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Scouting

(TheNote: The original CSFBL scouting system has been overhauled as of the June 2022 update)

What is scouting?

Baseball teams hire scouts to visit high schools, colleges, and other professional teams to review players and try to assess their skills and potential. Throughout baseball history, there have been young players who scouts thought were going to be superstars, but they never reached that potential; and there have been players who scouts thought were going to be, well, just OK, and turned out to be far better.

The mystery around this is the basis of the scouting system in CSFBL.

UpdatedHow Scoutingdoes scouting work?

Each player has some internal values (hidden to users) that influence how easy or hard they are to "scout". This hidden variance creates a bit of mystery, especially for younger players

As players get older, and they get more experience, scouts get more accurate in telling you what a player's current ratings are (but not their potential ratings). So a scout is less accurate looking at a 17-year old than he is looking at a 30-year old who has played for five seasons. That doesn't mean the scout was inaccurate with the 17-year old

Potential ratings do not not change over time

In CSFBL, all team owners see players the same way

League options for scouting

Individual leagues can choose to have the scouting system on or off. Leagues with scouting off will havealways exactsee information onnearly-perfect players' ratings throughout their careers.

Leagues with scouting on will not have exact information on the ratings of players, but will instead see "scouted" ratings.

  • All managers will see players the same way, whether accurately scouted or mis-scouted
  • As players get older and play more, ratings will be seen more and more accurately
  • Some players are easier to read than others from the start - a players’ internal ratings determine how easy or hard they will be to scout
  • Potential ratings are locked in at draft time, and they will not change over time. Think of thisratings, as 'Amateurpreviously Draft Status' - a player can exceed their expectations coming out of the draft, but that doesn’t change what the scouts said about them back in the day.
  • Average players will still develop to their potential over time, but more players are going to exceed or fall short of their potentials than in the past
described.

Which to choose?

Leagues that want to work with a realistic system of imperfect information, with diamonds-in-the-rough and draft busts will have Scouting ON.

Leagues that prefer to work from full ratings information throughout a players' career will have Scouting OFF.