I am bugging my fiancee to buy it for me already :)

TRADE UPDATES

Both my deals from yesterday have gone through, including Guerrero waiving him no-trade. Two more bad contracts off the books.

In addition, I have yet another deal pending to unload a contract. This time it is Danny Mahomes and his 3 year, 6.3 million. I am giving up a solid young field prospect from AA as well. However, I am getting two decent pitching prospects back - one of whom has 5 strong pitches and great control, but starter durability and only a projected 54 stamina. That makes him a long reliever or even a setup guy at best.

I am still trying to unload a few more contracts and have negotiations ongoing that could move 1 or 2 more before spring training starts.

One final note: My fiancee in fact did buy me Season 1 of WKRP today!

STEP 5 (A) - SETTING YOUR ROSTERS, MAJOR LEAGUE

The next step as free agency comes to an end and spring training is getting ready to start is to determine what players will be at what level this season and get tentative rosters set. I will then make all the necessary promotions and demotions before doing the final pre-spring training step, which is setting up my spring training team.

I have a notebook that I use for my rosters. At the major league level my "baseline" is 12 positions players: C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, LF, CF, RF, DH, C2, SS2, PR. On a National League team the DH is replaced by a PH(pinch hitter). I always have a backup catcher, backup shortstop (good defense, he can be a defensive sub and can play any position but catcher if I need to give a regular a day off), and a PR (pinch runner) -- I like to have one speedster on the bench just in case.

If I have a team with solid pitching, I will add one or 2 more bats and be able to cut back on the size of the bullpen. However, in Cincinnati, I expect a very long season and therefore will definitely need as much pitching as I can get.

On the pitching side, I use a base of 13: 5 starters, 3 long relievers, 4 setup, and a closer. I will of course adjust those numbers on a team by team basis. My initial thoughts for Cincinnati is to switch out a setup guy for an extra long reliever, anticipating a lot of short outings by my weak starting pitching staff.

With those positions to fill, I check my current rosters, including looking for any minor leaguers that are ML ready, and determine if in fact I can fill them. As you can probably guess, I cannot. It looks like I am at least 2-3 position players short, including my backup shortstop and a starting center fielder. On the pitching side, at best I have 4 starters and 7 relievers - still one starter and one long reliever short. For now, I will simply leave these spots open - maybe a trade can fill them. If I do not pick up someone in a trade, then as we move closer to the start of the regular season, I will try to find an inexpensive free agent or two to sign to a one year deal -- I think I am freeing up enough money that I will have what I need to make a transfer to prospect payroll while still having several million to fill out my rosters.

One final note: I do have several guys on my major league roster right now that do not fit any spot -- at least 2 extra outfielders. I will continue to try to package these bad contracts off, but by the time I need to finalize my roster for the regular season, I will designate any remaining extra major leaguers with bad contracts for assignment and set them Inactive at AAA (unless I get lucky and someone actually claims them from waivers!!)

Up next -- setting up the minor league rosters.

STEP 5 (B) - SETTING YOUR ROSTERS, MINOR LEAGUES

In the minor leagues, I don't believe in simply tossing 25 guys at each level, setting the SIM to manage them, and ignoring them, though I know this strategy is used by some people. I also don't believe it is necessary to manage the teams too intensely either - after all, it is winning at the big leagues that is the true goal. What I do believe is that if you set up your rosters properly, you can avoid having to turn the SIM on and you can keep your minor leagues playing at 100% health all season. Then, if and when my minor league team makes the playoffs, I will pay a lot more attention and make certain that I am optimizing my talent and using the best possible rosters. In other words, I only manage to win games once I am in the playoffs - before that I simply use the minors as a player development tool.

On offense, every minor league level has an identical scheme (except Rookie, which I will deal with in a few weeks when Rookie League season is ready to start). I once again use 12 active position players: C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, LF, CF, RF, DH, C2, SS2, MISC. Identical to the majors except I don't have a designated pinch runner and instead will fill that last space with anyone -- normally ends up being a reserve outfielder. I also like to have 3 inactive players at each minor league level, a third catcher, a third infielder, and one more miscellaneous player. These players will make it so I dont have to go signing new players if I have an injury or make a trade the decreases the amount of players I have at a certain level.

On the pitching side, I again use 5 starting pitchers. Some people believe in tandem starting rotations (I will use tandems in rookie league), even at the major league level. I do not. Instead I want the 5 guys with the best DUR/STA combos I have as my starters. Often, you will have major league prospects that have not developed their DUR and STA enough yet and don't really have current ratings good enough to be starters. I do not force these guys to start -- instead I stick hem in Long Relief roles. At the minor league levels, long relievers are certain to get a lot of innings. Thus, I may have my best pitchers in my bullpen instead of my starting rotation.

In the bullpen, at AAA and AA, I use 4 long relievers and 4 setup/closer guys. I used to use 3 long and 5 setup but found that I was making a lot of active/inactive moves due to fatigue. The more long relievers you have, the less moves you will have to make. At High A and Low A, I increase long relievers to 5 and decrease setup/closer to 3.

At AAA and AA, I also carry 6 inactive pitchers, 3 starters and 3 relievers. At High A and Low A I go with 4 starters and 2 relievers (note that by starter I mean starter or long reliever because the 2 are interchangeable, by reliever I mean setup guy). The guys that start on the inactive list are always career minor leaguers. I will use these guys as substitutes if fatigue becomes an issue or as injury replacements.

As far as setting who will be on each team, I start at AAA and work my way down. First, everyone that did not get a promotion to the bigs that is a big league prospect gets into the lineup. Next, I look down at AA and promote as many big league prospects as I can. I will also look down one more level, to High A, to see if I have any true stud prospects that may be worthy of jumping a level. Finally, I fill out the balance of the roster with career minor leaguers. If I do not have enough, I will promote career minor leaguers from AA. The same process is then repeated at AA (with promotion from High A), and so forth until everything but Rookie League is filled.

There is NO REASON to keep anyone at Rookie League at the stat of the season. There are no minimum roster requirement there until after the minor league draft. However, if I have any extra players (career minor leaguer types that I simply did not have a spot for, even with a demotion to fill a spot at a lower level -- and there is no reason not to demote a guy if he is not a big league prospect), I place them at Rookie instead of releasing them. Since I am paying them already anyhow, might as well store them there. They can be promoted if I have a rash of injuries and need another player at a higher level, or they can b used to help fill out my Rookie roster. When I actually set my Rookie roster, I will release players that I have no room for -- but that is still several weeks away.

One more note, as you can see, I do my minor league promotions at the start of the season. I rarely promote guys between minor league levels during the season. Other people do their promotions at the end or even in the middle of the year. I don't think either way is wrong, this is just my method.

With my Cincinnati Venus Flytraps, as I had expected, I did not have nearly enough players to fill my rosters. I did find a ton of extra outfielders and in fact ended up with 10 of them sitting at Rookie - most of whom will get released eventually. I also was 9 infielders and 6 catchers short. Time to use some of that money I have been saving - I go into the minor leagues free agent list and make offers/sign players to fill these 15 spots.

On the pitching side, it is even worse. I have more than enough relievers to fill my rosters (in fact I have 3 extras that go to Rookie). However, I am an amazing 21 starting pitchers short. Between the minor league free agent lists and the Tryout camp list I will fill these spots (as of this posting, I have signed 10 already -- it is just a bit tedious waiting for pages to load so I haven't signed my last 11 yet).

Once I have my players signed and my rosters set on paper, I make the necessary promotions and demotions from the Roster Management screen, then update my spreadsheets to reflect everyone's new level.

Up next -- Preparing for Spring Training.

This is very interesting and educational to read and i just wanted to let you know that. Good luck the rest of the way.

STEP 6 - SPRING TRAINING

Once I have my players assigned to the proper levels and my rosters filled, it is time to prepare for spring training. The Spring Training roster is 70 players and I use almost all of them. I aim for approximately 50/50 between position players and pitchers. I make certain to add every stud prospect and then fill out the roster with borderline prospects. Make certain to add several extra catchers and several extra shortstops so you dont find yourself with a team full of first basemen and fielders.

Once the ST roster is setup, I start by using the Recommended pitching and lineup settings. However, I then redo the pitching staff and set up four pairs of tandem starters using my 5 projected major league starters and either 3 long relievers or 3 minor league starters. Finally, I place 4 more starting pitchers on rest. The remainder of the bullpen gets split between Long Relief, Setup and Closer roles. The lineup goes exactly with the recommended.

Next, I go into the Player Settings and simply use the recommendeds. By going with Tandem pitchers, the recommended pitch counts come out nice and low, so most guys wont throw more than 3 innings per game -- perfect for spring training. I also make certain to set player rest, defensive replacement, and pinch hitting (again using Recommendeds).

In Manager Settings, I set pinch hitting and pinch running to Very Aggressive, set "Use Player rest" to 1 run lead/trail in the 6th inning and set defensive replacements to 1 run lead in the 7th. This will result in all starters being out of the game by the 6th inning unless it is tied.

I had set 4 starters onto Rest. The reason for this is I am actually using 6 sets of tandem starters during ST -- over an 18 game schedule it means 3 games for each pair. After each game, I put the 2 guys that just pitched on Rest and put 2 of my guys from Rest into their spot. I also rotate my bullpen around, moving the guys that have been used the least into "A" roles, leaving the others in "B" roles. Whenever a reliever has had 3 or more appearances, his spring is done (unless I run out of relievers towards the end of the spring, in which case I bring a couple guys back for a 4th game).

On offense, I try to keep everyone at approximately the same number of at-bats. Therefore, as games go on, I constantly bench guys that have had more ABs and start guys that have less. Once a guy has had 20 or more at bats, his spring is done and he goes on Rest (again, unless I start running out of players towards the end of spring, in which case I will give a guy a couple extra games).

The final 1 or 2 ST games will see all major leaguers on Rest no mater what. I am willing to risk injury and play major leaguers in the spring (if an injury happens, it will happen - nothing you can do to prevent it is my theory). However, as ST winds down I stop pressing my luck.

There is one thing I do NOT do in spring training. I do not use it to audition guys. I believe in ratings not stats (and I know a lot of players don't agree with this theory). But I craft my teams and my lineups based solely on ratings - and over time I believe a guy will average out to what his ratings dictate he should be.

In Cincinnati, I am breaking my system slightly this year. That is, I still have 5 empty spots on my major league roster heading into the spring - including a backup shortstop, starting centerfielder, starting third baseman, one starting pitcher, and one long reliever. I have the rest of my rosters set. But before the spring ends I need to find a way to fill these roster spots.

As free agency ends, many guys will drop their contract demands. It is from these guys that I hope to fill my 5 roster spots with serviceable players on one-year contracts. I have over 15 million freed up due to my trades so far, and hope I can make a few more moves as the season wears on (I still have at least 1 very bad contract to rid myself of, and several others I want to drop. Four of these guys will be designated for assignment during the spring -- they are slated for my AAA inactive list, I just have not moved them yet because I have 5 extra roster spots that they can fill for now). I did go through the free agency lists tonight and make a list of potential players to fill these spots, though the guys I liked will cost me almost my entire 15 million -- way too much especially given that I want to transfer at least 8 million to prospect payroll. I will therefore simply keep an eye on the Waiver Wire for now and keep scouring the free agent lists for the next few days - as long as I fill these 5 spots before the spring ends, i should be fine.

Up next -- Preparing for the Regular Season (this is still 6 days away, but is the only remaining major event to prepare for the season).

ROSTER UPDATE - CENTER FIELD

I found my center fielder on the minor league free agent list. Jake Edwards, a 26 year old rookie who wanted 1.2 million for the season. The guy has great speed and decent L/R splits, though his contact, power and eye and average to weak. However, he should be good enough for this season, which is all I needed.

I have used up 3 of the 6 million I wanted to spend on fillin my major league roster now. Still 3 million to spend, and a third baseman and utility infielder are still needed.

MORE UPDATES - A TRADE AND A THIRD BASEMAN

Starting pitcher Shannon Shields (3 years, 6.3M per year), assuming he does not exercise his no trade clause, is the latest contract out the door. Shields is still a solid pitcher, but moving his contract is more important than having him pitch for me. I am also moving a pair of pitching prospects, a starter and a reliever. Two guys I liked but I was willing to move.

In exchange, I get 3 players. The big one is a 19 year old right fielder that projects offensively to 62-100-48-46-79. The splits may not be great, but that huge power combined with a good eye and solid contact tell me this guy is going to hit a TON of home runs. The other two players I get are also ML potential, though not as high of prospects as the right fielder.

In addition, I have found my starting third baseman for the season, at a cost of a little over a million dollars. M. Buford is solid defensively and has a 91 power, so he should hit a few balls out this season.

I still have two roster spots to fill on my major league team now. First, I am still missing a utility infielder. Plus, Shields had been on my draft roster for the season. I will now have to find a one year free agent to replace him. I did not have to move any cash in the trade, so I have freed up over 6 million dollars this season -- giving me a few extra dollars to spend on my last two players (if the deal goes through).

TRADE UPDATES

Two updates tonight: first, me deal to unload pitcher Shields went through - that is another 6.3 million off the books for the next 3 years. I will have to find a free agent or waiver wire starter though to take his place.

Second, I have traded reliever Standridge. Standridge was making 4.6 million this year and next - even more money off the books. With the money I have saved this year, I feel comfortable that I will be able to move enouh money into prospect payroll. In addition, I should have enough money to sign a decent utility infielder and a starting pitcher to get me though this first season.

After starting the season with almost 100 million in payroll, my payroll is down to 68 this season -- and only 28 for next season. Plus, I have a handful of very nice prospects I was able to save. I still have one more very bad contract (Kelly Hill, 5.2M for 3 years, and a handful of smaller dollar contracts with long terms, but I anticipate that Season 5 will see some huge improvements and I think we are on pace to possibly contend for the playoffs by Season 6.

Wow, congrats and once again, good luck.

ROSTER UPDATE - FINAL SPOTS FILLED

I have been keeping a close eye on the waiver wire looking to fill my final two roster spots (starting pitcher to replace Shields and a utility infielder). A couple days ago I saw a fairly decent relief pitcher go through who was making minimal salary. I claimed him and stuck him at AAA. With reliever Standridge on his way out of town now, I don't have to find another roster replacement, I just promoted the guy I had claimed off of waivers.

In addition, with the money I have cleared up from both Shields and Standridge (over 10 million dollars this season alone as neither deal required me to send any cash along), I have a lot more versatility in filling out my roster from the remaining free agency scraps.

At utility infielder, I signed P. Epstein for a one year deal at 1.2 million. Epstein is very weak offensively, but his defense is 81-90-89-96 -- gold glove caliber if he were a starter. He also has a 76 speed which should help if and when he gets on base. He has the ability to play every position except catcher, which makes him very useful, especially if I get hit by any injury problems.

At starting pitcher, I found two guys that I could not decide between. C. Smith had a price tag of almost 5 million for this season, but has solid ratings across the board and is only 28 years old. I do not know why he wasn't picked up previously unless his contract demands had just been too high and had dropped as regular free agency ended. Smith does have 5 years of major league experience, which means he will be costly to keep long term.

J.Wright only wanted 2.8 million, and was a rookie, which means I can keep him for a lot less money for the next several years if I want. He is only 25, but has decent ratings across the board. If he reaches his potential he will be better than Smith, though he is not as good as Smith is right now.

The decision: I signed them both. I have freed up a lot more money for this season than I thought I would. While I did not want to spend more than 4-5 million on my final starting pitcher, moving Standridge without having to eat any salary gave me an extra 4.6 million to play with -- so I spent 8 million on these two starters. I will now be able to move the much weaker veteran one year starter that I signed a few days ago into a long relief role and drop a very weak long reliever that I had signed to a one year deal down to my AAA inactive list (the guy has 1 option year ) to be held in reserve in case I have an injury and need a replacement player.

I am now fairly content with my major league roster for this season, though of course I will as the season progresses still attempt to unload my last few bad contracts. Several of these have been designated for assignment and will spend the season on my AAA inactive list, only to be called up as injury replacements. I would rather not move any more prospects for the time being, so odds are now that I am simply going to have to eat the remainder of these contracts. However, if I gain any extra depth in my minors at a position following the Amateur Draft, I may try to package a prospect to move one or two of these contracts.

up next -- sometime in the next few days, while spring training continues, I will post my 25 man roster together with a short description of how I obtained each of them. After ST ends, I will go over how I setup my major and minor league lineups and pitch counts.

SEASON 4 ROSTER - POSITION PLAYERS, Part 1

After all my offseason moves, here is my roster heading into Season 4 (my first season):

Catcher: Javier Mateo, 27, 3 x 3.3M contract. Mateo is one of the few long contracts I inherited that I did not aggressively attempt to move. He is solid offensively, and should be fairly good behind the plate. While probably not All-Star caliber, he should be solid for me.

Backup catcher: McCay Xavier, 23, 378k salary. Xavier is entering his final season before becoming arbitration eligible. He began the season on my roster at AAA but clearly is ready for the majors. His offense is not quite as good as Mateo, though he does have more power. He is also slightly worse defensively, and his pitch calling is only 50, projected to 55. However, he has an 84 DUR, very high for a catcher, and will get significant playing time due to Mateo's DUR only being in the 60s.

First Base: Julio Iglesias, 28, 327k salary. A 28 year old rookie, Iglesias is simply a guy to get me through the season. He began the season on my AAA roster as well. His offensive ratings are very mediocre, but he is cheap.

Second Base: Kelly Hill, 31, 3 x 5.2M contract. Hill is the one contract that I really wanted to move that I was unable to. His offensive ratings are barely good enough to even be on a major league roster, though he is very strong defensively for second base, and could also play center field. He also has solid speed. I will try to get as much out of him as I can because it looks like I am stuck with him for now.

Third Base: Marc Buford, 29, 1.5M contract. I signed Buford as a free agent to a one year deal to play third for me. Buford has a 91 power, so I expect 35 or more home runs from him this season, though he will be lucky to hit .250. He is also decent defensively, though his range is a bit below my liking for third. His Arm Strength and Accuracy are both in the 70s, so at least he wont throw many balls away.

Shortstop: Orlando Gonzalez, 32, 4 x 2.4M contract. Another contract that I did not try very hard to move. 2.4 million is not too much, especially for a shortstop with 80+ in all defensive ratings. He also looks like he can hit a bit, especially against ies (67), though not so much against righties (30). Mediocre power at 56 helps as well.

Utility: Paulie Epstein, 33, 1.2M contract. Epstein is the free agent utility infielder I signed to get me through the season. he is probably the best defensive player on my team, though he will be lucky to have a batting average over .200. He does have decent speed though so if he is not in as a defensive sub, he can pinch run as well.

SEASON 4 ROSTER, POSITION PLAYERS, Part 2

Field: Buster Rogers, 28, 327k. Rogers has 2 prior years of big league experience but started this season on my AAA roster. Like first baseman Iglesias, he is only on my roster to get me through until a quality player becomes available. He has decent L/R splits, and has a strong arm defensively, but really does not belong on a major league roster.

Center field: Jake Edwards, 26, 1.2million. Edwards was a free agent signing. He is a rookie. He has solid L/R splits but no power and very poor contact. He does have 90+ speed and good baserunning though. Despite not being perfect for the job, odds are he will be my leadoff hitter this season. And depending on how well he performs, I will decide before the end of the year whether to keep this guy long term or just make him a one year filler.

Right field: Matt Kirwan, 27, 343k. Kirwan is a rookie as well, and one of the very few guys on my major league roster that I believe will have success long-term. He was on my team at the start of the season. He has good (88) power, decent splits, and solid contact and eye. He is also decent defensively, but has virtually no speed. He will be batting either 4th or 5th for me this season.

Reserve Outfielder/Pinch Runner: Rube Darr, 29, 5 million. Darr was a one year contract that I had to take back in a trade in order to move a longer, uglier contract. The only thing he has of note is great speed and baserunning, which earned him a spot on my big league roster instead of being designated for assignment.

Designated Hitter: Derrin Wilkinson, 30, 2 x 3.3 million. Wilkinson was another contract I had to take back to move one of my worse contracts -- and the only multiyear contract I picked up all offseason. He shouldn't be awful as a DH, with offensive ratings of 74-64-53-67-71. In fact, he might be the best hitter on my team. Defensively, he is a catcher with a weak arm and a 39 pitch calling, so in other words, all he can do is DH.

The overriding theme with my position players seems to be that they are either guys that I am playing for one year only or bad contracts that I was unable to move as of yet. Other than Kirwan and maybe my two catchers, none of them have a very good chance to be on my team for anything more than a year or two while I develop prospects.