BM 2012: Pittsburgh Pirates
 

It's a cold and rainy weekend here in St. Louis, so I thought I would fire up Baseball Mogul 2012 and see what I could do with the present day Pirates.

Everything is set on "Mogul" and I've loaded these mods:

HoustonGM's Baseball Mogul 2012 opening day rosters
HoustonGM's 2011 stadium and catcher views
ChrisJNelson's alternate logos
ChrisJNelson's 2012 and 2011 portrait and action photo set

All can be found in this thread: HoustonGM's Baseball Mogul 2012 Rosters

Up next: Your 2011 Pittsburgh Pirates

First thing I do is check out our finances.

We have the lowest budget not only in the NL, but in the entire MLB at $48.1M.

Our payroll is $43..4M and we have $4.5M in cash.

Our projected profit stands at $4.7M.

Time to tweak the budget to see how we can increase our projected profit.

I lower ticket prices from $10.00 to $7.50.
I lower food from $3.60 to $3.50.
I lower drinks from $3.00 to $2.95.
I raise ice cream from $2.50 to $2.55.

Seeing the big picture, I change our Broadcast from Local Blackout to Normal Broadcast. I want everyone to see this team as much as possible, even if it means we are going to lose a bit of ticket sales at first.

Right now, our team expenses are:

Farm $2.35M (30th)
Scouting $2.2M (30th)
Medical Staff $850K (30th)

After some tweaks, we look like this going into 2011:

Farm $2.4 (28th)
Scouting $2.5 (29th)
Medical Staff $1.4 (28th)

I will continue to tweak once I see what I can trim off the payroll, if anything.

Our projected profit is now $4.2M

Up Next: Roster

We are in EXCELLENT shape as far as the roster goes, nothing more than a 2 year deal on the books which should allow me a little freedom at the end of the season as well as at the trade deadline. SP Paul Mahom and C Chris Snyder (DL) both make a team high $5.8M, but are also both in the last year of their contracts.

Depth Chart:

Projected records for 2011:

69 wins would be a 12 game improvement over 2010. :)

For now, we will go with 14 position players and 11 pitchers. We might have to add a pitcher later, depending on how much we need to dip into our bullpen early in games.






Pitchers on the DL:

SP Scott Olsen
RP Joe Beimel
RP Kevin Hart
SP Brad Lincoln
RP Jose Ascanio

Hitters on the DL:

C Chris Snyder

Not much in FA to really make an impact on this team at the moment.

2011 Opening Day!

I'll do some sort of recap after each month, with a box score thrown in every now and then, but BM for me is about quick simming games and getting through seasons fairly quickly.

OPENING DAY NOT SO GREAT FOR PIRATES

Pirates lost 2 out of 3 to the Cubs, head to St. Louis.

Pirates are swept by the Cardinals, record stands at 1-5 heading home for a 4 game set vs Colorado.

PIRATES WIN HOME OPENER IN 10 INNINGS!

Pirates take 3 of 4 from the Rockies, record stands at 4-6 heading into an off day.

PHILADELPHIA loses CF Shane Victorino for 6 weeks, suffers a dislocated hip.

Brewers take 2 of 3 from the Pirates, record now stands at 5-8 as Pittsburgh heads to Cincinnati for a 4 game set.

BALTIMORE loses RF Vladimir Guerrero for at least 3 weeks, suffers a chipped knee cap.

Pittsburgh loses C Ryan Doumit for the remander of the 2011 season as he suffers a broken back vertebra in a game vs the Reds. (C Jason Jaramillo to take Ryan's spot. C Dusty Brown is called up from AAA)

SAN FRANCISCO loses RF Aubrey Huff for 5 months due to a torn ankle ligament.

Injuries continue for the Pirates as they lost CL Joel Hanrahan for 37 days with a torn quadriceps, RP Even Meek to take Joel's spot, Michael Crotta called up from AAA.

Reds take 3 of 4 from the Pirates, Pittsburgh record now stands at 6-11. Up next, a three game set with Florida. Pittsburgh 5 games back in the central.

Florida sweeps the Pirates, Pittsburgh now 6-14.

Pirates take 2 of 3 from Washington heading into an off day, record is now 8-15.

Pittsburgh takes 2 of 3 from San Francisco as they win their 2nd series in a row, record is now 10-16 as they head to Colorado.

Pirates split the first two against Colorado and finish 11-17 in April.

Expenses update:

I increase food to $3.80.
I increase drinks to $3.20
Ice cream stays at $2.50

Farm System decreases to $2.35M (25th)
Scouting decreases to $2.35M (25th)
Medical Staff increases to $1.45M (26th)

Projected Profit up $0.2M to $4.4M

April 2011

Standings

Leaders

Heading into May 2011 (I've switched to a 13 hitters, 12 pitchers setup)

Pirates start off May with a 9-2 Win over Colorado, take 2 of 3, record now stands at 12-17.

Padres take 2 of 3 from the Pirates, record is now 13-19 heading into an off day.

CLEVELAND - Indians trade Shin-Soo Choo to the Red Sox for SP Drake Britton, SS Jose Iglesias and C Ryan Lavarnway. In 30 games for the Indians, Shin-Soo Choo was hitting .228 with 2 HR and 14 RBI.

Pirates head home for 3 games against Houston and 4 games against Los Angeles.

...I spent seven minutes wondering where the hell Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday were. Then I realized you were doing the Pirates, not the Cardinals.

haha.. yeah I figured I would try a challenge.. :)

Interesting to not see Jose Tabata on your roster. Is he in the minors. What are his ratings?

Here you go.. except he doesn't like Pittsburgh and wants to live somewhere warmer.

I don't know this team very well and I would assume at some point, Jose will take Matt Diaz's spot in LF.

Probably another month or two before I can see from the stats combined with ratings who should be moved where, etc..

We start off the homestand taking 2 of 3 from Houston.

We sweep the Dodgers and improve our record to 19-20. We are only 4 games back of the Reds as we pack up and head to Milwaukee for a 3 game set.

Please Pirates get to .500 please

I meant to copy BM to my laptop for this weekend at the lake, but I forgot :(

We drop 2 of 3 to the Brewers and then lost both games to the Nationals to put our record at 9-7 for the month.

We are now 7 games out of first and tied for last place with the Cubs.

My phone rings and I get offered a relief pitcher for OF Jose Tabata, I don't even give the GM time to speak as I say, "no thanks" and hang up the phone.

PHILLIES - 3B Placido Polanco goes on the DL with a stretched knee ligament. He will be out of action for at least 4 weeks.

We split a 2 game series against the Reds and then head home to face interleague play and the Detroit Tigers.

Detroit makes quick work of our team, sweeping us.

We welcome the Atlanta Braves and promptly sweep them in a 2 game series, beating them 17-6 in the last game as we head into a day off.

Our record stands at 12-11 for the month and 23-28 on the season.

CHICAGO - Chicago Cubs SP, Andrew Cashner threw a no-hitter against the Marlins. Cashner is only 24 years old and has a 6-2 record so far this season.