Seattle and me

Hoppity · 03-11-2021, 10:21 AM

Just getting started and I’m besotted with the game. But owner John Stanton is ruining my life. I decided to commit to a smaller, less fashionable franchise and see if I could build something. I chose Seattle. After the usual steep learning curve and innumerable restarts I’ve started to get the hang of things.

But John Stanton is killing me. Leave aside having to work with almost nothing, a small budget half-taken up with expensive mediocrities. I can cope with that but it’s there insanity of the requests. The session before this I went from hopeless to playoffs in the one season. The clincher was getting hold of Anthony Rizzo for almost no money for the second half of the season. We got through the wild-card play-off but no further. The ground was full the whole season (2021) but he set me a 2022 budget with around $15m for free agents and nothing for extensions. Then he told me my prime objective was to sign Rizzo to an extension – Rizzo, naturally, wanted $21m a year for 6 years.

Today I started again, 2020 season, and took a raggle-taggle team to the World Series - no cheating, lots of luck. In the subsequent budget I started with $17m for everything. After setting my scouting budget to $20m I had around $8m left. I did a few creative trades and was beginning to feel good as the season approached.

Then I got a new PM from Stanton who told me he was rearranging my budget, halving the scouting budget, increasing the player development way above base and giving me a bit of small change. Oh yes, and I had to re-sign the veteran shortstop, despite the fact the budget left me with free cash of less than half the first-year cost and nothing at all for the following years.

So my question to all you veterans is: is there any point? Over numerous re-runs I’ve increased fan interest and loyalty massively, filled the previously half-empty stadium, bolstered the ticket price and annual income. But the reward in terms of carry-over finance to afford even a handful of decent players on long-term contracts is never there. So is it me or is an owner like Stanton simply the rock up against which all ambition is dashed to pieces?

Hoppity

03-11-2021, 10:21 AM	#1
Hoppity Bat Boy Join Date: Mar 2021 Posts: 2	Seattle and me Just getting started and I’m besotted with the game. But owner John Stanton is ruining my life. I decided to commit to a smaller, less fashionable franchise and see if I could build something. I chose Seattle. After the usual steep learning curve and innumerable restarts I’ve started to get the hang of things. But John Stanton is killing me. Leave aside having to work with almost nothing, a small budget half-taken up with expensive mediocrities. I can cope with that but it’s there insanity of the requests. The session before this I went from hopeless to playoffs in the one season. The clincher was getting hold of Anthony Rizzo for almost no money for the second half of the season. We got through the wild-card play-off but no further. The ground was full the whole season (2021) but he set me a 2022 budget with around $15m for free agents and nothing for extensions. Then he told me my prime objective was to sign Rizzo to an extension – Rizzo, naturally, wanted $21m a year for 6 years. Today I started again, 2020 season, and took a raggle-taggle team to the World Series - no cheating, lots of luck. In the subsequent budget I started with $17m for everything. After setting my scouting budget to $20m I had around $8m left. I did a few creative trades and was beginning to feel good as the season approached. Then I got a new PM from Stanton who told me he was rearranging my budget, halving the scouting budget, increasing the player development way above base and giving me a bit of small change. Oh yes, and I had to re-sign the veteran shortstop, despite the fact the budget left me with free cash of less than half the first-year cost and nothing at all for the following years. So my question to all you veterans is: is there any point? Over numerous re-runs I’ve increased fan interest and loyalty massively, filled the previously half-empty stadium, bolstered the ticket price and annual income. But the reward in terms of carry-over finance to afford even a handful of decent players on long-term contracts is never there. So is it me or is an owner like Stanton simply the rock up against which all ambition is dashed to pieces? Hoppity