Question on scout recommendations during the draft

[sparty567]

I love the draft. It's one of my favorite parts of this game. However, there is one aspect of it that gets a little frustrating.

I have scouting turned on at high accuracy and my budget is roughly twice the league average. When I get to the draft, the scout recommendation usually comes up with a player that ends up being a bust. For example, in two recent drafts I picked 25th and took a pitcher in the first round that looked like was going to be a solid SP (3-4 star rankings, 3 above average pitches, solid control, movement and stuff ratings, etc.). Once I got them signed and into my system, they both plummeted to 1-star rankings and have virtually no shot of being contributors at the ML level. I can see this happening IRL so I'm not too bummed about it, but it's kind of annoying that I've basically wasted two consecutive first-round picks.

Does anybody else rely on the scouting recommendation for conducting their draft? What strategies or research does anyone else use for their draft? The scout has an occasional good selection in later rounds, but you rarely get All-Star caliber players that late in the draft, it's more of a middle relief type. I've found that taking the time to do my own due diligence is giving me more success. One thing that I've started doing more is comparing my scout's ratings to the OSA ratings. If there's a big discrepancy in the numbers, I get very wary and generally try to look elsewhere. I'd like to hear how other people go about conducting their draft.

[Chicagofan76]

Depending on the rounds of the draft. I tend to draft say for the 1st 10 rounds based on ratings and what i like about that player, versatility, stamina, speed is what i look for then i tend to let the scout choose the next 10 and in 1 of my leagues my scout does a good job in middle rounds, then for the 5 final picks i tend to pick people based on thier name, yes it sounds cheesy but i look for people with a baseball sounding name. 1st and last name that could both be 1st names r always high on my list ala Frank Thomas. or a name like Pedro Martinez (not that 1) was a 24th rd pick for me and has a batting title and is a 4 time all star.

[sparty567]

My approach is similar, I draft the first 10 rounds or so myself, then I usually sim the rest. I like your strategy of picking the guy with "the baseball name" for those last couple rounds, it sounds like you might be on to something there!

[Tram2Whitaker]

I find it difficult to draft, because there isn't any rhyme or reason to the way they're stacked, or even what my scout recommends. It's not based on need (I've got about 10 catchers and no pitchers). It's not based on current, or potential rating (There's a CF with a 1 star rating/4 star potential, and yet my scout recommends a SS with 1/2 star rating/1 star potential). It doesn't seem to be based on who I've pre-scouted, the scouts own musings, or my budget (I've got $1,000,000 for signing bonuses, so I can't afford more than slot, but this guy who is "destined to be a career minor leaguer", who I skipped over because his potential was only 1 star, and is demanding $7,600,000 gets recommended)

I (playing MLB) draft the first 5 rounds myself, because if they don't sign, I get those picks back, so I get the ones I want. I look at their player page, and look at intelligence, and work ethic, what level of competition they played, and of course what I need to build in my system (usually middle infield and starting pitching). Sometimes, I will take the "can't miss" outfielder and end up paying for it, but it doesn't bother me, since LF and MR come through my system all the time from all over the draft (I got a 26th round LF as one of my top prospects). After the 5th round, if the draft is still deep, I'll continue to draft with the advice of my scouting director. Otherwise, I'll autocomplete the draft afterwards.