Established international FA
 

Has anybody seen anybody good from this yet? Going into my fourth year with the Astros and still haven't seen anybody even MLB level yet, in real life now there are always a few imports coming over. Just take a look at last year Darvish, Cespedes, and Aoki.

Last year was an anomaly in that regard. To my memory, most seasons don't have anybody of note coming from foreign leagues.

There is a Yoenis Céspedes clone in year three. Nice to see. Cant afford him.

After year one of my dynasty with the Yanks I signed a Japanese SP, Yoshino Kokawa. Pitched pretty poorly in my first year with him, but he's making strides in year two. Definitely MLB-caliber, take a look...

http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/...ps990df561.png

That high K rate, decent WAR despite a horrible ERA+, and high BABIP make me think that he may have pitched poorly partly due to poor defense behind him in 2014.

And 37 HRs in 175 innings is an anomaly no matter how much of a flyball pitcher you are. Yankee Stadium doesn't help either.

Not sure how I missed that. Can't blame that on his defense!

I'm more curious if anyone has found anyone decent in the normal scouting, because I'm going 3 seasons or more with nothing but half star crap players.

To answer your question, yes, in year 2 or 3 there was an 18 year old short stop from South Korea or Japan that was 5 stars and is an absolute freakish stud.

He's still giving up alot of HRs, that could partially be due to the stadium. And last year I did have old-ass A-Rod and Jeter at 3rd and SS, the rest of the defense was above-average though.

Currently 4-4 with a 3.08 ERA.

I posted data on the beta forum about all of the posted players from Japan, free agents from Japan, and Cuban defectors who have played in MLB in the last twelve years. I don't know to what extent Markus used that information, but based on the established international free agents I've seen, the player creation model doesn't look too bad. I've been meaning to test it thoroughly though and compare with reality. The considerable majority of veteran players who have joined MLB organizations from Japan or Cuba have not been successful, so for realism, you should expect to find quite a few duds in the established international FA crop. I often find there are two or three bad years in a row, then a year with three really interesting guys, so be patient.

And to answer malichai's question - yes, you will occasionally 'discover' a good teenage player. It doesn't happen too often, and the quality of your scout and your budget both matter. But there are definitely a few superstars around. The other thing is, the player development system is very volatile for 16 year olds, so some of those 1/2 star guys may turn into something (not many, but a couple). The player creation model is realistic in the sense that real life teams sign a ton of guys each year from the DR who are never good enough to even play in Rookie ball, but I don't know if it's exactly 'fun' to find so many bad players in OOTP, so I think I might suggest the player creation model be refined a bit.

is this the only real way to get the proper number of intl FAs in your league? or can it also be done with international leagues.

I would prefer to actually have the Nippon league in my game going on and getting the talent that way, but I have this feeling that it is going to bork things up.

Established international FA
 

It seems much better than last year but I should mention that I generate about 30 guys so I have a higher chance of getting some useful guys.

I signed a good Aussie, he finished second in Rookie of the Year voting, he was 28 at the time and now he's in AAA one year later but only because I have a killer rotation.

Only in my 2nd season on my new league, but during the off-season I signed a Japanese reliever who is now my closer. 74 ratings according to my scout.

There is a LFer who is a Intl FA in 2013
 

who has a potential of 80. His salary demands started at $2,800,000 and now are over $5Mil! Not sure if he's worth it with new CBA rules, but I might try to sign him (I am Stl) just to see what happens.

Established international FA
 

The Royals perhaps signed the next Ichiro in the now 27 year old Shunji Kouki who signed a 3 yr deal worth $42,800,000.

He finished up his sophomore year with .321/.417/.493 13 HR 71 RBI 35 SB he also recorded 13 triples. He's an average glove in the RF.

Royals missed the playoffs but last year he helped them reach the post season while putting up a .265 average. Royals also had Roy Halladay that year..

The game used to be pretty bad with having a Japanese league. AAA level players seemed to get cut a lot and show up in the US as pretty much 4 A players. Way too many were in the minors. That was 10 or 11 at the latest that I tried this though. Maybe 12,13, and 14 are better? I think the old problem was too many players generated leading to a lot of Japanese AAA guys getting cut. Then they became free agents and were signed in the US. Same happened with Taiwan and Korea.

Established international FA
 

I had pretty good success with my Japan league in last year's game.

Just have to set PCM's and financials to a level where they are not on par with the MLB.

I also set the league to a AAA level. That seems cosmetic as players are still gaining major league service time but I remember Markus mentioning that when using AI Evaluation with stats, minor leagues stats are looked at but they are not as valuable as Major League stats. So I guess my universe looked at the best hitter batting .330 in the Nippon league as a .280 or .290 hitter in the Majors and so my contracts where always good for players leaving Japan to go over to America.

I also never had top players from the Majors go to Japan. There were always either prospects that were cut (didn't have Indy leagues to soak them up first) or wash up and career minor leaguers going over there.