[PSUColonel]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

What I do in the name of "fun" is I turn off all ability to view current ratings, period (okay, I do leave on the speed and fielding numbers), set potentials to 2-8, and then set those to "very low" scouting accuracy. Yes, that means that sometimes scouts can be way off on a guy. I like having to decide whether a guy who is hitting .400 in AA is doing so because he's too old for the league or is getting lucky or if he's really worth those numbers. PSUColonel is right about the Baseball America ratings... so I just ignore that report.

Personally I'd like to see those replaced by a separate scouting combine/system which proves really bad and really variable commentary on guys (because this should represent the baseline that everyone including casual fans have access to) wherein you could a. be cheap on your own scouting at your own peril and b. compare your own ratings on a kid you're iffy about with those of the combine/ratings system just to get a 2nd (potentially poor) opinion. I can imagine that those who already don't like the "fog of war" that scouting provides would seriously not like this at all, but... scorew those people, right?

So that's the deal for me... scouting is a way to introduce a little more uncertainty into the game. We already don't know whether or not a 1.5/5 guy is ever going to get to 5 stars, and that's enough for some people. I want to sometimes have no idea whether a guy has that 5 star potential in the first place.

Well said