Written by Brendan H., Co-Commissioner of the LBL and GM of the Brooklyn Whales.
This is modified from a post on Slack that took place one sim away from the 1907 Draft. The point is to give general guidelines on how to prepare for a future draft starting roughly one season in advance. Others may do it different, but these are my guideposts.
With Only One Sim Left Until the Draft:
With only one sim left until the draft, I’m using the next sim to scout the handful of guys on my shortlist that are both 1) not “very high” scouting accuracy and 2) will be finished in 1 week or less on the scouting task list.
Behind them, I have queued up everyone in my organization that is not “very high” scouting accuracy (easy to do — go to player list and switch the view to “entire organization” and then set a filter for “is not very high scouting accuracy”).
Immediately Following the Draft
My scout should be back up to speed on my organization (which has been on the back burner since somewhere in the mid offseason-to-opening day time period to focus on the draft pool) in 2-3 sims.
While my scout is getting back up to speed, I’ll go through the draft pool for the following year under the “Draft” tab over the next week or so and put anybody that looks interesting (loose definition) on a short list. Generally, this means I initially will shortlist hitter that meets any of the following criteria: minimum 60 infield range, minimum 60 outfield range, minimum 70 infield arm, minimum 55 catcher ability, minimum 55 contact, or minimum 55 eye. For pitchers, I will shortlist anyone with three pitches (that does not throw sidearm or submarine), stamina 35 and above, and control 45 and above.
These criteria should give us 1) all of the guys that can be expected to be good defenders, 2) a mix of potentially interesting players that are weaker defenders or bat-only players, 3) guys that have a shot at being starting pitchers without needing control to develop much.
After the Shortlist Has Been Prepared
I will point my scout at the draft pool short list after that and keep an eye on my organization for people who bump down from very high to high scouting accuracy. Those guys I will vault to the top of the scouting task list, ahead of the draft pool short list. I will continue churning guys through the scouting task list each sim until they are very high (Custom Filter –> Is Not ‘Very High’; then just select all on the shortlist and the guys not currently being scouted will get added to the back end of the scouting task list).
Off-Season
By the off-season, I should have a big chunk of the pool short list at least at Average scouting accuracy. The off-season sims where we jump a month at a time are great for knocking out a bunch of scouting reports, though.
Lead Up to the Draft
I will try to organize the short list, culled as it is, into a draft board a few weeks ahead of the draft. Draft picks are a valuable trade asset and it’s helpful to have a name roughly associated with each pick to help assign a value to each pick. I will continue to update it every few sims as new scouting reports come in up to the sim ahead of the draft. Then, the cycle starts over.