thanks!
eric
thanks so much for your help! see, just one quick note and you helped me by telling me i am in control of ticket prices. i had no idea i could change that!~ how do you find the league average for ticket prices? i don't know how to do that yet. i tried and tried to trade chipper and could not, then thought i would just keep him and he had a horrible year! i overpaid on salaries that first season sim because i did not understand how to do this. i am getting better at offers for contracts and am signing guys to less than their demands and less years. if i can deal chipper, i think my payroll will be manageable next season
thanks again!
eric
thanks so much for your help! see, just one quick note and you helped me by telling me i am in control of ticket prices. i had no idea i could change that!~ how do you find the league average for ticket prices? i don't know how to do that yet. i tried and tried to trade chipper and could not, then thought i would just keep him and he had a horrible year! i overpaid on salaries that first season sim because i did not understand how to do this. i am getting better at offers for contracts and am signing guys to less than their demands and less years. if i can deal chipper, i think my payroll will be manageable next season
thanks again!
Hang in there. I think you have a really good chance to fix things in a hurry. You can recover a lot faster than most teams since your Market Size is astronomical and you have extreme fan loyalty. A lot of the small market teams should be very jealous that you have that to work with.
Also, I'd look at your ticket prices, too. They're higher than league average. Might need to drop them a little during down seasons to get more fans in the stands and ultimately more gate revenue. In your good years, you can probably raise them much higher than most teams, but the down years some teams are closer to $20 - $22. It's tough to find the right balance so I tinker with mine every few SIMs just to find the right mix of attendence and gate revenue.
It looks like you were pretty challenged starting the season down $30 million in the hole. Your payroll was $101 million on the year so you would have needed a strong Gate to pull that off. Once attendance drops, you need to have that $20 - $30 million cash built up to handle that kind of scenario. Without that in reserve to start the season, you might have been better off taking an $$70-$80 million payroll to be safe. I think every team should build up cash reserves as a first priority. Until you have $20+ million, it's a risk to go negative in any given season. I know we all want to win and be competitive, but it's more important to stay financially solvent and sometimes it takes a season or two of complete rebuilding.
A couple of those long term contracts are really hurting you - Chipper's was pretty risky signing him 3 years when he was 35 years old and likely to decline. Garland and Marte are 2 star players. Not saying they're terrible, but 5 year deals in the $5-$6 million per year range for these guys is probably pushing it and now it makes it tough to trade them.
I would suggest reevaluating your pitching talent. All of your starters except Chacin are 1-star guys. Check out some of the top staffs around and many of them have 3-4 star guys starting and maybe a 2 star guy in the #5 spot. Don't go by stats in previous years before 2007 - it's best to look at the star ratings and Stuff, Movement, Control ratings to see how they're likely to perform. I'm actually impressed that your starters ERA was as good as it was with all of the 1-star guys in your rotation. I know you don't have the money to immediately sign guys and rebuild it, but once you get solid financially, you can work on it.
You've got some really good building blocks in Chacin, Allen, A. Gonzalez, Gardner, Pena, etc. I could see you turning this around quickly - hang in there. I think you're closer than you think.
Eric - Reds