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

[filihok]

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?

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

[ohms_law]

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*

[Rongar]

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.

[filihok]

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

[HawkyTom]

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

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!

[HawkyTom]

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.

[ohms_law]

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

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