My Owner... Setting me up for failure...wtf?

[toddr037]

Ok So I run an expansion team (Vancouver Venom). Just completed my first year in MLB (74-88) Not a bad record for the very first year imo. My owner was actually quite pleased with that. However long term goals I had was build up a top 5 farm system, and be a playoff team in 3 years. Ok Im up for the challenge. My farm system in year one sucked. AAA team made the playoffs, but the rest were dismal +100 L years. Owner was not too happy about that. Lol. Neither am I. but makes sense though. I started with a completely empty minor league system and absolutely no prospects.
In year 1 my owner budget for me to work with was 34th in the league, my player payroll was tied for 24th in the league.



That was a breakdown of my situation. I just got my new owner goals for my 2nd official offseason. He still wants wants a top minor league system, still wants a playoff team in now 2 years, BUT HE SLASHED MY BUDGET? How am I supposed to do this? I'm not a miracle worker. Im not God! you want me to build up the farm, and make the playoffs, give me the money to get it done!

[One Post Wonder]

This is why most players including myself turn off owner goals. It's random and clearly not well implemented.

In an older version, I once got a goal to increase attendance to 21,000 a game and the stadium only held 18,000.

[Biggio509]

Originally Posted by toddr037

That was a breakdown of my situation. I just got my new owner goals for my 2nd official offseason. He still wants wants a top minor league system, still wants a playoff team in now 2 years, BUT HE SLASHED MY BUDGET? How am I supposed to do this? I'm not a miracle worker. Im not God! you want me to build up the farm, and make the playoffs, give me the money to get it done!

Depends on where your prospects are. Not easy but better than slashing payroll and wanting you to extend your top paid player, wanting an all star, or wanting a popular player.

Don't panic over not meeting all the goals. Technically all you have to do is squeak into a wildcard position. 12 games better than your last season will usually do that (90 wins) sometimes less. It depends on if your owner is patient or not.

If you really want to keep on with this team you can always turn on can't be fired. I have owners say they are really mad but still extend my contract if the team isn't terrible. Usually the playoffs by X season is the most lenient. The don't suck, play .500, etc. goal is usually more important.

If you exceed some goals like more wins than expected but don't make the playoffs it usually isn't that big of a deal. Just keep trying to improve your minors. The minors rank is a bit hard to move up if you are a small market moving prospects up at first available. I think it is some mix of current and potential for ranking prospects. Also what makes it hard is I think it using OSA ratings. Your scouts may have been guys that OSA doesn't think are anything but scrubs but that will be stars.

You have to remember you don't have to make every goal to make an owner happy or at least not angry enough to fire you. I have let guys go that he wanted resigned because I didn't have the budget or had a prospect ready and other areas were stronger needs. The owner was still happy that made other goals. If you are exceeding or meeting some goals and not making others it isn't a disaster. If you aren't meeting any goals prepare to look for a job.

[toddr037]

my prospect pool is very weak. I legit have 5 prospects who have over a 3.5 potential. All came from my one draft that Ive had. I had all of those playing rookie ball on a very bad team. Probably wasn't good for their development. Nobody likes losing, and even in real life, constant losing drains you out and stunts development. Basically my whole minor league system is guys who I scraped off the floor of the free agents pool. had to fill the rosters with someone.

[MizzouRah]

My owner tells me to play .500 ball this year (2022) and a long term goal, which is also due this season (2022) to win the World Series.

Just win.. that seems to trump everything they ask for.

[fuzzy_patters]

I have found that you really only have to meet one of his goals to keep your job. Just pick one. As an expansion team, it sounds like your best bet is to build up that farm system. Good luck!

[Biggio509]

Originally Posted by toddr037

my prospect pool is very weak. I legit have 5 prospects who have over a 3.5 potential. All came from my one draft that Ive had. I had all of those playing rookie ball on a very bad team. Probably wasn't good for their development. Nobody likes losing, and even in real life, constant losing drains you out and stunts development. Basically my whole minor league system is guys who I scraped off the floor of the free agents pool. had to fill the rosters with someone.

I have found it very hard to have winning teams below A ball. Typical my AA and AAA teams make the playoffs almost every year and even win it sometimes. Despite service limits I think the AI stacks the lower minors with scrubs that are stars of the rookie league. The AI may be promoting the real prospects soon than I do. I don't think I have a winning Rookie or even short A team other than right after the initial draft.

I usually don't see my top prospects burn out due to level. Over the years especially in 20 I have come to think it is more bad scouting than actual burn out. It used to be I had most of those top prospects go to crap in a year rating wise. It was probably because once they were in your org you got a truer scouting of them.

Building any org starts with your scout. If you get the best they are usually right and bad teams don't kill prospects. Some guys will develop slower. I just don't see the go from potential star to scrub like I used to when the scout is good and I usually use baseline maybe +10% scouting budgets. I also weight amatuer scouting 30%, majors 25%, minors 25%, international 20%. I haven't tried relying more on international discoveries. That is kind of a crap shoot but I have never put it a priority.

I really believe you see more an adjustment of bad scouting assessment than out right burn out, injuries excluded. I have heard some will compare OSA and their scout using them as the extreme ranges and assume a prospect is in the middle. That might help if you don't have a scout blue rated in amatuer scouting. I could care less about major league scouting. I don't care what my scout says if they have data in the league. Minor league scouting is more important for High A and below for me. After that I tend to mostly look at stats even though I sometimes delay a prospect's move to show when who is doing ok because my scout says he has lot more development. That is usually when the scout says he is average now but will be a star and he is young.

[lukestephens2293]

Originally Posted by toddr037

Ok So I run an expansion team (Vancouver Venom)

thats a incredible name for a team hahaha

[Reed]

Maybe your owner just doesn't like you or has someone else wants in mind. He is setting you up to be fired so just like in real life, RESIGN. With your record, there should be a bunch of owners wanting to hire you.

[dward1]

Turn off owner goals, they are mostly nonsensical and very little effort was put into developing the feature. It’s just an annoyance really.

Similar to coaching and scouting and player development and finances, they make good ads for what’s improved In game but they turn out to be 15% developed features that get no further thought after implementation

[SirMichaelJordan]

Originally Posted by toddr037

Ok So I run an expansion team (Vancouver Venom). Just completed my first year in MLB (74-88) Not a bad record for the very first year imo. My owner was actually quite pleased with that. However long term goals I had was build up a top 5 farm system, and be a playoff team in 3 years. Ok Im up for the challenge. My farm system in year one sucked. AAA team made the playoffs, but the rest were dismal +100 L years. Owner was not too happy about that. Lol. Neither am I. but makes sense though. I started with a completely empty minor league system and absolutely no prospects.
In year 1 my owner budget for me to work with was 34th in the league, my player payroll was tied for 24th in the league.



That was a breakdown of my situation. I just got my new owner goals for my 2nd official offseason. He still wants wants a top minor league system, still wants a playoff team in now 2 years, BUT HE SLASHED MY BUDGET? How am I supposed to do this? I'm not a miracle worker. Im not God! you want me to build up the farm, and make the playoffs, give me the money to get it done!

And Macdonald’s still want top notch customer service paying minimum wage.

Your owner sounds like a typical owner to me lol

[toddr037]

Originally Posted by SirMichaelJordan

And Macdonald’s still want top notch customer service paying minimum wage.

Your owner sounds like a typical owner to me lol

Lol. Touche!

[The Otter]

Aw, I like owner goals. Sure, they can be arbitrary, but without them, the game can get a little easy and a little monotonous. Every so often, having to (or at least having an incentive to) make trades in order to beef up your bullpen, or focus on base-stealing, or bring in some highly-rated prospects (etc.) keeps the team from looking the same year in, year out. (And honestly, their effect on firing is pretty minimal -- as long as you're hitting your win totals, you're keeping your job either way.)

One thing I haven't seen mentioned here is that "top 5 farm system" has nothing to do with the records of your minor-league teams. It has to do with the top prospect rankings -- just scour the rankings and find guys you can trade for. Bring in enough of the top 100 prospects, and it doesn't matter what their teams' records are.

Yeah, though -- losses aren't good for morale, which probably isn't good for development. (Who can say? I can't imagine it helps.) I tend to delegate minor-league player hires -- bringing in some players is fine, but if you don't turn the roster filler over to the system, things do tend to get a little sparse.

If you're still losing a lot of minor league games, one workaround you can employ is to lock the prospects you care about to the same team (or two teams -- one high-minors, one low-minors? Depends on where your prospects are, I guess.) and stack that team with relatively good players. (And your best minor-league coaches.) The other teams may suck, but the one with the players who have a future is fine.

[m0nk3y b0t]

Originally Posted by One Post Wonder

This is why most players including myself turn off owner goals. It's random and clearly not well implemented.

In an older version, I once got a goal to increase attendance to 21,000 a game and the stadium only held 18,000.

I have this issue now with my owner telling me to increase attendance from 45433 to 57000 per game. Stadium only holds 46000.

Playing as the Mariners from 1995 and am now in the 2000 season. I fail that requirement every year and it is annoying.

[tejdog1]

Just sign a whole bunch of minor league free agents with good ratings relative to league. Artifically inflate their win totals so prospects you have develop in a winning environment.