Any Advice Signing coaches and scouts?

[Vtownwaves]

Love franchise modes but I'm not a big baseball guy. I don't know what I should prioritize when signing coaches(especially base coaches). Was hoping you guys could make some suggestions on what I should be looking for when signing scouts as well. Is discovery better than efficiency? Anything like what scouts to get where like maybe pitching scouts in Japan or contact scouts in central? Just any tips about these 2 things would help immensely...

[Vtownwaves]

Re: Any Advice Signing coaches and scouts?

Seriously, no one has anything to say about this? I know there are franchise players here, just wondering what you guys prioritize when signing scouts and coaches. I noticed today while looking through training that a hitting coach session teaches discipline, vision and batting clutch. Does that mean I should focus on them? Same with pitching coach, their session works on pitchers makeup(bb/9 k/9 hr/9 h/9).

I usually have signed coaches that boost major attributes like power contact velocity break, but Im wondering if thats just fools gold. I never see the velocity or break go up, but I havent forced that type of training either. Normally I auto train so Im wondering if that has something to do with it.

For the scouts Im wondering if its more important to have discovery or efficiency? Is it better to just have scouts that focus on either pitchers or position, not both? Someone has to have some insight or advice on these questions...

[Finn]

Re: Any Advice Signing coaches and scouts?

First I think it your decision will depend on your budget. If you have the room there are a number of scouts that tick almost all the boxes.

If you can't afford the top guys then you most likely will need to get specialists and that depends on how your farm system looks. If you already have a stock of high potential SPs then it might be best to grab some position player scouts. Region only comes in to play for me if I feel the need to find a compatriot for a current player or I have found all players at a certain position and criteria.

Finally I like to have at least one scout high in both efficiency and discovery each. It can be a real pain wasting days when a scout takes ages to finish scouting a player.

[Sgexpat]

Re: Any Advice Signing coaches and scouts?

For coaches I fire any coach I can if there is an upgrade available. Having an A grade staff helps player morale which is great.

For their traits I look for guys who don't give their pluses on things that don't matter a ton (bunting, drag bunting, control) and even accept minuses there on those meaningless ones in favour of traits that matter (reaction, power, contact etc)

For scouting I just hire the most expensive ones if I can. Honestly I have no idea if it makes a difference. I just changed to auto scouting because I've never had a good draft yet.

[sydrogerdavid]

Re: Any Advice Signing coaches and scouts?

Been playing since before they came out with the current coaching mechanism and I have no advice for you. I don't know why or how they come up with these ratings, so I've never really paid attention to it. Although, I usually try to hire real life coaches, even if they have low ratings.

[Vtownwaves]

Re: Any Advice Signing coaches and scouts?

Appreciate the responses. Has anyone seen pitchers gain velocity or break on their pitches when auto training? Is it something i gotta set up myself if I want someone to gain there or will the cpu auto train it for me? I dont think Ive ever seen up arrows on that. Same goes for speed on position players. Im asking because I used to always sign the coaches that boost those areas but I never see any results. Im wondering if its just auto training f'n me over. I know training takes months for progress but Ive simmed plenty of seasons, never see them with up or down arrows really. You can just scroll down the pitchers halfway through the year and every other rating has adjustments, but not those...

Also, does anyone think theres anything to what I wrote in the 2nd post about the training sessions telling you what to look for in the coaches? By that I mean the pitching and hitting coach. If you go to training and select either of those, they build up the makeup ratings for pitchers and the clutch/vision/discipline for hitting coaches. If thats the case, shouldnt I focus on those sets for those 2 coaches at least? The batting cages boost contact, the weight room boosts power, but nothing on the training says the hitting coach has anything to do with it... Pitching has the bullpen session and simulated game but again, no mention of a coach impacting it. The game should really explain this stuff better...

[KBLover]

Re: Any Advice Signing coaches and scouts?

Appreciate the responses. Has anyone seen pitchers gain velocity or break on their pitches when auto training? Is it something i gotta set up myself if I want someone to gain there or will the cpu auto train it for me? I dont think Ive ever seen up arrows on that. Same goes for speed on position players.

These ratings are fixed this year. They won't improve. Same with pitcher stamina. Speed, I can understand, though more nuance would have been better. The others make no sense to me.

Coach ratings apply in game, seems that they are all summed up (including farm director) and applied to the ratings. I don't know if their effects show up in the front end.

Also, does anyone think theres anything to what I wrote in the 2nd post about the training sessions telling you what to look for in the coaches? By that I mean the pitching and hitting coach. If you go to training and select either of those, they build up the makeup ratings for pitchers and the clutch/vision/discipline for hitting coaches. If thats the case, shouldnt I focus on those sets for those 2 coaches at least?

The impact of training can be hard to see and I don't know if it's all that large an impact. The biggest impact seems to be the overall trajectory of the player. This seems to depend on:

• Age
• Service time
• OVR vs POT (especially in younger players)
• Performance (especially for veterans, young players really have to struggle for them to falter, but it can happen)
• Possibly other factors hidden (like ETA shown when scouting, randomness, etc)

Coach ratings might impact this and never hurts to match them up, especially if you want the players better at that in-game (as in, on the field).

Was hoping you guys could make some suggestions on what I should be looking for when signing scouts as well. Is discovery better than efficiency? Anything like what scouts to get where like maybe pitching scouts in Japan or contact scouts in central? Just any tips about these 2 things would help immensely...

Both Discovery and Efficiency are important.

Discovery might improve the quality of who you find (I assume, or maybe certain kids can only be found by a certain minimum Discovery rating...like they are hard to find, unknown, etc), while efficiency well help the scout do everything faster. The faster you scout people out, the more time you have to scout. The faster you scout, the more kids you can get to, especially if you're willing to go 3/4 full on accuracy. You might buy an extra day or two per kid. That can add up.

If you MUST focus on one (cost reasons, etc), then efficiency might be better, especially if you have good discoverers on your staff already or you have a lot unscouted kids already on your list (year 2 and beyond).

As for regions, as far as I know, there's no "specialty" or tendency to find a skill set in a certain region.

[Sgexpat]

Re: Any Advice Signing coaches and scouts?

Appreciate the responses. Has anyone seen pitchers gain velocity or break on their pitches when auto training? Is it something i gotta set up myself if I want someone to gain there or will the cpu auto train it for me?

Yes - and sometimes quite dramatically. I had one guy gain 7-10 each year for two years running and went from around 72 OVR to 94 OVR all in the minors. I have no idea what governs this, but believe its some randomness, some relation to potential, some relation to performance, and some relation to training.

As to your other queries I don't think the training matters a huge amount and you are probably OK leaving it to auto . That said sometimes the CPU sets your training to something that might be useless for a guy such as arm strength for a LF or 1B or stealing for a guy who shouldn't be stealing, so sometimes I go through and clean that up.

Hope this helps.

[Sgexpat]

Re: Any Advice Signing coaches and scouts?

These ratings are fixed this year. They won't improve. Same with pitcher stamina.

Do you mean these (velocity and break) ratings don't go up and down in Franchise mode? Because if so, that's definitely incorrect ... while those don't move a ton, I'd say a good percentage of my guys show improvement or declines in those each year, especially minor leaguers.

[KBLover]

Re: Any Advice Signing coaches and scouts?

Do you mean these (velocity and break) ratings don't go up and down in Franchise mode? Because if so, that's definitely incorrect ... while those don't move a ton, I'd say a good percentage of my guys show improvement or declines in those each year, especially minor leaguers.

As far as I've seen and read on here, folks have seen no movement up or down in velocity and movement.

I've not seen any in my fresh MLB16 franchise by any pitcher. The only time I saw it is in the year my carryover first converted to MLB16 (still had MLB15's progression). Haven't seen it move at all since on any pitcher, even my superstud Ace who's still young and posting a 1.30 ERA.

He made big gains in MLB14 to get to 99 Velocity and high 80's movement. Made it to 90 movement in MLB15. Hasn't moved since under MLB16. His potential and OVR are 99, but that didn't stop his other /9 ratings from going up.

[Sgexpat]

Re: Any Advice Signing coaches and scouts?

As far as I've seen and read on here, folks have seen no movement up or down in velocity and movement.

I've not seen any in my fresh MLB16 franchise by any pitcher. The only time I saw it is in the year my carryover first converted to MLB16 (still had MLB15's progression). Haven't seen it move at all since on any pitcher, even my superstud Ace who's still young and posting a 1.30 ERA.

He made big gains in MLB14 to get to 99 Velocity and high 80's movement. Made it to 90 movement in MLB15. Hasn't moved since under MLB16. His potential and OVR are 99, but that didn't stop his other /9 ratings from going up.

Let me see if I'm imagining things - will look at it in a bit and take a picture if I find the movement.

[KBLover]

Re: Any Advice Signing coaches and scouts?

Let me see if I'm imagining things - will look at it in a bit and take a picture if I find the movement.

Okay - and I can do the same if you want to see what I'm seeing.

[NDAlum]

Re: Any Advice Signing coaches and scouts?

I personally don't scout anybody. I just go into the draft blind. For coaches I just try to find a guy with 1 (-) or fewer and look for attributes with a (+) that I covet.

[VonRye]

Re: Any Advice Signing coaches and scouts?

Scouts do NOT count against the salary cap, so load up on all of the top ones. Regardless of how much money it shows you have left, the game will allow you to go over to sign scouts.

[Vtownwaves]

Re: Any Advice Signing coaches and scouts?

As KBLover and others on the boards have said, you can not improve running speed, stamina, velocity, or break. However, while velocity and break will NEVER go down, stamina and speed ALMOST ALWAYS go down at least 1 a year, even players under 25. I find that kind of ridiculous but now I know better what to prioritize when signing fa, trading for prospects and drafting.

Its imperative that a starting pitcher have good "stuff"(break/velocity) as it wont ever improve, and even more so that they have an absurd amount of stamina. If you plan on keeping an ace 10+ years(think Thor or Jose Fernandez), you better make sure they have at least a 90 in stamina. By year 10 they could be under 80 and rarely complete games for you. Same goes for speed with fielders(not necessarily catchers or 1b). If you want a guy to be blitzing around in the outfield for a decade to come, they better be over 90.

I'll admit I havent done enough testing, still preliminary stages. I need to retest with coaches that boost speed and stamina to see if they at least wont go down every year(or so much, some people lose 3 or more speed a year). But I know for sure if you have one coach with a negative to speed/stamina or even no coaches with negative to speed/stamina, it will go down for 75-90% of your 90 man roster...