There are many ways to cheat as a commissioner but there are certainly things that are the most obvious and the most attempted scams. Just a couple of the most popular...
-Players getting a talent bump and it not showing up on the player development page. I'm not just referring to the common ones of avoiding hits, getting hits, hitting HRs, etc, but also stealing ability, injury ratings, clutch performance, stamina ratings, etc.
-Players who just appear on a new team without any documented transactions in either the player history or the transaction news page.
-Players getting released from one team and then signed for a cheap contract to the commish's team.
-Players getting rating bumps at an unnatural pace. For example, if you have a great SP prospect who has a 0 ERA rating it wouldn't be normal to see that guy at AAA with an 8 rating within a season. A player like this will take at the very least 4 minor league seasons before he will be in AAA and knocking on the major league team's door. This is one of the most common cheating practices and certainly is the easiest to get away with since OOTP doesn't yet document rating bumps in the player development page (HINT, HINT
).
-Commishes that prey on newbies and take advantage of their lack of knowledge. I term this as cheating since the commish knows when a new owner joins, their knowledge level, and can control the negotiations with a degree of intimidation.
-Commishes that change their lineup in the middle of the sim. If their star SS goes down during a sim, some commishes will make changes to their lineup right away and not wait until after the sim. This is unfair since all other owners obviously have to wait until after the sim to make their changes.
-Some commishes have been known to play some of their team's crucial game. If your commish is taking over an hour to complete a regular 2 week sim, I would be suspicious.
-Since the commish has the power to edit everything, you may want to watch his player's contracts. It's extremely easy to edit your $10 million player down to $8 million.
-A commish may break his own league rules. For example if the league limits extension offers to a maximum of 3, some commishes may propose many more offers to ensure he signs the player to the most affordably contract possible. This is extremely difficult to monitor especially if he is continually unzipping the league file to attempt more offers.
Like all of these things, it is important to have a commish you trust. If you don't know and can't trust him, then you will always be suspicious. The point of any online league is to have fun and be competitive. If you are continually making sound moves and your team is spinning it's wheels and the commish's team is always winning the championship, it may be time to move on. I'm not saying the commish is always cheating in that case. He may not be but if you're not having fun in that league, why bother. You can always tell if a commish is in it for himself or takes pride in his league first. Talk to him often via AIM, ICQ, or email to see what kind of guy he is. In most cases you're going to be able to tell quickly if this is some young punk or someone that truly has a passion for his league. Hope this helps!!!