Baseball Mogul 2006 Preview Thread (Yes, Virginia, there ARE lefties and righties!)

[CraigSca]

Originally Posted by dawgfan

Is this paper available for public consumption? I'd love to read it.

If you're a member of SABR, you'll get it for free. I just got their Baseball Research Journal automatically in the mail a couple days ago. Not sure if the article has been reprinted anywhere else.

[randal7]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

Just because Joe Schlabotnik hit .342 against lefties

I'm amused that someone else remembers old Joe. You know, I googled him and found out some horse's rear has stolen the name for his own personal profit.

[Swaggs]

Originally Posted by randal7

I'm amused that someone else remembers old Joe. You know, I googled him and found out some horse's rear has stolen the name for his own personal profit.

He was Charlie Brown (of Peanuts) favorite player. I believe that is why he has a semi-following.

[randal7]

Originally Posted by Swaggs

He was Charlie Brown (of Peanuts) favorite player. I believe that is why he has a semi-following.

I know. (I'm a big Charlie Brown fan from way back.) The afore-mentioned horse's rear apparently does sportscasting under that name.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I think the ratio of buyers to non-buyers thanks to this thread and his posts will ultimately be worth it...

I agree. This thread (and Clay's responses in particular) have GREATLY improved my chances of buying this game.

[stevew]

Now im convinced to buy it just to Piss Fozzie off.

[Ragone]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

Personality types...

• coy
• self-conscious but humble
• self-conscious
• egotistical and media-friendly
• boastful
• modest but media-friendly
• private
• humble but outgoing
• violent and silly
• aloof
• charistmatic and peaceful
• media-friendly but gregarious
• down-to-earth but sincere
• media-friendly
• egotistical
• peaceful but generous
• humble but gregarious
• introverted and practical
• charismatic but outgoing
• aggressive
• coy
• friendly and peaceful
• modest but friendly
• silly
• fan-friendly but gregarious
• media-friendly and charitable
• modest and fan-friendly

20+ characteristics, but some can be double up for literally hundreds of combinations. I have NO clue how they work yet, though.

But i don't see cocky and funny on this list..

[Ben E Lou]

Missed this....

Basic HTML reports are available:

 2031 Braves Batting

  

2031 Batting             Team    G   AVG    AB    H  2B  3B  HR   BB    K   SB  CS    R  RBI   SLG   OBP
Tolentino, Albert         ATL  139  .289   608  176  19   4   9   43   72   16   6   96   56  .378  .334
Leavitt, Wes              ATL  148  .239   595  142  19   8  10   44  105   16   3   70   64  .348  .297
Russell, Morten           ATL  144  .269   588  158  38  10  12   70   74   27   7   90   68  .429  .346
Manzo, Josh               ATL  139  .265   532  141  32   0  23   81  110    3   0   82  109  .455  .370
Antillon, Daveed          ATL  111  .254   488  124  26   9   2   41   81   21   5   71   27  .357  .311
Balleza, Tim              ATL  153  .279   462  129  29   0  25   52   96    2   0   66  101  .504  .352
Radman, Sean              ATL   95  .272   360   98   9   0   6   20   59    3   0   30   48  .347  .313
Peahl, Joel               ATL  101  .182   358   65   8   0  13   64  117    1   0   45   41  .313  .308
Lacerda, Luis             ATL  136  .269   338   91  21   2   4   20   26    2   0   22   41  .379  .314
Sullivan, Mark            ATL  134  .217   300   65  11   0   5   58   62    0   1   35   30  .303  .353
Stevens, Steve            ATL  106  .207   266   55   6   0   0   33   58    0   0   20   22  .229  .302
Wise, Kevin               ATL   60  .305   233   71   6   3  15   43   30    3   1   46   44  .549  .418
Thompson, Greg            ATL   85  .179   201   36  13   1   3   34   59    2   3   27   19  .299  .303
Ortega, Armando           ATL   29  .169    71   12   1   0   0    2   30    0   0    1    5  .183  .203
Vigneault, Cliff          ATL   33  .092    65    6   0   0   0    2   22    0   0    0    0  .092  .119
McCreery, Richard         ATL   27  .190    63   12   2   0   0    5   14    0   0    5    4  .222  .250
Berkemeier, Keith         ATL   24  .054    56    3   0   0   0    1   22    0   0    1    3  .054  .068
Wayrynen, Bradley         ATL   41  .178    45    8   2   0   0    0    4    3   0   14    3  .222  .174
Lopez, Tim                ATL   13  .152    33    5   0   0   0    0    9    0   0    2    2  .152  .176
Rivera, Aurelio           ATL    7  .077    26    2   0   0   0    1    9    0   0    1    1  .077  .111
Murphy, Brian             ATL   14  .240    25    6   0   0   0    1    8    0   0    2    2  .240  .259
Pinero, Miguel            ATL    3  .100    10    1   0   0   0    0    7    0   0    0    0  .100  .100
Evans, Reagan             ATL    1  .143     7    1   0   0   0    0    5    0   0    0    0  .143  .143
Kamatani, Hiroshi         ATL    2  .000     6    0   0   0   0    0    2    0   0    0    0  .000  .000

[ This file created by Baseball Mogul ]

[Ben E Lou]

 031 Braves Pitching

  

2031 Pitching            Team     IP   ERA    G  GS   W   L  SV    K   BB   R/9
Vigneault, Cliff          ATL  215.1  4.81   36  34  10  15   1  177   91 13.67
Ortega, Armando           ATL  213.2  3.71   30  30  12   7   0  140   63 12.22
McCreery, Richard         ATL  193.1  3.86   28  28  10   8   0  136   55 12.10
Berkemeier, Keith         ATL  165.2  4.89   25  25   8  11   0  102   42 13.64
Rivera, Aurelio           ATL  129.0  3.98   55   7   4   7   3   85   53 14.23
Lopez, Tim                ATL  124.1  3.76   37  14   7   6   0  100   36 12.38
Pinero, Miguel            ATL  107.2  6.02   68   5   4   8   2   48   35 12.71
Evans, Reagan             ATL   96.2  7.45   84   1   3  15  19   97   54 16.29
Murphy, Brian             ATL   84.1  5.44   15  15   5   7   0   45   28 14.09
Kamatani, Hiroshi         ATL   69.2  5.04   48   2   4   6   2   48   31 15.63
Esona, Ian                ATL   69.1  4.28   62   2   3   3   2   55   29 12.85

[Ben E Lou]

Stats export format options...

[Ben E Lou]

Just saw my second player who "wants to live somewhere warmer" than Atlanta. The only other team he's played for? Arizona. I guess so far, so good with that message. One Marlin and one Diamondback. Heh.

[Ragone]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

Just saw my second player who "wants to live somewhere warmer" than Atlanta. The only other team he's played for? Arizona. I guess so far, so good with that message. One Marlin and one Diamondback. Heh.

I'd be willing to bet at some point you are gonna catch that one in a screwup... and why does he have to live in atlanta anyway to play there

Like anyone would wanna live there

[Ben E Lou]

Good point about not living there to play there.

Now, HERE's something that looks cool/potentially-controversial. I have a relief pitcher named Miguel Pinero. His friends?

Jose Ramos
Tavo Bajtera
Mario Ramirez
Albert Galdareres
Enrique Duce

[Ragone]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

Good point about not living there to play there.

Now, HERE's something that looks cool/potentially-controversial. I have a relief pitcher named Miguel Pinero. His friends?

Jose Ramos
Tavo Bajtera
Mario Ramirez
Albert Galdareres
Enrique Duce

I mean i'd understand if he said he didn't wanna play in a cold weather area.. but what about domes?

and as far as the other point, maybe if you could factor in languages like the football manager series does.. that would be a more plausible aspect

[Ben E Lou]

Oh yeah. Definitely cultural linkage....I must say that's pretty danged cool in terms of "immersion factor" with fictional players. Hiro Nakai has four friends...

Jussai Kenmotsu
Watamaro Takahashi
Ken Kurumadaa
Luke Anthony

I wonder what the connection is between Hiro and Luke. While the others all list Japanese home towns, Luke was born in San Diego.

[Ragone]

Maybe Luke played in japan at some point? just a guess really..


I wonder what jose canseco's friend list would look like at this point

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Ragone

I mean i'd understand if he said he didn't wanna play in a cold weather area.. but what about domes?

Well, I haven't fooled with a Dome team yet, but a good point. I must admit that even in Atlanta, I've been to some downright-chilly night games as late as late-May, and as early as mid-September.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it and there's just a random factor, but Anthony and Nakai are the same age, and one attended Southern Cal, while the other was at Long Beach St.

[Ben E Lou]

Players from the same home town are often friends, I'm noticing.

[Ben E Lou]

New (I think) Chemistry message during free agency. "Sullivan is lonely. He'd rather be playing for the Yankees." (Yes, he has a friend in pinstripes.)

Just noticed something cool about contract negotiations. When you submit an offer that is in the same ballpark as the player's demand, he comes back with a counter-offer that is lower than his original demand. For example, a RP wanted $1.83M. I offered $1.5M. He came back with $1.65M. This is a first for me to actually feel like I'm negotiating with the player, with honest-to-goodness feedback and counter-offers. Still trying to bang away at it to make sure you can't fleece it, but the way it works in principle looks VERY, VERY, VERY nice!

[Ben E Lou]

OK. A full contract extension saga (at year-end):

SP Tim Lopez originally wants 4years, $3.96M per year.

OFFER: $3.2M, 3 years
RESPONSE: "That's close. Give us a tad more to work with.
HIS COUNTEROFFER: $3.34M, 4 years

MY OFFER: $3.0M, 3 years (testing the code out a little here)
RESPONSE: "We really need you to work with us to close this deal."
HIS COUNTEROFFER: $3.2M, 4 years, plus player option for 2 yrs @ $3.15M

MY OFFER: $3.2M, 3 years
RESPONSE: "If you give us a little bit more I think we can close this deal."
HIS COUNTEROFFER: $3.35M, 4 years, plus player option for 1yr @ $3.3M (Guess I pissed him off by lowballing and coming back with the same offer. Good.)

MY OFFER: $3.4M, 3 years
RESPONSE: "We need a little more to make this deal work."
HIS COUNTEROFFER: $3.6M, 4 years, plus player option for 1yr, $3.6M, plus no-trade clause (Guess I'd better offer this guy 4 years, huh?)

MY OFFER: $3.45M, 4 years
RESPONSE: "You'll have to put more on the table before we agree to that."
HIS COUNTEROFFER: $3.55M, 4 years, plus player option for 1 year, $3.55M (Got closer to his offer, and he was willing to compromise. I might need my Kleenex here in a minute...)

MY OFFER: $3.5M, 4 years
RESPONSE: "It was good working with you." {Agrees to deal}

[Ragone]

Where is the Scott Boras first round draft pick negotiations ai?

My Offer: $80 million over 4 years
Boras Response: Your kidding right?

My Offer: $100 million over 4 years
Boras Response: Did i mention i hate small market teams?

[Ben E Lou]

There's a new rating for Catchers: "Handling." Undocumented so far, but I'm assuming it impacts how well they handle pitchers. It replaces the "Range" rating for that position. Good move.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Ragone

Where is the Scott Boras first round draft pick negotiations ai?

My Offer: $80 million over 4 years
Boras Response: Your kidding right?

My Offer: $100 million over 4 years
Boras Response: Did i mention i hate small market teams?

[Ben E Lou]

Felt the need to say this....


Keep in mind that because the game is still in beta, there are still some bugs and issues around. I don't think it would be fair of me to report every single bug and issue in a public preview, so I haven't done that. In doing that, however, my concern would be that I would give y'all the (false) impression that everything is rose-colored and that there are no issues at this point. If there were no issues at this point, the game would be released, not in beta. There are some problems out there that I'd consider major (like the aforementioned league age issue, for example. That still annoys me to *NO* end with OOTP, and it does right now with Mogul.) There are also still some minor things out there--things on the level of the Braves-listed-in-the-AL-East thing that y'all saw in a screen shot. As far as stability, I've run the game on three different machines (all with XP) and have yet to experience any crashes or lockups of any kind.

Back in the days before Clay was working for another company as well as his own, I used to refer to him as "patch-a-day-Clay." At that time, his game support was TOP-notch, probably even better than Jim's or Brian's (HeavyReign)--the two I'd consider the best at it right now. Hopefully, now that Mogul is his main focus once again, Clay will return to his days of excellent customer service. From what I saw back then, I'd agree with the person who said he is a perfectionist when it comes to his games.

At this point, I'd still refer y'all to this post I made earlier in this thread:

Well, at this point I would say that it has enough new features to be a really fun game and a nice upgrade from the past, provided the answers to these two burning questions are satisfactory:

1. How well do the new features work? Will I really have to pay significantly more money to sign a guy when a team with one of his friends is also pursuing him? Will it cost more to sign a guy who thinks my organization is heading in the wrong direction? Do team and player options make a difference on contracts? Do call-ups/demtions in the expanded minor leagues work well?

2. How buggy will it be on release? As always, I really hope Clay holds it until the obvious bugs are squashed. I've yet to run into anything monumental like a crash bug, but there are still some bugs present.

There are (so far) three "Things I Know For Sure" about this version:

1. The two hallmarks of the Mogul franchise are still there: outstanding interface and oustanding sim speed. This version still blows everything else away in these two areas.
2. *Much* more attention has been paid to the customer base. A survey was taken on their web site (posted earlier in this thread) of what were the top new features desired, and they implemented all of the Top 6.
3. This isn't a tiny upgrade to the last version--which was one of the primary complaints about the Mogul franchise in the past several years.

As far as question #1 goes, so far contract negotiations seem to work pretty well, and it would appear that friendships have at least some logical basis (home towns, cultural). I haven't looked with my most fine-toothed comb at anything yet, though.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

New (I think) Chemistry message during free agency. "Sullivan is lonely. He'd rather be playing for the Yankees." (Yes, he has a friend in pinstripes.)

Does Sulivan enjoy shooting steroids into another's buttocks? Just wondering who his friend in NY could be...

Oh, and hell of a closer Atlanta 2031 had.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Oh, and hell of a closer Atlanta 2031 had.

Heh. Guess that one is worth explaining...

A new build came out last night. I quicksimmed up to 2030--letting the computer control all teams. However, I fast-simmed right through that offseason, but the team was no longer under AI control at that point, so guys weren't resigned, nor were any new FA's signed. I got to the beginning of 2031, and noticed the HTML export option at that point when doing something else, actually, so I decided to just sim on through 2031 to get some stats to report. Point being this: I'm guessing that the closer from past seasons, as well as whatever decent bullpen pitchers were around were part of the contingent of guys who left as FA's after 2030. The relevant part of the '31 closer's scouting report says: "Evans could come in during a blow-out. Other than that, he doesn't have a role at the major league level." Yeah, no kidding.

[Ksyrup]

OK, that makes me feel better about (a) the AI's free agent signing process; and (b) the AI's roster management. If the human controlled the team during free agency and the AI had no one better to put in there during the season, then this doesn't bother me all that much.

[bryce]

Wow.. I also was in the camp of those who had given up completely on Mogul years ago, but this thread is certainly making me reconsider my ban. I'll at least pay attention to the patches/releases now and go from there. That seems to be the problem in years past - support just fell off completely a month after the release. If it gets patched with the effectiveness of FOF, then we might be getting somewhere...

[MizzouRah]

You know, it's a great niche Clay had going on with BB Mogul and it looks like he's bringing back into the mainstream.

If progress keeps up like it is and the replay factor is there, this might be my text baseball sim of choice this year.

Wow, first MVP and now BB Mogul? What is going on??

Todd

[Bee]

Thanks for the preview SkyDog and especially for all the screenshots.

I would never have considered buying this game if I hadn't read this thread, but now I'll pick it up when it comes out. Even though there's a couple features missing that I'd like to see in the game, it looks like it's enjoyable and will probably be worth the time invested.

B

[jbmagic]

Skydog


how is the Trade AI?

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by jbmagic

Skydog


how is the Trade AI?

In past years, it was strong, as long as you didn't try to trade like 7 players to get one (easily dealt with by a simple house rule that many used: no trades with differential of more than 2 players--1 for 3 or 3 for 5 is fine, 1 for 4 is not). l haven't really checked it yet with this version, but I also don't think he's changed it much, if at all (which is probably good).

[Ksyrup]

That was one of the very good features of the game, even way back when (again, as SD mentioned, within parameters). I especially liked the trade offer feature (put a guy up, pick the team, and see what they'll give you for him), which I don't believe anyone had back in 2000.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by TheOhioStateUniversity

Do small market teams continue to allow you to trade them your contract year superstars for their best prospects? This was a huge problem in the last version.

I'll try doing that at midseason.

[TheOhioStateUniversity]

Do small market teams continue to allow you to trade them your contract year superstars for their best prospects? This was a huge problem in the last version.

[TheOhioStateUniversity]

Also are the salary demands realistic for top/mid/and low level talent? Everything was horribly inflated in the last version good players would ask for 20 million dollars and bench players would ask for 5.

[Ben E Lou]

Clay specifically asked for feedback on whether the feedback (e.g. personalities and rumors) makes sense. (Quite frankly, just the fact that he asked that question gets me excited. It indicates to me that he isn't going to be happy with it just being eye candy, but actually meaningful.) He also wanted to check into how well expansion is working in historical seasons. Figured I'd kill three birds with one stone (preview/renegotiation/expansion) by starting in 1960, quick-simming that year, and then doing renegotiatoins/expansion.

SITUATION
Philadelphia went 73-81 in 1960, good for 5th place in the 8-team NL. They were 20 games behind 1st-place Los Angeles. I intentionally bumped up scouting/farm/medical expenses, partly because of playing in a big market, and partly because I wanted highly accurate scouting reports when testing renegotiation.

Farm System: A+
Fan Loyalty: C+
Scouting: A+ (+/- 0)
Medical Staff: A+


RENEGOTIATION
First is LF Harry Anderson. He hit .290-27-96, is 28 years old, has downturned (sad) face, and the rumor surrounding him is that "Anderson wants to join a team that can win the World Series." He batted third. He has no friends on the Phils, but one in LA, and one in Detroit. He was an All-Star this year, but not a starter. His ratings are 77 con, 90 pow, 52spd, 71 eye, and he's an above average fielder, with 96 health. His personality is "self-centered." He only made $316K this year. Overall rating is 84.

INITIAL REQUEST: 4 years, $6.93M per year

WE OFFER: 4 years, $4.0M per year, team option of 1 year, $5M (Let's see what happens if I lowball him significantly.)
RESPONSE: You'll have to give us more than that to make this deal happen.
COUNTER-OFFER: 4 years, $5.15M per year, player option of 3 years, $5.1M
RUMOR: Same.

WE OFFER: 3 years, $4.25M per year, team option of 1 year, $5.25M
RESPONSE: We need some compromise on both sides if we're going to get this deal done.
COUNTER-OFFER: He doesn't budge. Exact same.

WE OFFER: 1 year, $5.5M per year. (What the heck? Worth a shot...)
RESPONSE: We really need you to work with us to close this deal.
COUNTER-OFFER: 4 years, $5.8M per year, player option of 1 year, $5.75M (Clearly there's some sort of "insult" code built in that makes him increase his offer if you get too far from what he asked for.)
RUMOR: Same

WE OFFER: 4 years, $4.0M per year, team option of 1 year, $5M (Let's see what happens if I go back to my very first offer at this point...)
RESPONSE: I sense you're losing enthusiasm for this deal.
COUNTER-OFFER: 4 years, $5.35M per year, player option of 3 years, $5.3M (He comes down some, but not as much as he did originally when I made that offer. I've clearly ticked him off.)
RUMOR: Same

WE OFFER: 3 years, $4.75M per year. Team option of 1 year, $5M (Upped my offer a decent bit, but made it shorter time amount.)
RESPONSE: We know you can do better than that.
COUNTER-OFFER: 4 years, $5.6M, player option of 3 years, $5.55M (Looks like I'd better give him some money, or I'm gonna lose him.
RUMOR: Same rumor, but his frown gets deeper.

WE OFFER: 4 years, $5.25M per year. Team option of 1 year, $5M
RESPONSE: I don't think that's your best offer.
COUNTER-OFFER: 4 years, $6.05M, player option of 3 years, $6.05M (This guy is getting sick of me, huh?)
RUMOR: I don't think Harry Anderson is going to re-sign with the Phillies.

WE OFFER: 4 years, $5.75M per year. Team option of 2 years, $6M
RESPONSE: I sense you're losing enthusiasm for this deal.
COUNTER-OFFER: 4 years, $6.3M, player option of 3 years, $6.3M
RUMMOR: He face gets more angry. Same wording as last time.

WE OFFER: "Accept Player Demands"

He signs.

Next on in next post. (This got long.)

[Ben E Lou]

OK. Next up is SP Don Cardwell. He's a 24-year-old 4th-year player. Carwell was 12-14 with a 4.52 ERA this year. He is rated 81 overall, 93 peak. (Good test here of whether or not I can lock up a good prospect who hasn't come into his own yet to a long-term deal at less than his value.) he made $316K this year, has friends on four different teams (but none on the Phillies) and has a "media-friendly" personality.

INITIAL REQUEST: 3 years, $5.065M per year. Rumor is "If you don't meet Don's demands, it's unlikely you'll sign him."

WE OFFER: 7 years, $4.25M per year...team option of 3 years, $5M. (Not much more than he wants per year, but it would tie up a very good prospect for the majority of his career.)
RESPONSE: We're getting there, but we don't quite have a deal.
COUNTER-OFFER: 7 years, $4.45M per year....team option of 1 year, $5.2M, player option of 1 year, $4.4M
RUMOR: If you don't meet Don's demands, it's unlikely you'll sign him.

WE OFFER: 7yrs/$4.5M...team option 3yrs/$5.0M
RESPONSE: We need a bit more to make the numbers work.
COUNTER-OFFER: 7yrs/$4.6M...team option 2 year/$5.1M...player optoin 2 years/$4.55M
RUMOR: Same...

WE OFFER: 7yrs/$4.7M...team optoin 3yrs/$5.2M
RESPONSE: We need a little more meony to close this deal.
COUNTER-OFFER: 7yrs/$4.8M, player option 1 year, $4.8M
RUMOR: Same...

WE OFFER: 7yrs/$4.75M...team option 3yrs/$5.4M
RESPONSE: Just a little more should clinch it.
COUNTER-OFFER: 7yrs/$4.8M...team option 2 years/$5.95M...player option 1 year/$4.8M
RUMOR: Don Cardwell would very much like to stay with the Phillies. (Guess I'm making him happy.)

WE OFFER: 7yrs/$5M...team option 3yrs/$5.2M
RESPONSE: We need some compromise on both sides if we're going to get this deal done.
COUNTER-OFFER: 7yrs/$5M...team option 3 years/$5.3M...player option 1 year/$5.0M
RUMOR: same

I accept that demand. I'm curious what y'all think of this deal. I've got potentially one of the best pitchers around for up to 10 years, at a moderate salary level. However, he hasn't done anything much yet, and could still bust.

Thoughts???

[cubboyroy1826]

I kinda like it. The kid is taking a guaranteed instead of going short term and having a chance that he will flop and never get a big contract. The next step to things would be if down the road he is really good and asks to renegotiate. This is where the player personalities could come more into play. When Scottie Pippen signed his long term contract Reinsdorf warned him not to sign it but Scottie wanted the security. As time went on Pipp demanded a new contract but never got one.

I really like what i am seeing so far from BM2006 and will definitely be investing in it when it is released.

[CraigSca]

I guess the question is - will he really bust? You're paying through the wazoo for scouting, so the ratings are +- 0. Is that therefore an accurate measure of his future value (the 93 peak number)?

If these guys always pan out, then it'll be easy to offer ALL these good prospects long term deals and just repeat the process every 4-5 years with a new batch of youngsters.

[henry296]

Skydog,

What are the demands that a 27 year old pitcher with current ratings in the mid to upper 80s. Assuming he develops that would be his situation after the contract he initially demanded expired.

A question. How does it work with a player and owner option. What comes first?

TOdd

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by cubboyroy1826

I kinda like it. The kid is taking a guaranteed instead of going short term and having a chance that he will flop and never get a big contract. The next step to things would be if down the road he is really good and asks to renegotiate. This is where the player personalities could come more into play. When Scottie Pippen signed his long term contract Reinsdorf warned him not to sign it but Scottie wanted the security. As time went on Pipp demanded a new contract but never got one.

I really like what i am seeing so far from BM2006 and will definitely be investing in it when it is released.

Well, if holdouts and/or renegotiation demands (with accompanying clubhouse strife if the demand is not met) were a part of this game, there would be no reason whatsoever to question this contract. After all, he *did* end up getting a little more per year than he demanded in the first place.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by CraigSca

I guess the question is - will he really bust? You're paying through the wazoo for scouting, so the ratings are +- 0. Is that therefore an accurate measure of his future value (the 93 peak number)?

If these guys always pan out, then it'll be easy to offer ALL these good prospects long term deals and just repeat the process every 4-5 years with a new batch of youngsters.

Not if you play with a small-to-medium market team. In fooling around with Atlanta some last night, I had to make give-and-take decisions regarding scouting, minor league development, medical expenditures, and signing FA's. If I wanted outstanding scouting, I had to sacrifice medical/farm system/re-signing free agents. In past versions (and I perceive in this one as well), there's a pretty huge difference between playing with Philly/NY/LA and playing with small market clubs.

[Icy]

What woul dbe great is that some guys would be more agressive or conservative, so some would preffer long term contracts while some will preffer short ones as they have the feeling that they could be big stars (of course they can be right or wrong).

[CraigSca]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

Not if you play with a small-to-medium market team. In fooling around with Atlanta some last night, I had to make give-and-take decisions regarding scouting, minor league development, medical expenditures, and signing FA's. If I wanted outstanding scouting, I had to sacrifice medical/farm system/re-signing free agents. In past versions (and I perceive in this one as well), there's a pretty huge difference between playing with Philly/NY/LA and playing with small market clubs.

Even so...I guess my beef is that scouting is in RL much less precise. You could throw billions of dollars into a ballclub's scouting department, but you still would not know every boom and bust in the sport. I would prefer the max scouting still have room for error, rather than guaranteeing a dead-on observation 100% of the time.

I understand the market size being an issue with the amount of money one can devote to particular parts of the team - but there's no way ANY team can make scouting "speculation-free".

[TheOhioStateUniversity]

I think theres a problem if big market teams somehow can with 100% accuracy scout all players. Even though the Yankees or Dodgers can have A+ scouting that shouldnt mean, especially with prospects they can scout with no variance.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by henry296

Skydog,

What are the demands that a 27 year old pitcher with current ratings in the mid to upper 80s. Assuming he develops that would be his situation after the contract he initially demanded expired.

I'll check that...

A question. How does it work with a player and owner option. What comes first?

TOdd

Posted pretty much that exact question to Clay in the beta board just a few moments ago. It isn't mentioned (yet?) in the help file. (The help file is still being worked on, I know for certain, so it might be in there eventually.) Here's the current player negotiation help....

[jbmagic]

can someone explain what is team option and player option?



IF scouting is 100% accurate, i hope the game is not easy for playing with big market ballclubs. because it will be easy to spend the most on scouts.

i hoping there some errors still or bust, etc

i hope game is challenging if playing with a big market ballclub.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by CraigSca

I would prefer the max scouting still have room for error, rather than guaranteeing a dead-on observation 100% of the time..

Ah. I follow you there. It would be nice if the current estimate can be pretty much 100% accurate, but the future potential has some variance. That being said, to some degree, it might: player development is definitely variable, and spending on the minor league system impacts it as well.

As we've discussed before, there's no perfect way to model real-life scouting in a text sim. My hope is that the system will have a good combination of challenge and realism, with enough predictability to make it feel like my decisions matter, but with enough unpredictability to keep it challenging. I'm definitely not a programmer, but even I can that it is probably a pretty tall order to achieve that balance. What I like about the Mogul system is that it allows for resource-management decisions that tug against one another. Ultimately, within the Mogul system, the trick is probably playing with a team that has the right financial situation for the gamer's taste. Me? I've realized that I prefer my scouts to be pretty much 100% accurate with veterans, so I can focus on GM decisions rather than player evaluation with them, but have my youngsters have the ability to vary from their projection--either because of scout error, or because of difficulty in developing due to other factors (coordinators in TCY/FOF...spending on minors in Mogul...etc..)

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by jbmagic

i hope game is challenging if playing with a big market ballclub.

Based on my past experience with Mogul, I basically hope it isn't for me. That may sound strange initially, but my reason is quite simple: the variance between a big market team and a small market team is HUGE in Mogul (kinda like real life...) If a big market team is a challenge, then it would follow that it would be virtually impossible to run a small market team. I'd rather have the option of "learning the game" on a medium-large to large market team, and then really go hardcore by playing with a smaller-market team when it is time to get serious.