Help team is 9 and 26

[rprusia]

Can someone give me some pointers how to win at this game... My team is awful...


Thanks,
Ray

[paul.m.w.]

1)Look to see who's unhappy and or underperforming.
Then see who you want as a happier replacement. See someone you like on another team, package an initial offer and see if they bite...

Option2)
Look in the minors to see who's ready to come up.
( but be careful ! Once they are brought up, they will not like quickly being returned.)

[Lukas Berger]

Defense is really important and good defense will make your pitchers perform better as well. So if you have a bunch of subpar defenders, replace some of them with good defenders even if you have to give up a little hitting to do so.

[paul.m.w.]

Originally Posted by lukasberger

Defense is really important and good defense will make your pitchers perform better as well. So if you have a bunch of subpar defenders, replace some of them with good defenders even if you have to give up a little hitting to do so.

True. Defense is important but a happy( or at least a well balanced ) clubhouse and a solid pitching staff put you in a place where the defense can be the split hair difference...

[RchW]

I wouldn't worry about the state of mind much. You don't want happy losers, but you can win the WS with unhappy players.

Are players in slumps or declining?
Where do you have excess talent?
Can you get a piece or two back?
Is there a ready prospect?
Do you have money? if so use it.

[le receveur]

defense and groundball pitchers

[Honorable_Pawn]

Originally Posted by RchW

I wouldn't worry about the state of mind much. You don't want happy losers, but you can win the WS with unhappy players.

Are players in slumps or declining?
Where do you have excess talent?
Can you get a piece or two back?
Is there a ready prospect?
Do you have money? if so use it.

And to elborate on this for a moment I would contend that, just like in real life winning cures all ills. As a general rule, if you are winning players will be happy no matter what. If you are losing players will be unhappy. Yes, there are exceptions. The guy who just got promoted to the bigs will be estatic on a losing team etc.

Don't get me wrong, morale is important to look at but first things first. What year of the rebuild are you in? If it's the 1st year of rebuild then forget about free-agents and trading for established big-leaguers. Start to trade away your best players for as much low-level talent as possible. Deal with the losing and build through the draft. Resist the temptation to rush players through your minors. Retain as many option years as possible and don't start that major league service time clock until all those prospects are moving up the ranks.

Here is an example of an expansion team that I took over where 30 players out of 40 were protected during the expansion draft:

Attachment 328406

I rushed that build a little bit on the 4th season but I was getting impatient. .500 was not a good idea for that season as I really need one more wave of good draft picks to sustain a long run. I should have held the kids back one more season. So, I was forced to trade away some minor-league talent during those 5th and 6th seasons for much a couple of much needded superstars. Sure I'm set, now, for a long run but the end of that run will be just a little shorter than it could have been. Also, the end of that run will be more expensive.

So, don't judge your progress by 50 games. Judge it by 810 games. Also, keep in mind there are a bunch of exploits that you could use to rebild very quickly. Avoid that temptation too. Keep it real and test yourself.

Have fun and good luck.

[Déjà Bru]

Good post, HP. Let me just add a bit to this:

Originally Posted by RchW

I wouldn't worry about the state of mind much. You don't want happy losers, but you can win the WS with unhappy players.

Originally Posted by Honorable_Pawn

And to elborate on this for a moment I would contend that, just like in real life winning cures all ills. As a general rule, if you are winning players will be happy no matter what. If you are losing players will be unhappy.

I'm not so sure. I think player mood is in the game for a reason and it affects player performance. You may be putting cart before horse in that winning may not be possible in the first place with unhappy players. Winning only affects the mood of those players who have high marks in the need for winning personality trait. Guys who are unhappy for other reasons will continue to be unhappy and they will tend to lose as a result. Also, we should not underestimate the effect of Leadership on team play and of Intelligence and Work Ethic on player performance as well.

[paul.m.w.]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

Good post, HP. Let me just add a bit to this:


I'm not so sure. I think player mood is in the game for a reason and it affects player performance. You may be putting cart before horse in that winning may not be possible in the first place with unhappy players. Winning only affects the mood of those players who have high marks in the need for winning personality trait. Guys who are unhappy for other reasons will continue to be unhappy and they will tend to lose as a result. Also, we should not underestimate the effect of Leadership on team play and of Intelligence and Work Ethic on player performance as well.

That's a nice summing of it there...that's where I was initially headed.

[Honorable_Pawn]

I care about morale but I do not let it impact my roster moves too much. For instance, I had a starter go down early in a game. I depleted my bullpen to finish out the game. After the game I immediately put him on the 14-day DL (before I even knew his injury). The first thought some would have is, "Hey, I better promote a starter to replace him". Instead, I promoted a much-needed reliever to bolster the bullpen. A couple of days later I got the diagnosis. He would be out 1-2 weeks. So when it was his turn to start I demoted the reliever and promoted a starter. After that game I demoted the starter and promoted a different reliever. When that next start came I demoted the reliever and promoted that same starter again.

All three of those players were overall happy (the AAA team is raking) but unhappy with transactions before my roster moves. Now after a cup of coffee and back in the monirs they are all as happy as could be. Why are they happy even though they were promoted and quickly demoted? Two reasons, I guess. One they got a cup of coffee. Two, the Triple A team is winning.

Attachment 328409




Attachment 328410




Attachment 328411

I want to emphasize that I do not ignore, leadership, work-ethic, morale etc but I definitely do not base a large percentage of my decision on them. I place an enormous weight on need and not so much on morale.

On a related note, like Bru, I try to have a cohesive locker room by having good leaders but not too many (too many chiefs not enough indians). Also, when I draft I draft based upon potential. Work ethic is my tie-breaker and some times I will take a slightly less skilled player with great work-ethic. So, yeah, work ethic is important to me...when I draft. After that roster moves are all about production and need.

[Snarf054]

I have a much simpler and less subtle way of fixing an under performing team.

During the season I shop every player that is not holding his own and trade them away for better or comparable players. I always give them at least 1/4 of the season to get it together though and prefer to wait until the all star break.

If it's the off season anyone that has annoyed me and is a free agent or due arbitration gets cut, anyone I can't cut due to their contract I trade. Then I just rebuild by filling in the holes from the free agent market. If you are playing offline against the AI this pretty much works every time.

Just be careful about trading away very popular players as your fans get highly annoyed if you do. I will still do it but they get more leeway than the less popular guys.

I've also found that unless your manager is Legendary or Excellent across the board canning him has a very good chance of getting the point across. Just make sure there is at least a somewhat respectable replacement available for him.

Just one last thing, if you are using the games star rating system hire the absolute best scout you can find because that guy hitting .200 that you think is a 4 star guy may very well be a 2 star guy if your scout sucks and the AI scouting system is not reliable at all, at best their scout is mediocre.

[RchW]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

Good post, HP. Let me just add a bit to this:


I'm not so sure. I think player mood is in the game for a reason and it affects player performance. You may be putting cart before horse in that winning may not be possible in the first place with unhappy players. Winning only affects the mood of those players who have high marks in the need for winning personality trait. Guys who are unhappy for other reasons will continue to be unhappy and they will tend to lose as a result. Also, we should not underestimate the effect of Leadership on team play and of Intelligence and Work Ethic on player performance as well.

Bru, sometimes players are unhappy for illogical reasons. Let me introduce Dalton Carpenter HoF, over 3000 hits 3 time batting champion 4 time WS winner (was injured for the playoffs in one year). In 13 seasons with Colorado he was unhappy because he wanted to bat cleanup with a 1 power rating. I batted him where he belonged and he performed. He played 3B 2B and SS for me and 1B late in his career.

I'd take a roster of truly talented unhappy players on a dominant team any time. In a perverse way I think Markus has made the player morale system work like real life. No definitive logic. I target unhappy players in trades. They rarely get happier on my teams. I don't think it would work on a non-dominant team.

[dave1927p]

Originally Posted by Honorable_Pawn

And to elborate on this for a moment I would contend that, just like in real life winning cures all ills. As a general rule, if you are winning players will be happy no matter what. If you are losing players will be unhappy. Yes, there are exceptions. The guy who just got promoted to the bigs will be estatic on a losing team etc.

.

where did you find that chart? I haven't seen it in the game...did you create it?

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by RchW

No definitive logic.

Cannot argue with this. Very little in this game is absolute. It's all probabilities and tendencies and nothing is guaranteed.

[paul.m.w.]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

Cannot argue with this. Very little in this game is absolute. It's all probabilities and tendencies and nothing is guaranteed.

And that's what makes the game great!

[Honorable_Pawn]

Originally Posted by dave1927p

where did you find that chart? I haven't seen it in the game...did you create it?

Team page here:

[le receveur]

Originally Posted by Honorable_Pawn

Team page here:

Attachment 328636

now you need to find ways to do fancy logos in the bar graph