to be teams are weighing hitters more heavily which means hitters my scout sees as a 50 overall are going above 60-65 pitchers.

So far the only way to get realistic scout grades is to hire a highly favors tools scout and dump some serious cash into amateur scouting. If I have a scout with any form of favoring ability the best hitters grade out at 50 with the very rare 60, a couple of 70 relievers, and maybe a small handful of 50-60 pitchers each year. I've never seen a 70 or better overall hitter with an ability scout. I've tested neutral the past few drafts and its' not really any better.

I get what he's going for, but tools vs ability shouldn't lead to widespread changes to the overall talent level evaluation. It should shuffle the guys at the top that you favor and then tools vs ability really should show up further down the draft board with one favoring a different type of player than the other. It shouldn't be ability scouts refuse to put better than a 60 grade on anything but a once in a generation talent.

There's also a big problem with pitchers who are good hitters being available after round 5. You can get two or three three star hitters after round five by switching positions. It doesn't seem like the CPU is able to do that.

That's been in there for a couple of years now

Did this, and now im getting pop up ads about RBI baseball. Pop up ads in a video game i paid for.....

Strange, I don't get any of those.

I got it yesterday and it is the reason I finally turned them off.

I think it is kind of lame that they would advertise another game within their game. They must have been paid enough.

It's a shame. The draft system from last year's version was pretty solid, in my experience (I did two long playthroughs and several where I just simmed, and had no complaints). I think they could have just added the mock draft and that would have been the only thing they would have needed to touch.

I'm with you on kind of getting what he going for, but it really devalues the draft and makes the international signees overvalued. When I play as the Pirates, those are the two most fun parts of the year with talent acquisition, so it is a bummer that one of them is so much worse now.

I've decided to shelve this version until the draft is fixed and I'm not certain that's ever happening. The consensus on the forums seems to be that the draft is better now because player development doesn't seem as random. I mean, player development in actual baseball seems random. There's nothing predictable about baseball development.

I ended up shutting things down after 35 seasons and the draft had just become an afterthought because you never saw that generational talent in the draft whose career you wanted to follow. Not one Harper, Griffey, or ARod or anything close to it. Most players just looked the same year over year and even within the same draft. It got to the point where I was just picking the first 4-5 guys myself and then letting my scout finish the draft. Pitchers are much better off than position players, but I still didn't see a Strasburg, Mark Prior, or Brien Taylor level talent in the draft.

OOTP 21 has taken one of the most core and fundamental parts of a sports sim and made it a dull experience.

Good timing for a follow up.

I picked my career back up yesterday because I was bummed having no baseball this weekend (we also made the decision this weekend that we are not going to let my 10-year old play this year because the CVD19 restrictions seem to be implemented as well as they can be but still don't seem good enough for a kid his age - so not only no MLB but no youth baseball for the first time since he was 3).

I had played through 2020 with the Pirates and the pre-generated draft and gotten stuck and quit on the 2021 draft. I worked through it without much hope for the players (had the 15th pick and there seemed to be about 5 above average players, but I think it may have pre-generated/real players, as well). I actually won the NL Central with Pirates at 88-74 by keeping most of their core intact and rebuilding the bullpen and adding a foreign FA CF, but got knocked out in the first round. I had locked up some of the key players (Bell, Reynolds, Frazier, Taillon), so it felt like it would still be the team I inherited rather than a total rebuild AND they freaking relocated to become the Austin Chiefs that offseason.

I think I'm going back to previous version, too. :)

The more I think about it, the more I think the problem OOTP has (and this stretches back as far as I've played to different extents) with the draft is almost every year sees a gradual decline in talent from the top of the draft. Previous versions you might have a generational guy and then a bit of a drop. But you almost always had a gradual curve downward. I don't think drafts are really like that. There's much more variety. 2015 was a shit draft that reflects what every 2021 draft feels like. 2002 was a deep draft, but didn't have a guy sitting at the top that was a clear number 1 pick. 2005 was considered loaded for the first 8-12 picks and then a deep dropoff in talent. 2009 was Strasburg and then a dropoff so steep that Minor and Leake went 7-8 and had 3 starter ceilings. Maybe my perception is wrong, but I don't think OOTP captures that as well as it could.

In reading the OOTP forums it seems people really have issues with how players develop and that's led to the changes in the draft. They draft a 65 OFP guy and within 6 months he's a 50 and then 6 months later he's a 60. This is a problem, but it has more to do with how scouting and the minor leagues work in OOTP rather than the draft. Ability vs Tools (in scouting) should really show in how your scout weighs minor league performance. That tools guy would have been slower to drop his grade of Bubba Starling as he flailed his way through the Royals system, but would have still had faith in Robinson Cano as he struggled through his first couple of years of pro ball. The ability guy would probably still believe Jeremy Hermida is the next Barry Bonds or Wieters is the best catching prospect ever, but have their share of hits as well. In OOTP minor league stats don't really mean a damn thing and scouting grades can change far too quickly. It's not uncommon to see 10 point swings from one evaluation to another within the same season and a guy could be hitting .210 in AA and he's supposedly ready for AAA.

It seems like they've taken the easy road to appeasing the masses rather than fix what's actually broken.

Sadly with their focus shifting to Perfect team more and more, I don't see a lot of what's broken being fixed or improved going forward. I buy every version and I love the 3d engine, sometimes mess with perfect team, but hate that it's at the expense of the core game.

Sorry to hear that. It is something that has needed a huge improvement for a very long time. On a personal level, I never drafted as I felt it was too big of an advantage over the AI. I figured real life GMs mostly go off the advice of their scouting department so I would just roll that way. In other sports sim drafting is one of my favorite parts of it.

I still enjoy the game a lot, and the 3D experience is greatly improved over last version. It's the way I play the game now for the first time.
I have a slightly more positive view of the draft. Three seasons ago I drafted an outfielder in the 2nd round, and he ended up leading the league in batting average this season at .353. Good combination of 65 contact rating and 80 avoid strikeouts. He also has 75 speed. There's a 23 year old with 65 power rating who is tearing up the league right now, so there is young talent coming up.
It's how they develop after you draft them that's more important though. You are correct that I don't see any batters with very high star potential. Mostly 3 star guys that could develop into higher. I'd like to see a few ringers in there that get drafted 1st and 2nd overall that are almost certainly going to make it, and then after that it's more of a risk. There are certainly a lot of players that you draft early that fade quickly. I had a 2nd baseman called Doug Bourque (very Canadian name) who at 23 was a future star. He got 30 homers in his rookie season. Then by the time he is 26, he is a role player. His ratings got chipped at constantly, and that 55 contact was 45, and the power also dropped. All of a sudden he was more of a platoon guy.
I think it is pretty realistic as MLB probably has the least reliable draft out of all the sports. It's why they don't give it any coverage in mainstream media. I don't remember seeing an MLB draft magazine at my local convenience store. It's because most of those guys won't make it to the majors for years, and many won't even get that far.
But as a game, I'd go for a little less realism, and try to have your scouting research or your skill pay off a bit more.

I wonder if this draft issue might be the result of scouting.

I started a new MLB league where I am the commissioner. I have looked at 5 draft classes and have seen at least 5 players with a potential in the 70s every draft. I have seen between 15-20 players every year with potential 60 or greater.

Not defending anything, just posting what I see when I took a look at it.

Year 6, 22!!!! players 70 or above. All pitchers....

I think you're right spleen... I do not like what they did to scouting. I have no idea why my players go from "very high" scouted to "low" in a matter of weeks. Makes no sense to me.


My players should always be highly scouted. If they progress or decline, my scout should automatically update their scouting report with out me having to request another scouting report.


As far as the draft, seems fine to me playing MLB league with all fictional players.

One thing that really bothers me is the scouting knowledge. I noticed that my knowledge dropped from one season to the next. If the player is on my team and i watch him every game, why would I suddenly know less about him?

I do think at this point that the TEW scouting would be better. You get a range, and as the player plays more professional sports, the range would be more and more precise. Maybe Good/Great stuff in the beginning, then A-E grade after 2 years, and then the 20-80 grade after that. And if you spend scouting time on a specific player, you can narrow it down earlier. But by now, I don't need to send out a scout to see if Mike Trout is a good batter.

Kind of random but this seems like the place to say it: I needed a simple phone game to get me through quarantine and I wound up back with MLBM 2018, which is basically the app version of OOTP.

Verdict: It still holds up. I just can't get into the complexity of OOTP these days, but MLBM strips most of that out and strikes a really nice balance of offering a career sim without forcing you to set up and monitor dozens of things. The AI isn't perfect, but it's pretty good for an app. For a couple of bucks, you really can't go wrong.

Everyone plays the game differently, and that's one of the great features of this game. For the best experience, I would recommend turning off having the game generate international free agents and independent league free agents. I enable all of the international and independent leagues, so the free agents have actual histories. Japan and Korea have a posting system for free agents, and I also enable posting for Cuba to simulate defections.

I prefer to play with the real league setup, but fictional players. I usually erase the MLB history and sim ahead about 50 years before taking over a team. I also play GM only, so my manager has full charge of the lineup card and game management.

The Mac version of OOTP 21 has really gotten screwed up. I can't find the folder to add extras like quick starts, uniforms, etc. Steam has nothing to add on to the game via their workshop. It really seems like it's catering to folks who just play the current year, or whatever the Perfect game stuff is.

I don’t have it in front of me but if I remember right go Library > Containers > Ootp Developments > Application Support > Ootp21

Here is where I am on this game: After buying it every year forever it seems, I can get it as a part of my subscription to Xbox PC, and I don't even feel like downloading it. Tell me if there has been any real sim improvements over last years "blah?" And for the record, I would rather have needles poked into my eyes than play the card game thing.,

Draft/scouting still screwy? I picked this up on the summer sale, haven't touched it yet, and re-reading this thread, I'm seriously debating just refunding it.

I've been simming a 2020 league in OOTP21 as each day passes in RL.

The Yankees were 12.5 games behind on July 1st. After today's games, they are only 3 games behind. I hate the Yankees.

But yeah they've never embraced the workshop and most of the stuff is all on the forums still, that part hasn't changed at all.

I have every mlb roster ever made and it automatically updates the logos, jerseys and stadiums over the years. I don’t really need anything else. Strat-o-matic wants to sell me each season for 27.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

The 60 game season update completed screwed the financials. Teams start with tens of millions of extra budget space.

A new company has bought OOTP developments: Big News - An announcement by Andreas & Markus - OOTP Developments Forums

Don't care, not buying since they fucked over Jim.

I'm fuessing an all mobile company until this purchase isn't going to be focused on the PC game.

These things almost never work out the way you hope they do or they ruin what was there. Color me incredibly skeptical and slightly disappointed, but not surprised in the least.

This could be the reason they didn't help Jim. Who knows how long the negotiations have been going on? But the game has been stale for years now. Stick a fork in OOTP , it's done.

I think Jim was telling us this was coming without specifically telling us this was coming. As a business move, it's probably a great decision, but it sure looks like the plan will be more of the on-line and in game purchase market.

Where are there comments from Jim that they fucked him over? I don't really seem many comments from Jim at all this year.

I agree. I'm sure it's going to make them money, but this isn't good news for PC OOTP fans. This is a mobile games company that doesn't exactly have a history of making great games. If they don't take steps to monetize every aspect of the game and push further and further toward Perfect Team I'll be shocked.

Puresim better.

I still think OOTP is a good game but this seems like a bad omen. They aren't buying it for base OOTP, they're buying it for Perfect Team.

My favorite quote on the OOTP forums, "I'd like to be optimistic but Com2uS support has a dreadful reputation and I don't see how we should be excited about OOTP being acquired by a korean gacha app factory specializing in microtransactions."

My initial thoughts every time there was been a big change in the OOTP-verse have always been positive. Not this time.

I feel like Markus and Andreas are cashing out.

I hope I'm wrong.

I think it is still a great game, but the most recent version seemed like a step back with the draft problems. I bought this year's version, but play last year's just because the problems this year made it a less fun game to play.

I don't blame them for focusing on Perfect Team if it is a money maker with the pay-to-win gameplay. I think it is alright to play, too, but I think it is weak how little effort they put into the cards (no pictures for players past this year, no tie-in with a card company, etc.)

If it is the end, I'll still play the older versions. They are good enough, for the most part.

Yikes.

With Markus no longer having the final word I am a bit worried about the future being put in the hands of bean counters. I have said with each new release "if this were the last I could play it forever". So there is that.



I play out every game so IOW slowly. My first draft was a bit into the patch cycle (early August) and I found the new draft much better than old versions. I'll save time and link to a thread I started about my draft experience.

https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...d.php?t=319942


Don't want to derail the thread but thought you might find it interesting? Could be it's down to style of play too as I can update and look at scouting reports daily. In any case I saw talent all the way through and enjoyed the process.

Feel free to disagree :)

Kind of has this feeling to me too... sort of a plan for the future to eventually move into mobile and microtransactions territory. Hopefully they continue to release OOTP as a standalone product, but I'm not too excited for this move.

I've played 21 more than any other Steam game though, so if this was the final copy, I could carry on.

Same here. I play with fictional players, so OOTP21 will work well into the future for me.

Me too.. MLB setup but with fictional players.

Looks like you're guessing right:

"In an email to press, Com2us noted that Out of the Park Baseball would "make for an excellent mobile series moving forward"; "

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/amp/20...k-developments

It's kind of sad that the very best PC baseball game on the market is going to be bastardized for cash. I am completely fine with Markus and Andreas cashing out, and I hope it leads to better development of new games if this is the end of the line for OOTP for PC, it's fine. Overall, it's a great game right now, and I could get years out of it, but it still feels like it's the end of the line.

21 versions is a long time to do anything. I wonder if them deciding to sell the company had anything to do with the falling out with Jim. I imagine American football isn’t nearly as popular in Korea as baseball is.

Why would the new company support a mode where you use a fictional team budget to acquire your players, when instead you can use a gamer's real money to acquire players?
I thought Perfect Team was the worst thing to happen to the game. It turns out it was the precursor to the worst thing to happen to the game.

Thanks - I’ll check it out again, soon. If the draft got better, I think it’s about as good as I would ever need, unless they would figure out how to integrate college (and maybe high school) into a playable/fun option. There were some under the radar improvements to league setups and sorting coaches/staff in this version that were superior, in my opinion, but the draft changes were too big of a dealbreaker.

This is the playoff picture of the daily sim I have been running.

When has "big company purchases beloved software franchise from original creators" ever turned out to be a good thing?

Can someone help explain and maybe help me fix this...

Managing the Cubs, trading set to Hard, I shop Victor Caratini and Houston offers Jose Altuve.

That should never happen under any circumstance whatsoever ever never in a jillion years.

OOTP sees ratings/stats not names. :D

It does if it just came out that Altuve was nailing the owners underage daughter and nobody knows about it yet. OOTP big brain smarts.

Most of the time the trade AI is pretty good, but, yeah, every now and then there's a real headscratcher. I could have traded a 26-year-old outfielder that had played limited innings in the majors and didn't OBP over .300 for two top thirty prospects.

Before someone else says it, the prospects ratings are often screwy, but still, that trade shouldn't have been possible.

edit: For the Altuve trade, I bet it was salary related. The AI will take almost nothing for high salary players.

I agree with this. First thing is I can easily not do one of these trades though, occasionally the salary dump is so blatant I wouldn't even want to. Second thing is I don't see the AI do these trades with other AI teams. With that in mind it doesn't bother me at all, YMMV :)

I would almost guarantee it's salary related. The AI doesn't really value 30+ year old high salary players at all and it's usually the real life players within the first 1-3 years of starting a league that fall into that category.

And yeah, there are some odd holes in the AI. Some prospects don't seem valued enough, but those instances are fairly rare from what I've seen. It's usually guys outside the top 20 or so overall.

The AI loves to dump salaries. And due to the baked in salaries when starting the game, there are a few teams that desperately need to cut. Can't remember who it was but one team had a -80 million budget at one point in time.

For what it's worth, Caratini always turns into a monster in my sims. Perennial All-Star catcher.

:) thanks for the tip

I would love to make a trade like that. I find the AI is so stingy, I can't get them to trade any top 30 prospects until I am offering my #1 player in his prime. And in those trades, my AI is going "are you kidding me?".
I do think the game overvalues catchers, I did one time make a trade where I felt I won, and that was trading away a catcher. So maybe the internal value for that position is greater.