Guide
Do you trade for the future? Or do you trade to go for it all this year?
Free Agents
When
you send in your offers - send them to me in this form:
2B Alfonso Soriano - 4 Years $32Mil - $8Mil Per Year
Put both so that way you know you didn't make a mistake when you send it in,
therefore eliminating the possibility you get a player for $8Mil you only wanted
for $4Mil.
You are only allowed one email of offers per day, so make sure you make it good.
Trades
You both must agree to the deal
and then one must send it to the other owner and the league office. The owner
who doesn't send the e-mail, must "reply all" to the e-mail and restate the
trade. Trades should be sent in the following manner.
In the subject, please put XSBL Trade: Team A - Team B
in the Body..
Team A gets: 3B Player X & 2B Player Z
Team B gets: SS Player Y, $2Million, & 2nd Round draft pick (Via Team C #17)
(First and last names)
And
when the second team confirms, you need to reply all and restate, not just "I
agree" or something to that effect, you must restate the exact deal.
You need to send it to the commish, assistant commish, AL president, NL
president and the owner you traded with.
Anything that does not follow this format will be ignored. It is also important
to use first names and last names. Especially since we are now getting into a
lot of guys with same last name, so "Gonzalez" simply won't be enough.
Develop A Style of Play
Decide on whether you want to be an offensive team, a pitching team, or a small ball team. Only trade away and for players who fit your philosophy.
Your Team
If they don't complement each other after two months, they won't complement each other after two years unless they're young and inexperienced. You can't teach an old dog new tricks. He is what he is, and accept it or trade him.Don't look at them as your favorites players, look at how they produce on the field, and decide their future. Don't look at them as your favorites players, look at how they produce on the field, and decide their future. It does no good to trade if you're not trading to meet objectives. You have a year long objective, and you have the larger picture. When you start your club, develop a long term objective. Short Term objectives should also consider these Long Term objectives. To win one World Series is nice, but imagine the bragging rights if you have a dynasty. Don't be another Florida Marlins (win it all and trade them all away)
Finally, ask yourself:
Can I Win A World Series in Five Years With My Present Team? Can I Win 2 or More in 10 Years?
If the answer is no to either or both of those questions, plan around that goal. You should be in contention and winning a pennant by your third and fourth years respectively. Sooner if you're a veteran club in the thick of things. You should also be thinking at least 1 Series in five years, but don't stop there, you should be thinking about another two or three in the next 10 years.
TIP: If you bring up a 20 year old prospect. He needs to be in the thick of things by 24-25 if he's as good as he seems to be. He'll only be a top class player if he plays everyday against the best an added bonus is some post season play.
Financial Guide
Out of the Park Baseball 4 includes a completely re-tooled financial model, providing more complexity and deeper challenges for budding general managers. The model is based on professional baseball, with some abstraction to create a balance between realism and gameplay. The financial model can be used, in various degrees, in both career simulations and historical replays. You can also choose not to use the financial model, or only parts of it, which is particularly beneficial to gamers wishing to recreate a pure, historical replay.
Viewing Team Financial Structures
To view any team's financial structure and current financial status, select a team from the Teams menu, and then select Front Office from the team's menu. The Front Office screen contains the following sections:
Team Market and Fan Loyalty: Team Market is the size of the fan base in the team's home city. Obviously, there is a larger market in New York, for example, than in Kansas City. Fan Loyalty measures the reliability of fans in terms of attending home games. Some fans are loyal to their teams through good times and bad, while others are fickle, sometimes even regardless of the team's performance. Both Team Market and Fan Loyalty are variable, and can change on a yearly basis.
Current Fan Interest: The current "buzz" surrounding the team. Fan interest is variable during the season, and is related to the team's performance, its prospects for post-season play and/or the excitement of a new season getting underway.
Ticket Prices: The default ticket price is $10, but can range from $1 to $20. Ticket prices may be changed at any time during the season. Fans are typically sensitive to ticket price changes, particularly in markets with lower fan loyalty.
Attendance: This section displays a chart of cumulative attendance to date, total attendance, attendance per game and projected seasonal attendance. Since ticket sales are the single most important contributor to your team's income, and ticket sales are a function of and attendance and ticket prices, it behooves you to constantly monitor the attendance of your home games. Some of the factors that influence attendance include fan interest, promotional days, a team's current and historical performance, date and time of game, position in standings, status of postseason races and, of course, the cost of attending games.
Current Year Finances: A breakdown of your attendance, income and expenses (note that income from ticket sales and payroll expenses accrue incrementally throughout the season). Also includes income from broadcasting arrangements and merchandising/licensing deals, and playoff income if applicable.
Previous Year Finances: Same as above, but with total values from the previous season.
Payroll Stats: Shows total estimated payroll expenses for the season, and also lists average salary (current team), highest-paid player on the roster, and league salary average.
TV Deals: Lists income from broadcasting deals on both a national level and in the local market. These deals are renegotiated upon expiration.
Promotion Days: Use this feature to schedule promotion days, which can increase attendance for certain games. Available promotions are defined in League Setup in the Editors section.
Payroll and Revenues [League Finances]
Each team begins the year with a team payroll - how much money they owe to their playeers for that season. They also begin with a projected revenue stream, based on the prior year's numbers. In the case of the first season, the computer generates the prior year numbers to reflect a total revenue stream of a few mill over the team's current payroll (so each team is projected to make a little profit).
The total revenue stream is made up of 3 individual revenues. They are:
1 - Attendance revenue (changes
year to year based on team performance)
2 - Merchandising revenue (static year to year, doesn't
change)
3 - Broadcast revenue (static year to year, doesn't
change)
Attendance revenue is based on team attendance and ticket price. Team attendance for year 1 is based on market size. The computer assigns a market size to each team based on the team's payroll in relation to the league's average payroll. A team with a very high payroll would get a large market size, and would be able to draw more fans. A team with a small payroll gets a small market size and can draw substantially fewer fans. The computer also assigns fan loyalties, which affect how quickly or slowly fans will stop coming to games based on bad team performance. Very loyal fans will continue to attend even if your team sucks up the joint. Team markets will be adjusted AFTER the initial draft so that the first year payroll will help to determine your market.
The initial Merchandising and Broadcast revenues (from now on referred to as BAM) are set based on team payroll, the higher the payroll, the more BAM you get to start to help pay for that high payroll.