[sixfour210]

In my solo league, the Texas Rangers signed Javier Vazquez (3.5 stars mind you) to a $31.3 million contract for 7 years. Combined with A-Rod's contract (25.2 mil) and Chan Ho Park's (13 mil), they account for almost 70 million between only 3 players. Oh yeah and they're in last place in the West.

Vazquez's numbers as of 9/10/04:
In 31 starts he is 13-8 with a 4.74 ERA. Struck out 121 and walked 38 in 210.2 innings while giving up 235 hits and 28 homers.

The rosters I use have actual player salaries, team incomes and cash reserves. It turns out to be pretty realistic. Gary Sheffield signed with Pittsburgh for 19.5 mil (went for the money obviously) but brought Pittsburgh into 2nd place. Vladimir Guerrero signed with Minnesota for 23.3 mil.

I've also found that setting the trading AI preference to "favor heavily for veterans" makes computers trade veterans for a lot of prospects which turns out more realistic.