Baseball Mogul 2003 FAQ by Champion Gamer, Version 0.50 Written 11/20-11/22 03 Covers all of Baseball Mogul 2003 ------------------------ Introduction | ------------------------ I finished the IV and V sections in this version. I also had to update and clarify my legal policy as I recieved an e-mail from a well-known Game FAQs competitor that wanted to find a way around the rules I imposed for websites other than Game FAQs. I also banned Yahoo Groups that I am not a moderator or owner of from posting my FAQ. If they really want it, they'd make me a moderator of that group. I banned Usenet from using this FAQ. I'm planning to make sections VI, VII, VIII and IX in the next version, version 1.00 ----------------------- I.Table of Contents | ----------------------- I.Table of Contents II.Start a New Game Screen III.The Team Menu A.Lineup Screen B.Defense Screen C.Pitching Screen D.Strategies Screen E.Injury Contengency Screen F.History Screen IV.The Players Menu A.Free Agents Screen 1.Who to grab 2.Who is Who B.Trades Screen C.Find Players Screen D.Trading Block Screen E.Hall of Fame Screen V.The Budget Menu A.Tickets Screen B.Concessions Screen C.Broadcast Screen D.Expenses Screen E.Farm System Screen F.Build Stadium Screen VI.The News Menu A.Standings Screen B.Finances Screen C.Leaders Screen D.Headlines Screen E.Calendar Screen F.Playoffs Screen G.Play by Play Screen VII.The Play Menu A.Play for periods of time options B.Play Until Option C.Play Multiple Seasons Mode VIII.The League Menu A.The City Editor B.The League Editor C.The Stadium Editor IX.The Tools Menu A.Output Stats B.Input Stats C.Fantasy Draft D.Simulator E.Advanced Tools X.Strategy A.My Major Strategy B.My Minor Startegies C.Others' Strategies XI.Versions XII.Legal Policy XIII.Contact Information XIV.Thanks Section --------------------------------- II.Start a New Game Screen | --------------------------------- Here is what each stat means: City Population:nothing, at least in 2003 Best:New York Worst:Anaheim Region Population:number of potential fans your team has Best:Anaheim and LA Worst:Kansas City Fan Base:interest of the city in baseball Best:Colorado Worst:Montreal and Philadelphia Fan Income:Income team makes Best:Boston and New York Worst:Montreal and Toronto Stadium Capacity:number of people Stadium can seat Best:Philadelphia Worst:Boston Stadium Quality:quality of Stadium Best:Colorado Worst:New York NL Player Payroll:Money paid to players Best:Pittsburgh(Minnesota preferable) Worst:New York Payroll Budget:money available to spend Best:Boston Worst:Montreal Next, I will describe the advanced options: Shuffle Players:randomizes the players each team has Simulation Mode:Creates a less-random simulation Equalize Cities:Makes EVERY city the same as every other Draft Players:Allows you to run a draft right away My suggestions for Difficulty are to start on fan, then, when you are done with getting a hall of fame score at the top of the list, move up, and repeat until you finish Mogul. -------------------------- III.The Team Menu | -------------------------- This, obviously, is where you set options about the team(s) you are running in the league you are in. Look in Strategy for tricks you can pull on the game engine. Section A.Lineup Screen The Lineup Screen is the place where you set the batting order and bench that score runs for you. In detail, here is how a lineup works best. 1st:A player with high Speed, Eye, and Contact that gets on base and (unless you are overloaded with Power hitters, has a lower power) 2nd:A player who is close to fitting in the 1st slot, but has a little higher power. 3rd:The best overall hitter on your team, with average speed and plenty of Contact, Power, and Eye. 4th:The number 1 Power hitter on your team unless he is horrible at Contact, Eye, and Speed. 5th:The best hitter you have left. 6th:After your top 5, the best of the final 4. 7th:The best of the last 3 8th:Whoever you have left(no DH) or best of final 2 players (DH) 9th:Pitcher or worst hitter Bench:The best hitting/fielding combinations you have available. AAA:Send your young players here, unless they are exceptionally good. (Rookie Years are normally poor) Section B.Defense Screen This screen allows you to set who will play each position. At all the positions Arm, Fielding, and Range ratings are important. C:The best fielding catcher you have available, unless you have a dominant hitting catcher that cannot DH. 1B:Best Hitting 1st Baseman, unless you have 2 nearly as good in a DH league (or 1 in another league, defensively) where you would DH the bad fielder and play the good fielder. 2B:Important Defensively, though not as much as catcher. Never play a horrible hitter here. 3B:A Hitters' Position, many/most of the best hitters here are great fielders. SS:A Fielding Position, close to catcher, though don't play a horrible hitter. LF:A good hitting/fielding combination is preferable, but, if you have a great hitter, play him. CF:Important defensively, like 2B and SS, find a good fielding and an average hitter, at least. RF:Just like Left Field, play great hitters, look for good hitters and fielders DH:The best hitter available Bench:look for good hitters and fielders AAA:Send your young players here, unless they are exceptionally good. (Rookie Years are normally poor) Section C.Pitching Screen The Pitching Screen can help your team win to a large extent. It is important to look for high Endurance pitchers with great arms and have about 10 good youngsters in AAA. Here, as always, is what to do on the pitcher screen. 1:Your Best Pitcher with great Endurance, Power, Control, and Movement(At times, you can play powerless youngsters though it is proven that, since 1950, no pitcher can sustain a career with a low strikeout rate throughout it except Lew Burdette[Most of you are probably wondering who I am talking about] 2:Your Next Best Pitcher 3:Either your 3rd best pitcher or 1 of your 2 low endurance pitchers(if you have 2) 4:Your Best still available 5:Whoever you have left that fits in a starting rotation Closer:A powerful pitcher who, if you starters don't all have A+ Endurance, will come in many 9th innings and pitch 1 inning Setup:A Closer-Type pitcher who is the number 2 Closer on the staff who can come in during the 8th inning or when needed Short:The 3rd best closer on the team that is used when 1 inning is needed. Middle:A pitcher with higher endurance that can be called on to pitch 1 or 2 innings. Long:A pitcher that is close to being a starter, but isn't good enough Alt:The pitcher who gets spot starts and is called in early in games and needs to be a starter-quality pitcher Section D.Strategy Screen These Strategies greatly affect your won-lost record. Hit and Run:For teams that score little Sac Bunt:Like Hit and Run, for teams that can't score Squeeze Play:A bunt copy that should be used the same way Extra Bases:For non-Power teams Steal Bases:For non-Power teams Tag Up:Creates extra runs for teams that don't score Pitchout:Prevents steals, but increases walks Intentional Walk:A dumb move that hurts your pitchers' arms Pitch Around:Tries to trick batter, but increases risk of walks(not as much as last 2) Infield In:For use against teams with infield hits Guard Lines:Lowers Infield errors but builds up basestealing risk Cutoff Throws:For a team with weak-throwing Outfielders Pinch Hit:For teams that have great bats on the bench and non-DH teams Pinch Run:For a team that has many slow Power hitters Defensive Replacements:For a team that has a weak defense Start on Short Rest:For a team with 4 good starters and 1 horrible 1 Pitch through Trouble:For teams that score many runs High Pitch Counts:For a team with a bad Bullpen Section E.Injury Contengency Screen This screen allows you to set an option to notify you if a player is injured a certain number of days or more, though it does not notify you if a player becomes rested. Section F.History Screen This useful screen displays the past record of your team including Attendance, Won-Lost Record, Revenue, Profit, and Finish and yearly averages for Record, Revenue, Profit, and Attendance. ---------------------------- IV.The Players Menu | ---------------------------- Section A.Free Agents Screen The Free Agents Screen is very important for anyone to play this game. It is the easiest way to add talent to your team and is 1 of the best sources of strategies. Sub-Section 1.Who to grab The best hitters, by position to grab are... C:There is just 1 and 1 you don't want, Joe Oliver 1B:Tony Fernandez and Andres Galaraga are the only good choices. Make sure that you don't sign Leo Larue. 2B:Dave Berg, Jeff Fyre, and Donnie Sadler in that order are the best. 3B:Bobby Bonilla, Bert Quarrel, and Bill Spiers are the only Third Basemen worth having. SS:There are no Short Stops at all. LF:Daryl Xavier, Chad Allen, Stan Javier, Chad Curtis, Bernard Guilkey, and Bo Porter in no particular order. CF:Devon White, Ryan Thompson, Daryl Xavier, James Mouton, Luis Saturria, and Kerry Israel are the options if you need talent right away and Julio Ramirez (Prospect for 2 years in the future) RF:Sean Foster, Turner Ward, Bobby Bonilla, and Otis Near are the valuable players available. Starting Pitcher:Kevin Tapani is the choice for right away and Juan Rincon is the choice for 3 or 4 years later Relief Pitcher:Ben Zimmerman is the choice for a prospect and Rod Beck, Josias Manzanillo, Russ Springer, Ian Vaysberg, and Mark Leiter are the best choices for right away. Closer:Jeff Shaw is the only good choice at Closer (The other is Zachary Kennedy, a 41-year-old pitcher that can't pitch). Sub-Section 2.Who is Who Hitters: Rich Ahlert = Scott Brosius Ian Andrews = Jay Buhner Daryl Xavier = Geronomo Berroa Leo Larue = Mark McGwire Rich Zimmy = Shane Andrews Cam Langer = Dave Magadan Daryl Cantor = Eric Davis Sean Foster = Tony Gwynn Bert Quarrel = Cal Ripken Jr. Otis Near = Paul O'Neil Kerry Israel = Lance Johnson Pitchers: Ian Vaysberg = John Wetteland Irving Carlson = Jerry Dipoto Quincy Rozis = Rob Sanifer Gene Ruth = Heathcliff Slocumb Craig Frost = Dwight Gooden Cliff Allen = Doug Bochtler Section B.Trades Screen On this screen the options, you select players and then, if you're smart, You click Balance Trade and if the price is unacceptable, you can add players to the trade or use Get Counter Offer and then see what it is worth. When you have a trade of acceptable value, you hit submit trade and confirm that it is what you want to do. If you want to start over, you hit clear offer. The only rules are that you must offer 15 or fewer players and recieve 15 or fewer while not going below 14 hitters or 11 pitchers even if a few of them are hurt. Section C.Find Players Screen With this screen, you can find a player that you could sign or trade for and who could be your next superstar or just fill a hole on your team. If you have money and you are contending but not playing well enough to dominate, you should find players who can help fix your problem. You can pick all players, non-pitchers and any position in the game to look through. If you choose all players, the ratings aren't available. You then must enter a maximum age for the player you are looking for. Then you can enter all or part of the name of that player. You can enter rating and stat minimums if you didn't choose all players and then you click find and get a list of players. If you like a player, click Go Get, but make sure to click Scouting first and read the ratings. You can also click Reset Search but it is practically useless as you do that whenever you enter a new search anyway. Section D.Trading Block Screen At the Trading Block, you select a player of yours and add that player and possibly cash. If you want cash, don't add any. Should you want to get rid of a player that no one wants, this screen can be useful. First, pick a valuable player that you will keep and request cash and then write down the offers. Next, add the player no one wants. Pick the team that made the highest offer compared to the previous one and select it and then delete the star player from the trade and press the Balance Trade Button on the Trade Players Screen that comes up. You pick what position, age range, or financial offer that you want for that player, select it and pick a deal that you like. You may add up to 15 different players. Press get offers to get your offers and take the best one. If you requested players, look at scouting and ages of the players for the first few offers and take the best one. Experiment with this screen and you might make a great trade though I use Find Players more. Section E.Hall of Fame Screen On this screen, the greatest players in the history of your league are elected to a Hall of Fame. This screen is useful because it lets you compare current stars in your league with former stars. You can also get real records through the 2001 season and compare the players stats to those records, making a list of records that you can edit and use to run baseball for years. You can clear the list if you want. For this game, I highly recommend that you do not make unrealistic stadiums with very crazy park effects that could cause a player such as Kurt Abbot, a player that hits 0.200 with 20 home run power into a player that hits 0.400 with 100 home run power. Don't do it because you'd reck the pitchers list by reducing it greatly and also cause the Hall to show only a few years worth of great players. --------------------------- V.The Budget Menu | --------------------------- Section A.Tickets Screen At this screen, you can set the price for the tickets of your team(s) and view attendance for all of the teams. This screen is useful to see if your team is filling its stadium. If it is, you should build a bigger stadium, which may mean moving the team. Section B.Concessions Screen On this screen, you set the price for 2 kinds of food and drinks and then you can see if your team is selling enough concessions at the ballpark and correct it. If you aren't selling enough concessions, you probably have a problem with not having enough seats or not filling your stadium. Section C.Broadcast Screen On this screen, you choose from 3 types of Broadcasts. The first and default is Normal Broadcast which is broadcast on local TV. There is also Pay TV, which makes your games available exclusively on Cable and hurts fan support, but brings in money. Or you could choose to increase attendance, but lose fan support and money by choosing Local Blackout. If you don't blackout then you might reduce attendance though only if you charge too much or are too bad of a team. A contender does not have to worry about that and I would recommend setting this to Pay TV if you are losing money, but otherwise Normal Broadcast. Section D.Expenses Screen This screen allows you to set Farm System, Scouting and Medical Staff budgets, which I recommend setting as high as you can afford and to view your current profit margin. Make sure that you always make more than you spend as you should spend that money to improve your team. You can get projections and current amounts for your income and spendings. You can even get the profits from the previous year. Those 2 numbers that you can't change before the expenses and profit numbers are the player salaries and then the total expenses. Section E.Farm System Screen This screen allows you to set the emphasises for your new players that come through your farm system. The categorys are Catcher, First Baseman, Second Baseman, Third Baseman, Short Stop, Left Field, Center Field, Right Field, Starting Pitching and Relief Pitching. For Hitter Ratings, there are Contact, Power, Speed, Eye and Defense. For Pitcher Ratings, there are Endurance, Power, Control and Movement. The reset button will allow you to go back to the normal settings. Section F.Build Stadium Screen On this screen, you set the options to your stadium without cheat mode, which costs huge amounts of money if you want a great stadium. You must name the stadium, choose the Structure and then put it on grass or turf. When you are done, set the dimensions to Left, Left-Center, Center, Right-Center and Right. After you are done with that, Set the quality of the infield, the height of the grass, the visibility and the amount of foul ground. When you finish, set the capacity and the Convenience, Comfort and Sight Lines and then press Build Stadium. Make sure that you maximize its potential, meaning that you add seats, until the value hits 1 point and then remove seats 1 by 1 until it hits zero and you have the maximum free capacity. ------------------------ VI.The News Menu | ------------------------ Section A.Standings Screen Section B.Finances Screen Section C.Leaders Screen Section D.Headlines Screen Section E.Calendar Screen Section F.Playoffs Screen Section G.Play by Play Screen --------------------- VII.The Play Menu | --------------------- Section A.Play for periods of time options Section B.Play Until Option Section C.Play Multiple Seasons Mode -------------------------- VIII.The League Menu | -------------------------- Section A.The City Editor Section B.The League Editor Section C.The Stadium Editor ---------------------- IX.The Tools Menu | ---------------------- Section A.Output Stats Section B.Input Stats Section C.Fantasy Draft Section D.Simulator Section E.Advanced Tools -------------------- X.Strategy | -------------------- Section A.My Major Strategy When I play this game, I don't normally care who I play as. I just care about moving immediately to Washington D.C. where I can wait out a season and sign a huge number of free agents for my league and use them to start a dynasty. I buy young talent from the computer and let them make dumb decisions and I spend huge amounts of money on scouting, farm system and medical staff. After a little while, the league I'm playing is dominated by my team and I win the World Series every year. The key to this is to build a great team. My teams have more money than George Steinbrenner. All it takes is one smart decision to move to Washington. Section B.My Minor Strategies Make a Superstar When you are playing a game and your team is losing, you can cheat and make a superstar. All you have to do is create a player with as good stats as possible. Experiment with the create player screen until you have perfect ratings for everyone you can get them for and have a player that dominates the competition. Section C.Others' Strategies ------------------- XI.Versions | ------------------- Version 0.50 - I finished section IV and did all of section V. I clarified my legal policy in which I said that any site but Game FAQs that wants my FAQ will only get it if the owner of the site becomes a member of my group. Version 0.25 - The first version which is only about a quarter complete. Did the first parts of the FAQ for the first time. ------------------------- XII.Legal Policy | ------------------------- For the purpose of this FAQ, all websites that want to use this must register on Yahoo Groups at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/greatest_game_group which will have my FAQ on it and must e-mail me @ champion_gamer2004@yahoo.com . If the interested web site has a history of stealing others' FAQs or any one of mine, I will not allow them to post my FAQ. This FAQ is open to web sites that I submit it to and members of my Yahoo Group only. Anyone else using it will be contacted and should it not be removed in 3 business days, I will send an e-mail exposing that site as a thief. No theft will be tolerated. The only web site that I currently have submitted this to is gamefaqs.com . If your site supports Game FAQs and keeps it running, you are allowed to link to the FAQ with permission from Game FAQs. I ask all readers who find a web site stealing this guide or using information I created in it to contact me @ champion_gamer2004@yahoo.com and report the site, including the full address to the page where it is linked and the homepage, so that I can tell the site and if they don't follow the policy expose them as thieves. No site but Game FAQs will be allowed to post my FAQ without first joining my Yahoo Group. If fan of a site joins my group and wants to post my FAQs, they will not be allowed to post it on a site that they do not own. You may not ever submit my FAQ as your own or I will contact the site, letting them know what you have done. This FAQ or any other I have made may not appear on any Yahoo Groups unless champion_gamer2004 is a moderator or owner of the interested group. This FAQ may not be posted on Usenet because there is no owner that can join my group. --------------------------------- XIII.Contact Information | --------------------------------- If you wish to contact me, you should e-mail me @ champion_gamer2004@yahoo.com or IM me on Yahoo Messenger. My Yahoo Messenger name is champion_gamer2004. All replies will come from another e-mail of mine that I will not expose in this guide but you will be able to recognize as an e-mail of mine. If you wish to contribute, e-mail me with it because I'm not sure that Yahoo Messenger will save the messages and not delete them. ------------------------- XIV.Thanks Section | ------------------------- As I have not recieved anything from anyone or got any facts from someone else, yet, this list is very short. God - for giving me the ability to make this FAQ and giving me life Sports Mogul - for making this game myself - for writing this FAQ all of the owners of the web sites that post this - for allowing this FAQ to be used by the people interested in information about this great game