Rankings Part 1

1. Chicago Cubs - Season 7 champs. Great offense and solid pitching. If they start off as hot as they finished last season, expect 120+ wins.

2. Austin Deuce Droppers - Season 7 AL champs. They hope to win #5 before the wheels come off.

3. Cincinnati Reds - Still chasing that first elusive title. The best pitching staff in the league. The Reds hope to avoid another collapse in the playoffs though.

4. Nashville Marlins - New owner hopes to keep up the Marlins winning ways. Great pitching too, almost as good as the Reds. They too are chasing that elusive title.

5. Houston Astros - If they can stay healthy expect them to be at the top of the NL. The Astros offense is as good as any in the league. Can their $15 million Tuck Buck deliver this season?

6. Louisville Swingers - Home to probably the most talented player in the league - Albert JohnsonThe Swingers have most potent offense in the league. With better pitching they would be the team to beat in the NL.

7. Monterrey Corn Dogs - Definitely a team on the rise. Possibly the best team in the AL. Too bad they play in the Deuce Droppers division.

8. Atlanta Pork N Beans - A young team that continues to improve. Can they find some consistency this season? I know those long losing streaks drive the owner crazy.

9. Las Vegas Slobs - The last two seasons have started off slowly for the Slobs. They are definitely a second half team. They would love to repeat their season 6 success.

10. Toronto Blue Jays - One of the most consistent teams in the league. Expect them to win their division again this season. They are another of the great teams that has never won a title.

11. Milwaukee Brewers - Lots of offense, average pitching. With better pitching they would be one of the best in the NL. Dont be surprised if they win the North this season, or at least battle for one of the wild card spots.

12. New York Yankees - Seven division titles in seven seasons. Unfortunately they haven't made it past the second round in the playoffs. They hope to change that this season.

13. St. Louis Barracudas - A little more offense would put them at the top of the AL north. Expect them to make the playoffs and possibly win the division.

14. Salem Mayhem - Impressive over their last three seasons. Three division titles in their last three seasons. Another team that needs a little more offensive production to move up.

15. Salt Lake City Multiple Spouses - The Multiple Spouses should be up there battling with the Blue Jays and Barracudas in the always tough AL North.

Rule V draft

After the mess of hiring Coaches comes the Rule V draft. The Rule V draft encompasses players that have experience but the owner has determined they are not ready for the ML and cannot protect them with the 40-man roster. It is a good way of finding decent talent for your ML team as a backup role and sometimes as a starter. Remember if you take a Rule V player, he must stay on your ML roster the entire season in order to keep him. To draft a player, you must have available 40-man open roster slots. You can draft players until all 40 slots are filled if you desire. I usually set my draft page to pick the best player available at no more than $327,000 (unless there is a player I absolutely want that costs more) and set to pick from the top 10 to 25 (this depends though on how many players I find that I want to draft). Once the players are loaded they are ranked as to how your scouting sees them (by rating), you must go find the players that you want to draft and rank them (this is why you pick from the top 10 to 25, you don't want a player drafted outside that parameter). Normally the best player that fits your needs then the next...ect. If you reset the draft page to change a drafting parameter, you will need to re-rank the players. You will not see your players listed. Why would you? You already know who they are and you can't draft them anyway. Most are curious as to where they fall in the rankings though. Normally about 40 players are drafted, but have seen as high as 70. Happy drafting everyone.

Arbitration and Free Agent.....egads!

Arbitration players are vets that want a big payday and you as the GM get to decide if you are gonna give it to him or not. When you look at the arbitration eligible players it gives you their stats and the amount for a single season. Negotiate long term is what the player and agent is wanting for 2 or more seasons. Here is my feelings on this subject: I have tried the single season and in my estimation the player doesn't exactly put his heart into it and seems to not live up to his potential. You can call me all wet on that one, but that is my take on it. If I really want the player, I will give his long term asking price and I figure that price into the budget. I will not give any player a long term contract that will put his age past 34 unless he is really really good, then I might make it 35. So I only negotiate long term with players 30 and under and usually make it a 3 to 5 year contract (and usually try for 5). For players 31 and over I will go with a 2 or 3 year contract if available, otherwise he will be released to Free Agency (and I do that before arbitration hearings start). I have never been able to sign a player to a 1 year contract without going to arbitrate and it cost me more than the asking price (not much more). You can try and offer the player a contract for less than his asking price in long term negotiations, I have never had that work by the way. I have arbitrated for the 70% asking price and won and have lost also to where it cost me $500,000 more per season than the asking price originally. The 70% one, might as well have went the 1 year plan as I got the same results, can we say a happy but unhappy player...grrrr..and both found a happy trade before all-star break. So, after that fiasco, I either give the long term asking price or they find Free Agency real fast if I can't trade them before the arbitrate deadline.

Team Free Agent players (Restricted Free Agents would be a better term) are roster players that have 6+ years of experience and not on the 40-man roster. You can negotiate with these players until the deadline without interference from other clubs. If your going to negotiate a large contract with these players, you best put them on the 40-man roster or they will be exposed to the Rule V draft. Whether to offer these players is totally up to you, most of them are for the minimum salary and adds up to peanuts. Me, I usually sign all the minimum salary players and hope they don't get grabbed in Rule V, because one can never have too many minor league players. If you don't offer a contract, they will become unrestricted Free Agents and anyone can sign them.

Free Agents can be signed once the Restricted Free Agency period is over. This allows you to go out and fill holes in your teams. Remember that you can be bidding against other owners also, more like an auction. One thing to be aware of is Free Agent type (Type A thru D, sort of a Unrestricted Restricted Free Agent), this is marked in the note section of the player so read it carefully!!!! Depending on the type, you could be giving up a first or second round draft pick and a supplemental 1st round pick (and I hate those!!) to sign that player.

Coach Hiring and Rehiring

Hiring and Rehiring coaches is probably the easiest step in building your team for the season (ok, so the Hiring process is probably the toughest thing you will encounter), or so it seems. I am sometimes miffed because some coaches want to leave that I thought would stay, some coaches want new positions they are not qualified for and some want to advance into positions that you do not want because another returning coach is better. I wish you could take the coaches that want to return and you desire to keep and offer them the same position or a better position and let them decide whether to take it or not. And of course have the ability to hire and fire coaches during the season. There I go dreaming again. But anyway, back to the hiring process. More or less, the object to coaching is to have a graduated effect from the RL team to the ML so that if you advance a player he can get better. Some GMs do it a little differently, they pidgeon-hole players at a certain level, most generally AAA and AA. That allows them to only go after good coaches for that level and not worry too much about the other levels. One very very very important thing to remember, if you advance a player, do not demote him unless it is absolutely necessary! Now for the coaches themselves. Pretty straight forward really, they have stats in each category just like the players. However some are actually better than others even with basically the same stats. Pitching coaches should have high Pitching, the higher the better teacher for example. But what else to look for, high Loyalty gives you a chance that coach will return for following seasons and want advancement also. I tend to lean more toward Discipline than Loyalty, and of coarse the higher the other stats the better. Some of the other stats help better teach in certain situations. The Bench coach is probably the most vicarious position, he is suppose to be the one that carries out your intentions. For example, if you put together a running team, you might want his Base running IQ to be higher. One thing I have noticed is the other coaches tend to learn from the Bench coach also. One last thing, if you are rebuilding, you may not want to spend a fortune for ML coaches but if you have a lot of young players, don't get the worst of the lot either. You can find good minor league coaches that will jump at the chance to coach at the ML level also.

Budget Setting

Setting the Budget is not the only place where one can fail during a season, but can be the beginning especially to a noob. There is no exact an science but will tell you what to look for. This is somewhat the way I do it. If I made a blaring idiotic mistake or left something out, tell me and I will add it or fix it.

1. Go to your Franchise Payroll Analysis. At the bottom it will give you the Player Payroll Budget and Player Payroll Used (may want to write those numbers down).

2. Next you need to know how much you need for each Arbitration Player you plan to keep, you can hit the negotiate button to find out how much a player wants for per season (remember you only need season 1) and add the total up for each player.

3. Next you need to find out how much each of your Free Agents want that you wish to keep (the ones above minimum salary--327K).

4. Add all this up and add about 5 to 10M for player payroll for the season.

5. Coaches I usually make it 10M, 12M or 14M depending on certain factors. If I think it is a rebuild year I use 10M, 12M if I got a chance or 14M if I am gonna make a run. But the proper way is to find out what coaches is wanting to return and which are looking for new jobs. You can find this out by looking at the Rehire Coaches. You can even select the coaches that you want to rehire (the ones that want to stay) and it will make a running total for you even. The ones you are worried about the most here is the ML coaches. They cost the most and will cost you the most money to replace and it even gives you minimum amounts you can spend, don't pay much attention to that as a good coach won't even be close to that amount. The most expensive to replace is the Bench Coach, Pitching Coach, and Hitting Coach, they can run 2M to 4M+ in the dog-eat-dog coach hiring phase. So plan accordingly, of coarse the better the coach, the better the player can advance and teams can win.

6. Prospect Payroll, and the various scouting departments work hand-in-hand. College and High School deal with the amateur draft. If you have a high draft pick (1 to about 15) expect to pay lots of money from the Prospect Payroll to get him signed (could be 2M to 10M or more). Some of them can run that high in later rounds also but is uncommon. The scouting departments tells you how good the player is, so if you use a low amount, don't expect the best results.

7. International Scouting finds out-of-country players from all over the world throughout the season. If you spend the minimum (6M) your scouts won't find very many and they are usually not very good. I usually spend 6M, 10M or 12M here. I use 6M if I don't plan on getting one or if I am looking for a specific good cheap specialty player down the road. A real good International Players can run 10M+ and it comes from Prospect Payroll (remember, more than one team can see him and drive the price up). But don't expect them to step right into a ML role, normally they are treated like draft picks and need minor league playing time. If I use more than 14M here that means I must be drafting past position 20 and using Internationals as a #1 draft pick.

8. Advance Scouting allows you to see any active player and his values (try to set this as high as possible 16M+), the lower you go the farther the values are skewed downward and/or upward even.

9. Training, I usually try to use any excess here or 14M minimum, helps players to keep from getting injured.

10 Medical, helps players rehab faster after getting injured, try for 12M+ here.

One thing to note: The top half of the budget screen gives totals to help you set your budget, but mine is never accurate (or even close for that matter) for some reason except for the current Player Payroll.

Miguel Tejada Deported!

Amid a Federal Investigation into his steroid use and lying to Federal Investigators, the Department of Homeland Security has revoked Miguel Tejada 's Visa.

A spokesman from the DHS confirmed today that Miguel Tejada 's Visa was revoked due to his recent admission of lying abut his age on his Visa application.

The AP reports that Miguel Tejada was Deported late last night after a raid on his off season residence in Houston. The report states that Ice agents surrounded the four square foot cardboard box located behind the South Houston HEB shortly after Miguel Tejada had returned from the Blue Oyster with a 6 foot tall woman. Miguel Tejada surrendered himself after a 3 hour standoff ending with the Houston Fire Department spraying Tejada's residence with their hoses.

The Houston Astros have issued a statement saying that they have received Tejada's retirement papers and are donating $5 towards the reconstruction of Tejada's Houston area home, in hopes that his children can continue their education in America.

The Loss of League Legend

After 7 successful seasons in the MLB it seems legendary Marlins owner Kilgore has left. In his 7 seasons Kilgore won 7 division titles, and 3 NL league titles. Unfortunately he never won a World Series. Good luck Kilgore wherever you are.