The kiss of death

snepp · 02-10-2026, 10:56 PM

Story time again.

Sometimes I hate getting a new owner, this is one of those times.

Previous owner was decent enough, didn't pocket everything, I could roll max cash forward as long as there was a respectable playoff showing. This was needed to keep the development engine fueled in a small market.

Won't be happening under this @$$#&!! though. Budget forecast for next season has him pocketing every last dollar, to go along with an expected 10% budget cut. A total effective reduction of over 20% for next season, with the following year lower yet again.

And to top it off he's a meddler, and has determined that the development budget is better in his hands.

I might just cry a little.

(I did peek under the hood, he's an actual 1 in the generosity department, yuck)

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot · 02-10-2026, 11:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by snepp

Story time again.

Sometimes I hate getting a new owner, this is one of those times.

Previous owner was decent enough, didn't pocket everything, I could roll max cash forward as long as there was a respectable playoff showing. This was needed to keep the development engine fueled in a small market.

Won't be happening under this @$$#&!! though. Budget forecast for next season has him pocketing every last dollar, to go along with an expected 10% budget cut. A total effective reduction of over 20% for next season, with the following year lower yet again.

And to top it off he's a meddler, and has determined that the development budget is better in his hands.

I might just cry a little.

(I did peek under the hood, he's an actual 1 in the generosity department, yuck)

Do you have any thoughts or emerging ideas as to how you're going to manage things whilst Daddy tight-wad holds the purse strings so close?
In a small market, if the development engine dries up due to no money, that has to concern you?

snepp · 02-10-2026, 11:18 PM

Frankly, I have no idea at this point. This guy took over shortly after spring training started and I'm about to start the season.

To make matters worse, along with that expected $2.6 million dollar reduction in funds available next year, my salary expectations are due to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $2.5 million dollars higher.

Unless I can magic my way into an additional $5 million somewhere, I have no clue what's going to happen other than to have a one year fire sale and then shift mental gears a bit.

The biggest problem I'm going to have is that I tend to get a little emotionally tied to a handful of players, leading to me keeping them extended and together as long as possible. Probably not in the cards now, I'll be flipping arb eligible guys constantly. Maybe I could keep a couple around, but the rest of the team would need to be making absolute peanuts.

Some painful decisions await, this first offseason isn't going to be pretty.

snepp · 02-10-2026, 11:23 PM

And not being able to control the dev budget is going to be miserable. He'll set it to league minimum as soon as the season ends given that I'll be a bazillion dollars over budget.

*sigh*

Maybe I should go find that Howie Tolbert kid, I hear he'll play for peanuts.

snepp · 02-10-2026, 11:34 PM

Maybe I'll shift my draft strategy back to what I would do when I initially take over a destitute team, go college heavy. They require less dev time, and if this clown-show of an owner tanks my dev budget over multiple years I may not want to be drafting heavy on kids that need all the extra time in the minors.

snepp · 02-11-2026, 02:03 AM

Well the verdict is in. After losing in 5 games in the championship series, with a pair of brutal 7 game series leading up to it, I headed to the offseason...it's every bit as brutal as I was expecting.

Financially the year was fantastic, and those 19 playoff games generated a ton of income, pretty much none of which I get to use.

Of the $2.3 million in operating profit for the year, Mr. Asshat kept $2.17 million of it. I get to carry all of 130k forward to the offseason, which gets offset by the new budget being 100k lower than projected anyway.

Scouting and development budgets have been slashed to half the baseline as expected, and yet I'm still starting the offseason nearly $1 million in the hole on an $11.8 million dollar budget.

One more bit of awesomeness I just noticed. Not only does he control the player development budget, but he controls the draft and international amatuer budgets as well. Sweet.

22chill22 · 02-11-2026, 02:08 AM

At least he’s 70. And this is one of those times when you can try to play your way out of a tight corner, which doesn’t always happen in this game. I’m a control freak with my franchise, and hate giving over control when you get a crappy owner like this, but being forced into these kind of situations will make you a better GM. Play it through and learn from it. And of course, have a great time!

snepp · 02-11-2026, 02:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 22chill22

At least he’s 70. And this is one of those times when you can try to play your way out of a tight corner, which doesn’t always happen in this game. I’m a control freak with my franchise, and hate giving over control when you get a crappy owner like this, but being forced into these kind of situations will make you a better GM. Play it through and learn from it. And of course, have a great time!

This is the son of the previous owner, who I think was 97 or so.

snepp · 02-11-2026, 02:28 AM

Playing small market teams is nothing new, I almost exclusively target them in my leagues. Sometimes when I hang around long enough the market grows a couple times, coupled with fan loyalty bumps I'll end up running pretty strong upper-mid budgets. Then I get bored and go take over a tiny team in the dumpster.

I've had cheapskate owners too, that's nothing new.

I've had these meddling owners at times, and they can be highly annoying.

But I've never had a small market team, with the absolute cheapest owner possible, and have them be meddling all at the same time. This will be something new.

snepp · 02-11-2026, 02:35 AM

He wants me to extend my catcher (my first round pick in my first season with the team), one of those guys I tend to get attached to. He would run me about $1.5 million per year, if I'm lucky.

Step one, trade arb eligible backup catcher with amazing defensive ability, for an absolute nobody and a bit of cash. Net gain, 270k

Next, try to trade fan favorite (and personal favorite) closer making $1.1 mil for next year. No takers, even if retaining a huge portion. Boo.

Arb eligible starting shortstop, and highest position player war on the team, gone for a so-so prospect and cash. Wanted to keep him, but starting 2bman is nearly his equal defensively, has offensive upside, and most importantly is making minimum. Net gain, 550k

Arb eligible, and soon to be free agent left fielder, 3rd best war. Actually got a player package back for him that included a first time arb eligible starter, which will allow me to deal one of my expensive arb starters without an overall quality decline in the rotation. Thankfully I am flush with quality high minors outfielders right now. Net gain, 300k, and with this deal I have technically moved into "the green" at $8,800 available lol.

Arb eligible starter, led the league in wins a couple times, but showing signs of trouble. Brought back a nearly ready corner infielder (could be a cheap 1b/dh/emergency 3b for 3 or 4 years) with a couple other minor leaguers swapped between teams. Not exactly a "haul," but that other pitcher I nabbed should be a solid replacement. Net gain, 750k, now I can at least get my scouting budget moved back to something reasonable, I'm going to need it.

Arb eligible 3b/1b, decent defensively at third, had a weird down year, but was great the previous two. Splits really favor hitting against lefties, I just can't afford to pay for the wrong side of a platoon. He'll probably be a monster for the next few years. Got myself a back end starter (cheap!) and a nice little pile of cash in return. Net, 600k

Arb eligible good defensive corner OF, team captain, a few injury issues, but that glut of cheap and good outfielders on the doorstep. Got a borderline usable second baseman (also a captain, convenient, and cheap), and a little cash. Not a great swap, but had to happen. Net, 200k

Offered one year contracts to 4 arb eligible players, can't trade everyone, I'm still expecting to win.

Have one big decision to make on another starting pitcher in last year of arb. The smart move is get what I can, but I probably need him, and he doubles as a lefty-masher at DH. If it weren't for the owner shenanigans I would have signed him long term during spring, but alas here we are. --- Ended up saying the hell with it, I offered him a one year deal (835k still hurts). He's good enough that I can either trade him later, or throw the qualifying offer at him if the returns aren't sufficient.

I did offer that catcher a long term deal. The owner wants it, I want it, and I cleared enough future budget to do it. I can already feel the regret growing.

This is starting to make me sick. I've dealt away more high quality talent in a week than in the previous decade combined. :/

Good thing I had some fan interest banked, they aren't happy with anything I've been doing.

venflaalachi · 02-11-2026, 03:29 PM

What a terrible combination. Penny pincher and meddling with extreme winning. Recipe for disaster. At least he is lenient somehow

snepp · 02-11-2026, 04:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by venflaalachi

At least he is lenient somehow

Yeah, my one saving grace.

At least I had enough time with his old man at the helm to build up a pretty formidable pipeline. My little firesale hurts, but the starting talent should be pretty similar. Depth took a big kick in the cajones though.

snepp · 02-11-2026, 06:50 PM

Pretty boring offseason other than that initial week of mayhem. Signed a couple guys to minor league deals, and a couple with a major league option. Didn't dare hand out any actual guaranteed contracts, needed to maintain as much budget flexibility as possible in the hopes that Scrooge would up my dev budget considerably when preseason rolled around. He did crank it up from half the baseline of 600k to a touch over $1.6 mil. A far cry from where I'd normally operate, but at least it's above average.

Having my international budget fixed sucks. With a decent owner if you don't spend it at least it has the chance of rolling over as cash into the following season, but not here. So I spent every last penny of that budgeted 650k, I wasn't going to let him pocket a cent of it later. I'll do the same with the draft, pushing it as far over budget as my finances will allow just out of spite.

No firesale next offseason thankfully, projected payroll is the same as this year. Unfortunately my scouting and dev is getting artificially boosted by that 900k cash I was able to bring in through trade, which won't be happening again, at least nowhere near that.

Preseason prediction loves my squad, so I'll probably have a rash of injuries and underperform.

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot · 02-12-2026, 02:21 AM

[QUOTE=snepp;5239069]And not being able to control the dev budget is going to be miserable. He'll set it to league minimum as soon as the season ends given that I'll be a bazillion dollars over budget.

*sigh*

Maybe I should go find that Howie Tolbert kid, I hear he'll play for peanuts.[/QUOTE]

This made me laugh!!

snepp · 02-12-2026, 04:18 AM

Starting my 3rd offseason with Mr. McScroogerson at the helm now. Apparently making it to the semi-final and generating a profit for the year of $3.1 million wasn't good enough, let's drop that budget an additional 400k. We're at $11.4 million now.

But hey, I "get" to use 200k of that profit this year!

WhiskyTango · 02-12-2026, 06:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by snepp

Preseason prediction loves my squad, so I'll probably have a rash of injuries and underperform.

This is a thing? I had the same thing this season. It's like beginning in April everyone forgot how to play, after winning the WS season previous.

snepp · 02-12-2026, 07:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WhiskyTango

This is a thing? I had the same thing this season. It's like beginning in April everyone forgot how to play, after winning the WS season previous.

I don't think its actually a thing, but my confirmation bias keeps telling me that every time I have a great prediction my team does ****.

I ended up having an amazing season, even better than the prediction.

Of course I got blasted in the first round of the playoffs by an inferior team instead.

snepp · 02-12-2026, 07:08 PM

Championship win, about time (6 failed playoff trips since my first one).

$3.9 million in profit this season on my $11.4 million dollar budget.

Oops, make that an $11.2 million dollar budget now, I must have spent a little too much money for his liking. I sent a private investigator to look into him, trying to dig up some dirt so that I could get him kicked out of the league.

This is all he could find...

WhiskyTango · 02-12-2026, 08:13 PM

Your PI quacked the case.

Meanwhile my Phillies who were 10 out in August have gone .833 in September and are 1 1/2 out, with a series coming up against the 1st place Braves. Might be dialing in to watch those games.

snepp · 02-12-2026, 09:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WhiskyTango

Your PI quacked the case.

I legit laughed, well played.

02-10-2026, 10:56 PM	#1
snepp All Star Starter Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 1,666	The kiss of death Story time again. Sometimes I hate getting a new owner, this is one of those times. Previous owner was decent enough, didn't pocket everything, I could roll max cash forward as long as there was a respectable playoff showing. This was needed to keep the development engine fueled in a small market. Won't be happening under this @$$#&!! though. Budget forecast for next season has him pocketing every last dollar, to go along with an expected 10% budget cut. A total effective reduction of over 20% for next season, with the following year lower yet again. And to top it off he's a meddler, and has determined that the development budget is better in his hands. I might just cry a little. (I did peek under the hood, he's an actual 1 in the generosity department, yuck) Attached Images

02-10-2026, 11:23 PM	#4
snepp All Star Starter Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 1,666	And not being able to control the dev budget is going to be miserable. He'll set it to league minimum as soon as the season ends given that I'll be a bazillion dollars over budget. sigh Maybe I should go find that Howie Tolbert kid, I hear he'll play for peanuts. Last edited by snepp; 02-10-2026 at 11:24 PM.

02-11-2026, 02:03 AM	#6
snepp All Star Starter Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 1,666	Well the verdict is in. After losing in 5 games in the championship series, with a pair of brutal 7 game series leading up to it, I headed to the offseason...it's every bit as brutal as I was expecting. Financially the year was fantastic, and those 19 playoff games generated a ton of income, pretty much none of which I get to use. Of the $2.3 million in operating profit for the year, Mr. Asshat kept $2.17 million of it. I get to carry all of 130k forward to the offseason, which gets offset by the new budget being 100k lower than projected anyway. Scouting and development budgets have been slashed to half the baseline as expected, and yet I'm still starting the offseason nearly $1 million in the hole on an $11.8 million dollar budget. One more bit of awesomeness I just noticed. Not only does he control the player development budget, but he controls the draft and international amatuer budgets as well. Sweet. Last edited by snepp; 02-11-2026 at 02:06 AM.

02-11-2026, 02:08 AM	#7
22chill22 Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: May 2010 Posts: 36	At least he’s 70. And this is one of those times when you can try to play your way out of a tight corner, which doesn’t always happen in this game. I’m a control freak with my franchise, and hate giving over control when you get a crappy owner like this, but being forced into these kind of situations will make you a better GM. Play it through and learn from it. And of course, have a great time! Last edited by 22chill22; 02-11-2026 at 02:09 AM.

02-11-2026, 02:35 AM	#10
snepp All Star Starter Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 1,666	He wants me to extend my catcher (my first round pick in my first season with the team), one of those guys I tend to get attached to. He would run me about $1.5 million per year, if I'm lucky. Step one, trade arb eligible backup catcher with amazing defensive ability, for an absolute nobody and a bit of cash. Net gain, 270k Next, try to trade fan favorite (and personal favorite) closer making $1.1 mil for next year. No takers, even if retaining a huge portion. Boo. Arb eligible starting shortstop, and highest position player war on the team, gone for a so-so prospect and cash. Wanted to keep him, but starting 2bman is nearly his equal defensively, has offensive upside, and most importantly is making minimum. Net gain, 550k Arb eligible, and soon to be free agent left fielder, 3rd best war. Actually got a player package back for him that included a first time arb eligible starter, which will allow me to deal one of my expensive arb starters without an overall quality decline in the rotation. Thankfully I am flush with quality high minors outfielders right now. Net gain, 300k, and with this deal I have technically moved into "the green" at $8,800 available lol. Arb eligible starter, led the league in wins a couple times, but showing signs of trouble. Brought back a nearly ready corner infielder (could be a cheap 1b/dh/emergency 3b for 3 or 4 years) with a couple other minor leaguers swapped between teams. Not exactly a "haul," but that other pitcher I nabbed should be a solid replacement. Net gain, 750k, now I can at least get my scouting budget moved back to something reasonable, I'm going to need it. Arb eligible 3b/1b, decent defensively at third, had a weird down year, but was great the previous two. Splits really favor hitting against lefties, I just can't afford to pay for the wrong side of a platoon. He'll probably be a monster for the next few years. Got myself a back end starter (cheap!) and a nice little pile of cash in return. Net, 600k Arb eligible good defensive corner OF, team captain, a few injury issues, but that glut of cheap and good outfielders on the doorstep. Got a borderline usable second baseman (also a captain, convenient, and cheap), and a little cash. Not a great swap, but had to happen. Net, 200k Offered one year contracts to 4 arb eligible players, can't trade everyone, I'm still expecting to win. Have one big decision to make on another starting pitcher in last year of arb. The smart move is get what I can, but I probably need him, and he doubles as a lefty-masher at DH. If it weren't for the owner shenanigans I would have signed him long term during spring, but alas here we are. --- Ended up saying the hell with it, I offered him a one year deal (835k still hurts). He's good enough that I can either trade him later, or throw the qualifying offer at him if the returns aren't sufficient. I did offer that catcher a long term deal. The owner wants it, I want it, and I cleared enough future budget to do it. I can already feel the regret growing. This is starting to make me sick. I've dealt away more high quality talent in a week than in the previous decade combined. :/ Good thing I had some fan interest banked, they aren't happy with anything I've been doing. Last edited by snepp; 02-11-2026 at 06:11 AM.

02-10-2026, 11:18 PM	#3
snepp All Star Starter Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 1,666	Frankly, I have no idea at this point. This guy took over shortly after spring training started and I'm about to start the season. To make matters worse, along with that expected $2.6 million dollar reduction in funds available next year, my salary expectations are due to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $2.5 million dollars higher. Unless I can magic my way into an additional $5 million somewhere, I have no clue what's going to happen other than to have a one year fire sale and then shift mental gears a bit. The biggest problem I'm going to have is that I tend to get a little emotionally tied to a handful of players, leading to me keeping them extended and together as long as possible. Probably not in the cards now, I'll be flipping arb eligible guys constantly. Maybe I could keep a couple around, but the rest of the team would need to be making absolute peanuts. Some painful decisions await, this first offseason isn't going to be pretty.

02-10-2026, 11:34 PM	#5
snepp All Star Starter Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 1,666	Maybe I'll shift my draft strategy back to what I would do when I initially take over a destitute team, go college heavy. They require less dev time, and if this clown-show of an owner tanks my dev budget over multiple years I may not want to be drafting heavy on kids that need all the extra time in the minors.

02-11-2026, 02:28 AM	#9
snepp All Star Starter Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 1,666	Playing small market teams is nothing new, I almost exclusively target them in my leagues. Sometimes when I hang around long enough the market grows a couple times, coupled with fan loyalty bumps I'll end up running pretty strong upper-mid budgets. Then I get bored and go take over a tiny team in the dumpster. I've had cheapskate owners too, that's nothing new. I've had these meddling owners at times, and they can be highly annoying. But I've never had a small market team, with the absolute cheapest owner possible, and have them be meddling all at the same time. This will be something new.

02-11-2026, 03:29 PM	#11
venflaalachi Major Leagues Join Date: Mar 2017 Posts: 304	What a terrible combination. Penny pincher and meddling with extreme winning. Recipe for disaster. At least he is lenient somehow

02-11-2026, 06:50 PM	#13
snepp All Star Starter Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 1,666	Pretty boring offseason other than that initial week of mayhem. Signed a couple guys to minor league deals, and a couple with a major league option. Didn't dare hand out any actual guaranteed contracts, needed to maintain as much budget flexibility as possible in the hopes that Scrooge would up my dev budget considerably when preseason rolled around. He did crank it up from half the baseline of 600k to a touch over $1.6 mil. A far cry from where I'd normally operate, but at least it's above average. Having my international budget fixed sucks. With a decent owner if you don't spend it at least it has the chance of rolling over as cash into the following season, but not here. So I spent every last penny of that budgeted 650k, I wasn't going to let him pocket a cent of it later. I'll do the same with the draft, pushing it as far over budget as my finances will allow just out of spite. No firesale next offseason thankfully, projected payroll is the same as this year. Unfortunately my scouting and dev is getting artificially boosted by that 900k cash I was able to bring in through trade, which won't be happening again, at least nowhere near that. Preseason prediction loves my squad, so I'll probably have a rash of injuries and underperform.

02-12-2026, 02:21 AM	#14
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Brisbane, Australia Posts: 233	[QUOTE=snepp;5239069]And not being able to control the dev budget is going to be miserable. He'll set it to league minimum as soon as the season ends given that I'll be a bazillion dollars over budget. sigh Maybe I should go find that Howie Tolbert kid, I hear he'll play for peanuts.[/QUOTE] This made me laugh!!

02-12-2026, 04:18 AM	#15
snepp All Star Starter Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 1,666	Starting my 3rd offseason with Mr. McScroogerson at the helm now. Apparently making it to the semi-final and generating a profit for the year of $3.1 million wasn't good enough, let's drop that budget an additional 400k. We're at $11.4 million now. But hey, I "get" to use 200k of that profit this year! Last edited by snepp; 02-12-2026 at 04:21 AM.

02-12-2026, 07:08 PM	#18
snepp All Star Starter Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 1,666	Championship win, about time (6 failed playoff trips since my first one). $3.9 million in profit this season on my $11.4 million dollar budget. Oops, make that an $11.2 million dollar budget now, I must have spent a little too much money for his liking. I sent a private investigator to look into him, trying to dig up some dirt so that I could get him kicked out of the league. This is all he could find... Attached Images

02-12-2026, 08:13 PM	#19
WhiskyTango Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Mar 2025 Posts: 291	Your PI quacked the case. Meanwhile my Phillies who were 10 out in August have gone .833 in September and are 1 1/2 out, with a series coming up against the 1st place Braves. Might be dialing in to watch those games.