HELP my 17-40 team before it's too late!

Hello, I'm in need of some serious advice! I'm playing BM 2008 on the Mogul difficulty and getting seriously worked! This is my first season ever in the BM Genre. Any advice to improve my team will be seriously considered! Here is how my team looks: Updates/Changes from suggestions in green and the status prior to change will be in gray.
Current in-season Date: June 6, 2007.
Current record: 17-40 (6-17 April, 9-20 May, 2-3 June) 17.0 GB in NL West.
pythagorean W-L=14-43

Disabled List: 2B M. Giles @4/27[Season], C J. Philips[Season] @6/5, D. Wells[17days]@6/5

Finances: 11.8 Million cash, 47M payroll budget, 32.6M payroll, projected profit 12.7M

Expenses: Farm System-8.85M(4th), Scouting-8.95M(5th), Medical-9.1M(2nd)/Medical-2.6M(23rd), Player Salaries-29.4M(26th)

Notable players traded AWAY: CF M. Cameron, IF T. Walker, C J. Bard, RP S. Linebrink, IF G. Blum...M. Cameron(89 -34yrs) was .287, 7HR, 23RBI, 5SB and making 6Mil, wanting more even more $ next season...hoping B. Jenks can help my horrible pitching staff though. etc...see posts

Players acquired thru trades: X. Nady, T. Gorzelanny, J. Philips, Y. Molina, etc...see posts

TEAM STATS
W-L: 17-40 (pythagorean 14-43)
Team ERA: 6.20
OppBatAVG: .299
Fielding%: .987
Runs Allowed: 372 (Runs Allowed/Game: 6.52)

Runs Scored: 212 (Runs Scored/Game: 3.71)
BatAVG: .243
HR: 52
On Base: .305
Slugging: .372
SB: 11 / CS: 1

Team Leaders:
ERA: J. Peavy (4.14)
Wins: G. Maddux (4)
Saves: T. Hoffman (5 saves, 4 BS)...B. Jenks (0saves,1BS)(recently acquired)
AVG: X. Nady .335
HR: A. Gonzalez
SB: W. Guerrero (5)

Scouting Ratings are +/- 6.
Amateur Draft in 2 days! Need suggestions here as well.


BATTERS:

C J. Philips (78 -30yrs) [94FIELDING RATING] [DL] Out for Season .252, 3HR, 12RBI in 131AB
1B A. Gonzalez(82ovr -25yrs), .295, 9 HR, 30RBI in 183AB
2B M. Giles(83 -29yrs) 3.2Mil,[DL]Out for Season, .253, 4HR, 15RBI in 87 AB
2B A. Callaspo (79/83 -24yrs), 0 AB so far, just acquired!...new starter
3B K. Kouzmanoff(72/80 -25yrs), .227, 3HR, 22RBI in 154 AB
SS K. Greene (77/84 -27yrs), .208, 5HR, 15RBI in 178 AB
OF1 X. Nady(82 -28yrs), .335, 4HR, 16RBI in 167 AB
OF2 B. Giles (80 - 36yrs) 10Mil, .256, 8HR, 26RBI in 180 AB
OF2 P. McAnulty (81/90 -26yrs), .237, 3HR, 12RBI in 76AB
OF4 J. Cruz (77 -33yrs), .243, 2HR, 6RBI in 70AB
OF3 R. Church (77 -28yrs), 0AB just acquired...new starting CF
Starting due to Injury:
C Y. Molina(75/78 -24yrs) [84 FIELDING RATING] .089, 1HR, 2RBI in 45AB
2B Looking for starter...been trying out W. Guerrero vs LHP and O. Robles vs RHP mainly...gonna give J. Castro a try as well soon.
Bench:
C E. Alfonzo (83/84 -28yrs), [93fielding] just acquired 0 AB...will get chance to take Molina's starting spot
OF V. Majewski (72/78 -25yrs), .304, 0HR, 1RBI in 23AB
IF O. Robles (79/80 -31yrs), .200, 0HR, 6RBI in 85AB (85CONvsRHP, but .181)
IF W. Guerrero (62 -32yrs), .217, 0HR, 2RBI in 83AB. (5SB & .289 vs LHP)
IF J. Castro (73 -34yrs) 1Mil, .200, 0HR, 0RBI in 20AB (5-10 vs LHP)
IF J. Morban (65/69 -27yrs), .250, 0HR, 0RBI in 4AB


PITCHING:

Staters: (using 5 man rotation, here is Depth order...have lots of injuries):
J. Peavy (93 -26yrs) 4.6M, 12GS: [1-5]76.0IP, 4.14ERA
C. Young (81 -28yrs), 8GS: [1-3]46.2IP, 3.86ERA
G. Maddux (88 -41yrs) 7.4M, 12GS: [4-6]65.2IP, 6.72ERA
D. Wells[LHP] (79 -44yrs) 3M, 11GS: [1-8]71.1P, 5.80ERA
T. Gorzelanny[LHP] (79/88 -24yrs), 6GS: [1-2]38.0IP, 6.87ERA & 2g@relief
-------Below are either Long Relief or AAA, spot starters etc-------
M. Ekstrom (84/91 -23yrs), 2GS: [1-0]24.2IP, 5.84ERA & 4g@relief...new #5 starter, his job to lose or keep
C. Hensley (78/90 -27yrs), 4GS: [0-3]22.0IP, 10.64ERA & 1g@relief
J. Oyervidez (75/84 -25yrs), 1GS: [0-2]21.0IP, 6.00ERA & 9g@relief

Bullpen: (Depth order: lot of changes week in week out, only top4 don't go to AAA)
T. Hoffman (78 -39yrs) 6.8M, 13app: [1-2]13.0IP, 6.23ERA, 5saves, 4BS
B. Jenks (84/90 -26yrs), 4app: [1-0]4.1IP, 8.31ERA, 1BS
H. Bell (81/83 -29yrs), 24app: [2-1]24.1IP, 6.66ERA, 2saves, 3BS
C. Meredith (81/85 -24yrs), 20app: [1-1]26.0IP, 4.85ERA, 2BS
-------Below are Called Up/Sent Down constantly, poor consistency-------
A. Rakers (79/82 -30yrs), 22app: [2-3]29.0IP, 7.14ERA, 2BS
D. Aardsma (74/86 -25yrs), recently acquired: no appearances.
J. Anderson (71/78 -27yrs), 7app: [1-0]5.2IP, 4.76ERA, 1BS
A. Brown (71/76 -26yrs), no appearances.
S. Cassidy (71/73 -31yrs), 2app: [0-1]2.2IP, 16.88ERA
R. Ring[LHP] (69/78 -26yrs), no appearances.
K. Cameron (78/90 -18yrs), 5app: [0-0]5.1IP, 10.13ERA

ANY HELP would be greatly APPRECIATED!! I really need to fix this team somehow! I don't want to lose 100games, but a lot of times it just seems like my opponents always score 6+ runs and I barely can manage 2-3. I even tried getting a 94fielding catcher, until he got hurt and thought that would help...but it didn't, any help! Please :) Thanks in advance.

First off if you are are playing the 08 version, you need to sink some money in to your medical staff. The effect that will have on your team is tremendous. The effect was lowered in 09 but in 08 it is still heavy.

As far as your team goes, you offense looks very weak. I'm not real sure why your pitching is so bad though.

Sorry I'm not more help, I hope that at least the tip about medical helps you out some.

alrighty, thanks I'll definetely put more cash into medical staff then :)

Ya the Padres kind of are generally a poor batting team with good pitching...but this is what happens when the pitching doesn't come through :(

Any idea of a cheap 2B or maybe some miracle catcher that will make my pitchers actually pitch somewhat descent? So many other holes as well, dang!

Are you playing with the default rosters that come with BM08?

yep, didn't have success implementing updated ones :(

ok I just bumped my medical staff from 2.6M(23rd) to 8.5M(4th), which dropped my projected income to 3.7M from 7.5M and my payroll budget from 55.5M to 49.2.

miracle catcher, hmmm Brain Scneider. 2 base, kaz matsui

You might as well continue to concentrate on having a strong defensive catcher behind the plate. It's not as if finding a good hitting catcher is going to turn your offense around, and at the expense of your pitching staff, it's just not worth it. Go to "Players" and then "Find Players" to search for all available catchers. You'll be able to find a strong defensive catcher who isn't rated so highly.

K I took into account both of your opinions and went out and got myself another good fielding catcher to help out Yadier Molina (75/78 -24yrs, 70CON, 72POW, 49SPD, 72EYE, 94ARM, 80HNDL, 84FLD, 82HLTH).

Trade:

Padres Get:
-C Eliezer Alfonzo (83/84 -28yrs), 30k thru 2008, 73CON, 83POW, 57 SPD, 60 EYE, 76ARM, ,87HNDL, 93FLD, 76HLTH:
'07 stats with Giants: .246(30-122), 7HR, 24RBI...ugh 1BB, 35K
-Cash: $500,000

Giants Get:
-RP A. Rakers (79/82 -30yrs), 380k thru 2008, 22app: [2-3]29.0IP, 7.14ERA, he had a ~10 inning scoreless streak at one point (over 3 appearances, 1.2IP, 2.2IP, 5.2IP), but besides that he was just a headache and horrible pitcher! Although he was generally my 6th bullpen guy, thus the 29IP...but those stats, doesn't sound hard to replace.

I looked at B. Schneider, but they weren't too willing to trade and he makes 4Mil, which is too expensive for my taste this season...and I'm currently trying to go after Kazuo Matsui (79 -31yrs), 1.5Mil...if I can't pull the trigger on that deal then I'll keep looking...my 2B situation is pretty horrid.

Trade off your expensive vets for prospects galore and come back next season to win.

Ya, been trying to deal my expensive contracts...although I'm starting to find that no teams will even give me an offer for some of them, do more teams bite when it's closer to the trade deadline??

Only have 7 players making over a 1 Million salary:

1).B. Giles 10 Million....yikes, getting older and I have nice OF prospects already. But zero offers on trade block, no players, no cash, nothing.

2). G. Maddux 7.4M...no trade clauses...had about 5-7 teams he would allow, but 0 offers

3). T. Hoffman 6.8M...would be hard to part with him, being a Padres fan.

4). J. Peavy 4.6M...young stud pitcher, not going anywhere!

5). M. Giles 3.2M...out for season, last year of contract...not gonna re-sign, some offers...but it doesn't feel fair to trade him, since DL until Free Agency

6). D. Wells 3.0M...last year of contract, not gonna resign...no offers

7). J. Castro 1.0M...bench player reject for me making too much, gotta ditch him!

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do more teams bite when it's closer to the trade deadline?

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Yes, but not for players like that. Just about the only reason that you won't receive offers at all is because the players salary is significantly above their value. One thing you could try to do is to throw in some cash to help offset the salary.

The other thing you could do is buy out the contracts, although that can be fairly expensive.

After failed attempts at getting ex-Padre Josh Barfield back from the Indians..I just pulled a major trade with the Diamond Backs....I basically dumped a **** of a lot of salary and bad players on their team for 2 studs (at least for my team), but I was desperate with my current season situation!

Padres Get:
-2B A. Callaspo (79/83 -24yrs) 1.85M thru 08, 94CON, 71 POW, 79SPD, 81EYE, 82ARM, 79RNG, 77FLD, 79HLTH...hope he can peform and be my everyday 2B for multiple seasons, or at least hold me over until I can get better.
-CF/SS J. Upton (65/86 -19yrs) 12k/2010arb, 70CON, 69POW, 82SPD, 71EYE, 77ARM, 72RNG, 72FLD, 77HLTH...he's a pretty solid prospect, hoping he develops for me :)

Arizona Gets:
-OF B. Giles (80 - 36yrs) 10Mil, .256, 8HR, 26RBI in 180 AB, was one of my best hitters, but not even close to worth 10Million, getting too old and declining
-2B M. Giles (83 -29yrs) 3.2Mil,[DL]Out for Season .253, 4HR, 15RBI in 87 AB, contract year and asking too much...cheap to include, but desperate!
-SP D. Wells[LHP] (79 -44yrs) 3M, 11GS: [1-8]71.1P, 5.80ERA, contract year and too old
-OF J. Cruz (77 -33yrs), .243, 2HR, 6RBI in 70AB, contract year, asking for too much, old and mediocre
-OF V. Majewski (72/78 -25yrs), .304, 0HR, 1RBI in 23AB, unproven prospect.
-C C. Morton (68/74 -25yrs), 0AB in MLB, unproven prospect, have enough depth at C, average fielder.
-IF J. Castro (73 -34yrs) 1Mil, .200, 0HR, 0RBI in 20AB, Old bench player and not worth 1Mil

So basically I acquired a new Starting 2B and a prospect and am now going to need to promote a new 5th starter and another starting OF.

What do you think of this trade overall?
Also what about the earlier trade for the Catcher?

Do you think I've made enough moves to at least slightly improve win%?
I don't wanna lose 100 games! (current pace 48-114) and would love to lower team ERA below 5 at least!

Ok I just traded for my 3rd out fielder...CF Ryan Church (77 -28yrs), cost me relief pitcher Scott Casidy and 3Million in Cash, but I think he will be a pretty good addition for now, and his contract is cheap...so I figured the 3Million wasn't so bad considering all the recent cuts in payroll

You dumped a lot of age and money so that was a good thing. I'm with Ohms on this one, that team was in pretty bad shape, so you might want to concentrate on next year, or even further down the line, which it looks like you are doing.

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Originally Posted by HawkyTom

Padres Get:
-2B A. Callaspo (79/83 -24yrs) 1.85M thru 08, 94CON, 71 POW, 79SPD, 81EYE, 82ARM, 79RNG, 77FLD, 79HLTH...hope he can peform and be my everyday 2B for multiple seasons, or at least hold me over until I can get better.
-CF/SS J. Upton (65/86 -19yrs) 12k/2010arb, 70CON, 69POW, 82SPD, 71EYE, 77ARM, 72RNG, 72FLD, 77HLTH...he's a pretty solid prospect, hoping he develops for me :)

Arizona Gets:
-OF B. Giles (80 - 36yrs) 10Mil, .256, 8HR, 26RBI in 180 AB, was one of my best hitters, but not even close to worth 10Million, getting too old and declining
-2B M. Giles (83 -29yrs) 3.2Mil,[DL]Out for Season .253, 4HR, 15RBI in 87 AB, contract year and asking too much...cheap to include, but desperate!
-SP D. Wells[LHP] (79 -44yrs) 3M, 11GS: [1-8]71.1P, 5.80ERA, contract year and too old
-OF J. Cruz (77 -33yrs), .243, 2HR, 6RBI in 70AB, contract year, asking for too much, old and mediocre
-OF V. Majewski (72/78 -25yrs), .304, 0HR, 1RBI in 23AB, unproven prospect.
-C C. Morton (68/74 -25yrs), 0AB in MLB, unproven prospect, have enough depth at C, average fielder.
-IF J. Castro (73 -34yrs) 1Mil, .200, 0HR, 0RBI in 20AB, Old bench player and not worth 1Mil


What do you think of this trade overall?

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Congratulations, you've successfully passed Ripping Off the AI 101. :)

I know, right? But, he is 17 and 40, and not likely to do any better then than this year. He's obivously playing for fun too, so...
*shrug*

He can recover, if he cares to revert to "Player" mode...all my teams are crummy, and I always start them off simming (more in hope than expectation), till they reach records akin to 17-40, then I take 'em over, doing the pitching, myself - nowadays leaving most of the hitting to the more prolific AI - and, eventually, my losers win a pennant, if not the World Series.

What team are you? San Diego? **** Upton is still in my division

Ya I'm definetely only playing this for fun, and I know I'm ripping the pants off of other GM's, I didn't want to do that at all, but I settled due to my record, but once I'm able to play at least .400Win% baseball then I wont pull anymore moves like that. I play the games 1 at a time, and in manager mode I think, 1 pitch/1AB and I control the decisions basically, don't wanna do the player mode or whatever, because then I might as well play my PS3 game :D

This game is a lot of fun, hoping to turn it around! If the game becomes too easy in a couple seasons because of my unbalanced trades this season...then I'll start over and learn from this season and then just take my lumps and not make anymore trades that wouldn't be considered fair.

Love a challenge, but I also love realism...so it's hard to find that balance, because realistically my pitchers would not be performing this crappy, and realistically these trades aren't fair, but hoping the trades wont end up removing the challenge...so it's a balancing act :)

Thanks for all your comments! You guys help make the game more fun!

Well since the moves I've made my team is feeling a lot more competitive!! My record for June was 13-14! My best month yet! My team's W-L is now 28-51, I've gone 11-11 since the moves.

Callaspo is hitting .297 for me so far, although twice he's been injured for 2-4 days, hope that's not a sign of things to come!

Paul MacAnulty is really shining since becoming an everyday starter, with Giles being traded off. In his last 10 games: .474, 3HR, 10RBI

Ryan Church has been struggling so far, hitting .212 with 0HR and 3RBI in 66AB.

Alfonzo/Molina have been doing a fantastic job behind the plate!! Lowering my Team's ERA from 6.20 to 5.56! Also they have been throwing out base runners!! Alfonso is hitting .239, 3HR, 9RBI in 67AB so far.

Peavy is 3-0 over his last 4 starts...allowing 4ER, over 25IP with 23K.

Maddux has continued to struggle, losing his last 2 starts and suffering a foot stress fracture in his last start(17days).

Young and Gorzelanny have been struggling a bit, possibly going to send Gorzelanny to AAA.
M. Ekstrom has been taking advantage of his opportunity to start games! Over his last 5 starts: 2-1, 32IP, 6ER, 18K.

Hoffman in 9 out of his last 10 appearances has not given up an earned run.

The rest of the bullpen has been doing better overall!

Big question though: How much should I be paying in expenses if I wanted to be in Top 5 in scouting, farm system and medical staff?? It seems every other week I have to up my expenses another 1-2million just to get back into the Top 5....my scouting rating is now fluctuating between +/- 6 & +/- 5. With me trying to stay top 5 in scouting for over 2 months. (beginning of season it was +/- 7).

Currently I'm spending more money on scout/farm/medical expenses then my player salaries, which is absurd!! Spending about 11 million in each of the 3 categories totaling approx 33million and only 30million in player salaries.

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How much should I be paying in expenses if I wanted to be in Top 5 in scouting, farm system and medical staff?

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As much as it takes. The first season is always a bit crazy, but it calms down significantly after that.