Basic Questions on Rebuilding

[Shooty Babbit]

Hi all,

I'm new to the game and I realize that many of my questions can probably be answered through playing the game more than I have, and maybe from reading the manual a bit more closely, so thanks in advance to anyone willing to give me a few pointers.

I'm more interested in taking a below average team and embarking on the (hopefully not *too*) long process of turning the franchise around. However, I really haven't figured out how I actually go about doing that. That is, I like fooling around with the depth charts and line-ups and sometimes managing the games. But I'm not really sure what else I can do.

Now, I have trading on "Hard" (I found Average to be slightly too easy), and I'm realizing that it's going to be difficult to turn this team around just through good trades.

I'd really like to learn more about player development. Specifically:

Are there any actions I can take to actually improve the players on my rosters
How do I actively develop my prospects?
How do I develop the young guys on my MLB roster?
What other steps should I be taking if I'm working on a longish-term rebuild project?

I think there are some basic elements of this game that I haven't figured out, so again, thanks to anyone willing to take the time to point me in the right direction.

Thanks again.

[Déjà Bru]

Are there any actions I can take to actually improve the players on my rosters
How do I actively develop my prospects?
How do I develop the young guys on my MLB roster?

The answer to all three of these questions is to hire good coaches, spend as much money as you can on your player development budget, and keep an eye on your prospects to make sure that they get promoted as they develop.

What other steps should I be taking if I'm working on a longish-term rebuild project?

Well, there are three ways to build a successful franchise: Draft, trade, and free agency. To draft well, you need good scouting and an ample scouting budget. To trade successfully (at the hard setting), you need to stockpile prospects because the AI will demand two or three of them to get the good player that you want, so draft the best people that you can regardless of position and trade away the duplicates. To get good free agents to sign with you, you need cash so set your ticket prices as high as possible (compare with other franchises) and be stingy with contract extensions, especially with marginal players.

[bly08]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

spend as much money as you can on your player development budget

Does this have a significant effect?