How To Create An Evil Empire...

[myasu]

I am trying to create a solo-fictional league, where there is a gigantic team like Yankees in real world, totally dominating financially. (I would want to manage a team for the average market, and somehow beat the "Evil Empire")

Do you have any idea what I should do to make the evil empire?

Probably I should tweak the financial settings for the strong team, like increasing the market size and fan interest, etc..., but do you think there is a way to KEEP THE RICH TEAM RICH all the way? (even being controled by AI)

Appreciate any kind of input.

myasu

[Kelric]

Go in every season and edit their financials to give them lots of cash?

[SandMan]

Initially increase their Media Contracts to an ungodly amount and have the contract expire 10 or more years in the future. Up the Merchandising Revenue to twice or three times the other teams. This will give the team a ton of extra money. Up the Cash and have no cash minimum, and lower the ticket price for the team. These ideas will create a ton of extra cash for the team. Hopefully the team will then spend the extra cash on free agents creating your evil empire.....

[1998 Yankees]

Definitely have a large Average Media Contract value and set Media Contract fixed? to No, based on team market size. Then, set the New York market to be Astronomical or Huge and the others as something less. I would not go too far down the market size scale for the others (maybe Average as the lowest, not Tiny or Insignificant) because the other teams may not be able to survive financially with too great a difference. Then have either No Cash Maximum or a very high amount for this.

Say, since I took no offense to your "Evil Empire" reference (I have become immune since my tender rookie days here), I will ask you the following:

You say, "---Yes, Matsuzaka is probably one of the best Japanese pitchers ever, but I'd take Okajima for my friend." Would you mind taking Igawa as well? I mean, taking him back for a cash refund?

[Assos]

Agreed. Pop your media contracts up to as large as you can humanly spend. Up the amount of cash that you can hold, turn off revenue sharing and spend, spend, spend..... coax a 45 HoF pitcher to come back each year..... I think you get the idea.

[myasu]

Originally Posted by 1998 Yankees

Definitely have a large Average Media Contract value and set Media Contract fixed? to No, based on team market size. Then, set the New York market to be Astronomical or Huge and the others as something less. I would not go too far down the market size scale for the others (maybe Average as the lowest, not Tiny or Insignificant) because the other teams may not be able to survive financially with too great a difference. Then have either No Cash Maximum or a very high amount for this.

Say, since I took no offense to your "Evil Empire" reference (I have become immune since my tender rookie days here), I will ask you the following:

You say, "---Yes, Matsuzaka is probably one of the best Japanese pitchers ever, but I'd take Okajima for my friend." Would you mind taking Igawa as well? I mean, taking him back for a cash refund?

Well, Igawa.....I know.

He has not been any help at all for you guys.
I just don't think he has enough quality to be one of the starters for the Evil Empire.

But hey! You could still keep him for whenever your "65 years old Clemens" feel like skipping an outing for watching his son's ballgames! (^^)

[myasu]

Originally Posted by Assos

Agreed. Pop your media contracts up to as large as you can humanly spend. Up the amount of cash that you can hold, turn off revenue sharing and spend, spend, spend..... coax a 45 HoF pitcher to come back each year..... I think you get the idea.

Yeah, now I get the idea after mentioned about the 45 year old!

I guess the problem here is that the AI managed team would not spend as much money even if they had rediculous cash and so falls....
I am wondering if there is a way to sort of force the team to REALLY SPEND THE $$$$$$$$$$$ !

Thanks anyways everybody for your inputs!

[1998 Yankees]

Originally Posted by myasu

Well, Igawa.....I know.

He has not been any help at all for you guys.
I just don't think he has enough quality to be one of the starters for the Evil Empire.

But hey! You could still keep him for whenever your "65 years old Clemens" feel like skipping an outing for watching his son's ballgames! (^^)

That would make Igawa 48 years old at that time, but hey, it might work. Maybe by that time Igawa would have learned how to pitch by then!

Ah, don't mind me. I'm just bitter that Evil Empire II (Boston) acquired two good pitchers from your country this year and original Evil Empire seems to have been shut out in this regard. I can take them getting Matsuzaka, but Okajima on top of it? Too much.

Regarding your own Evil Empire project, I would be interested to hear how that turned out. It may not be as easy as we posters here have made it sound. I am thinking that the game will either 1) find ways to be competitive anyway, or 2) will collapse under the financial weight of the fat cat colossus that you created.
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[Kelric]

Originally Posted by 1998 Yankees

Ah, don't mind me. I'm just bitter that Evil Empire II (Boston) acquired two good pitchers from your country this year and original Evil Empire seems to have been shut out in this regard. I can take them getting Matsuzaka, but Okajima on top of it? Too much.

[myasu]

Originally Posted by 1998 Yankees

That would make Igawa 48 years old at that time, but hey, it might work. Maybe by that time Igawa would have learned how to pitch by then!

Ah, don't mind me. I'm just bitter that Evil Empire II (Boston) acquired two good pitchers from your country this year and original Evil Empire seems to have been shut out in this regard. I can take them getting Matsuzaka, but Okajima on top of it? Too much.

Regarding your own Evil Empire project, I would be interested to hear how that turned out. It may not be as easy as we posters here have made it sound. I am thinking that the game will either 1) find ways to be competitive anyway, or 2) will collapse under the financial weight of the fat cat colossus that you created.
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Well, I guess the Yankees are still in it, after their win yesterday, they are only 9 games behind Red Sox. I almost hear the creepy footsteps of theirs...

Back to the subject, I think you are right about the financial setups.
It is really complicated and delicate.
I did some 20 years test simming after the brief tweaking, giving Yankees like $240,000,000 budget/year.
Yankees had the $190,000,000 players payroll for most of the time, but still failed to make it to the world series very often.
They won 19 division title out of 20 times, being 24 games ahead of the rest, but won only 3 WS titles. (Losing to the NL teams who had almost half the payroll...)

I will do some more test, and post the result here, but I am starting to feel kind of stupid doing this myself.
Now I am starting to understand how Mr. GS feel about baseball in a way...
It must be so frustrating watching the team struggling to make .500 line, after you spent that kind of money!

[TheSayWhatKid]

Originally Posted by SandMan

Initially increase their Media Contracts to an ungodly amount and have the contract expire 10 or more years in the future. Up the Merchandising Revenue to twice or three times the other teams. This will give the team a ton of extra money. Up the Cash and have no cash minimum, and lower the ticket price for the team. These ideas will create a ton of extra cash for the team. Hopefully the team will then spend the extra cash on free agents creating your evil empire.....

Uh.....how in the world would lowering ticket prices and having a no cash MINIMUM generate more money?

[ctorg]

The only reliable way to do it that I've found is to use Commissioner powers to manipulate players on the team and make them better. The AI isn't good enough that you can just give it extra money and it will spend it properly. I've had teams with double the payroll of the next best team stink up the league for years because the AI will give enormous multiyear contracts to aging veterans if it has a lot of money to work with.

I've created "Evil Empire" teams in leagues by editing their first two draft picks several years in a row to make them very good and major league ready by the next season.

Of course, it does happen that such teams will occasionally come into being on their own without assistance. For some reason, it seems unrelated to how much money they had. There was one franchise I had in a league that didn't finish below 2nd place for 25 straight seasons. They won something like nine World Series in that time.

[myasu]

Originally Posted by ctorg

The only reliable way to do it that I've found is to use Commissioner powers to manipulate players on the team and make them better. The AI isn't good enough that you can just give it extra money and it will spend it properly. I've had teams with double the payroll of the next best team stink up the league for years because the AI will give enormous multiyear contracts to aging veterans if it has a lot of money to work with.

I've created "Evil Empire" teams in leagues by editing their first two draft picks several years in a row to make them very good and major league ready by the next season.

Of course, it does happen that such teams will occasionally come into being on their own without assistance. For some reason, it seems unrelated to how much money they had. There was one franchise I had in a league that didn't finish below 2nd place for 25 straight seasons. They won something like nine World Series in that time.

I agree.
Well, maybe this whole thing is not such a good idea, not as fun as I thought it would be...

I guess I would go back to enjoying the "real world evil empire" falling apart! <(^v^)>/

[jerrycapo]

I think you have created the perfect evil empire. Remember the most recent Yankee dynasty did not start with the Yankees outspending everybody, the overspending became a result of trying to preserve the dynansty at all costs. When the Yankees got started it was with some good prospects (Jeter, Williams, Pettite) combined with some key veterans (Boggs, Martinez, O'Neill, Cone, Key)

None of the players were necessarily the best at their position but they had a good team chemistry. 1997 was the year closer duties were turned over to Rivera. 1998 saw the Yanks bring up Posada. They also added Knoblauch and Brosius to the team. 1999, 2000, & 2001 saw virtually the same team as 1998 with the addition of Mike Mussina and David Justice in 2001 being the only big names they brought in.

2002 was the start of the evil empire spending spree. They brought in Giambi, Ventura, Rondell White, and Raul Mondesi. 2003's big addition was Hideki Matsui. 2004 saw the addition of ARod, Sheffield, Kevin Brown. Randy Johnson and Carl Pavano were added in 2005. Johnny Damon, Jaret Wright and Bobby Abreu in 2006. And after initially showing some restraint in 2007 they add Roger Clemens.

From 1996-2001 6 playoff appearences, 5 division titles, 5 AL pennants, 4 world series championships.

From 2002-2006 5 playoff appearences, 5 division titles, 1 AL pennant, 0 World Series Champioships.

As the core younger players got more expensive the Yankees started to bring in more and more overpriced veterans at the expense of their farm system. So from the looks of it, the evil empire expirement seems to be about right on.

This information was gathered from a quick glance at baseballalmanac.com. Some of the information may be slightly off, but should be pretty close as to when the different players were added to the team. Fell free to correct any glaring errors. This list also only lists the players hwo were at least slightly helpful to the team. Big, fat toads and other busts were not mentioned.

[myasu]

Originally Posted by jerrycapo

I think you have created the perfect evil empire. Remember the most recent Yankee dynasty did not start with the Yankees outspending everybody, the overspending became a result of trying to preserve the dynansty at all costs. When the Yankees got started it was with some good prospects (Jeter, Williams, Pettite) combined with some key veterans (Boggs, Martinez, O'Neill, Cone, Key)

None of the players were necessarily the best at their position but they had a good team chemistry. 1997 was the year closer duties were turned over to Rivera. 1998 saw the Yanks bring up Posada. They also added Knoblauch and Brosius to the team. 1999, 2000, & 2001 saw virtually the same team as 1998 with the addition of Mike Mussina and David Justice in 2001 being the only big names they brought in.

2002 was the start of the evil empire spending spree. They brought in Giambi, Ventura, Rondell White, and Raul Mondesi. 2003's big addition was Hideki Matsui. 2004 saw the addition of ARod, Sheffield, Kevin Brown. Randy Johnson and Carl Pavano were added in 2005. Johnny Damon, Jaret Wright and Bobby Abreu in 2006. And after initially showing some restraint in 2007 they add Roger Clemens.

From 1996-2001 6 playoff appearences, 5 division titles, 5 AL pennants, 4 world series championships.

From 2002-2006 5 playoff appearences, 5 division titles, 1 AL pennant, 0 World Series Champioships.

As the core younger players got more expensive the Yankees started to bring in more and more overpriced veterans at the expense of their farm system. So from the looks of it, the evil empire expirement seems to be about right on.

This information was gathered from a quick glance at baseballalmanac.com. Some of the information may be slightly off, but should be pretty close as to when the different players were added to the team. Fell free to correct any glaring errors. This list also only lists the players hwo were at least slightly helpful to the team. Big, fat toads and other busts were not mentioned.

And don't forget Igawa in 2007!

I think you are right.
It is a big mistake to try to buy the World Series Rings, if it is a real baseball or a game.

[Khrog]

Thought about this one a little bit. What about playing with coaches and scouts on and modifying the coaches/scouts on the Evil Empire team to be enormously better than the opposition. They could have their astronomical market and with the better talent evaluation and production....

Just a thought.

[Here24]

This is a little more effort; in my solo league I scout internationally and then release all the discovered players into free agency. Since there are quite a few gems to be found, this increases the competitive level of the league. You might think about giving them all to the Yankees to give them a real edge.

[myasu]

Interesting ideas guys.

I have tried to build the "Empire" with several ways, and I am certain for one thing.
Fixing/Manupilating the finance of the team has not worked as I had wished.

Just like ctorg said, below is what you will end up seeing.
"the AI will give enormous multiyear contracts to aging veterans if it has a lot of money to work with"

Just like you guys say, maybe using scouting/coaching in certain ways could be more effective.

[CBL-Commish]

1) Put your Yankees in New York, Tokyo, London... somewhere like that.
2) Put all the rest of the teams in the league in Appalachian League towns, like Pulaski and Bluefield.
3) Set free agency eligibility to one year.
4) No salary cap
5) No cash maximum
6) No revenue sharing
7) Make Yankee Stadium 80,000+ seats.
8) Make all other stadiums around 1000 seats, with ticket prices maxed out.
9) No playoffs - regular season winner is champ.
10) No draft. All amateurs are free agents.
11) Yanks have 12 minor league teams, everyone else one.

[myasu]

Originally Posted by CBL-Commish

1) Put your Yankees in New York, Tokyo, London... somewhere like that.
2) Put all the rest of the teams in the league in Appalachian League towns, like Pulaski and Bluefield.
3) Set free agency eligibility to one year.
4) No salary cap
5) No cash maximum
6) No revenue sharing
7) Make Yankee Stadium 80,000+ seats.
8) Make all other stadiums around 1000 seats, with ticket prices maxed out.
9) No playoffs - regular season winner is champ.
10) No draft. All amateurs are free agents.
11) Yanks have 12 minor league teams, everyone else one.

Yes!

Only in America