Power Pros Forum

I like to keep the salary around 90000 every year, I've done so for the first 3. My roster is at 32 people. I do have high-salary guys like Ultimate, Gaia, Teixeira (free agent), Crawford (trade), and other success players, but have had to jettison A-Rod, Utley, Cano, Pujols, V-Mart, and other All-Stars. My strategy for renewal is offer everyone 5-year contracts at the requested price. Then I save/load until I find the max amount of years they will sign for without increasing the yearly salary. So now I have a bunch of 3-4 year contracts. If they will only sign for 1, I do that. If they don't sign at all, I will just wait till free agency is over then get them for 1 year. I don't think this will work when become actual free agents, but that's why I tried to lock them up. Anyone who's salary is at least 1500 and isn't a key player, I trade away for 400 salaries and points - like the previously-mentioned players, as well as pitchers who asked for huge raises (Felix Hernandez + 7000, Verlander +2000, etc.). It's quite easy to manage to keep the payroll in 5 digits, get a 160-2 record, and still get a net positive in owner points.


I hate how all of the hitters are taken first, even if some pitchers are better. Now that I always finish in first, I'm stuck with the last pick and have drafted 6 straight pitchers. The pitchers on my roster far outnumber the hitters. What's the best fielder you've drafted?

Is there anyway to get in a created player without the huge salary in the middle of the 10 seasons? Other than signing as a FA when the salary is big. Similar to the start of the game at the season mode set-up screen where you can get some players for much lower salaries. Or is this impossible mid-season?

just my 2cents, and what I've noticed:

five star players tend to practice REALLY FAST. They seem to earn experience faster.

On the flipside - one star players tend to never learn anything new. You basically get what you see.

You can almost tell from the 'ticks' what the stats are. Obviously, all the way to the edge is an A. Take the ticks down from there.

The hardest ticks to guess are Stamina and Power. At first - you will barely notice anything. I've NEVER seen a guy with high stam or power. I think the highest I've gotten is an A

Some of the 'tips' seem to clue you in about various abilities. For example: 'stolen base king' seems to mean either you have good steal, or his running stat is a little higher than the graph shows. Same with things like 'has amazing stamina' or 'he takes pride in his fielding' etc. I could be totally off here, but I seem to notice a correlation.

But sometimes, it'll say "takes pride in his stamina" and his worst rating will be in stamina.

As far a potential, you're right on the mark. I also believe they it is how quickly a player can improve through practice.

I've had guys with B STAM out of the draft, but probably any better than C PWR.

The draft is kind of like the Shop in Success Mode - save before you start it, and if you don't like the selection of players reload for a new batch

By the way, Pujols and A-Rod are terrible in season, their salarys are 2 high...(I once traded for pujols, he asked for a 5k raise when he only hit 25 homers...)
I once traded a pitcher (forgot who) for robinson cano and chase utley!!
I converted them to 3rd and 1st since I already have carlos guiien

When simming, A-Rod is quite horrible with the stats in this game. He was batting below .250 with only a 20 or so HR pace. I don't know if this was jsut because I batted him second, or whether the programmers made it this way to reflect A-Rod's "sub-par" 2006 season.

Agreed, some better alternatives to A-Rod could be Miguel Cabrera, he's got a 7k salary-not to bad. You just need to train him up for abilities such as power hitter and he'll be hitting massive seasons.
Also, on a long term, he's younger than A-Rod....
For a good shortstop, I'd choose Micheal Young, he makes the all star games a lot more than Jeter.

Pujols is definitely worth the money. He is always the best hitter in the game except for success guys every year.

He also has the highest potential for a max salary.
Thats why I prefer young, cheap, developing talent. Note the "cheap".

Yea thats true I keep the "All-Star" players for 2-4 seasons and let some of them go because by then you have good talent from the draft

Just wanted to add - the highest power i've ever gotten from a draft was a C 138 (almost B).

I've never seen a 4 TRAJ from the draft.
I've gotten a Power Hitter twice from the draft (both had the C138 and said 'was a home run king in college')

I've gotten a shortstop with an A in error resistance, and his hitting wasn't too bad either. Not great, though.

Yeah, i've gotten really amazing players in every stat but power, contact, and stamina.

I've had an A in running, fielding, throwing, control, error res, (not all the same guy obviously). There are ALWAYS star players with high stats in all of these areas available every draft. If you are a team that builds via defense - then you have no reason to not add two starters your first draft if these are abilities you are looking for.

Once you have your starting line up set - I find it is usually best to take the 4-5 star players, since they build fast. But, if I'm picking late and there is a star player, I usually take him and make him trade bait for other team needs or prospects. It usually takes about 3-4 years to turn a really, really bad 4-5 star player into a really good one. It can be faster if you buy the right equipment. I try to look for guys who all need work on the same thing (or look for 1 area they can excel in so I don't have to fix it).

Most of the draft picks I come up with turn out pretty decent and train fast, though it is hard to get high quality players when you pick last every year. Sometimes a five star guy slips to me. I also noticed that as season mode goes by the bot tends to start by drafting mostly fielders, but about half way through it is mostly pitchers.

Yeah, the best players are almost always pitchers if you pick last. But the pitchers do have good potential.

By the end of Season Mode, I had 5 or so drafted pitchers that threw in the high 90's with at least 2 level 6/7 breaking balls.