I started in 1901 with the Reds. Had some crappy seasons to start as I stocked up on talent. In the 1905 draft I nabbed Ty Cobb.

You know, I've been thinking for the last couple months of whether or not to buy Baseball Mogul 2007. I've played a demo version, and it seems great.

Actually if you go to the site you can download the 2006 version for free. That's what I'm playing.

I had a huge turn around in just a single season. I finished 1904 at 46-108 and then in 1905 I went 93-61 and won the World Series.

Is it the full version of '06 you have for free, or the demo version? I went on the site, and it said $19.95 for '06, and '05 was free.

Downloading it now and giving it a try. Is this kinda' like EWR for baseball? If so....then DAMN YOU!!!

Yeah, it's similar though not as time consuming.

I'm heading into 1909 and I blew my team up after a weak 1908. I won the World Series 3 years in a row.

Are you simming your seasons or what?

Yeah, seasons go by pretty quickly.

So I managed to trade for "Shoeless" Joe Jackson and now my 1/2 in the lineup is Cobb and Jackson.

Got my 4th World Series title in 1912. Ty Cobb might be out the door after this season though. He's demanding a lot of money and I doubt I can pay him much more.

Started with the 1992 Pirates, won the division and but lost in the NLCS. But NOT to the motherfucking, cocksmoking, assbanging, fartgoblin Braves. I'm in 1993 now...and there are NO expansion teams (Rockies and Marlins started that year). That's kinda' lame.

I started with the Baltimore Orioles, beginning in 1954. First year, the team finished at 67-87, and the New York Giants beat the New York Yankees in the World Series.

I swiped Mickey Mantle in the offseason. In the '55 season, my Orioles went 84-70, and the Dodgers won the World Series.

That's odd. It's supposed to expand and chance divisions as it goes. In mine teams have moved and renamed when they were supposed to.

I'm in 1923. My team is at a cross roads as far as talent goes though. Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb and Roy Crumpler are the core of my team but they're also sucking up 60% of my payroll. I'd like to keep Cobb until he retires but I don't have a lot of room to move with payroll.

Roy Crumpler is an animal as my ace pitcher though. Through 5 seasons he's 89-26 with a 2.34 ERA. In my last season he went 31-6.

It should also be noted I haven't signed a single free agent at this point. I've done all my building through trades and the draft.

Ok, I see what to do. You have to go into league editor between seasons and add the expansion teams if they don't come on their own.

I'm up to the 1961 season, and the Angels and Senators (Rangers) were added to the league. And my team hit rock bottom in '60, finishing 42-112. Team is way in debt, and had to release Eddie Matthews and Mickey Mantle in consecutive seasons. Yankees have won 4 World Series ('54, '57-'59), Dodgers with 1 ('55), and Giants with 2 ('56 & '60).

I have 230 million just sitting in the bank with my game. I recommend trading for cash whenever you can to get out of debt. Just spend no money on free agents for a few years and use your high draft picks to build your team back up.

Here's how my team has done:

1901: 60-80 6th place
1902: 59-81 7th place
1904: 56-84 8th place
1905: 93-61 World Champion
1906: 98-56 World Champion
1907: 93-61 World Champion
1908: 73-81 6th place
1909: 61-93 8th place
1910: 68-86 6th place
1911: 66-88 7th place
1912: 95-59 World Champion
1913: 94-60 World Champion
1914: 104-50 World Champion
1915: 101-53 World Champion
1916: 96-58 2nd place
1917: 88-66 2nd place
1918: 79-75 4th place
1919: 81-73 3rd place
1920: 93-61 World Champion
1921: 105-49 NL Champion
1922: 109-45 World Champion
1923: 72-82 5th place
1924: 99-55 NL Champion

And here are the Orioles so far:


1954: 67-87 (7th place - Yankees win World Series)
1955: 84-70 (4th place - Dodgers win World Series)
1956: 80-74 (5th place - Giants win World Series)
1957: 77-77 (5th place - Yankees win World Series)
1958: 77-77 (5th place - Yankees win World Series)
1959: 70-84 (6th place - Yankees win World Series)
1960: 42-112 (8th place - Giants win World Series)
1961: 27-127 (8th place - Twins win World Series)
1962: 46-116 (10th place - Giants win World Series)


Strangely enough, I earned money from '60-'62.

A sad day in 1929 as the 42 year old Ty Cobb has lost his starter duty to John Freeman.

And for the first time since 1958, I get the Orioles a winning record in 1969. Finished 86-76, good enough for 2nd in the AL East, only to be behind the Yankees (125-37) by 39 games.

Yeah, I've finished with over 90 wins the last 2 seasons but the Giants won 111 and 101 games both years.

Traded Babe Ruth. I needed to cut payroll and he was my highest paid player. Hopefully I can rebuild in a couple of years.

Hey, you were talking about trades. Do you sim one month at a time, or sim the whole season at once?

I sim a month at a time. Once it ends I typically get 3-4 trade offers depending. Usually when you're contending some loser teams will offer you star talent on the last year of their deal. Most of the time the deals suck. If the team has money you can usually tack a million dollars onto the deal.

I also auto-sort my lineup and rotation after every month.

Whoops. No wonder my team goes to hell just about every year. Once I get to present time, I'll probably start all over and try again to see how it goes.

So basically I'm still letting the computer do most of the work. And it took 40 game years, but the Orioles finally made the playoffs in '94, with a 98-64 record, winning the AL East, but lost to the Angels in the ALDS.... And the Braves won their 4th straight World Series.

I still need to mess around some more with this. It seems to REALLY emphasize the trades. You can turnover your whole roster in less than a year. It's a little quirky, when it comes to rookies and stuff. For instance, Tim Wakefield didn't come up to the 1992 Pirates until late July, whereas in the game he's on the roster for the entire season. Same for Al Martin and Steve Cooke. So it's kinda' weird to have Jerry Don Gleaton, Dennis Lamp and Kirk Gibson on the same roster (all three of those guys were released from the Pirates in May 1992).

I'm curious, if I start with the 1971 Pirates, will Roberto Clemente suddenly disapear after the 1973 season?

Since it runs off of annual stats, I'm guessing the Rockies and Marlins will appear for the 1994 season. All their players would have a full year under their belt at that point. If that doesn't work, I'll try Mad Dog's suggestion.

He might hang around longer. Ty Cobb retired in 1928 in real life but he stayed with the Reds in my game until 1931. He was just a bench player by then but he did stick around.

Same with Roy Crumpler. He only played a handful of games in the Majors but he's been going strong in my league for 16 seasons.

I had drafted Reggie Jackson in the 60's, and Robin Yount a decade later, and that still wasn't enough to help out my team. Kept Jackson around a little too long, and by then he was reduced to the minors after about 617 homers. Also drafted Randy Johnson and Don Sutton, and the comments were "Don't like being in Baltimore".. Too friggin' bad! Had Nolan Ryan, but he wasn't the superstar like he was in real life.

What's the best record you've posted with the O's? How much are you spending on your minor leagues and scouting too?

I'm pretty much b.s'ing the whole thing. After I finish with '06, I'll start all over from 1954 and put some effort into it. And my best year was in '94, going 98-64 and winning the AL East.

:lol: , I traded away every player on my team that cost more than 2 million dollars in the 1938 season and I still finished 90-64.

So when it comes to the draft, do you go by specific names, or by scouting report when you click on a player?

I look at peak value and just go down the list taking the best player avaliable. If two players have the same peak rating at the same position I use age as a determining factor. In a good draft you can probably get 1 or 2 players with a 100 peak and not dip past a peak of 90 during the whole draft. You're looking at a lot of talent if even half of those guys can get their actual rating into the 90s.

Don't worry about position too much. You'll be trading a lot of prospects when you're trying to get over the hump and if you have too many of one position just trade them away for other prospects or package them to trade for a star. I'll even take a DH.

I've played my Pirates team up to the end of the 1998 season, now. Despite signing David Cone in 1996, I finished dead last from 1994 to 1997. In 1998 I finished in 3rd place and avoided 100 losses!

Things started to pickup when I dumped/traded the holdovers from 1992, like Orlando Merced, Al Martin, Denny Neagle (who sucked and retired at 29) and Victor Cole. Like Mad Dog's guy, Cole made all of maybe 4 appearances in his major league career, but he was my #2 pitcher for about 3 seasons. I kept Barry Bonds around until the 1995 season. I sold him to Dodgers for about $24 mil to get out of debt.

Started working in my young guys and signed Chuck McElroy as my closer. My bullpen had been getting demolished for years and McElroy calmed things down, finally.

I like the "Scouting" comments. Stuff like "he needs to concentrate on coaching", "he should have been released ages ago" and my personal favorite: "he's what we call a ZERO-TOOL player". Ouch!