tz- one final comment then I'll let this go.

Yes, in MLB draft budgets are public information. However, a team can exceed that budget if it wants to. They must pay a penalty in taxes if they do. So, other teams really do not know how much money Billy Bean and company can spend on a player.

In HBD we cannot exceed our budget. We can borrow from Peter and give to Paul but the final amount we can spend on players is fixed. So, an intelligent person (there are some here) can easily determine the max amount the other teams can spend on an IFA and outbid the highest potential bidder by as little as $1. This has and will continue to happen.

It is one area of the game that can be "scammed" if you will. It would also be easy to fix.

My 2 cents.

Posted by willsauve on 5/26/2015 10:41:00 AM (view original):
You can still see everything you need to see to determine who has what money available for FA's and IFA's. The update seems kind of pointless. Not sure what was accomplished..  No deterent in going 0 in ADV.

My suggestion for the problem of being able to see who has what money available for IFA's:

On the Budget Analysis page, for teams other than your own, you should only be able to see current Player Payroll, without the annotations for changes due to budget transfers.  You should not be able to see Prospect or Coach budgets.

For your own team, you should still be able to see everything as you do today, including changes due to budget transfers.

Posted by MikeT23 on 5/26/2015 11:35:00 AM (view original):
Take away the incentive to budget medical and you create another ADV situation. 

I wouldn't want the medical budget to become completely useless. But the way it is now, you almost have to have it all the way up (unless you're one of the insane people who uses $0). It's kind of like adv, but in reverse. If the bug went away without any other big changes to the way medical works, the range from $10-$15 would be a reasonable strategy, which would give people more options.

Posted by MikeT23 on 5/26/2015 11:35:00 AM (view original):
Take away the incentive to budget medical and you create another ADV situation. 

I'll add that one of the biggest gripes in the history of HBD was the loss of ratings points due to demotions.   The second biggest was injuries.   Take a stud pitcher with a LT deal, give him a shoulder injury that turns him into a poor long reliever, remove the possibility that he can be effective again and watch the users complain long and loud about it.

there's probably some middle ground.  it's not one of the biggest problems/flaws in the game by any means, but it's hard to argue that the way medical works now is optimal

I don't know if WhatIf Sports is taking suggestions for future updates, but I wouldn't mind seeing some more stats options.

For example, right now you can't search the league leaders page from past seasons. And if a player wins, say, a batting title, there's nothing on his player card that notes that. It isn't listed under the Awards tab, and there's no note on his stats page. Sites like Baseball Reference usually use bold type to show when a player leads the league in a category; I would like to see this game do something like that.


Not a huge deal, but it'd be nice. Would help with Hall of Fame voting, etc.

Posted by gdmetz on 5/26/2015 12:04:00 PM (view original):
there's probably some middle ground.  it's not one of the biggest problems/flaws in the game by any means, but it's hard to argue that the way medical works now is optimal

In your example, you took a 120-140 inning pitcher and turned him into a 60 inning pitcher this season in order to gain a couple of ratings points.    Is that something you feel was good for your team?

Posted by MikeT23 on 5/26/2015 12:10:00 PM (view original):

Posted by gdmetz on 5/26/2015 12:04:00 PM (view original):
there's probably some middle ground.  it's not one of the biggest problems/flaws in the game by any means, but it's hard to argue that the way medical works now is optimal

In your example, you took a 120-140 inning pitcher and turned him into a 60 inning pitcher this season in order to gain a couple of ratings points.    Is that something you feel was good for your team?

I'm not being critical, I do it too.   But I build teams with enough depth to cover for several players while I wait out the injuries.   Change the way it works, I could easily go 0 Med and use that 20m to build more depth. 

I agree. Without the med bug I'm going 0 medical. It's a good trade off as is. Guys get better but it could potentially cost you your season.

Now, is it a little out of hand as is now? Of course. I had a guy with a sore back, out 1 day and I put him on the 60 day DL because it will up his contact and power. I believe guys with longer injuries should get a boost (shoulder and elbow surgery) but for a sore back? I shouldn't get a boost.

I'll be ok if admin makes a happy middle.

The "Medical Bug" doesn't work like it did on the past, I've had a couple guys with 60+ day injuries (all of the injured days in one season) only have one recovery cycle.

Posted by MikeT23 on 5/26/2015 12:10:00 PM (view original):

Posted by gdmetz on 5/26/2015 12:04:00 PM (view original):
there's probably some middle ground.  it's not one of the biggest problems/flaws in the game by any means, but it's hard to argue that the way medical works now is optimal

In your example, you took a 120-140 inning pitcher and turned him into a 60 inning pitcher this season in order to gain a couple of ratings points.    Is that something you feel was good for your team?

I'm winning 100 games either way.  It's good for the future of my team though.

I guess my thought is, I'd like to see medical be valuable enough that it merits spending just based on shorter durations, less ratings decline at injury, and better recovery for actually injured players.  A change that enhanced those features of medical recovery while not allowing a guy to get significantly better with a one week injury would be nice.  Again, not a huge deal, but it sounds like they ARE changing it so some discussion on how they should do so would seem relevant or potentially constructive.

Whats accompished by not being able to view all of the scouting budgets?  In the world I run we have a min on HS/College/ADV/Med/Training.  So our rules are now obsolete.. We'll ahve to adjust but I thought the whole point of the budget viewing changes was to make it harder for people to track other teams available prospect $$.

I guess my concern is the pendulum swinging too far in the other direction.   As it stands now, my speedy CF pulls a hammy.  He loses a point in range, a point in speed and will be out 22 days.   I have two options:   Put him on the 15, meaning he'll miss 20ish games, and hopefully get those points back.   Or put him on the 60, missing a third of the season, I know he'll get those points back and maybe a point or two more.   I have to sacrifice 30+ games so I have a decision to make.  Making medical less valuable removes the decision-making process.   And decision-making is really all this game is once you have a fundamental understanding of the ratings.

It's not clear to me why we should be able to see any of the budget allocations for other franchises.  I can look at a team and see how much he has spent on payroll.  Why should I be able to know how much he can possibly spend?  Leaving the prospect payroll value still visible (especially with the transfer amounts visible) makes it so that this change doesn't really affect anything.  At any given point I know exactly how much every other team can bid on an IFA.