Copyright: Baseball Mogul ver 1.0
Citation: 1997 (c) Infinite Monkey Systems, Inc. http:


Welcome to Baseball Mogul
WELCOME TO BASEBALL MOGUL!

In Baseball Mogul, you assume the role of both General Manager and Manager for a professional baseball team of your choice. You start in the Spring of 1997 with a 25 player roster and about 25 more AAA (minor league) players. All of these are the real players with real stats from your city's team.

In your role as Manager, you set the starting defense, batting order and pitching rotation for your team. As General Manager, you craft complex trades and sign multi-million dollar players, competing with artificially intelligent player agents and general managers. You choose who stays in the big leagues, who gets sent down to the minors, and who gets released altogether. You also get to control all the finances of your team, from setting the price of a ticket or a hot dog to allocating funds to your farm system, scouts and medical staff.

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Table Of Contents

Welcome to Baseball Mogul!

Table of Contents (You are Here)

Objective of the Game

Installing Baseball Mogul	Getting Technical Support

Playing the Game	The Play Option

The Game Dialog

The Game Dialog

Save Games	Resume a Saved Game

Start a New Game Dialog	Mogul Hall of Fame

Retire Mogul	Exit

The Team Dialog

Lineup Dialog	Pitching Dialog

Defense Dialog	Stadium Info

View Other Team

The Players Dialog

Find Players - search for players by stats, position, or name.

Scouting Report

Free Agent Dialog	Trades Dialog

Player Hall of Fame

Budget Options

Concessions	Tickets

Broadcast	Expenses

The News Screens Menu

Standings 	Playoffs

Calendar	Leaderboards

Financial Pages	News Pages

Play By Play	Box Scores and Game Recaps

The ‘Tools’ Dialog

Print - saving files in many formats, or send them to your printer

Team Names - Set team names for all teams.

The Options … menu under Tools

Commissioner Mode - force trades and create scenarios

Edit Player - Change stats and information for any player

Create Player - Create new players

Computer Offers Trades - allows the computer to suggest trades to you, but does slow down simulation speed a bit.

Options for the Play By Play Screen This lets you set the speed at which results of games are shown, and which teams are displayed.

Strategic Help Section

Baseball Strategy

Budget Strategy

Did you know…


The Options Menu under Tools
The Options Menu

The Options … menu under Tools

Commissioner Mode - force trades and create scenarios

Edit Player - Change stats and information for any player

Create Player - Create new players

Computer Offers Trades - allows the computer to suggest trades to you.

Options for the Play By Play Screen This lets you set speed, and which teams are displayed.

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The Play by Play Screen

The Play by Play screen lets you watch a single game unfold.

Play By Play Options:

Using the Options… menu under Tools, you can choose between:

Seeing only your team play in the Play by Play screen, or seeing All Teams play.

You can also set the speed at which the game plays. On faster settings, you will hear the Play by Play sound effects.

On the screen itself, you can view Lineup Information, choosing between season stats and game stats for each batter. Or, you can select to see information on the game's Pitchers, choosing between game stats and season stats.

Click on each of the title bars to toggle what type of information is displayed. (Black buttons with gold letters)

If you’ve seen enough of the game, and would like to rush to see the next game, you can hit ‘Finish Game’.  This will cause the system to play out the rest of the game at top speed. While this happens, you may have trouble switching to other screens, so you need to wait until the process completes before you can return to viewing other screens.

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Printing and Filemaking Options

The Print command is located under Tools, in the Print menu.

You can print out the statistics of any team in the game.

You can print their stats for This Season, Last Season, Minors and Career.

The statistics are broken into three categories: Batting, Pitching and Fielding.

When you print out a set of stats, you can choose from four formats:

Tab Delimited 	Perfect for reading with Microsoft® Excel Spreadsheet program

Comma Delimited 	Good for most spreadsheet programs

Text 	Fine for Word Processors or standard ASCII editors

HTML 	Great for your Web Browser, and for posting to the Web

You can have the program send the information to a file, or you can have it print it out on your printer, or have it open up a viewing program and show you the file.

To simply create a file, but not view or print it, don’t select either Send File To Printer or View File Now. Leave both these boxes blank.

To print out the file, select Print File Now.

To open up a program that can view the file format you’ve selected and actually view the file, select View File Now.

We recommend that you view the file before you print it. This gives you an opportunity to make sure the file is in the most readable format possible before you put it to paper. Also, print and viewing options require that you have an application labeled on your computer to interpret that file type (such as a web browser for HTML files).

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Editing Players
Edit Player

To edit a player:

1.	Turn Commissioner Mode ON (in the Options Dialog on the Tools Menu)

2.	Go to the Scouting Report for the player you’d like to Edit.

3.	Hit the 'Edit Player' button

To keep the player editing process simple, the Edit Player Dialog only lets you changes a few of the over 500 stats Baseball Mogul uses to play games. The numbers shown reflect a player's TYPICAL season. If you enter the numbers from a player's BEST season (such as when a player hits 40 or 50 home runs) you will probably be overstating a player's abilities.


Creating Custom New Players
Create Player

To create a new player, you need to

1.	Turn Commissioner Mode ON (in the Options Dialog on the Tools Menu)

2.	Find a player who plays the POSITION you’d like your new player to play. For example, if you want to make a third baseman, select a third baseman’s scouting report.

3.	Hit Edit Player.

4.	Use the Copy button to copy that player’s information into a new player.

This new player will be named 'New Player' and have the same stats as your source player. You can now name your new player, set his/her sex, age, name and picture. From there, you can edit the stats to finish your new player.

When you alter individual stats and want to see composite stats (those that are derived from raw data), hit the ‘Refresh’ (or the 'Enter' key) and the system will update the stats. If you leave the dialog without hitting 'Refresh', your stat entries will NOT be recorded.

(Advanced Option: If you wish to include your own art in Baseball Mogul, add the file to the /News/Photos directory. It should be a 160 x 200 pixel BMP file. Typing this filename, without the .bmp extension, into a player's picture field will link that player to that picture).

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The Commissioner Mode Option
Commissioner Mode

So, you want to run the circus, eh?

Commissioner Mode allows you to make any adjustments and alterations you want to any team. You can force trades, alter lineups, change financial settings. Anything you could do with your own team you can do to all teams.

Commissioner Mode lets you use Baseball Mogul as a simulation tool instead of an interactive game. In Commissioner Mode, all teams will keep the lineups and pitching rotations that you assign them, and all players will be re-hired when their contracts expire, if possible.

(Advanced Option: You can also use Commissioner Mode to alter the player database. If you're a real baseball nut and you want to tweak the numbers supplied with Baseball Mogul, you can alter all the players or lineups and then save the game. If you replace the 'UNIVERSE.DAT' file with the .mog file you just saved, Baseball Mogul will use this new database when you start a new game. To restore the old database, copy the 'UNIVERSE.DAT' file on the CD-ROM).

Special Bonus: You can use the Edit Player system to make adjustments to existing players in the database, and create new players.

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Searching the Database with Find Player
Find Player

This dialog allows you to seek out players using a variety of criteria.  Once you’ve found a list of players that meet your needs, you can use the trade dialog to try to sign them.  Select a player and hit the ‘Go Get’ button. This will bring you straight to the Trade Dialog (or the Free Agents Dialog if the player is a free agent).

For pitchers, you can search for players with certain Starts, Innings, Wins, Saves, ERA, and Strikeouts. Position player searches can be based on the following criteria: Batting Average, Stolen Bases, Walks, Fielding Average, Home Runs and Games Played.

You can also search the database using the name of a player, or just a partial name.

For example, a search for any player position named ‘Mo’ will not just reveal Mo Vaughn, but also players like John Smoltz. (The search is case insensitive). Once you’ve found the player you’re looking for, you can get more information by hitting the Scouting button. The Scouting button will show you all of a player’s skill level ratings as well as his stats for the current season, past seasons, and career. You will also get a brief scouting report on that player to help you decide whether or not you want to try to sign him. Note that the accuracy of the skill rating grades depends on how much money you've been allocating to your Scouting Staff.

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Team Names

The Team Names dialog allows you to customize team names for all teams.  The upper portion of the screen is for the American League, and the lower portion is for the National League.

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Viewing Other Teams' Information
Other Team

This allows you to change which team is displayed in all dialogs. It allows you to take a look at other teams’ lineups and players. You can’t make changes to these teams, however, unless you’re in Commissioner Mode. However, studying a team that is particularly successful may be a good way to improve your own team.

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Allow the Computer to Offer Trades
Computer Offers Trades

This option allows the computer to make trade offers to you during the game.  A dialog will appear, where the agent suggests a trade. If you hit ‘Let’s Talk’, you’ll go straight to the trades dialog, where you can make counteroffers and alter the terms of the deal.

 If you hit ‘No Thanks’, the dialog will close, with no trade being made.

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Hot Dogs, Beer and Ice Cream
Concessions

This dialog allows you to control prices for hot dogs, beer and ice cream. Staying profitable is important in Baseball Mogul, and these factors play into the financial success of your stadium, and your team.

For Financial and Budgeting strategy help, see the  Budgeting Strategy Section.

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Charging for Tickets
Tickets

Ticket prices can affect the attendance at games. Often, you can balance lower ticket prices with higher concessions, or vice versa.  One of the challenges of Baseball Mogul is figuring out which combination of prices will give you maximum attendance at your stadium.

For Financial and Budgeting strategy help, see the  Budgeting Strategy Section.

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Media Income
Broadcast

You can increase revenue by altering the type of broadcast contract you have for your team. There are three types of broadcast contracts:

Normal (default)

Pay Only

Blackout

A blackout may raise stadium attendance but alienate some of your fans over the long term. Pay Only is a good way to raise a lot of money quickly. But, like a blackout, it reduces that number of area fans that watch your team on TV.

For Financial and Budgeting strategy help, see the  Budgeting Strategy Section.

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Expenses

This dialog gives you a quick breakdown of the expenses for running your franchise.  Here, you can control how much you're spending on your Medical Staff, Farm System, and Scouting. Each category has a ranking, comparing your budget to that of other teams.  This way, you can see if what you're spending is commensurate with the rest of the league.

Your Medical Staff helps to keep your team healthy and injury free.  The more you pay your Medical Staff, the fewer injuries will plague your team.  Your Farm System is where your rookie stars of the future will come from.  The more money you put into your farm system, the more talented rookies your system will produce.  Similarly, paying your scouting team a higher salary will give you more accurate scouting reports.

So the more you spend on each of these categories, the better results you'll get from each - however, keeping expenses low frees more money for salaries and team operations. You'll have to balance your budget to stay afloat.

Want more hints on Budgeting? Check the Budget Strategy section.

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Stadium Information

The stadium information dialog gives information that allows you to tailor your team to your home ballpark.  The conventional wisdom on building a team for a stadium is to match the qualities of the players to the stadium.  For example, a power hitter’s ability is wasted in a park with fewer homers.  However, remember that half your team’s games are played on the road.

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OBJECTIVE OF THE GAME

The goal of Baseball Mogul is to accumulate the best Mogul Rating by successfully carrying your team into the 21st century. Although you must successfully juggle the financial aspects of your team in order to succeed, your Mogul Rating is based entirely on your team's performance on the field. It is a combination of your winning percentage, playoff performance, and years played. So, you must have more than a few good years to earn an excellent Mogul Rating; you must build a successful dynasty that is capable of supporting itself financially.

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INSTALLATION

In the Baseball Mogul folder on the CD-ROM, click on Setup.exe.  If you’re here already, you’ve obviously figured this out and are now just trying to find out more about the installation options.

There are two types of installation for Baseball Mogul, even though the system lists three.

Typical Installation: 100 megs

The Typical install will install all the files needed to play Baseball Mogul onto your hard drive. With this install, you no longer need the CD-ROM to play the game. And, since there’s no copy protection on Mogul, you could just lend the CD-ROM to your friends after you used this big install so they could get addicted to the game too!

Compact Installation: 9 megs

This installation requires the CD-ROM in the drive to play correctly.  It takes up about 9 megs of space. If you don’t have the CD-ROM in your drive, it will go looking for files that it can’t find, and you’ll get some weird looking screens. You can still play this version of the game without the CD-ROM, but the Play by Play and Mogul Hall of fame screens won’t display correctly, and the scouting reports and news stories will lack art.

Custom Installation: not used

The Custom Install is a feature of InstallShield that we couldn’t figure out how to turn off, so we just made it blank, with no components.

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REACHING TECHNICAL SUPPORT

If you have problems installing this version, contact Clay or Dee Dreslough at Infinite Monkey Systems, Inc. by emailing:

dee@imonkey.com - art, web page, installation issues, help files

clay@imonkey.com - programming, baseball knowledge, strategy

or

imshelp@imonkey.com - general help

or you can use the mailto button on our web page at:

http://www.imonkey.com

Patches and improvements to the game will be available here as well.

You can send letters to:

Infinite Monkey Systems, Inc.

21 Burr Avenue
Middletown, CT 06457	USA

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PLAYING THE GAME

To start a game of Baseball Mogul, click the 'Start a New Game' button in the Baseball Mogul startup screen.

The New Game Dialog will appear. If you are in the middle of a game and you wish to abort that game and start a new one, choose New Game from the Game menu.

After setting up your game with the New Game Dialog, you'll have a variety of settings and options listed in the Dialogs. You can control lineups, pitching, trades, free agents, scouting reports, budgets - all through a series of easy to use screens.

The Dialogs

New Game Dialog

Save Game Dialog

Resume Game Dialog

Team

Lineup Dialog

Pitching Dialog

Defense Dialog

Stadium Info

Players

Free Agent Dialog

Trades Dialog

Scouting Report

Hall Of Fame

Budget

Tickets Dialog

Concessions Dialog

Broadcast Dialog

Expenses Dialog

Once you’ve prepared your team, you can play a game, or a series of games with the ‘ Play’ option.  This allows you to run a day, week, a month, half a season, or even a whole season of games in just minutes.

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Play Dialog
The Play Option

You can play:

one day

one week

one month

half season

rest of season

or, you can select a date to play until with the

Play Until… option.

The Play Until option is limited to the current year (November 4th), and the game will automatically pause at the playoffs. You can move through the playoffs by selecting ‘Play one month’ or you can play out the games one day at a time, viewing them in the Play by Play screen.

Varying the amount of time you play allows you to fine tune your lineup and budget.  For example, if you play for a week and notice that attendance is low, you can lower ticket prices to attract more fans.  Or if someone in your starting lineup is in a slump, you can substitute a bench player for the slumping starter.  If you feel comfortable with things just the way they are, you can play a month or half-season at a time, or even the remainder of the current regular season.

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Game Dialog
GAME MENU

This menu gives you access to your saved games, as well as the Retire Mogul feature and the Mogul Hall Of Fames.

Save Game - This creates a file in the top level directory for Baseball Mogul (This is the same place where the executable, baseball.exe). Saved games are between 300 and 500 K depending on how long you’ve played. The default saved game name is the name of your team, your Mogul name and level.  For example:  Boston Batters - John Smith (Fan).  You use a different name for your saved game if you wish, however.

Resume Game - This allows you to continue a game you’ve saved. You will pick up the game at the point you last saved during the season.

 A dialog will show all the saved games you have to choose from, and by double clicking on one of the names, you’ll restart that game.  Or, you can highlight it and hit ‘Resume’. There is also an option to delete a saved game. Highlight the game you want to delete, and hit the delete button on the right side of the dialog.

New Game - this will put you into the New Game Dialog, allowing you to choose a new team, new name for yourself and other options like difficulty level. New games begin at the start of the 1997 season.

Retire Mogul ends your game and records your Mogul score in the hall of fame (for your difficulty level). The game will let you know if retiring with your current mogul score will place you in the Mogul Hall of Fame, and if it’s too low, you can return to your game and continue to work on it.

Mogul Hall of Fame shows the scores of Baseball Moguls through history, as well as your name and score.  If you score well enough to place yourself on the list, you can use Retire Mogul to end your career and add it to the Moguls List.

During the game, you can view your Mogul Rating on the Financial Pages under News - simply select one of the columns to display it. You can also view the scores of the computer managers.

Exit Game lets you quit out of the baseball mogul program completely. If you have a game running that hasn’t been saved, the system will ask you if you want to save it.

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RESUME GAME DIALOG

This feature is available in the Game Menu

Resume Game - This allows you to continue a game you’ve saved.  A dialog will show all the saved games you have to choose from, and by double clicking on one of the names, you’ll restart that game.  Or, you can highlight it and hit ‘Resume’. There is also an option to delete a saved game. Highlight the game you want to delete, and hit the delete button on the right side of the dialog.

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Save Game Dialog

This feature is available in the Game Menu

This dialog gives you access to your saved games, as well as the retire mogul feature.

Save Game - This creates a file in the top level directory for Baseball Mogul (This is the same place where the executable, baseball.exe). Saved games are between 300 and 500 K depending on how long you’ve played.

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Retire Mogul Dialog
Retire Mogul

This feature is located in the Game Menu

Retire Mogul ends your game and records your Mogul score in the hall of fame (for your difficulty level). The game will let you know if retiring with your current mogul score will place you in the Mogul Hall of Fame, and if it’s too low, you can return to your game and continue to work on it.

You can view your Mogul Rating on the Financial Pages under News - simply select one of the columns to display it. You can also view the scores of the computer managers.

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NEW GAME DIALOG

The New Game Dialog lets you set all the parameters of your game of Baseball Mogul before you begin play.

Mogul Name: Type your name in this field. This is the name by which your accomplishments will be recorded in the Baseball Mogul Hall of Fame.

Team City: Choose the city of the team that you would like to play from among the list. Because New York and Chicago each have two teams, they are each listed twice. If you wish to play a New York or Chicago team, be sure you have selected the team you wish to play.

Team Name: This field contains the name of the team you are controlling. You can personalize your game by editing this name.

Difficulty: This controls the intelligence of your computer opponents during the game of Baseball Mogul.

The levels of difficulty in baseball mogul are:

Fan - Beginner level: the easiest

Coach -  Intermediate

Manager -  Challenging

Mogul - Difficult

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LINEUP DIALOG

If you need strategy hints for setting your lineups, check the Strategy Section.

The Starting Lineup section shows your 9 starting players, in the order that they will bat during a game. In the National League, your starting pitcher for that game will bat in the ninth spot. Use the Move Up and Move Down buttons to position highlighted players in the lineup.

The Bench Players section shows all position players not in the starting lineup. It is important to have the right players on the bench to fill in at all of the positions in your lineup. For example, if you don’t have someone who can play catcher on your bench and your starting catcher becomes injured, the computer will have to put a non-catcher behind the plate and your team’s performance will suffer (this will be reflected most clearly in the number of passed balls and errors by the substitute catcher).

Players listed with ‘(AAA)’ are not part of your bench. Instead, these represent players on your AAA minor league affiliate. The stats next to their names (if any) show their performance at the Major League level. To see how well a player is faring in the minors, select him and click on the ‘Scouting’ button. Use the Move Up and Move Down buttons to bring a minor leaguer up to your roster or move a bench player down to the AAA level.

To replace a starting player with a bench (or AAA) player, select both players and click the Swap Button.

Use the Release Button to permanently release the selected player on the bench listing into the free agent pool. You must 'buy out' the remaining contract of any player you release. To release a player in your starting lineup, first move him to the bench, then select him and hit the release button. This ensures that you always have a complete starting lineup.

The dialog gives you some basic offensive information about your players:

P = Positions that player can play

IF = Any infield position except first base

1B = First Base

2B = Second Base

3B = Third Base

SS = Shortstop

P = Pitcher

C = Catcher

OF = Any outfield position

CF = Center Field

RF = Right Field

LF = Left Field

Avg. = Batting Average for that player

HR = Home runs hit by that player

OBA = On Base Average

SB = Stolen Bases

You can view this year’s, last year’s or total career statistics for each player in your lineup. Using the 'Other Team' option, you can look at these statistics for your opposition (and their lineups).

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Definition: Buy Out

When you buy out a player's contract, you pay them the rest of their salary in a lump sum and release them.


Free Agent Dialog
FREE AGENTS DIALOG

The Free Agents dialog allows you to view and try to draft available free agents.

To try to sign one, hit the Bid button. This brings up the Contract Offer dialog. If you agree to the terms set forth by the player (and his agent), you can sign the player. He will be added to your group of AAA players. Use the Lineup, Defense or Pitching Dialogs to move this player onto your major league roster.

As your players contracts expire, you can choose to accept their offer to re-sign, or you can send them to the free agent pool.

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PITCHING DIALOG

The Pitching Dialog allows you to set your pitching lineup.  The first five positions on the screen are your starting rotation. The second six positions are your bullpen. Each position is defined below. If you’d like strategy help, you can check the Strategy Section.

The statistics shown for each pitcher are:

ERA = Earned Run Average

IP = Innings Pitched

K = Strikeouts

BB = Walks (Bases on Balls)

W = Wins

L = Losses

S = Saves

Using the Up and Down keys, you can move pitchers around in your lineup.  To get more detailed statistics, you can highlight a player and hit the Scouting button.  This will bring up the Scouting Screen, described under Scouting.

The Swap key allows you to move pitchers between your starting rotation and your bullpen.  If you no longer need a pitcher, you can Release him into the free agent pool.  Be warned, though; you'll have to have enough cash on hand to buy out his contract.

In the second half of the screen the six positions are as follows.  If you're not clear on the purpose of each of these positions, click on the position and you'll get a definition.

1st: Closer

2nd: Stopper

3rd: Short Reliever

4th: Long Reliever

5th: Alternate Starter

6th: Alternate Starter

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Free Agent
Free Agents

Free Agents are players who for whatever reason have been released from their contracts with other teams, or have completed contracts and are looking for new positions on any team.

To bring a free agent into your team, you have sign him to the contract proposed by the player and his agent. Free agents that are not signed for a period of time will tend to lower their contract demands. So, check back with players you are interested in.


Starting Pitcher

These are your best pitchers.  They'll begin and pitch for the majority of the games you play.  The five starters you select will rotate from game to game depending on their condition.  On an average rotation, the fifth starter will get about two thirds as much work as any of the first four.


Closing Pitcher

The ‘closer’ usually pitches the last inning of a game in which you are ahead.

He earns the most saves on the team, and needs to be the most reliable reliever.


Stopper (Pitcher)
Stopper

The Stopper, also called The Setup Man, comes in to pitch in close games before the 9th inning (i.e. before the closer tries to save the game.)


Short Relieving Pitcher
Short Reliever

The Short Reliever pitches in late inning opportunities that are not appropriate for the Closer or the Stopper.


Long Relieving Pitcher
The Long Reliever (Also called Middle Reliever)

The Long Reliever pitches long stretches of innings, such as when a starting pitcher has a bad day and is removed early.


Alternate Starting Pitcher
Alternate Starters

Alternates are called when the first five starting pitchers are not in condition to start a game, or when the other four relievers aren't in condition to play, or when the game is lopsided enough that you could send in your grandmother and it wouldn't affect the outcome of the game. This is not a slight to your grandmother. I hear she has a mean knuckleball.


DEFENSE DIALOG

If you need strategy hints for setting your defense dialog, check the Strategy Section.

The defense dialog allows you to make changes in your field positions.  Using the Up and Down keys, you can move players from position to position in the lineup.

The Swap button lets you bring players from your AAA team or bench up into the main defensive lineup.

The Release button - you must buy out the remaining contract. You cannot have less than 14 batters and 11 pitchers on your team. Most teams carry with carry about 25 batters and 20 pitchers (including both Major and Minor Leaguers).

The Positions column shows the positions that the player is capable of playing, in order of experience. The abbreviations are:

IF = Infield - the player is competent at any infield position except first base.

1B = First Base

2B = Second Base

3B = Third Base

SS = Short Stop

P = Pitcher

C= Catcher

OF = Outfield - the player can play any outfield position.

CF = Center Field

RF = Right Field

LF = Left Field

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SCOUTING REPORT

The Scouting Report consists of three sections.

Section I

Basic Information on the Player

This area includes the players name, age, salary and the like. The position shown (in capital letters) indicates the player’s most suited role; if he has played at other places on the field, it will be shown under the player’s fielding stats. The average major league salary is about $1 million per year.

Section II

Talent Assessment

This assessment consists of letter-grades in a number of categories. A rookie's ratings will increase as he matures. You will notice a drop in ratings with age or serious injuries. A 'C' indicates average ability in an area. However, players who contribute reliably at the major league level will usually have a number of ratings at the 'B-' level or better.

Pitching Ratings

Endurance:

The endurance rating is only relevant for starting pitchers. It gives an indication of how many batters the pitcher can face in a game before becoming tired and thus losing velocity, control and/or movement. The average pitcher will generally pitch about six innings per outing, while a real workhorse can consistently pitch through seven innings or more.

Power:

A ‘power’ pitcher generally throws with high velocity and strikes out a lot of batters. The Power Rating is a good indicator of the pitcher’s ability to strike out batters. An average pitcher strikes out about 5 batters per nine innings while a prototypical power pitcher will set down one or more every inning.

Control:

The ability to deliver the ball to the plate with accuracy. A pitcher with excellent control will walk as few as one batter per game. Good control is also key to getting ahead in the count, and thus gaining the advantage over all batters.

Movement:

This indicates the ‘action’, or lateral and vertical movement on the pitcher’s pitches. Good movement can come from excellent breaking stuff (e.g. a curveball that ‘drops off the table’) or from a fastball that ‘hops’ or tails away from hitters. Good movement doesn’t guarantee strikeouts or prevent walks but it does mean fewer batters will get good wood on the ball, leading to more ground balls and popups.

Defense:

Since pitching is the most important aspect of a pitcher’s talent, his defensive skills are summed up into one overall rating. An excellent defensive starting pitcher might be a factor in ten more outs over the course of a season than a mediocre one.

Hitting:

Similarly, since batting is not a crucial part of a pitcher’s job (and is irrelevant in the American League) his offense is summed up in one number. The average pitcher will hit about .130 over a season while one who’s good with the bat may well break .200.

Batting Ratings

Contact:

The ability to make good contact with a pitch, leading to a good number of line drives and few strikeouts. Contact hitters tend to have a strong batting average due to their ability to hit the ball cleanly.

Power:

Power is best reflected by a batter’s ability to hit the ball out of the park. But good power also shows itself in a good number of extra base hits and sacrifice flies.

Speed:

This refers to a player’s speed on the basepaths. It is best seen in his stolen base numbers (and his likelihood to not be caught stealing). Fast players will also get a greater number of doubles and triples and will beat out some ground balls for hits.

Eye:

This is the skill of choosing to swing at good pitches and not swing at bad ones. A player with an excellent batting eye will walk more often than he strikes out.

Bunt:

A player’s ability to lay down a bunt is crucial to advancing the runner in a close game. When combined with excellent speed, this can also be an effective tool in getting on base.

Defensive Ratings

Arm:

The strength and accuracy of a player’s arm is essential to throwing out runners. This trait is especially important for third baseman and shortstops (who often throw across the infield to force the batter at first) and the catcher (required to throw out runners stealing bases). A strong arm in the outfield (especially right field) will lead to a good number of runners thrown out at third and home.

Range:

This measures a players ability to get to and catch a batted ball. This is often correlated with a player’s speed. But some players with good instincts and experience will get to more balls than their speed would suggest. Good range is especially important ‘up the middle’ (at 2B, SS and CF), where a lot ground needs to be covered.

Fielding:

This measures the overall skill and consistency of a player’s fielding. A good rating indicates a player that should make few errors, relative to other players at his position.

Section III

Statistics of the Player's Career

The player's statistics are displayed on three lines; the last two years played (if the player has played the last two years) and then career totals.

If the player has played in the ball club's AAA affiliate during this season, stats during this time will be shown with the current year and the letters ‘AAA’ (e.g. "1997 (AAA)"). These stats are crucial for identifying whether a rookie is ready for the majors. Statistics at levels below AAA are not shown because of the variety of minor league affiliates that are involved. But, estimates of a newly listed rookie's quality will be shown in the Scout Ratings and described in the text write-up shown below the stats.

The abbreviations used on the Scouting Report are:

G = Games played

AB = At Bats

H = Hits

AVG = Batting Average

2B = Doubles

3B = Triples

HR = Home Runs

BB = Walks

K = Strike Outs

HBP = Hit By Pitch

IBB = Intentional Walks

GDP = Grounded into Double Play

Runs = Runs Scored

RBI = Runs Batted In

SB = Stolen Bases

CS = Caught Stealing

SH = Sacrifice Hits (Def: A player is credited with a sacrifice hit when he advances the runner with a bunt, even though he is forced out at first on the play)

SF = Sacrifice Flies (Def: A player is credited with a sacrifice fly when the runner on third tags up and scores on his fly out)

SLG = Slugging Average

OBA = On Base Average

PRO = Production

POW = Isolated Power

HR% = Home Run Percent (Def: the percent of all the player’s At Bats that are Home Runs)

P = Position played. All fielding stats below refer only to stats earned at this position by that player.

G = Games Played

GS = Games Started

A = Assists

PO = Putouts

DP = Double Plays

E = Errors

F Avg. = Fielding Average

RF = Range Factor (Def: Putouts plus Assists divided by Games Played). When compared to other players at the same position, this is a good indicator of how many batted balls the fielder is able to get to and turn into outs. This stat is not a very useful measure for Catchers and First Basemen, whose Range Factors depend more on the skill of their teammates.

Pitcher Scouting Reports

If the pitcher has batting or fielding stats, you can view them using the slide bar on the side of the screen.  The stats are displayed in the same way and using the same abbreviations as used in the fielder scouting reports described above.

Pitching Scouting Report Abbreviations:

G = Games Played (also called 'Appearances')

GS = Games Started

W = Wins

L = Losses

PCT = Winning Percentage (Def: Wins / [Wins + Losses])

SV = Saves

HD = Holds (Def: A pitcher earns a hold when he enters the game in a Save Situation, and leaves with his team ahead, but before the game is over)

BS = Blown Saves (Def: The number of times the pitcher entered the game in a Save Situation and his team lost the lead)

GF = Games Finished (Def: Times the pitcher was his team's last pitcher for the game, regardless of the game's outcome)

QS = Quality Starts (Def: A Quality Start is earned when the starter pitches 6 or more innings while allowing 3 or fewer earned runs)

CG = Complete Games (Def: A starter pitching the entire game)

SO = Shutouts (Def: A starter pitching the entire game without allowing a single run. All shutouts are also Wins)

ERA = Earned Run Average (Def: Earned Runs, divided by Innings Pitched, times 9)

IP = Innings Pitched. The digit after the decimal place refers to thirds of an inning. Thus, 5.2 IP is five and two thirds innings.

R = Runs

ER = Earned Runs (Def:  Earned Runs are runs scored by base runners who reached on hits or walks, not by a defensive error.  Batters who score after reaching base on defensive errors are considered Unearned Runs).

H = Hits Allowed

2B = Doubles Allowed

3B = Triples Allowed

HR = Home Runs Allowed

BB = Walks Allowed

K = Strikeouts

WP = Wild Pitches

BK = Balks (Def:  A Balk occurs when the pitcher fails to completely stop his motion and set himself on the pitching rubber before delivering a pitch, or when he begins a delivery to the plate and stops.)

PK = Pickoffs (Def: A pickoff is when a pitcher throws out a runner on the basepaths.)

IP/G = Innings Pitcher per Game

R/9 = Runners allowed (i.e. Hits plus Walks) per 9 innings. Some fans also call this stat 'Ratio'.

OBA = Opponent Batting Average

OSA = Opponent Slugging Average

OOBA = Opponent On Base Average

K/9 = Strikeouts per 9 innings pitched

BB/9 = Walks per 9 innings pitched

SV% = Percent of Save Opportunities converted to Saves (i.e. Saves / [Saves + Blown Saves])

QS% = Percent of all starts that are Quality Starts (i.e. Quality Starts / Games Started)

CG% = Percent of all starts that are Complete Games (i.e. Complete Games / Games Started)

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Ahead in the Count
A pitcher is considered to be ‘ahead in the count’ when there are more strikes on the batter than balls. Conversely, the batter is ahead if there are more balls than strikes.


EXPENSES DIALOG

Salaries:

The yearly salaries stipulated in your players' contracts are actually paid out on a "per game" basis. This number is the sum of everyone's pay per game. So, for example, a typical team whose player salaries total $32,400,000 per year will pay out $200,000 per day over a 162-game season. Players are NOT paid extra for playoff games.

Dividends:

The owners of your team (of which you are filling the role of General Manager) expect a return on their investment, as they would from a stock portfolio or savings account. This required dividend will add up to about 9-10% of the total value of the franchise over the course of a year. So, although a New York or Chicago team might have a greater fan base from which to draw revenue, they also have a higher dividend that has to be paid to the owners every year.

Operations:

These are the daily costs of running a major league ball club that you have no direct control over. They include things like running the front office; legal costs; stadium security; team travel expenses; and stadium security. Since much of this requires hiring local employees, Operations Expenses depend on your city's per capita income level.

Medical Staff:

This is the amount of money spent per game on medical care for your players. The average team spends about $2 million annually ($12,500 per game) on medical staff and equipment. Spending more will decrease the recovery time of your injured players and increase the accuracy of the doctor's assessment of a player's injury.

Scouting:

The more money spent on scouting, the more accurate the ratings and written assessment sections of your scouting reports. This applies to players on your roster, in your minor league organization, and on other teams. The average team spends about $1.5 million (almost $10,000 per game) on a scouting network.

Farm System:

The quality of your farm system depends on the continual investment that you've provided day after day over the years. A better farm system will produce higher quality prospects every spring. The average team spends $4 million each year on their farm organizations and the grooming and identification of prospects. This breaks down to about $25,000 per game.

For Budgeting Strategy help, see Budgeting Strategy

Return to the Table of Contents


TRADES DIALOG

First, choose the team that you wish to offer a trade to from the drop-down list box in the middle of the dialog. When you pick a team, the list of players below the team name will change to reflect your choice.

To put together a trade offer, click on a player then click the Add to Deal button above that player's team (or you can simply double-click on the player). If you would like to add money to the deal, click the arrow buttons next to edit boxes to the right (to increment millions of dollars). The computer will not let you set a monetary figure in a trade that is higher than the amount of cash the team currently has.

To see if the owner or agent will accept the deal, hit Submit Offer. The other team’s owner will respond, either accepting the deal or telling you how reasonable they consider the deal to be. If the

You can adjust the trade offer by adding more players or adjusting the money offered. You can remove a player from a trade offer by double-clicking him. Or you can hit Withdraw Offer and start over.

The Get Counter Offer button will cause the computer to modify the Current Offer by adding players until the deal is suitable. By modifying the computer's counter offers and resubmitting them, you can quickly come to a deal that both sides find agreeable.

(Shortcut: Instead of searching through an entire team to find a player in a trade offer, click on the player in the Current Offer. This will highlight that player in the list so that the Scouting button brings up his scouting report.)

You can involve up to 15 players on each team in the trade, but be sure to fill your roster and readjust your lineup after making trades so that you can field a complete team come game time!

Return to the Table of Contents


Display Screens
MOGUL DISPLAY NEWS SCREENS

Baseball Mogul lets you watch the action from a set of five screens: Standings, Leaders, Calendar, Headlines, and Financial Pages.

Each screen can be reset on the fly to display different information. Click on each name to see details on each of these screens.

The general convention for the screens is this:

 Shiny Gold letters on a black field are buttons.  Generally, they're used to switch between National League and American League displays. In the case of the Leaders, they will also show both at once.

 Gray buttons on the Leaders and in Standings are clickable. Each click will change the button’s text, cycling through a list of possible headings.

The 'Home Plate' buttons in the Financial Pages are also clickable to change information displayed in the columns below them.

 (Clicked - lit up) [image] (unclicked)

On the Calendar Screen, you can use the green jewel buttons to either side of the month to flip through the pages of your season.

The Headlines and Scouting pages do not have interactive 'change on the fly' functionality, but do have buttons for switching between players and modes.

Return to the Table of Contents


STANDINGS SCREEN

The Standings pages are found in the News menu under Standings

The Standings Screen shows your team in relation to your division.

Your team is shown capitalized, and is highlighted in green.

As you rise and fall in the standings, your team's display will move relative to it's position in the league.

As teams are knocked out of the running for the playoffs, their color will dim to a darker color.

When the season reaches the playoffs, the screen switches to become the Playoffs Screen.

Statistical Display Columns

The first four columns will always show the same four stats: Wins, Losses , PCT (Winning Percentage) and Games Back.

The second four columns can switch between a wide variety of displays.  Customize your Standings Page to show the data you think best suits your needs for assessing your team and the competition.

Settings available in the right four columns:

Last 10 = Last 10 games (Wins - Losses) Example: 6-4

Last 20 = Last 20 games (Wins - Losses) Example 12-8

Streak = Consecutive Wins or Losses in a row

Home = Team's record at home so far this season (Wins - Losses) Example: 3-4

Away = Team's record at other stadiums (Wins - Losses) Example: 4-3

Batting = The aggregate Batting Average of the whole team during this season (The average of all the player’s batting averages)

On Base = The On Base Average of the whole team

Slugging = The Slugging Average  of the whole team

Production = The On Base Average plus Slugging Average for the whole team

Home Runs = Number of home runs that season for the whole team

Steals = Stolen bases for the whole team

ERA = The team's total Earned Run Average

OBA = Opponent Batting Average (Def: The batting average of opponents against the team's pitchers)

OOBA = Opponents On Base Average (Def: The on base average of batter versus the team's pitchers)

OSA = Opponents Slugging Average (Def: The slugging average of batters against the team's pitchers)

QS% = Quality Start Percentage (Def: The percentage of games the team's pitchers start that are Quality Starts)

Complete Games = The total for the team of Complete Games

SV% = Save Percentage (Def: The percentage of Save Opportunities that a team has converted to Saves)

Fielding = The combined fielding percentage of the team

Defense = The defensive conversion rating for the whole team

Runs Scored =  The total number of runs scored by that team

Runs Allowed = the total number of runs allowed by your team

Return to the Table of Contents


Playoffs Screen
PLAYOFFS

In the playoffs, you can watch your team and others as they progress toward the championship. The game will always pause at the playoffs for every year to allow you to see them.

By switching to the Play By Play screen (on the News Menu), you can watch the games as they simulate. To watch just one day's worth of games, select Play: One Day. Because of travel days during the playoffs, some days have no games scheduled.

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CALENDAR SCREEN

The calendar screen displays your schedule by month.  As games play, the screen updates to show results.  By clicking on the right and left arrows at the top of the screen, you can quickly scroll through your schedule to see when you’ll be meeting tough competition, or how many games you have left in the season.

Home games are shown with black background squares, and away games are displayed in tan background squares. Days off are left blank.

Return to the Table of Contents


LEADERS SCREEN

The Leader Board is found in the News menu under Leaders

On the leaders screen, members of your team will appear highlighted in green.

Their location in the lists is equal to their standing in that particular field.

The leaders screen can display information in three modes:

This Year, Last Year and Career

These modes are toggled by clicking the upper right hand corner button.

(Click this button to switch between This Year, Last Year, Career and Minors)

The leaders screen can also display in three settings:

American League, National League and Both

(Click this button to switch between National League, American League, and the entire Major League)

This allows you to compare performance of players throughout the leagues with ease.

Click one of the four buttons at the top of a list to change which of the following statistics the leader list displays:

Options for the Four Display Options:

Offensive

Batting Average, Hits, Doubles, Triples, Home Runs, Total Bases, Runs Batted In, Walks, Steals, Steal Success, Runs Scored, On Base Average, Slugging Percentage, Production, Earned Run Average

Pitching

Wins, Winning Percentage, Saves, Save Success, Strikeouts, Opponent Batting Average, Opponent Slugging Average, Opponent On Base Average, Runners / 9 Innings, Quality Starts, Quality Start Percent, Complete Games, Shutouts

General

Salary, Games Played

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FINANCIAL PAGES

The Financial Pages are found in the News menu under Finances

If you’re looking for help on Financial Strategy, check the Budget Strategy Section.

There's more to baseball than just winning games.  The financial pages allow you to track all aspects of your expenses, income, spending cash, and profits.

Unlike the Standings and Leaders screens, teams are simply shown in Alphabetical Order.  Your team is displayed in all capitals highlighted in green.

Teams that aren't profitable are shown in Red.

 This is an example of a home plate button.

By clicking on the Home Plate buttons at the top of each column, you can choose between any of these settings:

Rating = This is your current Mogul Rating.  If you have not yet completed a season, it will be zero

Series Wins = The number of World Championship wins you have.

Pennants = The number of league championship wins you have.

Playoffs = The number of times you've reached the playoffs

Loyalty =  This number represents your fan loyalty in relation to other teams. This is most heavily affected by the price of beer, but can also be helped if you win games.

Attendance = This shows your stadium's average attendance in relation to other teams.

Ticket Price = Your current average ticket price in relation to other teams.  You can change this for your team in the Tickets dialog under the Budget menu.

Avg. Salary = Your average salary in relation to other teams.

Payroll = The total payroll expense for all teams.

Average Age = The average age of a team's players.

Avg. Contract = The length of the average contract for each team.

Revenue = The total revenue for each team.

Expenses = The total expenses for each team.

Profit = The total profit for each team.

Franchise = The value of your franchise. More expensive franchises have to pay ownership a greater chunk of revenue as dividends. (You can see Dividends in 'Expenses'.)

Cash = Your cash on hand (useful for buying out contracts and sweetening trades.)

Liquidity = Your total cash divided by your Franchise Value.  This is useful because it shows the amount of liquid assets you have (not just disposable cash).

Notes on Finances:

If you drop below a certain amount of cash (around 3 million), the game will start doing nasty things to your team, like releasing players because it can no longer pay them.  Keep an eye on your wallet or you'll never make it to the playoffs!

Return to the Table of Contents


HEADLINES PAGES

The Headlines pages are found in the News menu

One of the highlights of Baseball Mogul is the SportsWriter System.  The Sportswriter generates stories about the high points of games taking place throughout the system - National and American, and reports them in a newspaper style.  By studying the information here, you can gain valuable information on possible trades, strengths and weaknesses of the competition and stay informed about other teams on a more detailed basis.

The system will only generate stories that pass a certain level of interest, or that represent turning points for the various teams.

Click Box Score to see the game's box score, or Game Recap to get a Play by Play of the game. Next Section: Box Scores and Game Recaps

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BOX SCORES AND GAME RECAP

If a particular game mentioned on a News Page piques your curiosity, you can view the box score or the play by play (Game Recap) through the Game Recap screens.

If you don’t know how to read a Box Score, check our Reading Box Scores Section.

Return to the Table of Contents


MOGUL HALL OF FAME

This screen shows the best Baseball Moguls of all time: from 1900 through the 21st century teams that you manage. This is not the same screen as the Player Hall of Fame.

Name: The name of the General Manager (or Manager) that controlled the team during this time.

Team: The name of the team.

Years: The consecutive range of time over which the Mogul Rating was earned.

Difficulty: The difficulty level of the game the Rating was achieved in.

When you’ve gotten your Mogul Rating high enough to place you in the hall of fame, you can Retire yourself using the Retire Mogul feature in the Game Menu.  If your score isn’t high enough to place you, the system will let you know. Otherwise, your score will be placed in the Mogul Hall Of Fame for the difficulty level you were playing, and your session of Baseball Mogul will end.

The Mogul Rating equals the percent of games that your team won plus a playoff bonus (up to 50 points, for a team that is World Champion in every year). Finally, a penalty is applied to this number if you retire before playing ten seasons. An average team will be able to reach a Mogul Rating of about 55-60.

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Did You Know?
DID YOU KNOW...

You can change the name of the team you will control by clicking on the edit box in the New Game Dialog.

You can view the lineups of competing teams by clicking the Other Team button

in the Lineup Dialog.

You can change the price you charge for concessions like beer and hot dogs. Choose the Budget item on the Team menu. Then click the Concessions tab.

You can set which reliever will come in to save close games. Place him at the top of the Relievers list in your Pitching Dialog (on the Team menu).

You can change the team stats shown on the Standings Screen just by clicking the gray buttons at the top of each column.

High prices for food and drinks at your stadiums can drive away fans.

You can raise extra revenue by licensing your games to a pay TV channel. Choose the Budget item on the Team menu. Then click the Broadcast tab.

You can offer a trade to any team involving up to 12 players and millions of dollars. Choose the Trades item on the Team menu.

You can get a detailed Scouting Report on a player by selected him on a list and hitting the Scouting button.

You can view the stats and lineups of teams other than your own. Choose the Other Team item from the Team menu.

You can use the Mogul Database, available in tab separated form on the CD-ROM in the folder marked DATABASE for your own rotisserie and baseball projects. Just load it into your favorite database program.

Return to the Table of Contents


Slugging Average

The slugging average indicates the power and effectiveness of the hitter.  Mathematically, it's the number of bases divided by the number of times the player was at bat.

Example:

If a player batted three times, and got a triple one time, a double another time and struck out the third time, their slugging average would be:  3+2+0/3 = 1.666

Mathematical Definition:

Total Bases

At Bats	=    Slugging Average


Earned Run Average:

The number of earned runs divided by the total of innings pitched divided by 9.  It's the number of earned runs allowed by the pitcher for each nine innings that they've pitched.


Quality Starts

A Quality Start is a game in which the starter pitches 6 or more innings and allows 3 or fewer earned runs.


Complete Games

A complete game is when the starting pitcher pitches an entire game, no matter the outcome.


On Deck Circle

Being in the on deck circle means that you're next up to bat.

Wow, you ARE new to baseball, aren't you?


Save Opportunities:

A Save Opportunity is when a pitcher enters the game with his team ahead by fewer than 3 runs with fewer than 3 innings remaining, or when a pitcher enters the game with his team ahead by any numbers of runs with more than 3 innings to play.  In either case, the pitcher will only earn the save if he finishes the game without relinquishing his team’s lead and his team wins.

Saves:

A save is earned if the pitcher enters the game with his team ahead by fewer than 3 runs with fewer than 3 innings remaining, or when a pitcher enters the game with his team ahead by any numbers of runs with more than 3 innings to play and finishes the game without his team losing the lead.

Save Percentage (SV%)

The Save Percentage is total number of save opportunities that your bullpen has converted to saves.


Defensive Conversion Rating

This stat is only meaningful for an entire team (not a single player). It represents the number of times that the ball was hit into fair territory and turned into an out. This is calculated by dividing the number of fielding outs (all outs, minus strikeouts) by all balls put into play (fielding outs plus hits).


Put Out

A fielder scores a put out when he tags or forces out a base runner or catches a ball on the fly for an out. A catcher also scores an out when the other team's batter strikes out.


Fielding Percentage:

This represents the percentage of times the player has handled the ball without causing an error.

Mathematical Definition:

putouts+assists

putouts+assists+errors (collectively known as “fielding chances”) =  Fielding Percentage


 On Base Average:

The number of times an individual reached base safely divided by the total number of plate appearances.

Mathematical Definition:

Walks+Hits

Plate Appearances


Walks:

This is when the pitcher throws four balls.  The batter then advances to first base (which is why a walk is also called a “Base on Balls”).

A walk does not count as an At Bat. Neither does a Sacrifice Hit.  Walks do count toward a player’s On-Base Average, however.


 Wins

For a team, the Wins stats indicates the number of games won in the current season.


Losses

The Losses column shows the number of games the team has lost this season.


Games Back

This shows how many 'Games' behind the division leader the team is. Games Back is defined mathematically as:

[(Leader Wins - Team Wins) + (Team Losses - Leader Losses)] / 2


Winning Percentage

This is the percentage of games you've won that season.  It's displayed in decimal form but if you're unfamiliar with this notation, you can think of it as a percent. For example, a .600 Winning Percentage means the team has won 60.0% of the games it has played.


Batting Average

Batting Average

This is the percentage of hits per at bat for a player. This does not include sacrifice hits or walks, as they are not counted as at bats.


 Home Run

Home runs are hits where the player is able to score a run on that hit. Other batters do not need to bring that player home. Most often, this occurs when the ball leaves the field of play, in the air, in fair territory. An 'Inside The Park Home Run' is a home run where the ball does not leave the field of play.


Opponents Batting Average

OBA - The total number of hits opponents have gotten off of a pitcher divided by the total number of at-bats against that pitcher.  This indicates how well opposing batters are hitting off of this pitcher.  This stat can also apply to your pitching staff as a whole to

determine how well the rest of the league is hitting against your team.


Stolen Bases

SB - Stolen Bases are bases taken by a base runner while the pitcher is pitching to another batter.  The pitcher or catcher can attempt to pickoff a runner, or throw him out while he is attempting to steal bases.


OOBA

OOBA = Opponents On Base Average - The total number of hits and walks opponents have gotten off of a pitcher divided by the total number of plate appearances against that pitcher.  This indicates how often opposing batters are reaching base off of this pitcher.  This stat can also apply to your pitching staff as a whole to determine how often the rest of the league is reaching base against your team.


Winning Percentage (PCT)

PCT is just a short abbreviation for Percentage.  A pitchers winning percentage is his Wins, divided by his total decisions (Wins plus Losses).


Strikeouts

A strikeout occurs when the pitcher either throws three pitches in the strike zone that the batter doesn’t swing at, or throws three pitches anywhere that the batter swings at and misses, or some combination of these two that adds up to three.  Also, a batters first two foul balls count as strikes, so that two foul balls and a swing and miss or two foul balls and a pitch in the strike zone that is not swung at by the batter also constitute strikeouts.  Sometimes, a strikeout is called a K.


Innings Pitched Definition
Innings Pitched

Innings Pitched is the number of innings a pitcher pitched before they were removed from the game.


BASEBALL STRATEGY

Baseball Strategy for Mogul

by Clayton Dreslough (Programmer) and Charles ‘Chuck’ Christiansen (Writer) edited by Dee Dreslough

Sections included here:

Picking your starting defense

Setting your lineup

The Batting Lineup - positions 1-9 and bench

The Pitching Staff - positions 1-5 and bench

Defensive Strategy - positions 1-9 and backups

Trade Strategy - Advice on making trades with the computer GMs

Free Agent Strategy - advice on picking free agents

Next Section: Budget Strategy

Picking your starting defense

Although the newspapers every morning are plastered with stories of towering long balls and overpowering pitching, defense is a crucial part of the game of baseball.

1) 	The first key to a reliable defense is making sure that every player has the appropriate skills for their position. If you have two first baseman with good offense on your roster, it is tempting to put one at another position to get them both in the lineup. But if it’s not one of the positions he can play (shown under ‘P’ in the Defense Dialog), his performance will most likely be horrible.

2) 	Strong defense at the key middle positions is important. Your shortstop, second baseman and center fielder should have good range while your catcher needs a strong arm to throw out baserunners (and keep them from trying in the first place). Good offense can make up for mediocre defense, but these are the positions where outstanding defensive talent will really affect your winning percentage.

3) 	Round out your defense with the appropriate skills. Range is important in left and right field as is fielding percentage (because the batter will often get to 2nd or 3rd on an error). Excellent outfield arms will throw out 10 or more extra runners each year. A strong arm and good fielding average (above .975) means your third baseman can get in front of and convert a lot of hard hit balls into outs. Your first baseman should be a consistent fielder with a high fielding percentage (above .990 is good).

Setting your lineup

An important part of winning baseball games from a managerial perspective is effective management of your batting lineup and pitching rotation.  Players with certain characteristics will serve you better in specific places in your lineup and rotation than they will in others.

The Batting Lineup

Your batting lineup consists of nine slots, one for each position player and one for your pitcher (National League teams) or designated hitter (American League teams).  Most big league managers arrange the hitters in their lineups so that they follow this general pattern:

Batter 1 (Leadoff hitter):

Your leadoff hitter is essentially the catalyst of your team's offense.  His job is to get on base any way he can, by drawing walks or making solid contact hits.  He also provides a spark by stealing bases, moving himself into scoring position, and generally giving fits to the opposing pitcher.  Thus, a good leadoff hitter will have high speed, eye, and contact values, as well as a high on-base average (OBA).  Batting average is also important, but OBA is a better indicator since it also takes walks into account.  With few exceptions, leadoff hitters generally don't hit for power.

Batter 2:

The second hitter in your lineup is called upon to move the leadoff hitter along the base path.  He can accomplish this with hits or sacrifice bunts, but will not walk as often as a leadoff hitter.  Because the leadoff hitter will often attempt to steal bases, a swing and miss by the number two hitter could have the disastrous result of allowing the leadoff hitter to be thrown out.  Therefore, contact and eye are the most important characteristics of your number two hitter.  Often, the number two hitter will be the hitter on your team with the highest batting average.  He may or may not hit for power; usually, he will only have average power numbers.

Batter 3:

By the time your third hitter comes to bat, you will hopefully have a runner or two in scoring position.  The third hitter needs to bring those runs home.  Number three hitters will often hit for both power and a high batting average.  A number three hitter will rarely walk because he bats in front of the cleanup hitter.  Look for a player with above average contact and power ratings to fill this position.

Batter 4 (Cleanup hitter):

The cleanup hitter's job is to clean up the base paths by driving all base runners home.  The cleanup hitter should have the highest power rating on your team.  Cleanup hitters may or may not hit for batting average; often, they will have fair to mediocre batting average numbers and average contact ratings.  Because cleanup hitters are so large, they are generally not fast.  They also tend to have a high number of walks - after all, how many pitchers want to risk pitching to Albert Belle if they don't have to?

Batter 5:

Ideally, your number five hitter will be just as dangerous to opposing pitchers as your cleanup hitter.  If pitchers think they can walk your cleanup hitter and have an easy time with your number five hitter, they will.  Therefore, your number five hitter should have better than average power numbers, and

maybe even higher contact rating and batting average than your cleanup hitter.  Remember, if your cleanup hitter fails, you'll be counting on this guy to get your runs home.

At this point, your first five hitters have hopefully gotten you some runs.  There are many schools of thought on how the bottom half of your lineup should be arranged.  Some managers like to arrange the bottom half the same way as the top half, so that the number six hitter would be speedy, followed by an excellent hitting seventh hitter, a reliable and versatile number eight, and then either the pitcher or whoever you've got left in the number 9 slot.  In any case, the beginning of your lineup will almost certainly be more formidable than the end, but skill in arranging the bottom half can get you an extra run or two that may be the difference between a win and a loss.

The Bench:

Your bench players will occasionally pinch hit for your starting lineup, but they are most used when one of your starting players suffers an injury.  Therefore, your first concern when selecting bench players should be defense; i.e., what positions your bench players are capable of playing.  You should generally carry at least one backup first baseman and catcher, and make sure your bench includes a utility infielder (a player whose position is listed as "IF") and a utility outfielder (a player whose position is listed as "OF) since these players can play any infield (except first base or catcher) or outfield position.  Once you have decided how you wish to arrange your bench defensively, then choose your best available non-starters to fill your bench spots accordingly. Pay attention to the scouting reports on players - they can help you determine the best make-up for your bench.

Assembling your bench

Once your starters are picked, you only have 5 or 6 roster spots left for other position players. The most important feature of your bench is the ability to cover for any position player that gets injured. This means at least one backup catcher, some utility infielders and an outfielder. Depending on your lineup, fill out your roster with a fast player (for pinch running) and a power hitter (for pinch hitting).

The Pitching Staff:

1. Your Starting Five

Teams in Baseball Mogul employ a five-man pitching rotation.  The pitchers in the starting rotation are expected to carry the team’s defense into the late innings of a game.  At that point, the bullpen takes over to finish off the opposing team, unless the starter is having an especially strong game, in which case he may stay on the mound to complete the game.

Ideally, your starting five will all have reasonably high endurance ratings.  You want them to be able to get into late innings without tiring, and if possible, to complete the games they start.  This will save wear and tear on the arms in your bullpen, which will in turn be able to give you more innings when your starters do need a rest.  If some of your starting pitchers have lower endurance ratings than others, it’s usually a good idea to start them in the number 3, 4 or 5 slots.  For example, if you have two starters with lower endurance ratings, start them number 3 and number 5.  That way, your bullpen will have a day in between working to rest.

Your number one pitcher, the staff ace, should combine the best of all worlds.  He should be the pitcher with the highest endurance, power, control, and movement ratings on your starting staff.  Your staff ace will pitch lots of innings and usually strike out a high number of batters (at or near 1 per inning pitched).

More often than not, he will lead your team in wins.  You want to put the pitcher your opponents will most worry about facing in the number one slot.

From there, experiment with the rotation.  If a pitcher in the number 5 slot is doing particularly well and you’d like to get more innings out of him, move him up in the rotation.  Pay attention to warnings about how many days must pass before a pitcher is fully rested when deciding to move pitchers up and down in the rotation.  A pitcher who is not fully rested will not perform at his peak.

Arranging your bullpen

Your bullpen consists of six pitchers.  The placement of the pitchers in your bullpen determines what role they serve on your team:

Slots 1 and 2: Closer / Short Relief

Slots 3 and 4: Long Relief

Slots 5 and 6: Emergency Starters

Your closer (slot 1) comes in late in the game to overpower the opposing team.  Closers will pitch few innings - typically no more than 1 inning per appearance - and usually only appear with the game close and potentially on the line, trying to save the game for your team.  Saves (SV) are games in which the closer pitches 3 or more innings to finish a winning game or finishes a winning game pitching any number of innings with his team ahead by 3 or fewer runs.   Closers have very high power and movement ratings, and thus have a high number of strikeouts per inning pitched (sometimes as high as 2 K/IP).  They don’t work pretty, but they get the job done.

The short reliever or set-up man (slot 2) usually comes on between the starter or long reliever and the closer.  His job is to get through the later innings (the 7th and 8th) before the closer gets in.  If the team is losing, the short reliever may finish the game to rest the closer.  Short relievers, like closers, tend to have better than average power ratings, but typically have better control than their fireballing companions.

The long reliever (slots 3 and 4) is the unsung grunt worker of the pitching staff.  Long relievers rarely get wins or saves.  They pop into games when things go badly for the starting pitcher, whether the starter has been knocked around early and often, has suffered an injury, or simply tires early.  While endurance isn’t necessarily important for a long reliever, good control is a must.  The long reliever often comes in after the floodgates have been opened and the other teams is scoring runs in droves.  If the long reliever can hold the other team in check with steady pitching, the team’s offense has a chance to pull the team back into the game.

Your two emergency starters (slots 5 and 6) are there to start games in case of injury to one of your starting five.  You won’t typically get a lot of innings out of your emergency starters, but they should have at least average endurance ratings so that your bullpen doesn’t get overworked.  The emergency starter role might be a good place to try out some of your Triple-A talent.  You can promote and demote talented minor leaguers to give them some big league innings without rushing them into the rotation.

Experiment with your bullpen arrangement to find out what works best for your team.  For example, a closer might perform better with a solid short relief man pitching ahead of him.  Or you may find that your average short reliever makes a superior closer.  Finding the right chemistry between your bullpen pitchers and their roles can make the difference between winning and losing in many games during the season.

Defense:

It’s easy to overlook your defensive alignment when planning your lineup. Obviously, you want to get the best hitters you can in your lineup, but if your defense is shoddy, any offense your hitters produce will be offset by the base runners that reach on the botched plays and errors that result. Therefore, when creating your starting lineup, it’s very important to balance offense with defensive considerations. By doing so, you will have a very formidable team - better than average run production and strong defense.

Good defense begins with your infield. Let’s take a look at a good infield defensive scheme:

1. 	First Base:  Your first baseman will probably see a lot of fielding chances throughout the course of a game. Almost all ground balls hit to the infield will eventually be tossed to the first baseman for the putout. Therefore, a first baseman needs to have an extremely high fielding average - hopefully, at least .990.  If the first baseman misses a fielding chance, odds are that a batter that otherwise wouldn’t have gotten on base safely will now be safe at first.  Since the first baseman will rarely have to throw a batter out himself, a good arm is less important. Range can be useful if a first baseman has a lot of foul territory to cover next to the bag. Good range also indicates the ability to stop hard hits that would otherwise go down the right field line for extra base hits.

2. 	Second Base / Shortstop:  Your second baseman and shortstop are the keys to good infield defense.  The majority of ground balls will end up going toward the middle of the infield, so high fielding is a must. Your middle infielders are also responsible for turning double plays and shifting to cover bases on plays that draw the first or third basemen into the outfield.  Ideally, both the shortstop and second basemen will have above average ratings in all three defensive skills.  Note that most middle infielders are average to above average contact hitters and don’t often hit for power.  Bear this in mind if you have to sacrifice somewhat on offense to shore up your middle infield defense.

3. 	Third Base:  Third base is often called the “Hot Corner”.  This is because many of the balls that are hit to the third base side of the infield are hit there by power and pull hitters, so the ball usually travels with incredible speed.  A good defensive third baseman must have a high fielding rating in order to be successful.  Also, because he has the longest throw in the infield to first base, he must have a better than average arm. Good range indicates the ability to get to hard hit balls that would otherwise shoot through to the outfield. But range is secondary to fielding consistency and arm strength.

4. 	Catcher:  The catcher will not be actively involved in very many outs during the game, but his defensive abilities do play an important part in the overall defensive scheme.  A catcher’s main weapon is his arm. The catcher needs to be able to quickly and accurately make throws across the infield in order to pick off base runners who might be attempting to steal. The more runners he is able to pick off, the fewer runners opposing teams have to score with. A catcher should also have good fielding consistency to avoid passed balls. A passed ball occurs when a pitch that the catcher should have caught cleanly gets away from him. The result is usually an extra base or two by any base runners the opposing team has. The same is true for wild pitches. The catcher’s ability to stop these pitches from getting away and rolling back to the backstop can be the difference between a runner on first and a runner in scoring position. The catcher generally doesn’t roam the field much, so range is only a minor consideration.

5. 	Pitcher:  Your pitcher’s main defensive responsibility is making good pitches for strikes that opposing batters can’t hit. However, having a pitcher who’s handy with a glove can be an added bonus for your defense. He can stop balls that come back to the mound rather than letting them through to the second baseman. Often this will lead to easy outs at first base and can even help initiate easy double plays.

If the infield is your first line of defense, then the outfield is your second wave. The outfield is led by the center fielder, who acts as a sort of field general to make sure that plays get made.

1. 	Center Fielder:  The center fielder is the leader of the outfield.  He should be the outfielder with the highest defensive skill levels: fielding to catch fly balls, arm to throw balls back into the infield and throw out baserunners, and range to run down balls to the gaps between center and left and right fields.  If the center fielder calls for a fly ball, the other outfielders back off and let him take it.  Similarly, it is the center fielder’s responsibility to avoid outfield collisions when the other outfielders call for a fly ball.

2. 	Right Field / Left Field:  Like the center fielder, these two outfielders should have at least above average range and fielding skills. Although arm is important, it will rarely come into play in getting outs. More often, an outfielder will have to have the arm strength to get the ball quickly into the infield cutoff man (usually the second baseman or shortstop) to prevent base runners from advancing , and even average major league outfielders should have no trouble with this. Arm strength is more important in right field than left, where a long hard throw to third can nail a runner trying to go for an extra base.

In the end, you’ll need to balance your team’s defensive abilities with your offense.  If you have a particularly strong pitching staff and a low staff ERA, for instance, you may be able to skimp a bit on defense to put bigger bats in your lineup, because your opponents won’t be hitting much against you anyway. But if you have a high staff ERA, you probably want as tight a defense as you can put together to prevent every game from turning into a hapless blowout.  Experiment with different lineups to see what works best for you. Remember, contenders aren’t built overnight!

TRADE STRATEGY:

Elevating your team from a middle of the pack runner to division winner and ultimately World Champion often requires making just the right acquisition in the preseason or during a mid-season pennant race.  Dealing with the computer GMs to get exactly what you need is key to making those surges to the title.  Here are a few suggestions for getting the best deal you can from the other general managers.

1. 	The computer GM is not a fool.

Trying to pull the wool over his eyes by offering that 43 year old DH for an 20 year old phenomenon will only get you laughed at.  While you want to try to get the best deal you can, whoppers like that are just going to waste your time and perhaps even make the computer GMs more unwilling to deal with you.

1. 	Use the Hint button to find out what the GM is looking for.

Teams with weak spots in their lineup are more likely to trade for players who can fill those holes.  If a GM is looking for “an established second baseman” and you have a rookie who can fill in at second base if you unload the incumbent veteran, offer the

veteran in trade.

1. 	Seek out mutually beneficial trades.

Remember, a key to trading is finding teams that need what you have in abundance and who have in abundance what you need.  If one GM rejects your offer, search around for others who have what you need.

1. 	Use the Free Agent pool to your advantage.

If the computer GM is looking for an established middle reliever and you don’t have one to spare, see if you can pick one up from the free agent pool.  You may be able to sign a quality free agent, then trade him for the player you really want.  Just make sure you have enough cash on hand.  Be cautious about this strategy.  You might get stuck with a highly paid player you can't unload.

1. 	If possible, try to make money on your trade.

This can be done by trading higher salaries for lower ones, or by getting the computer to give you cash along with players in a trade.  Remember, the more money you make, the more you’ll be able to improve your team down the road.  Keep in mind, however, that the computer GM won’t go for ridiculous offers, and will be less open to bargaining if you annoy him with one-sided deal offers.

6. Be reasonable and stick to your word

The computer GM remembers every time you offer an outrageous trade or refuse to follow through on a trade offer that he's already accepted. This reputation gets around and you will quickly find GMs less willing to deal with you after you've backed out on several trade deals.

FREE AGENT STRATEGY:

Free agents are another way to shore up your team for the title run.  Free agent signings have pros and cons.  On the positive side, you don’t have to give up another player to get a free agent (unless, of course, your roster is full).  On the down side, free agents add to your payroll, and there is no guarantee that they will perform for you.  Here are a few tips for finding just the right free agent for your team.

1. 	Identify problem areas on your team before shopping.

It’s tempting to go out and pick up that power hitting third baseman just because he’s there, but if you already have a power hitting third baseman, then where will you put him?  There are exceptions to this rule, of course.  If you have a need for a DH, then any pure hitter will do there.  Also, picking up a player in order to trade him for someone you need is a good idea, but remember that if the team you are trying to trade with doesn’t accept your offer, you may be stuck with that free agent.

1. 	Try not to sign free agents to long contracts.

With free agents, nothing is guaranteed.  They may be free agents for any number of reasons - the previous team couldn’t afford them, had too many players, or didn’t get the performance they wanted out of the player.  If a free agent wants a long-term contract (3 or more years) be wary.  See if you can find a comparable player with shorter term demands.  Remember, if you sign a free agent to a long, expensive contract and he fails to perform, you’re stuck with him unless you buy out his contract (which will drain your cash supply) or trade him (hard to do with a poorly performing player).

1. 	Wait and See.

If a free agent you want is too expensive for your tastes, try waiting him out.  If he goes unsigned, he will lower his demands over time.  The obvious disadvantage to this approach is that in the interim, another team may decide to pick him up.  Remember, though, that staying within your budget is more important than spending a lot of money on one player who you can’t be sure will perform for you anyway.

1. 	Look for promising rookies.

Occasionally, you’ll notice young players in the free agent pool seeking only the minimum salary.  If these players have skills that look like they could fit in with your team’s future plans, go ahead and sign them.  You’ll more than likely have to give these players some time in Triple A before they’re ready to contribute, but they could be a solid and inexpensive investment for the future.

1. 	Don’t sign aging free agents.

Older free agents, while they may seem like a bargain, are more likely to be detriments to your team than they are to help you win that championship.  There are a few exceptions, but by and large, it’s best to avoid aging players.

ROSTER STRATEGY:

Having a good grasp of your roster is essential to success in Baseball Mogul.  You need to know not only who you have, but also who you need and who you have coming.  As General Manager, you need to be sure that the choices you make today don’t end up crippling your team in the long run.

Good roster management begins with assessing your team’s depth.  Where is your starting lineup weak?  What field positions do you have adequate backup for, and where do you need to fill in gaps?  Take some time to step through your entire roster, pitching and batting, and see where you can improve your team:

1. 	Identify positions held by aging players.

Within a season or two, you’re going to likely have to replace players who over  35 in order to get quality performance at those positions.  If you can, trade these players away for younger players with better or at least comparable skills.  Check your minor league roster for players you can keep developing until the time is right.

1. 	Take stock of your farm system.

Note what positions are being developed in your farm system and what you have an overabundance of.  You can trade away position players that you’re overstocked at for quality rookies at positions you need help in.  In general, it’s best to trade away prospects for other prospects rather than veteran players.  This way, you’re not trading your future for immediate gratification, which could have disastrous long term results for your team.  Remember, your GM job is not just about what your team can do today, but what it can do years from now.

1. 	Figure out the number of starters and relievers in your farm system.

Ideally, you’d like to have another complete pitching staff available in your minor league system, which means you’d have at least 5 starters and 6 relievers.  If you have fewer starters than five, consider trading some of your minor league relievers for minor league starters.  If you bring up a starter from your minor league system, try to replace him with another starter you can develop.  Developing quality arms within your own system will help keep you from having to trade off your quality players to get quality pitching.

1. 	Be sure your bench players can cover your entire defense.

Defense is just as important as hitting when subbing in a bench player for an injured starter.  If you have to put a first baseman at second base, your defense will suffer and your opponents will score more runs against you.  An ideal bench should include one first baseman, two utility infielders (players whose position is IF), a catcher, and two utility outfielders (players whose position is OF). This way, you’ll have adequate coverage in case of multiple starter injuries.  It's also a good idea to make sure you have appropriate pinch runners and pinch hitters available.

Team roster management is a hands-on project.  Check in periodically during the season to see how your starters and bench players are performing, as well as what the state of the rookies in your farm system is.  This way, you can make adjustments or trades as necessary to ensure that your team performs optimally in the current season and in seasons to come.

Next: Budgeting Strategy

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BUDGETING STRATEGY

A big part of your success in Baseball Mogul is the ability to balance your team’s budget.  Not only do you have to worry about your players’ salaries, you also have to deal with the salaries of your medical staff and scouts, funding for your farm teams, setting ticket and concession prices at your stadium, and even negotiating television broadcast rights.  All of these financial factors will affect your path toward the Mogul Hall of Fame.

Perhaps the most important thing to remember in planning your budget is that, in the end, the players on the field determine your success.  If your team wins, more fans will come to see them, and even slightly higher ticket prices won’t dissuade them (to a point - more on that later).  And of course, the more money your team brings in, the more you can afford to pay your players, which allows you to keep your higher priced free agent stars, which allows you to keep winning.

That said, there are many things to consider in the early going when money is tight.  Getting off to a good financial start will help you set off down the road to baseball prosperity.

. 	EXPENSES

1.  PLAYER SALARIES:

You should expect to have a bit of disparity between your players salaries.  Some of your players will be making megabucks, while some will be working for the league minimum.  So what happens when the player making the minimum has a stellar year and demands an enormous pay increase, while at the same time your megabucks player is under contract for 4 more years?  Will you have the money to keep them both?

A good rule of thumb is to avoid high salaries whenever possible. Obviously, some players are worth paying the money for, but ideally, you’d like to keep your team payroll down.  Keep an eye on your Triple A system for rookies who can adequately fit roles currently occupied by higher priced players. Scan the free agent pool periodically - you can often find a bargain player who will perform well while you wait for a rookie superstar to develop.  And don’t be afraid to trade away your higher priced players for lower priced ones if you’re strapped for cash.

Pitchers command more lucrative contracts than position players, so expect to pay more for really top flight pitchers. It’s harder to get away with a rotation full of bargain basement pitchers than it is a lineup of lower priced hitters.

Also remember that if you want to cut anyone, you must pay him the rest of his contract in a lump sum. That means that players with long term contracts can be detrimental to the team by costing large sums of money, taking up a needed roster spot (if you don’t have the cash to buy out his contract) or both. Usually, locking up your superstars for the long haul isn’t a bad idea, but pay attention to such factors as age and history of injury when you sign these players.  If your superstar is going to be 42 at the end of his long contract, his last few years may not be worth the money they’re going to cost you.

When dealing with free agents from the free agent pool, it sometimes pay to wait out a player.  If he’s demanding a high salary and remains unsigned for awhile, he may lower his salary demands and even the length of the contract he’s seeking.  But be careful - if you wait for too long, another sharp general manager may sign that player out from under your nose!

The rule here is don’t be cheap, be smart.  Spend your salary money wisely and you’ll have a winning money-making team for many years.

1. 	OTHER TEAM EXPENSES:

Other team expenses that you control are divided among three categories:  Medical Staff, Farm System, and Scouting Team:

a.  Medical Staff

The amount you spend on your medical staff determines how serious the injuries your players receive are and how long it takes them to recover.  If you have a lot of higher priced players with long contracts, it’s important to pay your medical staff well. If you are in a rebuilding phase and have players you feel are not worth protecting, then lowering the pay of your medical staff for a season or two might free up some cash to help with the rebuilding effort. In general though, it’s a good policy to keep your medical staff at least on par with the rest of the league.

b.  Farm System

The amount you spend on your farm system determines the number and caliber of minor leaguers you have available at the Triple A level.  Your team building philosophy will determine your spending here.  If you believe in building a team via free agency and trading for established veterans, then your farm system is probably not as important to you. If, on the other hand, you believe in developing rookies for the future of your team, you’ll probably want to make a considerable investment in your farm system.

c.  Scouting Team

The amount you spend on your scouting team determines the accuracy of the scouting reports you receive.  If you feel that you are capable of scouting players on your own by studying their skills and statistics, then you can probably skimp a bit on the scouting team.  But if you consider the word of the scouts to be law, you’ll want to put more money into the scouting team to get the most accurate reports possible.  Note that cheap out on your scouts, they won’t lie to you, but they may miss the call on a potential superstar or superflop!

. 	INCOMING CASH:

1.  STADIUM REVENUE:

Stadium revenue is the money you make from ticket sales and concession sales.

. 	Ticket Sales

Finding just the right price to charge for tickets is one of the keys to financial success.  Charge too much, and fans will stay away. Charge too little, and people will flock to your stadium while your team stays poor.

The “Other Team” button is useful here because it lets you compare your prices to successful teams with a similar fan base. You can also use the Financial Pages to compare ticket prices, attendance and fan loyalty. Take a look at the ticket prices of similar teams and see how their ticket income compares with yours.

You can also use broadcast contracts to drive people to your stadium. If you lower ticket prices and blackout games locally, fans are more inclined to come to the stadium in person. See the section on Broadcast Contracts for more information.

. 	Concession Sales

You also control the prices of the concessions at your concession stand. The major items that each team’s concession stand sells are ice cream, beer, and hot dogs. You can adjust these prices up and down, a nickel at a time. Just like tickets, raising prices too much will steer people away from your concessions, while lowering them too much will not do much for profits.

Hint:  Baseball fans love cheap beer.  And after having enough of it, they may not mind higher food prices.

1. 	BROADCAST CONTRACTS:

Negotiating television rights is another way to bring in money for your team.  There are three types of television broadcast contracts you can sign your team to:

. 	Standard Broadcast

A Standard Broadcast contract allows your team’s games to be broadcast on regular local television. Depending on your fan base, this contract can generate different results. For example, fickle fans might be content to sit at home and watch your games on TV if the team isn’t doing so well, thus keeping more fans away from your stadium. Fans do not have to pay to see your team on television if you have a Standard Broadcast contract. The revenue you get is from the station with the rights to the broadcasts. While you won’t get rich quick with this type of contract, it’s the most popular with the fans, who can decide to stay home and root for the team if for some reason they can’t make it to the stadium.

. 	Pay Only

A Pay Only contract means that in order for your fans to see your team on television, they must have cable television and pay extra money to subscribe to a sports-oriented channel. You get both a flat payment and a percentage of the money taken in from the fans who pay to see your team play. A Pay TV contract is a good way to raise a lot of money quickly, but use these contracts with caution.  Pay TV contracts are often viewed as money-grubbing by your fans, who will then stay away from your stadium, affecting your overall revenue negatively.

. 	Blackout

Blackout contracts mean that your team’s home games will be “blacked out”, or not broadcast locally, unless tickets to a particular game sell out. Because fans can’t count on seeing the game on television, this type of contract is likely to send them to the stadium, which in turn helps your ticket and concession sales.  Like Pay Only contracts, blackouts can bring in revenue in the short term. But they also reduce the average fan's exposure to your team and tend to hurt the city's loyalty to you in the long term.

It takes patience and skill to balance your income against your expenses.  Finding the right mix of prices, salaries, staff expenses, and broadcast expenses will take much experimentation, but it’s crucial to your ascent to the level of Baseball Mogul.

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How to read a Box Score
Reading Box Scores

THE BOX SCORE:

The Box Score summarizes the performances of individual players in a game. Unlike the Game Recap, which shows the game events in the order they occurred, the Box Score shows game totals for each player.

The Line Score

The first section of the Box Score is the line score. This shows number of runs scored by each team in each inning. To save space, the number of runs scored by any team after the 9th inning are totaled in the column labeled '+'. Any game that requires extra innings was tied after the first 9 innings. Therefore, the team that scores the most runs in extra innings will also be the winner.

The columns labeled R, H and E show the Runs, Hits and Errors totals for each team.

Batting Totals

The Box Score shows the batting totals for the visiting team first, followed by their pitching totals. Then batting and pitching stats are shown for the home team.

The batting list shows the team's lineup in order, with their position for the game in parentheses. Any players that were substituted for other players are shown indented, with the role they filled in parentheses. 'PH' indicates a Pinch Hitter and 'PR' indicates a Pinch Runner.

Each line shows the players offensive stats as follows:

ab: at bats

h: hits

bb: walks

r: runs scored

hr: home runs

bi: runs batted

k: strikeouts

sb: stolen bases

Pitching Totals

The pitcher list shows all players who pitched in that game for that team, in the order they appeared. Thus, the first pitcher shown is the starting pitcher.

Each line shows the following pitching stats:

ip: innings pitched

h: hits allowed

bb: walks allowed

hr: home runs allowed

r: runs allowed

er: earned runs allowed

k: strikeouts

Pitching Decisions

The last few lines of the box score show the pitchers that received a decision or a save in the game. 'WP' indicates the winning pitcher while 'LP' shows the losing pitcher. If a save was awarded, the saving pitcher is listed next to 'SV'.

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The Player Hall of Fame
Player Hall of Fame

This dialog is located in the Players menu.

This list shows inductees to the Hall of Fame.  For the first five years you simulate in Mogul, there will be no inductees into the Player Hall of Fame as one whole voting period has to occur before this system starts working.  Once it is working, retired players will be inducted based on their statistics.

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