Alright, I’ll give my secrets away, you don’t have to twist my arm. As if I have secrets and you can’t all read my minds.
Here’s what I see a lot of teams do, and it’s how I’ve done things most of the last dozen or so seasons, and maybe it’s not a lot of teams but just mine, but really what am I talking about?, this is what I typically do:
Most of the time, of my 5 core starters:
- 2 of them were either drafted by my team or picked up as a fresh draftee from the TL and trained entirely by me.
- 2 of them were picked off the TL just as they were leaving their peak trainable ages (usually 23 or 24 years old), but still received enough training from me for about 2 or 4 pops.
- 1 of them was picked up off the TL as a veteran and I never trained them.
Of these core players, the players I totally trained cost me scouting points (let’s call it a $80k value per draftee I don’t fire right away) or in the $25-80k range depending on skills/potential, the younger TL pick ups are usually in the $500k-1million range, and the veterans are usually in the $100-250k range. When I was in USA D.II, I maybe had a more of the pricier players, and the TL costs were higher then so I spent more, but I still always had at least core starters I trained entirely myself. Oh, and my bench is usually mostly my draftees but with typically 2 key back-ups that I buy off the TL, but those players are always going be high-value buys since I won’t splurge on a bench I can train myself.
The point is, and I know you’re wondering what my point is, is that it is my opinion that the game works. I have managed to train and use the TL adequately and I’m not going to complain that the system is unfair since everybody else in my league is playing by the exact same rules. If somebody really like training, then go an train a lot. If somebody only like to wheel and deal and craft a roster this way, go for it. My personal approach is based on my attempt to manage the resources that I have. Since I’m given an opportunity to add value to my team through training and younger players train faster than older players, then resource management wisdom indicates that any training minute not spent on a young player is not fully harvested, so it makes sense to take advantage of this and not waste it. I also understand that the training minutes are limited, and there is limited economic value added to players that are trained (especially when the TL market is a little bloated, so I need to spend cash on other teams’ training resources (i.e. buy their players off of the TL since I can’t train all of my players effectively, only some of them). The balance of my roster shifts over time as I adjust to the changing environment, but everybody else also has to make the same adjustments. The advantage goes to the managers who are ahead of the curve, but eventually the mob tends to catch up. If you can microanalyze the market and develop a keen sense of its fluctuations, that can help you manage your team and give you an edge.
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Don't ask what sort of Chunks they are, you probably don't want to know. Blowing Chunks since Season 4!