Lotsa problems

[Paul M]

First, I traded two pitchers from my Chicago Cub team for a younger pitcher on Houston. Houston got my pitchers. I didn't get theirs. I'm using XP, playing the computer in manager mode. (Now that I think of it, I played a pretty long career in "fan" mode and had no problems like this.)

Second, my two year starting pitcher, Ken Holtzman, described as an All-Star pitcher for my (so far) two year career and with a rating of like 82, suddenly during the off-season turns into a bum the third year. His rating drops to like 65/73 and the rating on his pitches drops from the eighties to something like 60. The computer describes him as marginal and below average in everything. He was going to be my number one starting pitcher!!!!

Both of these occurred during the off season.

Lots of other weird problems two, statistical mostly, but these above two make me almost want to quit.

Anybody got any ideas?

[ohms_law]

Baseball Mogul Online is a different game from the CD version of Baseball Mogul.

What version are you using? If you don't know, you can click Help -> About Baseball Mogul from within the game to find out.
These problems were all fixed over the season, for the most part.

[buc]

2 years of all star calibur to bum is prob not all that infrequent in the history of the game. also maybe the guy refused to report..

[HoustonGM]

It's pretty common with pitchers.

Just some examples off the top of my head -

Russ Ortiz. 4 consecutive strong years from 2001-2004, and then he turned into a pumpkin.

There's examples in the Hall of Fame - Catfish Hunter. Awesome pitcher throughout his 20's. Age 30 year is merely average. He drops further in age 31...rebounds to average the next year, and drops to bad in his age 33 year before retiring.

He ll, Ken Holtzman rael life is a slight example of this. 1972-1975 were strong, and then he was basically average in 1976 before struggling from '77 through '79.

[GreenDiamond]

Thought it was interesting when one of my prospects had outstanding development (originally predicted at about 82, IIRC). Became a 92, had a couple of phenominal seasons.

Midway through the third month of the new season, without being injured, had a sudden drop-off to about 80. No changes to scouting. Let him pitch one more game, got racked, sent him to the minors for rehabilitation.

Pitcher played in AAA with around a 3.8 era (well below his ERA in the majors). After a few months, his rating started to climb, back up to 84. Interesting, because it was unusual. Not sure exactly what happened there, whether the scouts noticed something or what.

Kinda keeping my eye on the player.

[ohms_law]

People complain about this stuff quite often, but it's funny how realistic the ratings are in Mogul sometimes. Crazier stuff happens in real life...

[JayC]

People complain about this stuff quite often
True, but it's one of my favorite things about BM. Of course it (and things like injuries, which people also complain about) can be frustrating, but it's what makes the game challenging and interesting. And realistic.

That's, of course, for the second thing mentioned in the original post. As for the first, the trade not being completed correctly, I've never seen anything like that happen.

[ohms_law]

Yea, that's why I was asking what version he was using. Plus, there has been some work (in 9.44 i think?) on evening out some quirks in players development.

[TexanBob]

I have noticed that, if you've filled your allotment of pitchers at all levels then the pitchers you draft in the amatuer draft go straight to free agency and bypass your roster. It doesn't warn you about it, it just does it.

I've learned to release some of the deadwood in the minors before the draft in order to insure I keep my new players.

[TexanBob]

Thought it was interesting when one of my prospects had outstanding development (originally predicted at about 82, IIRC). Became a 92, had a couple of phenominal seasons.

Midway through the third month of the new season, without being injured, had a sudden drop-off to about 80. No changes to scouting. Let him pitch one more game, got racked, sent him to the minors for rehabilitation.

Pitcher played in AAA with around a 3.8 era (well below his ERA in the majors). After a few months, his rating started to climb, back up to 84. Interesting, because it was unusual. Not sure exactly what happened there, whether the scouts noticed something or what.

Kinda keeping my eye on the player.

Maybe he got into drugs. Or maybe he quit the steroids. ;)

[ohms_law]

Good point. I never let that happen (well, rarely; but I always know about it) so it didn't really occur to me. If the OP or anyone else doesn't know, you can open sortable stats and look at all players on your team, and it shows you how many pitchers and batters you have and can have. The maximums are 77 batters and 55 pitchers.

[Paul M]

You guys are great for responding so quickly. Thank you all so much. I guess I have an explanation for the Holtzman drop off, but the trade thing really bugs me. I bought Mogul 2007 a mere two weeks ago, and upon installing it, downloaded the update. Upper right hand corner says version 9.45 so I think it's about as up to date as possible.

Big problem this year in Cubland. My number one starter turned into a bum, my number two starter didn't show up from Houston, and I traded my number 3 starter to get him! (Gonna be lots of 9-8 games I think.)

[ohms_law]

Be sure to check the number of players on your team, as described above.

[GreenDiamond]

Maybe he got into drugs. Or maybe he quit the steroids
Don't have a problem with the realism of it, just thought it was interesting. Unfortunately the scouts from the other teams became aware of his rating drop as soon as my team did, noticeable decrease in interest for the player. Something must have hit the newspapers...

[rockiesfan4ever]

Good point. I never let that happen (well, rarely; but I always know about it) so it didn't really occur to me. If the OP or anyone else doesn't know, you can open sortable stats and look at all players on your team, and it shows you how many pitchers and batters you have and can have. The maximums are 77 batters and 55 pitchers.

Yeah it's 70 Batters and 55 P

[Red Sox Fan]

This phenom happens typically in the offseason when simming from Spring Training to Start of the Season. Random Pitchers tend to have ratings drop. I had 5 starting pitchers rated 95 and 96 and 4 top minor leaguers 91-95....two of the 91-95 guys dropped to 76-95....and it really does happen in real life ie Dustin McGowan of the Blue Jays.

When your rosters are full, the computer subs draft picks automatically. If you had 55 pitchers and drafted a pitcher, you would get a batter in place of the pitcher.

Subsequently, when you try trade for a pitcher the computer tells you to remove a pitcher before adding another one. I always thought having a full roster was good for player development -- but try to stay within 5-8 for batters and pithcers.