What is good beginners rebuilding advice?

[ForeverRoyalKC]

I am letting my MLB 2016 season play out because A) I am just too busy right now and B) I want to learn the game better before I dive in and start a rebuilding process. So I wanted advice on what is a good procedure to start the rebuild process.
I am currently looking at every teams top prospects to see if there might be any good young kids to watch for future trade acquisitions or if they are waived, cut, etc. As I said, I am wanting to start from the ground up, so can you give me steps from the very beginning of rebuilding?!

[fcabanski]

Are you playing stats only, or are you using star ratings? If so, what scale are you using?

[gfas]

When I started mine I poured tons of money into player development and maxed out the money I could spend on scouting. Also keep an eye on service time, keep your talented prospects down in the minors for as long as reasonably possible. Other than that, it's just the obvious stuff like deal away veterans for prospects... maybe try to include cash to max the return you can get. Not a bad idea to sign some free agent relievers and flip them mid-season.

[ForeverRoyalKC]

fca, I'm using star ratings with a 1-20 ratings.

[TuckerDuckson]

When rebuilding its all about selling value for low key prospects. Say you take over the Brewers for simplicity, say for some reason you got Aaron Hill batting .333/.450/.546 (which would never happen) with a .390 BABIP, obviously it's unsustainable, so you would want to flip Hill as soon as you can, trust me the AI goes crazy for current production, in my current league I was able to flip a 2.5 star SP (who was 10-2 with a 1.45 ERA) for a Young, cheap left fielder with a huge ceiling.

This also brings up the thing of free agency, try to sign "bounce back candidates." My example here is John Danks who I signed for his Age 39 season. He's a lefty extreme ground ball pitcher in Comerica Park, this caused him to go 7-5 with a 2.45 ERA and a subsequent flip for a 4 star prospect.

When your rebuilding NEVER sign people long term, it will eventually screw you out of house and home, because your 5 star closer who you signed to a 15 mil pact WILL get Tommy John Surgery and deplete to a 1.5 star player after he gets back.

Other general tips are getting guys with low "desire to win" or else you will have a mutiny on your hands like the Tampa Bay Rays who's two best player really care about winning, but they constantly lose, and this rift will causes you to lose more.

Drop cash on the international free agents too, most of the sub 100k players are for sure burnouts. It's around a 95% chance they either, get hurt, retire, or just don't perform. The more cash you spend on the player the higher chance they will succeed. Even though it's not guaranteed, (heck I've had 8.5 mill players burn out over the course of 2 seasons.)

[megamanmatt]

Great offense can win you a World Series but great pitching and fielding can build you a dynasty.

[r0nster]

Get your pitching and defense (they go hand in hand) and work on hitting with good defense. Don't be afraid to make some trades giving up minor leaguers and or even draft picks in order to shore up lineup or pitching. dump players too old on team or only mediocre

[scott1964]

Fire everyone.

[Hammercraft]

^ Those are all good suggestions. Here's my take so far

The hard-core rebuild means purging your roster of anyone under contract or in late arbitration and playing only replacement players and prospects, focusing entirely on rebuilding your depth for 4-5 years out.

Coaching Staff
These guys are responsible for turning talent into players, don't go cheap. Personally I cheat by checking the settings of everyone I hire, because in my opinion it's obvious whether a guy can coach or not, it shouldn't be a mystery, just a cost. Hire good coaches because it's an investment that always pays off.

What to get rid of:
The Weak - Don't keep anyone that has a fragile injury history. Trade them for whatever you can get.
The Mean - Trade away clubhouse cancers. Other teams won't like them any more than you do, but if you're going to lose a lot of games it just makes the situation worse if they're hanging around making people miserable.
The Old - Everyone under contract/over age 30/in late arbitration; they won't be around when you start winning, no sense keeping them just to lose a few less games.

Free Agency:
There's nothing wrong with grabbing guys under age 25 who have some potential and have decent character, check the Free Agent listings in the offseason to see if any of these guys are hanging around and will sign a minor league contract. Don't bother spending on anything else.

International:
In general, you want to have a lot of cash available in your budget for this but you might not spend it out. If you spend more than 3,150,000 in any year it will impede your ability to sign guys the following year. Sometimes you will see players you want to add and you can come in under budget, sometimes you can't. Sometimes there will be a year when there is gobs of talent out there and you want it all - go for it. Break the bank, bring in these 70 rating guys and suffer the consequences. Guys like that are irreplaceable.

The Draft
This is a judgment call based on what's available. In general, draft the best talent available at any position. The exception is pitchers - you want to only draft starters. Relievers pretty much just happen, starters are a valuable commodity. But there are some strategies I've found that may apply on occasion:

The Top Pick - when you lose, you get a good pick. Use it wisely. Get someone who you are ready to build your franchise around. With the first pick never pick someone who is 'impossible' to sign, he'll probably be there in a few rounds anyway. If there's a top talent with good character at a skill position or will fit in your rotation, grab him.

The Imbalance - be aware of how deep certain positions are in the league and in the draft. Sometimes a certain position just won't have a lot of good talent in it. It might be third base, or catcher, or starting pitchers; this is the 'market inequity' that Beane talked about. When you have something valuable that other people can't get, it makes for favorable trade conditions later, or prevents overspending when you need to fill a hole.

The Unrecognized - sometimes, if you sort the players by their raw abilities in the draft you will discover a rare guy who has amazing pitching abilities and is listed as a one-star infielder, or is listed as a relief pitcher with 70 power. Around rounds 4-6 start looking for these guys who will still be on the board because other teams either don't recognize their ability to be converted or don't want to take the time developing it. You are rebuilding, you have lots of time to develop guys.

The Pass - sometimes the draft is just bad, and there's nothing out there you want to waste a top-5 pick on. It's rare, but it can happen. In that case I suggest you pick someone 'impossible' and let them decline your poor offer. The result is you get a supplemental pick for next year in the same round.

The Owner
Unless you've got your game set to 'can't be fired' you're going to want to satisfy at least one of your owner's demands each year (preferably more). The easiest one to satisfy is attendance - just dramatically drop your ticket price. If he asks for a team leader you can usually find someone cheap in free agency, some aging veteran with nothing to offer but a spot on the DL and extreme leadership qualities, and make sure they are on your roster on the last day of the postseason when you are evaluated. I'd keep them around anyway and let them play - who cares? Losing games right now just means a better draft pick. When your owner starts asking you to 'extend a player' or 'acquire a cy young winner', etc., sometimes the answer is no. he won't like it, but you have a rebuild to do. Keep track of your draft picks so that if he says 'bring more drafted players to your team' you aren't trading these guys away absentmindedly.

[Bub13]

To Hammercraft's good advice, I'd add that you should check the free agent lists often during the season, and the fall right after the season. Sort by various potentials, and keep an eye out for young guys who are "mislabeled." By that I mean pitchers who suck but can hit, or players who can't hit/field but can pitch. In my current league, about 8 years ago I signed a 22-year-old subpar pitching prospect who'd just been released. He's been my starting SS for 6 years now, and a 4-time all-star. Often these guys end up not panning out, but it's worth taking the chance from time to time.

[The Wolf]

Those last two posts are very good advice, to which I would add this: watch the waiver wire.

[The Wolf]

Another rebuilding tip: never sign a free agent to a contract for more than three years or that will take them past age 30.

[Hadehariast]

One thing that I do, rebuilding or not, is take a couple of hours to set up a 'character shortlist'-- a special shortlist for all 0.5* and 1* players aged twenty and under who have, at a minimum, Work Ethic and Intelligence ratings of Normal/High (or vice versa). These are the types of guys that I try to fill my minor leagues with, in the hopes that the TCR faeries will sprinkle a little faery dust on them and turn a couple of them into usable bench or platoon players. The idea behind creating the shortlist is to make it easier to find the low-talent 'filler' that you can try to acquire when you need a scrub to balance things out in the context of a larger trade. A couple of times each season I review the list to see if there are any players who have seen their potential ratings increase in any substantive way, and aim to acquire them if they have.

[NoOne]

once i get going i don't really "rebuild." if you are very careful about age and expensive contracts, a down year is simply missing the playoffs, but nothing resembling a rebuild.

so, to start, make sure to focus on prospects and not FA. once you have the beginnings of a solid core, well-timed FA signings will catapult you to success. you shouldn't have to rebuild after that unless terrible luck befalls you, which happens.

be systematic about the various ways of collecting talent - when to check waivers, when to do this or that and how - be consistent every year even in "Up" years. never leave money unspent during a season (profit may be a consideration - i save that for future FAs that might not fit otherwise)... by july 1, you know whether the cap space is important to any decisions... make sure to buy as many international amatuers as possible every year... when you see a *super prospect, be willing to go over the cap and accept penalties the next year when signing int'l FA amatuers.

do not get attached to players. emotions cloud judgement. bad judgement brings bad results, barring luck (see Joe Dumars run as Pistons president - pure luck, no real plan or consistent thought employed).

never sign a pitcher to a long term contract if they will be mid 30's plus by the end... pitchers are best young/cheap and upto 30-32 with default aging. if you need to have a couple years beyond that, make sure to check out possible trades the first sign of a talent dropoff. A batter i'm willing to go a year or 2 longer with same give'n take attitude about extra years.

only spend boku bucks on players that will contribute in the playoffs. don't spend 5-10M on a bench player. understand your budget.. if you know you cannot afford 3 players costing more than 60M in total, simply don't do it. it won't turn out well...

what do you need for the playoffs? personal preference, but just be realistic... if you spend 10-20M on your bench and they get 10AB over an entire WS run, what is their value per dollar? nearly worthless.

only spend big money outside of those playoff roster needs, if the budget allows ( over entire contract length and future needs/plans).

e.g. don't have a 20M #4 SP if you are going to run a 3-man rotation in the playoffs.

when you control your budget and maximize your ability to pounce on opportunities (you can't spend money that isnt in the budget! it's 100% your fault when you can't afford somethign you need). you may have to sacrifice a slightly down year for a brighter future, while also avoiding a full rebuild. BUT, you can't always have your eye to the future, either... pick and choose when to go for it in the present, and when to throttle back a bit on spending for the future.


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not likely:

if you have draft pick trading on... trade away picks and any prospect that doesn fit your plans for as many first round picks as you can. you can get the first 3 to 5 picks every year.

if it's not on, you definitely should never have to rebuild, or you've done something wrong.

[ThePretender]

Originally Posted by megamanmatt

Great offense can win you a World Series but great pitching and fielding can build you a dynasty.

That's not true at all. You can with with an elite offence and a poor pitching staff. The goal is simply to outscore the other team. You're passing up quality players if you focus on one over another, such as going for pitching or defence. Go for BPA, whether that value comes from offence or pitching.

[ForeverRoyalKC]

I want to thank everyone who contributed to this thread. Since I am so busy, I will copy and paste these and print them out so I can read and reference them on the go. This is tons of useful info and great strategy to get myself on the right track. I am letting the 2016 season play out and will take a GM job in the offseason (be it a firing or I just become GM of a team on my own wish). Thanks again! I really appreciate your time and effort!

[Elf Marine]

Originally Posted by The Wolf

Those last two posts are very good advice, to which I would add this: watch the waiver wire.

I was going to say the same. It doesn't matter what kind of team I have at the moment. I watch the waiver wire all season. I watch for those under 30 that will be useful to me now or when they develop a little more as well as those that make good trade material for draft picks or good people for my organization.

[Elf Marine]

Originally Posted by ForeverRoyalKC

I want to thank everyone who contributed to this thread. Since I am so busy, I will copy and paste these and print them out so I can read and reference them on the go. This is tons of useful info and great strategy to get myself on the right track. I am letting the 2016 season play out and will take a GM job in the offseason (be it a firing or I just become GM of a team on my own wish). Thanks again! I really appreciate your time and effort!

Another I did with one of my characters. With OOTP16 (just because I bought it late. I played a season with a AAA team in GM mode (a Manager because of being in the minors). I was then offered an MLB team GM position. I didn't play it. I waited a few weeks until OOTP17 came out and got that, then I imported it so I am the GM of that team. I simply played that in 16 to find out what team I was going to be with. I got lucky and got a team with a great minor league system in the Astros. I just wish they were still a National League team.

I have others with my favorites being with OOTP17 I started a couple with one in GM mode and one in Manager mode. Both though I took whatever I liked the most for A ball at the moment and different leagues from each other that were offered. Both in career mode of course. From there I am just playing out a career and see what happens. By the time I make it to the majors I have no idea where I hope to be. I'll take the best offers for me at the time and preferably National League.