Mets Budget

The Mets budget was one of necessity rather than desire. I knew I was going to have to play the FA market for a pitcher or two and I knew they wouldn't be cheap. I had already decided there was a good chance I would give up my first round choice on a type A pitcher or a 3B, 2B, CF.

That really drove my scouting budget down for HS/COL because I wasn't getting a first round selection and knew I would be almost at 100 for the second round since I had no type B players.

I normally keep my budget for Advance Scouting around $10M because they said they were looking into changing their scope. I am not sure how they would change their scope as they have nothing to do with training, coaching or playing, only player analysis.

As for International Scouting I was really wanting to go higher but with no prospect budget kinda useless don't ya think. I only use it mainly to find defensive PC catchers or the decent career minor league starting pitcher that falls through the cracks.

Erff didn't like the chaos and money that ensued for Internationals so he never played the market much until it was time to rebuild. He did have a knack for drafting that was kinda uncanny and usually held his scouting budgets rather high even if his prospect budget was low. He kept his Advance Scouting budget high because he was always trading his good vets for prospects and he wanted to make sure those prospects were good. He also kept his Training and Medical relatively on the low side. Back then however, players never really got injured very much unless their health was below 70.

As for scouting overall I have a formula that I use on prospects that works for me rather well though many disagree with it. I call it the 20/10 rule of thumb with some common sense.  Basically it goes like this, if a players difference from the current rating to a projected rating is greater than 20 then assume 20 max if it is greater than 30 then assume 25 max. If it is greater than 10 and less than 20 assume 10 max for all others assume 5 max. You must also throw in a plus or minus 3 for variance depending on the players Makeup. Remember, that is for 0 and 1st year players, have to do a minor calculation on those above that with year to year progression already available. Those with 4 years of service already, a chance of more than 5 is unlikely in a rating, normally 3 at the most.