Scouting, for the June player draft, is one the new features in Season mode for Powerful Major League 2009. This year you've been assigned a special assistant who takes care of all roster-related issues for you (including trades, drafts, releases, etc.). In addition to those tasks, your assistant can also scout players for you. (See picture below)
Now, the way scouting works is this: After your season starts, you have the ability to send your assistant to six geographical regions and Canada throughout North America. (See picture below)
Once you pick the region you're interested in, you have to option to select the player's position (infielder, outfielder, pitcher or catcher) along with prospect level, represented by a three star system (3 being the best). So, for example, you want a 3 star catcher in the southwest states. You give your assistant the command and the next day he gives you the result of your search.
*If a player is found, you can now go back to the region and see some data on the player. I write some because once the player is found either none of his attributes are known or very few are known. (You either have the option to just leave this as is or you can tell the scout to look at a certain feature on the player, let's say his fielding, and the scout will come back to you in a few days with this information. You can keep getting more data on a certain player if you want (although each request may take a couple of days) or you can move on and look for other players either in the same region or in a different region. If you look at the regional map once again, you'll notice Power Pro icons (little heads with a baseball cap) in some of the different regions. These represent the number of players in that region you have already scouted.
*If a player is not found, a 3 star option for catcher in that region is no longer given. You can either select a 1 or 2 star player at catcher in that region, look for a different player position in the same region, or look for a totally different player/position in a another region.
(Something I forgot to note is that your assistant may initially only have access to a few of the geograpical regions but can eventually access other areas by scouting more players or by your orders to access a new region.)
Now, what's the importance of scouting? Well, unlike previous versions of MLB PP where you just go in to the draft blindly with 100 or so choices, this year is a bit different. If you choose not to scout any players for the June draft, no players are available for you to draft. Conversely, every player you scout is a player you'll have the ability to draft. So, if you scout one player, you'll only have the ability to select that one player in the June draft.
One other thing to note...
Just like in the big leagues, lots of teams scout lots of players and, as a result, the same player can get scouted by multiple teams. So, let's say you only scout two players before the draft. There's a possibility that one, or both, of those players could get drafted by another team!
Anyway, I hope this information helps out a bit. I feel like it really adds another layer to season mode gameplay and really encourages you to not skip through large chunks of the season (since your assistant has the ability to scout a new player every day).
. But I thank you for sharing this. This "news" if you will from you has reminded me and the board that this is a Power Pros site. So I hope you continue with the Updates about JPN PP 09'. It makes me happy.