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

[Swaggs]

8.03 patch is out now.

No idea what it or the other patches do, though.

[jbmagic]

Originally Posted by Swaggs

8.03 patch is out now.

No idea what it or the other patches do, though.

any readme with it? thanks

[Bee]

Originally Posted by Swaggs

My one beef remains injuries. Maybe the numbers are realistic, but it is the only thing that hinders me from having a truly great gaming experience. I put the injury setting to -30% and they still seemed a little too frequent.

Has anyone played enough to find a good setting for injuries yet? I haven't started a career since the patch, but was planning on starting one with the injury setting around 0, but this seems to indicate I should look at -50% or so.

[rafini]

I've registered and verified, and still get an invalid username at the BBM Forum site, so I'll see if anybody here knows whether it can be played through Virtual PC?

[Swaggs]

Originally Posted by jbmagic

any readme with it? thanks

The updates come via the game, rather than a zipped patch file, so none there. I don't see any in the game folder either, so it doesn't look like it.

[Swaggs]

Originally Posted by Bee

Has anyone played enough to find a good setting for injuries yet? I haven't started a career since the patch, but was planning on starting one with the injury setting around 0, but this seems to indicate I should look at -50% or so.

I started at -30% and there were still enough injuries (ie: game stoppages for a quicksimmer like me) to make the game unpleasant. I've moved to -60% and, in my first season, things seemed pretty tolerable. I strongly suspect that some players are "very" injury prone from their "Health" rating, so that is something to keep a close eye on, especially if you are a small market team with limited resources.

I'm beginning to have a lot of fun with the game. In my four years with the Pirates, I've raised attendance from 1.23M (in '05) to around 2M ('08), yearly revenue from $38.3M to $46.2M, and my win total has gone from 59 to 72 to 81 to 85. I had managed to keep the payroll around $25M and been putting a lot of money into other expenses like scouting, farm, and medical staff, but after last season I had a lot of arbitration eligible players get big raises and my payroll went up near $60M. So, it looks like I will have to cut back and try not to fall back too far as I retool.

This game is a great challenge because you cannot (at least I cannot yet) build a small market team's revenue up very quickly and the payroll/revenue disparity is very pronounced (like real life). My yearly revenue is $46.2M, but check out the other teams in my division:
Cubs ($99.6M)
Reds ($47.8M)
Astros ($92.6M)
Brewers ($38.2M)
Cardinals ($97.6M)
Throw in the Dodgers, Braves, Phillies, and Mets at all over $100M and it is an uphill battle.

I'd say this game is pretty solid now. It feels more like a game than a simulation to me, so that is kind of nice. It is pretty fun trying to keep an eye on player personalities and relationships and keeping my core players happy. There is a bit of a learning/adjustment/familiarity curve and I think the historical sim could become overwhelming (for me, playing as some of the Pirates' teams I grew up with, it was kind of hard to manage all the familiar names at different developmental levels in the minors and the draft), but this has turned into a pretty good game at $20.00.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by Swaggs

I started at -30% and there were still enough injuries (ie: game stoppages for a quicksimmer like me) to make the game unpleasant. I've moved to -60% and, in my first season, things seemed pretty tolerable. I strongly suspect that some players are "very" injury prone from their "Health" rating, so that is something to keep a close eye on, especially if you are a small market team with limited resources.

I'm beginning to have a lot of fun with the game. In my four years with the Pirates, I've raised attendance from 1.23M (in '05) to around 2M ('08), yearly revenue from $38.3M to $46.2M, and my win total has gone from 59 to 72 to 81 to 85. I had managed to keep the payroll around $25M and been putting a lot of money into other expenses like scouting, farm, and medical staff, but after last season I had a lot of arbitration eligible players get big raises and my payroll went up near $60M. So, it looks like I will have to cut back and try not to fall back too far as I retool.

This game is a great challenge because you cannot (at least I cannot yet) build a small market team's revenue up very quickly and the payroll/revenue disparity is very pronounced (like real life). My yearly revenue is $46.2M, but check out the other teams in my division:
Cubs ($99.6M)
Reds ($47.8M)
Astros ($92.6M)
Brewers ($38.2M)
Cardinals ($97.6M)
Throw in the Dodgers, Braves, Phillies, and Mets at all over $100M and it is an uphill battle.

I'd say this game is pretty solid now. It feels more like a game than a simulation to me, so that is kind of nice. It is pretty fun trying to keep an eye on player personalities and relationships and keeping my core players happy. There is a bit of a learning/adjustment/familiarity curve and I think the historical sim could become overwhelming (for me, playing as some of the Pirates' teams I grew up with, it was kind of hard to manage all the familiar names at different developmental levels in the minors and the draft), but this has turned into a pretty good game at $20.00.

Another great post. Looks like I'll get this one as soon as I get a free day.

Todd

[21C]

Originally Posted by Swaggs

I guess my one remaining (minor) complaint/tweak with the draft is that too many of the players can become impact players in the majors too quickly.

A little publicized feature is the ability to limit or control the rookie talent that gets created for the game - although I'm not sure if it applies to historical rookies.

The game recognizes a file called Rookies.ini where you can adjust the talent level. You can create your own to use. Just open up Notepad and type/paste the following numbers in ( below the line ) and then save it as 'Rookies.ini'. Put the file in the same folder as the default game folder ( like C:\Program Files\Sports Mogul\Baseball 2006 ).

These are the numbers I've used before but I've heard people having success with dropping them to 70s across the board. Play around with them until you are happy with the overall talent.

File starts below line
---
Pitcher, 100
Catcher, 93
First Baseman,87
Second Baseman,94
Third Baseman,89
Shortstop,89
Left Fielder,78
Center Fielder,89
Right Fielder,81
Designated Hitter,77

[Galaril]

Well, the word over at BBM2K6 board from people is that the bugs that existed at 8.00 release still exist after 8.03.And Clay still isn't answering the calls for a list of what if anything has been patched. They almost seem like just roster updates and some very minor tweaks. I am still quite disappointed with the level of customer service but the product still has great potential.

[Galaril]

SkyDog ,
Did you ever gte aresponse from Clay on any of the 3 patches that he released fix lists?I can't belive this is the level of response from a game developer who just released a new version of his game. I know he is probably trying to squash bugs but it would be nice to know what needs to be looked out for so as to give the guy feedback.

[Ben E Lou]

Well, there have definitely been some bug fixes from 8.00-->8.03. I've noticed some. That being said, it is getting pretty frustrating to try to figure out what is still a problem and what isn't. Perhaps Clay has a legitimate reason for not posting a fix list, but at this point, I'd say that if he does, he at least needs to let us know why he's not posting fix lists.

[Bee]

The lack of patch notes is annoying to me as well. It's great that he's patching the game, but I think Clay really needs to work on communication in general with his customer base. This is a small niche that he's selling to and the game's reputation is already pretty bad. If he wants to get the game back to a reasonable level, he needs to improve the communication he has with his customers. IMO that includes letting us know what he's fixed and what he's planning on addressing in the future.

[MizzouRah]

I bought it tonight. I just hope I can get started with the Brewers and NOT encounter any MAJOR issues.


Todd

[markprior22]

I broke down and bought it yesterday. Honestly, I don't have real high hopes but damn, I'm addicted to baseball.

BTW Todd, I also bought 3 Nights in August after I saw your post about it. Started it earlier tonight. Seems like it will be a great read.

[samifan24]

Any word of a demo yet? The Mogul website says March 25, but I haven't seen the demo yet today and the date's already been pushed back a bit.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by markprior22

I broke down and bought it yesterday. Honestly, I don't have real high hopes but damn, I'm addicted to baseball.

BTW Todd, I also bought 3 Nights in August after I saw your post about it. Started it earlier tonight. Seems like it will be a great read.

I'm on Game 2. The book is great! I can't wait until my dad reads it. He is a LaRussa hater... but once he reads this book, I think he'll have compassion for Tony.


Todd

[jbmagic]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

I bought it tonight. I just hope I can get started with the Brewers and NOT encounter any MAJOR issues.


Todd

congradulations

how you liking patch 8.03 so far?

i still debating if i should get it or not?

just wish there was a fix list for his patches to see what was fix. that could be key in my decisons.

But knowing me, i probably going to break down and buy it soon.

[jbmagic]

Originally Posted by markprior22

I broke down and bought it yesterday. Honestly, I don't have real high hopes but damn, I'm addicted to baseball.

BTW Todd, I also bought 3 Nights in August after I saw your post about it. Started it earlier tonight. Seems like it will be a great read.

if you love baseball, get MVP 2005 too for the pc, if you havent yet. so many great mods, updated roster, classic uniforms, etc

[markprior22]

Originally Posted by jbmagic

if you love baseball, get MVP 2005 too for the pc, if you havent yet. so many great mods, updated roster, classic uniforms, etc

I've got MVP for X Box (my son uses that most of the time) and the PC (for me). I bought those the day it came out.

[jetpunk2000]

Originally Posted by Galaril

NO.

YES?

[jetpunk2000]

Dola-Damn a bunch of fanboy jerks over at the BBM forums. Clay, if you're still poking around here, I registered over a week ago and never had my account activated. I sent you an email but never got a response. I registered with the same name I have here. I can login, but can't post. I checked my spam folder for emails like SD suggested, but nothing has been there, so if you could fix that, I'd appreciate it.

[fantastic flying froggies]

Originally Posted by samifan24

Any word of a demo yet? The Mogul website says March 25, but I haven't seen the demo yet today and the date's already been pushed back a bit.

I asked the same question a few days ago (a couple of pages ago now i guess) when the Mogul website said march 17th. It then got pushed back to March 23rd and now 25th. So who knows?

I 'd like to buy BM2006, but have been burned before so I will not buy it until i have a chance to check out the demo before ...

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by jbmagic

congradulations

how you liking patch 8.03 so far?

i still debating if i should get it or not?

just wish there was a fix list for his patches to see what was fix. that could be key in my decisons.

But knowing me, i probably going to break down and buy it soon.

Actually, yes I am enjoying the game so far. It's fast, fun, and quite a challenge with the Brewers so far. Now that I am (once again) familiar with the interface, I've been playing it a lot. The game's not for everyone, especially a hard core baseball text sim player, but the fun factor is definitly there for me. I just hope Clay continues to support the game like he has thus far.

Hell, I just blew $20 last night when I bet my friend that NC would beat Villanova by 10+, meaning - I'll get my $20 worth this weekend with bbmogul.

Todd

[castorius]

Originally Posted by jbmagic

congradulations

how you liking patch 8.03 so far?

i still debating if i should get it or not?

just wish there was a fix list for his patches to see what was fix. that could be key in my decisons.

But knowing me, i probably going to break down and buy it soon.

I believe the game will eventually be there, in terms of being a polished, and great alternative choice to OOTP. However, in its current state (v8.03) the game is unplayable, particularly with the scouting report bug. Its been reported, so I have no doubts that it'll eventually be fixed. However, you can't view scouting reports without the risk of your whole game crashing. It usually happens when you double-click a player's name on the "Find players" screen. But I've had it happen when I simply press the "Scouting" button on the tab as well. If you intend on playing the game with its current build (v8.03), I recommend you do constant saves, just in case your game crashes.

The game could still use some work in other areas; like finances, balance of teams, trade AI, and a few minor nuances. I think we're still a few patches away from this game being a serious contender for one of the better sports sims on the market. Lets just say that game so far is a solid attempt at a comeback from a series that had remained dormant for 6 years. If you're buying the game now, you're buying it on its potential. Whether the game lives up to its potential rests entirely in Clay's hands. Only time will tell.

[Galaril]

Sorry but I am quickly becoming a pessimist there thas been no post at all by the developer Clay in like 3-4 days! I am sure he is tracking down the bugs and that must be keeping him busy. But he really should let his customers know what is up.

[Ben E Lou]

I've noticed that Clay rarely (never?) posts on weekends, and he may have taken Good Friday off as well.

EDIT: Just checked. He posted many times every day the last couple of weeks, except on weekends. He posted several times on Thursday, and none Friday or today?

[Galaril]

SkyDog i totally forgot that it was Easter weekend (living here in Korea mostly Buddhist). Clay has been pretty active on his boards up to Friday so i guess we will see.

[21C]

I'm guessing that Clay is busy with other aspects of the game right now. He is probably putting the demo together and trying to organize the CD production.

I know that Clay is very sporadic in his support of the game. He will often come out with patches and fixes very early in the release cycle of a game and then will disappear for long stretches. He is usually pretty good with announcing what gets fixed but has had times when this gets overlooked.

He also has a scatter gun approach to bug fixes. He'll squash bugs that have a lot of people complaining about but overlook other smaller bugs that only a couple of people bring up. As an example, the last patch for Mogul 2004 fixed some things but stopped the fantasy draft from working. This was only "fixed" if you bought Mogul 05.

I have bought Mogul 2000, 03, 04 and 05 but not 06. The games are always fun and addictive but it gets to the point where you feel that you are still beta testing once the game is released. I pretty much bought 05 in the hope that lingering bugs from 04 would be fixed since I was running a Mogul league at the time.

[Sigh] This was supposed to be a "quick" reply but once I got started . . .

[Swaggs]

To be fair, I have been playing and enjoying it since the 8.03 patch came out. I have had zero crashes so far, so I have not seen that particular bug. I see this game having some long-term gaming potential with the option to play historical seasons or totally fictional ones.

[MizzouRah]

One feature I absolutely love is the ability to put a player on the trading block, hit a button, and have teams offer up players they are willing to trade for that particular player. FPS had this years ago, and it really makes it easy to get rid of a player.


Todd

[kcchief19]

A lot of good things so far from limited playing. The historical season process is a goldmine. It's exactly what I always wanted OOTP to do. I haven't gotten into it to see how much customization there is, but for someone like me who when they play historical careers want easy importing of players, expansion and alignment it's great.

The BM series for me was something that was great for simming in a hurry. The speed at which I sim and play is really determined on the depth of the sim. It usually takes me a few hours of playing, maybe an entire afternoon, to get through an OOTP season, but I used to be able to blow through 10-20 BM seasons in one sitting. Not anymore.

There are a few hitches with the interface. Sometimes when I double click on a player on my roster it goes back to the last player I had selected. During free agency, I had some problems where I would double click on a player and it would bring up the record of a player a few lines away and when I would cycle through players using the next or previous arrows it would cycle through players in an order other than what I had sorted. I'd also like better feedback on my budget -- it's a little too easy to spend beyond your means in FA if you're not paying attention.

I also had a little learning curve with negotiation with FA. After all of the turn-based FA systems in sports sims, I figured when I clicked on agree to a player's terms it would submit my offer. Next thing you know I have a guy signed for $9 million for 7 years with a no-trade clause.

I do like the game. Arbitration is fun if not a bit too hard. A guy with nice ratings but no output was making $800k and was demanding $6.2 million in arbitration. He wasn't even close to being worth that, but I ended up lowballing him and he won in arbitration. You gotta love that. So far, BM gets a nice grade from me -- significant upgrade in the BM franchise.

[Buccaneer]

I am happy to hear that historical seasons are holding up well - and I love the sound of that trading function. It looks like I will be buying this game sometime soon.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by kcchief19

A lot of good things so far from limited playing. The historical season process is a goldmine. It's exactly what I always wanted OOTP to do. I haven't gotten into it to see how much customization there is, but for someone like me who when they play historical careers want easy importing of players, expansion and alignment it's great.

The BM series for me was something that was great for simming in a hurry. The speed at which I sim and play is really determined on the depth of the sim. It usually takes me a few hours of playing, maybe an entire afternoon, to get through an OOTP season, but I used to be able to blow through 10-20 BM seasons in one sitting. Not anymore.

There are a few hitches with the interface. Sometimes when I double click on a player on my roster it goes back to the last player I had selected. During free agency, I had some problems where I would double click on a player and it would bring up the record of a player a few lines away and when I would cycle through players using the next or previous arrows it would cycle through players in an order other than what I had sorted. I'd also like better feedback on my budget -- it's a little too easy to spend beyond your means in FA if you're not paying attention.

I also had a little learning curve with negotiation with FA. After all of the turn-based FA systems in sports sims, I figured when I clicked on agree to a player's terms it would submit my offer. Next thing you know I have a guy signed for $9 million for 7 years with a no-trade clause.

I do like the game. Arbitration is fun if not a bit too hard. A guy with nice ratings but no output was making $800k and was demanding $6.2 million in arbitration. He wasn't even close to being worth that, but I ended up lowballing him and he won in arbitration. You gotta love that. So far, BM gets a nice grade from me -- significant upgrade in the BM franchise.

Isn't life funny? I never thought I would read a post like this from you of all people kc. Post these issues over at the bbmogul boards so Clay sees them. It's good more FOFC'ers are getting into this game, it can only make it that much better.

I'm thinking about starting in 1997 at the end of the season, so I can take over the expansion Tampa Bay Devil Rays. That in itself should be quite a task.

Todd

[tucker rocky]

Just purchased it today. Already installed, now I'm ready to delve into the game.
The last BM game I had, was I think, the 1st or 2nd installment of the game, it's been awhile.

[Swaggs]

Anyone that has played much have any thoughts on the "build stadium" feature? It is hard to believe that you need to have $100M-$175M in cash to get one built. Having a period of years to get it paid off (a la FOF) would have been nice. It seems like it would be impossible for the bottom half of teams to raise any type of cash like that without doing a major, major salary cut for like 10 or 15 years.

I'd be interested to hear thoughts on this or if I am missing something.

[mgadfly]

I just got this game. I have a few questions.

1) How do you turn off the trade offers to me from the computer teams?

2) Is there a way to edit individual players' ratings?

3) How do you win? (My pitchers, no matter who they are, seem to suck)

[mgadfly]

Also, how do you modify the amount of injuries?

[samifan24]

I am anticipating the first BM2006 dynasty in the other forum to get a taste for this game as I await a demo. Dynasty writers, I will be reading!

[21C]

Originally Posted by mgadfly

I just got this game. I have a few questions.

1) How do you turn off the trade offers to me from the computer teams?

2) Is there a way to edit individual players' ratings?

3) How do you win? (My pitchers, no matter who they are, seem to suck)

4) Also, how do you modify the amount of injuries?

1) League > Options > Uncheck box for Computer Offers Trades.

2) You can't directly change the ratings but you can change other things that affect the ratings. First go to League > Options > Check box for Commissioner Mode. Now go to any player and you should have an Edit Player option. Select Predicted from the list box at the top ( where it says This Season or Last Season ). When you make changes to the predicted stats and then Refresh Display, you'll see the changes in the ratings.

3) There's no short answer for this. The best thing to do is to have a good defense - especially up the middle.

Make sure you have players to suit your stadium - for example, if your Stadium Effects ( under League > Stadium Editor ) favor home runs ( like COL ) then make sure you have power hitters; if it doesn't favor HR ( like FLA ) then make sure you make sure you have players with high Contact and Speed.

Adjust your strategies ( Team > Strategies ) to play to your strengths.

4) I'm not positive but I think that this should be in League > League Editor.

[Swaggs]

Originally Posted by mgadfly

I just got this game. I have a few questions.

1) How do you turn off the trade offers to me from the computer teams?

2) Is there a way to edit individual players' ratings?

3) How do you win? (My pitchers, no matter who they are, seem to suck)

1. Choose "League" from the bar at the top. Then choose "Options" and an options screen will pop up. There is a check box in its top right with "Computer Offers Trades." This will stop the computer teams from offering deals to you, but they will still trade among themselves.

2. 1. Choose "League" from the bar at the top. Then choose "League Options" and select "Yes" when it asks you to enable League Comissioner mode. Once it is enabled, you can edit players from their respective cards.

3. The easy answer is to pick a team with a lot of money and get the most talented players. My strategy with the small market Pirates has been to allocate a lot of money to my farm system (about $8M), my scouting (about $5M), and a reasonable amount to my medical staff (about $3M). This has left me with a pretty small payroll (between $20M-$27M usually, depending on how much cash I can accrue through trades. My (lofty) goal is to find a starting 8 and a pitching staff whose ratings are in the mid-80s or better. I often have to trade players in their prime for lesser current players with potential. Having good scouts allows me to cut down on mistakes and get the right players in trades, free agency, and (most importantly) the draft. Having a good farm system allows my young players to develop fairly quickly and seems to improve the prospects I get in trades. This strategy seems to work, somewhat, in cycles until your players get too big for their britches and need huge contracts. One small tip is to try and sign one or two bench players from free agency that have the thumbs up icon, as they seem to help attendance a bit.

[mgadfly]

Thanks for the help. I'm playing as the Mariners and I haven't been able to compete with Anaheim.

I have one question/concern (it has probably been addressed):

Why doesn't the computer teams sign the free agents? Maybe I have a setting set wrong, but this last free agency period no one offered anyone a contract. One player had 57 home runs the prior season and no one even bothered to sign him. I must have made some mistake on the settings.

[tucker rocky]

I notice in multi-season sim sessions, that teams Toronto, TB, Seattle, Florida, Colorado, and Arizona all have bad seasons.

Could this be because I started sim in 1974? Maybe an expansion bug?

The Washington(Montreal) franchise always has good seasons, not great, but good.

I might try a new carreer in 2004, after the leagues expanded.

[tucker rocky]

Originally Posted by tucker rocky

I notice in multi-season sim sessions, that teams Toronto, TB, Seattle, Florida, Colorado, and Arizona all have bad seasons.

Could this be because I started sim in 1974? Maybe an expansion bug?

The Washington(Montreal) franchise(joined league in 1969) always has good seasons, not great, but good.

I might try a new carreer in 2004, after the leagues expanded.

Much different results, started in 2004, and teams mentioned in my above post, play alot better.

So, anybody wanting to start in earlier years before expansion, may want to keep this in mind.

[Ksyrup]

I'm more concerned with the reports of free agents being passed up. Is this as big of a problem as it appears to be?

[Bee]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I'm more concerned with the reports of free agents being passed up. Is this as big of a problem as it appears to be?

I've never seen it where no one gets signed like mentioned above, but it does seem that there are usually quite a few decent free agents available right before spring training every year and looking to sign relatively cheap. I noticed this improved quite a bit between the beta and the release version though, but still needed tweaked IMO. I haven't had a chance to play much with the last patch so I'm not sure if it's regressed or not.

[mgadfly]

Originally Posted by Swaggs

My one beef remains injuries. Maybe the numbers are realistic, but it is the only thing that hinders me from having a truly great gaming experience. I put the injury setting to -30% and they still seemed a little too frequent.


The opposing teams' AI on signing FAs needs some work. Too many major stars are still holding out for huge deals on opening day. Being able to sign impact players a month into the season is sort of cheap. If a player is unsigned a few weeks before the season starts, he should be looking for the best 1-year deal he can find.

These are my two remaining major concerns. I signed a guy who had 57 home runs the previous season a month in for about $4M. There was still a player with 47 hrs the previous season and a pitcher that went 18-9 with a 2.97 ERA available.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by mgadfly

These are my two remaining major concerns. I signed a guy who had 57 home runs the previous season a month in for about $4M. There was still a player with 47 hrs the previous season and a pitcher that went 18-9 with a 2.97 ERA available.

This along with some other quarks is putting this game on the shelf for me thus far. I'm hoping Clay gets a big patch out in the next week(s).

Back to ootp 6.12 for me as far as text sims go.

I still have high hopes for BBMogul, but the lack of beta testing time is really showing.


Todd

[mgadfly]

I too am shelving this game for now. Two days after purchasing it I've come to the realization that it missing too much to be enjoyable. The computer doesn't sign free agents (I'd like some one else to run a test, but I've been seeing an average of 6 FA signings per off season leaving dozens of top tier talent until the mid point of the following season), the injuries are screwy (I swear there are more injuries on -100% than 0%, and less on +100% than 0%), and the trading hasn't been all that fun.

I'll try it out after the next patch, but right now I'm just considering it $20 down the drain.

[Galaril]

Yeah I have put this one aside as well and am rather disappointed that issues haven't been addressed. I am seeing that bugs from before 8.00v are still appearing in 8.03v even though they were fixed in the previous patches. Truly shoddy beta process it seems and poor support. Yep, 20 bucks down th etoilet I guess a well time to move on.

[TroyF]

I have to agree that it's on the shelf for now. I'm seeing the FA problems and the trading is just horrendous.

For kicks I decided to start a league with the "shuffle players" feature. I ended up with Eric Chavez and Troy Glaus. As the Rockies, I couldn't play both and decided to deal one for the best available player.

I didn't realize the best available player I could get for either was Terrence Long or Doug Mirabelli. So much for the trade block. I decide to look for teams who don't have a solid 3B. Find the Rangers, who ended up getting Damian Rolls as their starting 3B.

I offer Glaus for Adam Eaton (their third starter) and Marcus Giles (their backup 2B, as they also had Soriano) I get the "I hate this job" message from the GM.

OK, no problem. I take Eaton off and ask for a middle reliever in the 70's. I hate this job comes up again. Maybe it's salary I figure. I'll take a bad contract from em. I add Jon Leiber and his 7 million dollar, 3 year contract to the mix. (Leiber is a their spot starter)

I hate this job. OK, I give up, I use the counter offer feature and it comes up with a wonderful deal for Giles. All I have to do is give up Troy Glaus my best outfield prospect in the minor leagues and Brandon Webb.

Needless to say, it's REALLY hard for me to get into the game after that. I'll wait for a patch and cross my fingers.