How to Find Draft Gems

[@nolanwayne2025]

I’m a little late but the first shortstop you looked at (mac horvath) i’ve met and practiced with him.

[@willmckee1632]

Love Drew Romo! HE always becomes a MLB starting catcher in my sims

[@nathancrocker3894]

This is exactly how I go about my late rounds. Find out of position guys and ones that do one or two things very well

[@tedb8578]

I know this is an old video but just watching it now. You mixed up slot and demand a few times when talking about signing your draft picks. For example at 19:54, you said you would offer Bradfield slot instead of meeting his demand but 490k was his demand not slot. Good information overall though.

[@brianjames9832]

I drafted Romo in my Rockies sim and he ended up a HOFer.

[@BluebellyGaming]

Do you ever look at high school or college statistics? Seems like that could be a nice way to find hidden gems...

[@sgtmushroom]

Statistics don't matter at all for the draft. Almost every draft prospect is going to look absolutely dominant because their relative competition is so weak. Small sample size is also a factor. And most importantly, statistics reflect current ability, not potential ability. Current ability doesn't really matter at all.

[@LKeet6]

the guy at 10:18, hendrick, why are you not shortlisting him? Good power, good outfield arm, no clear weaknesses that i can see. What am i missing?

[@sgtmushroom]

Exactly. The only things he has going for him are things that are just not useful. Power (especially gap power) is relatively not a useful skill, especially paired with low avoid K's. Arm is near useless in the outfield as well.

[@LKeet6]

@@sgtmushroom thanks for the reply. Makes sense. But it's not like he sucked in the other areas? Decent defender, decent contact etc. Seemed like a good all-round package to me. But I'm NO expert! So thanks :)

[@BluebellyGaming]

You mention near the 18 min mark that the pre-set drafts are not as full of high potential players as the fictional drafts. Do you know how many draft classes are on the base game? I'm still playing OOTP 20, but I suspect that it's probably 2-3 draft classes. Do you know?

[@sgtmushroom]

You have the first draft class near 100% preset, second one about 75-85%, and third one more than 50%. At least that's what I believe I've found.

[@michaelsieber6601]

@@sgtmushroomI thought my scout just sucked but it seems you have to go 3-4 seasons in before you start seeing more a decent amount of 4 and 5 star prospects

[@jameskrogman6786]

Doesn't your scout automatically scout these guys without you having to do anything? I don't look at it until draft day and the scouting accuracy on everyone is "very high"

[@sgtmushroom]

Yes, but running scouting reports can give you more accurate reads on the players you're most interested in.

[@bmla88]

Are you using the 1-100 scale by increments of 5?

[@sgtmushroom]

Generally I use 20-80

[@kbertolini]

One way to find the pitchers you want is sorting for your tendency. I run an org for Power Pitchers so I sort by highest pitch Velocity and run reports on those guys. A couple versions ago I tried to offer a little lower than demand on the high round picks and they rejected it and wouldn't negotiate further (not even let me meet their demand on a 2nd offer) so I lost the pick for a supplement next year. Does that still happen or is negotiating back and forth actually work?

[@sgtmushroom]

To my knowledge negotiations do exist, but you should be signing 99.9% of guys on the first offer. With the power pitcher thing, you'd actually want to sort by stuff, not velo. I can explain that more if you're curious. But I do plan to make a video on different coaching tendencies.