MLB 23 Scouting Discussion

[Kotter]

I’ve only done it once so far and I tried:
#1 Focus - Scout Player
#2 Focus - Scout Region/Position
#3 Focus - Discover Prospects (or whatever it’s called)

When it came time to the draft I was completely in the dark and ended up with a terrible draft (which I kind of liked).

So anyway, that brings me to a question:

What scouting strategy have you tried and did it work?

I’m thinking for my next practice draft I’m going to scout players for all 3 focus positions. It seems like the find prospects option isn’t as useful as it was in previous years.

Either way it definitely requires more planning, which I appreciate. Although like someone in the impressions thread said, I don’t like the screen where you can only see 3 prospects at a time.


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[Kotter]

Re: MLB 23 Scouting Discussion

Okay so I’ve simmed a couple more seasons where I only scout and draft.

Season 2:
1-Player
2-Player
3-Player

This got me slightly better results, but once the first round was over I pretty much knew nothing about anyone else.

Season 3:
1-Player
2-Scout position
3-Scout position

This has been the best for me so far in terms of knowing a little bit about a greater amount of players. I’m still not dominating drafts like I used to, but at least I felt like I scouted better this time.

Next season I’m going to try:
1-Scout position
2-Scout position
3-Scout position
Until there’s like two weeks left before the draft and then scout players for all 3 spots. I need to be more mindful of where I’m drafting and therefore shouldn’t waste time scouting players that won’t be available by the time I pick.

Another variable which has been fun to consider is their interest level.

If I’m scouting a guy, but his interest is down around 30% there’s not a great chance I’ll be able to sign him so I need to move onto someone else.

Interested to see what strategies other people have used.


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[CBoller1331]

Re: MLB 23 Scouting Discussion

Okay so I’ve simmed a couple more seasons where I only scout and draft.

Season 2:
1-Player
2-Player
3-Player

This got me slightly better results, but once the first round was over I pretty much knew nothing about anyone else.

Season 3:
1-Player
2-Scout position
3-Scout position

This has been the best for me so far in terms of knowing a little bit about a greater amount of players. I’m still not dominating drafts like I used to, but at least I felt like I scouted better this time.

Next season I’m going to try:
1-Scout position
2-Scout position
3-Scout position
Until there’s like two weeks left before the draft and then scout players for all 3 spots. I need to be more mindful of where I’m drafting and therefore shouldn’t waste time scouting players that won’t be available by the time I pick.

Another variable which has been fun to consider is their interest level.

If I’m scouting a guy, but his interest is down around 30% there’s not a great chance I’ll be able to sign him so I need to move onto someone else.

Interested to see what strategies other people have used.


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I think this is the part of the strategy I'm most looking forward too. Gotta make sure you are scouting players who will be available and interested in signing

[franch1se]

Re: MLB 23 Scouting Discussion

when can you start scouting? I just started a franchise and I'm 3 games in and the Scouting tab has a lock on it.

[Willis135]

Re: MLB 23 Scouting Discussion

when can you start scouting? I just started a franchise and I'm 3 games in and the Scouting tab has a lock on it.

Scouting is done only on Sundays

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[Kotter]

Re: MLB 23 Scouting Discussion

when can you start scouting? I just started a franchise and I'm 3 games in and the Scouting tab has a lock on it.

In addition to only scouting on Sundays, make sure your settings have scouting to manual. An easy way to figure that out is if you hover over the scouting box with the lock on it, in the upper right corner you’ll see a slide with either manual or auto.


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[doorknobb]

Re: MLB 23 Scouting Discussion

Haven't gotten around to any systematic attempts at figuring out an optimal way of doing this but just anecdotally I've noticed that when the timer runs down in the signing period the player seems more willing to sign for lower at 50+% interest, even if they've rejected the exact same offer weeks before. I've had a few seasons where my budget was cutting it really close and the only one I haven't signed was the first rounder I picked and managed to get it in the bag on the last week every time at around 52-55% interest. In all of the seasons I've managed to sign everyone else but my first rounder who held out until the last week. I don't know if it's hardcoded or not - it seems very convenient (although small sample size for sure) - but it seems like some elementary mind games have been helpful.

Also, wondering if people are scouting for need for scouting for best-available? Playing OOTP with a full 20+ round draft I usually go for best-available-that-I-can-afford because after a few seasons god knows who I'll actually need but the timeline is so much shorter here that I've been drafting players who are able to slot into AA or even AAA real quick, although I don't know if this is necessarily wise. Curious as to everybody's strategy here.

[reyes the roof]

Re: MLB 23 Scouting Discussion

While I’m waiting for a roster update with Senga to drop I’ve decided to experiment with scouting to find the best approach. I’ll be using The Mets so their pick is at the bottom of the round. My scouts have the following efficiency, pitcher, discovery, and position player ratings
83, 92, 92, 81
88, 93, 96, 67
91, 68, 68, 93

For my first attempt I did nothing but scout by position, most prospects were around 25% scouted. I had 8 picks, they were as follows

RP age 20 potential 76-98, actual potential 84, overall 52-74, actual overall 60, he also didn’t take a physical
SP age 18 potential 66-96, actual potential 89, overall 43-74, actual overall 67, he didn’t take the physical and he was unranked by mlb
1B age 21 potential 76-93 actual potential 68, overall 56-73, actual overall 48
CP age 21 potential 82-99, actual potential 93, overall 51-68, actual overall 62
SP age 21 potential 82-99, overall 46-63. I couldn’t sign him despite offering more than he asked for
LF age 19 potential 67-89, actual potential 72, overall 44-66, actual overall 49
2B age 18 potential 59-90, actual potential 75, overall 24-55, actual overall 51
C age 18, potential 58-89, overall 24-55. I couldn’t sign him despite offering more than he asked for

[gamewarden3006]

Re: MLB 23 Scouting Discussion

Trying to figure this out as well. I agree that the discover prospects does not really seem to be as useful as it use to be. I am going to try like the OP. I think it will be the beast results. Seems a lot harder to get information on enough guys to fill more than the first 2 rounds. Looks like you can't waste time scouting top pics if you are further down in the draft order. You will need to scout players that you can realistically draft.



Not sure how I feel about them declining offers. If my first test run I did horrible in the draft. I even had 2 players decline my offer. One had 71% interest and I offered him over slot money... The other one had 53% interest and I offered over slot to him as well. Wish the would at least give me a counter offer instead of just loosing them straight out.

[reyes the roof]

Re: MLB 23 Scouting Discussion

I took another crack at drafting, this time I scouted position for twelve weeks and scouted individuals for two. I had a first and three second round picks and ended up with guys with potentials of 93, 83, 90, and 80 and all of their overalls in the 60s

A few observations I’ve made, if you see a big disparity between a prospects mlb rank and your rank, for instance he has an mlb rank of 100 and you have him ranked 20, he’s probably not going to fall much further than 20. After everyone was signed I looked around the league at everyone else’s signings and there don’t seem to be many high potential guys getting drafted after the second round. It also seems like velocity is lower than it should be for prospects.

If you’re scouting individual players I’d stick to guys you think you can grab in the first or second round. I think I’m getting close to the sweet spot of balancing scouting position/region and individuals. I might try and introduce a week of discovering prospects to see if that improves anything

[reyes the roof]

Re: MLB 23 Scouting Discussion

I started to try assigning scouts to discover prospects but that is completely useless. I would also avoid scouting positions in the West region, there just aren’t that many to scout. International has the most so that’s where you want to allocate most of your time. If there was one thing I’d change with the scouting, don’t make it position specific, assignments should be to either scout hitters or pitchers. I can’t imagine a scout ever getting sent on an assignment to specifically scout only left fielders.

I also set the scouting to auto just to see how the cpu handles scouting and it looks like they do nothing but scout individual players. The majority of prospects are 5% scouted

I wouldn’t recommend this because it feels like cheating the system, but I did one draft where I just scouted starting pitchers, relievers, and closers and I did each region for three weeks at a time. I ended up with tons of guys that were 100% scouted. Out of my 8 picks, 6 had potential in the 90s and the other two were 87.

[MetsFan16]

Re: MLB 23 Scouting Discussion

Man I was planning on not doing any scouting until starting my franchise but it sounds like there needs some testing/trial and errors for me to find out the best way to handle this.
I love that they changed this and actually made it an engaging part of franchise.

[zippy2212]

Re: MLB 23 Scouting Discussion

While I’m waiting for a roster update with Senga to drop I’ve decided to experiment with scouting to find the best approach. I’ll be using The Mets so their pick is at the bottom of the round. My scouts have the following efficiency, pitcher, discovery, and position player ratings
83, 92, 92, 81
88, 93, 96, 67
91, 68, 68, 93

For my first attempt I did nothing but scout by position, most prospects were around 25% scouted. I had 8 picks, they were as follows

RP age 20 potential 76-98, actual potential 84, overall 52-74, actual overall 60, he also didn’t take a physical
SP age 18 potential 66-96, actual potential 89, overall 43-74, actual overall 67, he didn’t take the physical and he was unranked by mlb
1B age 21 potential 76-93 actual potential 68, overall 56-73, actual overall 48
CP age 21 potential 82-99, actual potential 93, overall 51-68, actual overall 62
SP age 21 potential 82-99, overall 46-63. I couldn’t sign him despite offering more than he asked for
LF age 19 potential 67-89, actual potential 72, overall 44-66, actual overall 49
2B age 18 potential 59-90, actual potential 75, overall 24-55, actual overall 51
C age 18, potential 58-89, overall 24-55. I couldn’t sign him despite offering more than he asked for

Curious as to what happens with the players that don't sign. Do they just become free agents like they used to?

[Willis135]

Re: MLB 23 Scouting Discussion

Curious as to what happens with the players that don't sign. Do they just become free agents like they used to?

I had one not sign. He ended up as a free agent. Glad he didn't sign because he was a huge bust

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[Kotter]

Re: MLB 23 Scouting Discussion

I started to try assigning scouts to discover prospects but that is completely useless. I would also avoid scouting positions in the West region, there just aren’t that many to scout. International has the most so that’s where you want to allocate most of your time. If there was one thing I’d change with the scouting, don’t make it position specific, assignments should be to either scout hitters or pitchers. I can’t imagine a scout ever getting sent on an assignment to specifically scout only left fielders.

I also set the scouting to auto just to see how the cpu handles scouting and it looks like they do nothing but scout individual players. The majority of prospects are 5% scouted

I wouldn’t recommend this because it feels like cheating the system, but I did one draft where I just scouted starting pitchers, relievers, and closers and I did each region for three weeks at a time. I ended up with tons of guys that were 100% scouted. Out of my 8 picks, 6 had potential in the 90s and the other two were 87.

Yeah I’ve definitely considered scouting just a handful of positions exclusively, but that’s not as fun.

I finally started my forever franchise (after 3 practice ones for scouting/draft). I always sim the first season and ended up having my best draft with the following strategy:

Week 1:
1- SP in west
2- SP in central
3- SP In international

Week 2:
1- SP in east
2- C in west
3- C in central

Week 3:
1- C in international
2- C in east
3- 1B in west

And then just going through each position (minus RP and CP) in each region once.

Then the final week or two I scouted individual players. This gave me the best results so far.


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