How to rebuild?

PoopyJoe69 · 05-26-2015, 08:04 AM

After running into two succesful years, I had a fluke season of 74-88. After the season, the owner cut my budget to 86 million in a league with an average of 150 million. My question is: How can I pull a Moneyball-type scenario in a quick amount of time, other than just signing minor league free agents and hoping for the best?

'94 EXPOS · 05-26-2015, 10:24 AM

The concept behind 'Moneyball' to my understanding is to find what the market values most and exploit this by exporting assets that fill the market need.

In return you are looking for what the market undervalues but is still important to winning baseball.

Some examples: power vs on base percentage
defence vs offensive production
power arms vs groundball %

For your scenario a one year re-build is not ideal. You have to shed salary. I would suggest a two year plan where you trade your marketable stars (up to the deadline) for prospects and dump any bloated contracts for scrap if you can. Once you have accomplished this your current year will be a bit of a toss up. In the following off-season you will be able to make some judicious FA signings (1 to 2 year max if over 28 yrs old) to add to your collection of young talent. You can try and cram the rebuild in to one off-season but it will probably get messy. You still need to have some sort of plan as to what your payroll is going to look like for the coming seasons (I make my moves with the current season + the next 2 in mind).

I always build my team from the ground up via expansion draft in a small market. You learn very quickly how to spend ALL of your money wisely in this situation. Multi-year veteran deals can quickly become an albatross if things start to go off the rails. It used to be very easy in OOTP to get yourself out of contractual jams. Now the AI laughs in your face when your are trying to move $$$ unless you make the deal real sweet.

The only thing to be weary of in trying to trade your established players is not to exploit the AI by manipulating deals that no right minded GM would do. But this is just opinion advice.

05-26-2015, 08:04 AM	#1
PoopyJoe69 Major Leagues Join Date: Mar 2015 Posts: 301	How to rebuild? After running into two succesful years, I had a fluke season of 74-88. After the season, the owner cut my budget to 86 million in a league with an average of 150 million. My question is: How can I pull a Moneyball-type scenario in a quick amount of time, other than just signing minor league free agents and hoping for the best?

05-26-2015, 10:24 AM	#2
'94 EXPOS Major Leagues Join Date: Jun 2011 Posts: 312	The concept behind 'Moneyball' to my understanding is to find what the market values most and exploit this by exporting assets that fill the market need. In return you are looking for what the market undervalues but is still important to winning baseball. Some examples: power vs on base percentage defence vs offensive production power arms vs groundball % For your scenario a one year re-build is not ideal. You have to shed salary. I would suggest a two year plan where you trade your marketable stars (up to the deadline) for prospects and dump any bloated contracts for scrap if you can. Once you have accomplished this your current year will be a bit of a toss up. In the following off-season you will be able to make some judicious FA signings (1 to 2 year max if over 28 yrs old) to add to your collection of young talent. You can try and cram the rebuild in to one off-season but it will probably get messy. You still need to have some sort of plan as to what your payroll is going to look like for the coming seasons (I make my moves with the current season + the next 2 in mind). I always build my team from the ground up via expansion draft in a small market. You learn very quickly how to spend ALL of your money wisely in this situation. Multi-year veteran deals can quickly become an albatross if things start to go off the rails. It used to be very easy in OOTP to get yourself out of contractual jams. Now the AI laughs in your face when your are trying to move $$$ unless you make the deal real sweet. The only thing to be weary of in trying to trade your established players is not to exploit the AI by manipulating deals that no right minded GM would do. But this is just opinion advice.