STEP 1: EVALUATING YOUR TEAM -- POSITION PLAYERS
The first step with any new team is to figure out what you have. Obviously, with projected ratings not available until after budgets are set, there is a serious lack of information about players under 27 years of age. The best you can do for your prospects is look at their current ratings and, if they look fairly decent, assume/hope the guy's projected ratings will have him looking like a stud.
Therefore, the majority of my concentration until the league fills and we reach Budget Setting Day will be on what my major league roster looks like. My first step is to change positions for all of my players using the position editor links in the GM's Office. I use the Recommended positions, although in some cases I will add or remove a recommended position if I don't agree.
***EDITOR’S NOTE: There are several times throughout the thread where he mentions a six-tiered rating system that he uses, four of which indicate ML talent. Based on this, my guess would be that the following are the categories that he uses:
6. MVP Candidate
5. All-Star Quality
4. Every Day Starter
3. ML Bench player
2. Long Shot to make an ML roster
1. Career Minor Leaguer (with the ability to distinguish between career minor leaguers and “trash” who can’t even cut it in the minors)
In the case of a merger, this turns into one of the times where you’re going to regret not taking screenshots of your guys before the merge...unless you did exactly that. If you took the screenshots, you would be able to refer back to those to give you a sense of what you’ve got but if you didn’t then you could very well be at Square One here since all you can see are current ratings.
Here in Seattle, I had a spreadsheet that contained information on current and future ratings, so the merger didn’t affect that part of the game. Unfortunately for me, though, the team I brought over from the old world into the Brave New World only won 53 games in the last season of DTW. That being said, there are two All-Star caliber players and one MVP caliber player on the roster.
STEP 1(B) -- EVALUATING YOUR PLAYERS - THE PITCHING STAFF
I normally run a 13 man pitching staff, especially with an American League team. I find that there really is not much need for more than 3 extra position players when you don't need pinch hitters because of the DH rule. So my bench on an American League team generally consists of a backup catcher, a backup shortstop/utility guy, and a guy with great speed and baserunning skill that can be used as a pinch runner in key late-game situations.
Seattle was an AL North franchise before the merger, and continues to be one post-merger. That means that this is the form that I will be trying to shape my roster into throughout the season, although I’ve learned from a couple of seasons of experience with this style of play that it doesn’t always work out that the roster matches up exactly with what the depth chart calls for.
My pitching staff consists of 5 starters, 3 long relievers (guys with starter DUR/STA combinations) and 5 true relievers (4 setup and a closer). If I get very good DUR/STA combos on my relievers I may cut down to only 4 and take an extra position players. Similarly, if I have a top flight starting pitching staff, I may only go with 2 long relievers. Given that this team is a major rebuild project that should take at least 3 years to make the playoffs, I anticipate serious pitching issues until I can develop young talent. I am therefore going to change up my pattern and go with 4 long relievers in anticipation of a lot of short outings by my starters. I will cut back to 3 setup and 1 closer.
In an ideal world, I’d have five pitchers on the roster who all fit into the top three categories of csherwood’s rating system (aka “Everyday Starter”, “All Star” and “MVP”) and had DUR/STA combos of SP’s. In this scenario, those guys would be my starters and then guys with starter DUR/STA who are classified as “ML Bench” players by the rating system would get assigned to the LR role. In my first few seasons using this style of play, though, I’ve decided that if I have at least 8 guys with DUR/STA combos I can use some mix of tandem starters and regular starters to remain fairly competitive.
Seattle has a few guys who I’d ideally use as Long Relievers, but nobody that I’m ready to pencil into the rotation just yet, so that will certainly be an area of focus this season. The bullpen has a couple of solid pieces in place, but could also use another arm or two before it’s really a strength of the roster. Basically, I’ll be on the lookout for any and all pitching that I can get this season.
STEP 1 (C) - EVALUATING YOUR PLAYERS - ARBITRATION/FREE AGENTS
The final thing I will do before beginning to think about the first day of the season (budget day) is to develop a plan for my players that are currently arbitration eligible or free agents to be. I obviously need to know how much I want to spend on these guys before I set my budget.
When looking at arb eligible guys, I look not only at what their arbitration demand is, but I also will hit that "Negotiate Long Term" link and see how much they want per year in a long term deal. If the guy is worth keeping at all (as opposed to simply releasing), I will sign him long term ONLY if his long term per season demand is less than his current arb demand. Otherwise, he goes to arbitration.
Incorporating these decisions into the budget is critical, because I have an ideal number in mind for the Player Payroll but I need to know how much wiggle room I might have. Therefore, when doing these calculations I always divide my arbitration cases into three groups: definitely re-signing, maybe re-signing and definitely releasing. For budgeting purposes, though, I assume that I will resign everyone in the “definite” and “maybe” groups to make sure I have enough cap space.
When looking at free-agents-to-be, I will also hit that "Negotiate Long Term" button. This is not to see what their demand is (that you can see from the free agency screen), but to find out without having to wait for the email from my team owner whether the guy is a Type A or B free agent. You can find this information in the note section.
It is true that you can see what their demand per season is on the Free Agency screen, but I also think it’s worth taking the time to point out that hitting the “Negotiate Long Term” button allows you to see how many years they want on a deal. Sometimes, this can make the difference between my wanting to re-sign them and letting them walk. For instance, a 31 year old hitter who wants a 5 year deal is less likely to get re-signed than a 31 year old who wants a one or two year deal at a higher AAV.
Having obtained all of this information, I evaluate who I will arbitrate, who I will sign long term, and who I will simply not resign/release.
In Seattle, there are a couple of arb guys who I plan on releasing, and a couple who I plan on signing long term since this would be their third season of arbitration. On the Free Agency side of things, I have one Type A Free Agent who says he is “filing for Free Agency no matter what.” There are also a bunch of guys who I wouldn’t mind bringing back under different circumstances, but since I’m trying to rebuild they are significantly less likely to get an offer.