© 2006 Matrix Publishing, LLC. and PureSim Baseball. All Rights Reserved. Matrix Publishing, LLC. and Matrix Publishing, LLC. logo are trademarks of Matrix Publishing, LLC. and PureSim Baseball 2007TM is a trademark of Matrix Publishing, LLC. and PureSim Baseball. All other trademarks and trade names are the properties of their respec- tive owners and Matrix Publishing, LLC. and PureSim Baseball make no claim thereto.
Contents Contents...... 7 5.1 Selecting and Signing Players...... 25 1.0 PureSim Baseball 2007...... 9 5.1.1 Draft Navigation Buttons...... 26 1.1 Installation...... 9 5.1.2 Draft Pool...... 28 Minimum System Requirements...... 9 5.1.3 The Draft Pool...... 30 Uninstalling the Game...... 9 5.1.4 Draft Complete...... 31 1.2 Product Updates...... 9 5.1.5 Spring Training...... 31 1.4 Game Forums...... 9 6.0 Team Management (Front Office) Screen...... 31 1.5 Technical Support...... 9 6.1 Making Roster and Lineup Changes ...... 32 2.0 Introduction...... 9 6.1.1 Understanding the Action Buttons...... 32 2.1 Controls and Hotkeys...... 9 6.2 Monitoring Player Fatigue (View Rotation)...... 34 2.2 Main Screen...... 10 6.3 Initiating Player Trades (Trades…)...... 34 3.0 New Game...... 10 6.4 View Lineups...... 35 Step One – Select Game Style...... 10 This screen displays the same information as the View Step Two – Select Solo or Multiplayer Mode...... 11 Rotation screen does, except for your position players. Step Three – Select Start Year...... 11 Note the colors indicate the same levels of fatigue that are Step Four – Select Player Ratings Scale...... 11 displayed under the 'Managing Fatigue' section, above. ....35 Step Five – Set Association Finances...... 11 6.4.1 Roster Management Tips...... 35 3.1 Create Association...... 11 6.5 Graphical Roster View...... 36 Step One – Select Financial Model Parameters...... 11 6.6 Team Statistics...... 36 Step One-A – Selecting Financial Resources for Each 6.7 Team Transactions...... 36 Team...... 12 6.8 Ball Park...... 37 Step Two – Association Format...... 12 6.9 Mgr/GM Tendencies...... 38 Step Three – Naming...... 12 6.10 Automated Lineup and Roster Management...... 38 Step Four - Human/Computer Control...... 13 6.11 Manager Tendencies...... 39 3.2 Association Customization Options...... 14 6.12 Injured Players/DL...... 39 3.2.1 General Options...... 14 6.13 Team Reports...... 39 3.2.2 Schedule Options...... 14 6.14 Short List...... 40 3.2.3 Ground Rules...... 14 6.15 Schedule Calendar...... 40 3.2.4 Player Generation Models...... 14 6.16 Expanded Team Results...... 40 3.3 Association Menu...... 15 7.0 The Playoffs...... 40 3.3.1 Association Today...... 15 8.0 The Off Season...... 41 3.3.2 Team Review...... 15 8.1 A Step-By-Step Look at the PureSim Off-Season...... 41 3.3.3 Association Review...... 15 8.1.1 Moving Right Along: Season Summary...... 42 3.3.4 Quick Links...... 16 8.1.2 Single Season Records...... 42 3.3.5 Options and Utilities...... 16 8.1.3 Retirements...... 42 3.4 Global Options...... 18 8.1.4 Housekeeping...... 43 3.4.1 Games...... 18 8.2 The Amateur Draft...... 43 3.4.2 Standings...... 18 8.3 The Free Agent Bidding and Signing Period...... 44 3.4.3 Statistics & Reports...... 19 8.3.1 Finalizing Pre-Season Rosters...... 45 3.4.4 PSPN.com Coverage...... 19 8.3.2 Finalize Rosters...... 46 3.4.5 Highlights...... 20 8.3.4 Spring Training...... 46 3.4.6 Almanac...... 20 CREDITS...... 47 3.4.7 Injuries...... 21 Puresim Credits...... 47 3.4.8 Deals & Moves...... 21 Matrix Games Credits...... 47 3.4.9 Players...... 21 3.4.10 Add-In Modules...... 22 3.4.11 Home...... 22 3.4.12 Main...... 22 4.0 Playing the Game...... 22 4.1 Quick Sim...... 22 4.2 Watch PSPNCasttm...... 23 4.2.1 Play Options...... 23 4.2.2 Auto Complete...... 24 4.3 Manage Game...... 24 4.3.1 On Defense...... 24 4.3.2 On Offense...... 25 5.0 The Draft...... 25
Introduction
Create My New Account button, and a confirmation e-mail will 1.0 PureSim Baseball 2007 be sent to your specified e-mail account. Thank you for purchasing PureSim Baseball 2007. Within this Register a New Game Purchase – Once you have signed up product are the ultimate set of tools with which you can create for a Matrix Games Member account, you can then register your own slice of the national pastime from scratch or relive the any Matrix Games title you own in your new account. To glorious moments of the past hundred-plus years of diamond do so, log in to your account on the Matrix Games website greatness. From management to finances, to trading and (www.matrixgames.com). Click Register Game near the top contracts, to moving players and watching them perform on the to register your new Matrix Games purchase. field – you have full control over how you think a baseball league (and team) should be run! Once you’ve registered your game, when you log in to the Members section you can view your list of registered titles by 1.1 Installation clicking My Games. Each game title is a hyperlink that will take you to an information page on the game (including all the latest Please ensure your system meets the minimum requirements news on that title). Also on this list is a Downloads hyperlink that listed below. To install the game, insert the PureSim Baseball 2007 takes you to a page that has all the latest downloads, including CD into your CD-ROM drive. If you have disabled the Autorun patches, for that particular title. function on your CD-ROM or if you are installing from a digital download, double-click on the installation archive file, then Remember, once you have signed up for a Matrix Games Member double click on the file that is shown inside the archive. Follow account, you do not have to sign up again – at that point you all on-screen prompts to complete installation. are free to register for any Matrix Games product you purchase. Thank you and enjoy your game! Minimum System Requirements OS: Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP 1.4 Game Forums Processor: Pentium 3 800 or better RAM: 128mb Our forums are one of the best things about Matrix Games. Every Video Card: 32mb PC SVGA game has its own forum with our designers, developers and the Sound Card: Any Windows compatible gamers playing the game. If you are experiencing a problem, CD-ROM: N/A have a question or just an idea on how to make the game better, Hard Drive: 30mb post a message there. Go to http://www.matrixgames.com and DirectX Version: N/A click on the Forums hyperlink. Uninstalling the Game 1.5 Technical Support Please use the Add/Remove Programs option from the Should you have a technical problem with the game, the best Windows Control Panel to uninstall the game. way to get help is to post a note in the Technical Support sub-forum within the PureSim Baseball forum at http://www. 1.2 Product Updates matrixgames.com. You’ll then hear back from either Matrix or PureSim Baseball personnel, or from one of the many In order to maintain our product excellence, Matrix Games helpful players of the game. This is usually the fastest way releases updates containing new features, enhancements, and to get help. Alternatively, you can email your problem to corrections to any known issues. Keeping up with these updates [email protected]. is made easy and is free by signing up for a Matrix Games Member account. When you’re signed up, you can then register your Matrix Games products in order to receive access to these important game-related materials. Doing so is a simple two step 2.0 Introduction process:
Sign Up for a Matrix Games Member account – THIS IS A ONE TIME PROCEDURE; once you have signed up for a Matrix account, 2.1 Controls and Hotkeys you are in the system and will not need to sign up again. Go to www.matrixgames.com and click the Members hyperlink at the Navigation throughout most of PureSim Baseball 2007 is top. In the new window, select Register NOW and follow the accomplished through your mouse. Left-clicking on a button on-screen instructions. When you’re finished, click the Please or hyperlink will execute the selection. Some options can be
right-clicked on, bringing up a small menu of options (the listed • Help – PureSim Baseball 2007's Help system includes basics options depends on the item clicked). on gameplay, definitions for the terms and statistics used in the game, and strategies and hints for building and maintaining In addition to conventional mouse access, there are several hot successful baseball franchises. Information and technical support keys as well: is also available.
CTRL-A Play today’s games • Quit – Exit PureSim Baseball 2007. CTRL-F11 Unattended Auto Play CTRL-G Go to Today's Games CTRL-H Go to Home Screen 3.0 New Game CTRL-I Go to Injuries CTRL-K Go to Trades When you click New Game from the Main Menu, the process of CTRL-L Go to player's Lineup Page building your very own Association is begun. Throughout this CTRL-M Go to Modify My Roster process you will have full control over almost every detail. CTRL-R Go to player's Pitching Rotation CTRL-T Go to Team Home Screen The Select Play Mode window is displayed, allowing you to CTRL-U Go to Manager Tendencies make your first custom choices. Each is described in detail in the six steps below. 2.2 Main Screen The PureSim Baseball 2007 main screen is where you begin building the stuff of legends.
Step One – Select Game Style •. Use a PureSim 2007 Ready-Made Template – The fastest and easiest way to jump right in. Select an association that has already been built and configured with the season or draft • New Game – Create a new Association and either stock your ready to start. PureSim ships with some fun templates ready for game with computer-generated fantasy players or historical play. Note, PureSim also allows you to create and save your own Major League players from any year since 1871. Completely templates. customize your new League by choosing size, League/Division alignment(s), and team names/city locations. Refer to Section 3.0 • PureSim Classic – This is PureSim in its purest form. Using the for detail on setting up a New Game. starting year entered at the top of the window, this play mode will start with a fantasy draft of real or fictional players. If you • Load Game – Load an existing saved association. plan on populating your association with real players, you will need a copy of the Lahman Database. (Refer to the Lahman • Quick Load – Quick load the Association you were playing with Database section below for more information.) the last time you played PureSim Baseball 2007. • PureSim Classic – QUICKSTART – This mode is similar to • Options – Set PureSim Baseball 2007 game options. PureSim Classic, but only uses fictional players to populate your association and allows you to skip the initial draft and spring training. You only need to determine the Association Format
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(by using the Association Format pull-down menu), and click the Continue button. This mode is for players that want to start • $ Scale - The scale parameter lets you scale team finances and playing quickly and enjoy an association of randomly selected player salaries to match certain eras in baseball history. The scale regions and teams. Once the association is created, you will be is expressed as a percentage from one to 100. randomly assigned a team. Once all selections have been made, click Cancel to return to the • Real Major League Player Career Mode – Want to re-live Main Menu or Continue to move on to the Create Association a favorite season from your childhood? How about playing a screen. season with Ruth and the 1927 Yankees? Or maybe you think you can win the World Series with the 1986 Red Sox? If you want to see real players in action, then this is the mode for you. Note 3.1 Create Association that the players are not guaranteed to play exactly like they did You've taken the first step by determining your new Association's in real life. There will be some variability in their performance framework. We continue by moving to the Create Association in the game compared to how they played in real life. Pick any screen. From here you will determine finances, Association season from 1900 to the present and PureSim will create the structure, and which teams will be run by humans and which by association with the players already drafted onto their teams. All the computer. and seasons from 1900-2005 are included with the game Step One – Select Financial Model Parameters • Sandbox Mode – In Sandbox mode, you start with an empty The first step in creating a new Association is to determine the association and use PureSim’s player generation and import amount of potential financial backing teams will have. In some tools to manually add/assign players to your teams or your markets a larger population base usually equates to a higher association’s draft pool. NOTE: Sandbox mode requires that the income for the team, and therefore more money for such Lahman real player database be installed.
Step Two – Select Solo or Multiplayer Mode
• Solo Play – Play in single player mode.
• Multiplayer – Multiplayer allows for multiple teams to be played by multiple human players. All games are simulated by the “Commissioner” and individual roster moves are carried out by human owners and submitted to the commissioner who applies them to the association.
Step Three – Select Start Year • Select The Start Year – The start year can be used to create associations that match a specific era in baseball history. Player generation and statistical results are greatly influenced by this luckyowners to use. For example, a team in New York City would setting. earn much more than a team located in, say, Des Moines, Iowa.
• Use Geography Based Levels – This setting will allocate Step Four – Select Player Ratings Scale finances to a team based on the region it is playing in. In other • Ratings Scale – Determines the number scale used to rate words, it will be at the mercy of their market size. Again, larger player abilities. Selections include 1-100, 1-50, 1-20, 1-10, 1-8, and regions (e.g. Los Angeles, Houston) will have larger financial 1-5. resources to draw from than smaller regions (e.g., Beaumont, Tallahassee).
Step Five – Set Association Finances If this option is selected, clicking Next will take you directly • Use Finances/Salaries/Free Agency – If you want to play to Step Two, where you will determine your new Association's with salaries, free agency, and contract negotiations, select this format (number of Leagues, Divisions, and Teams). option.
11 • Use Equal Finances – This setting assigns all regions an equal amount of finances, so no big region teams will have an advantage over smaller region teams.
If this option is selected, clicking Next will take you directly to Step One-A, where you will be able to select the amount of financial resources to grant each team.
Note: Clicking Previous from this screen will return you to the Main Menu.
Step One-A – Selecting Financial Resources for Each Team If you've come to this step, you've selected to have the same finances for each team in your Association. From the displayed list, select a financial amount; the choices range from $156.25 million per team to 500 million per team! Select an option and click Next to proceed to Step Three for the naming of your Association, League(s), Division(s), and/or Teams.
Click Previous to return to the previous screen.
Keep in mind that running larger leagues will result in greater simulation processing time.
Step Three – Naming Now, you’re ready to add a bit of color to your new league. The format of this naming screen will differ depending on the number of leagues, teams, and divisions you selected in the previous screen.
Click on your choice and Next to go to Step Two, where you will determine your new Association's format (number of Leagues, Divisions, and Teams).
Click Previous to return to Step One and the Financial Model Parameters selection screen.
Step Two – Association Format From the Association Format screen, you can select the type of League (one or two), the number of Teams (from four to 40, depending on whether you select a one or two Leagues), and the number of Divisions (from one to six, again depending on the number of Leagues). First, enter a name for your new baseball Association, such as the Major League Baseball Association.
Next, name your League(s) (such as American League and National League, as they are known in Major League Baseball).
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Now, you can name teams. You may note that the system Click Create New Region to enter a region name that you automatically generates nicknames for your teams; you can cannot find on the list, or click Cancel to return to the Naming choose to keep any of these or replace all of them with nicknames screen without selecting a region of your own choosing. To change a nickname, click in the white field and type the new one.
You will now need to determine the regions (cities) that the teams are physically located. Don't worry about travel expenses – it's not a factor. Your teams can be wherever you want them to be! You can select each team's region by clicking on the hyperlink next to its nickname ('Click Here to Select or Add Region').
Clicking Randomize will let the computer come up with new team nicknames and will also generate random regions. You may When finished naming, clickNext to proceed to Step Four, where review and change any of these computer selections, or keep you will specify human and computer control for each team. clicking Randomize as often as you’d like until a satisfactory list is displayed. Step Four - Human/Computer Control Now you’re ready to specify which teams in your new association will be controlled by humans and which ones by the computer (or, CPU). Initially, all teams are set to CPU control; to change it to Human (or, HUM) control, click the CPU box.
When the region hyperlink is clicked, a list of regions will be displayed. Scroll down and click a region/city for that team to select it. You can always go back and select a new region before proceeding.
Note that once a team is changed from CPU to HUM, it cannot be changed back to CPU. If you accidentally click on the wrong team, simply click Previous to return to the naming screen, then click Next to go back to this screen – all HUM controlled teams will revert to CPU control. Most North American cities are displayed on the list, but if you don’t see the region you want, select a region that is physically Click Next to proceed to the Association Customization Options close to a choice on the list so that weather is accurate. Keep in screen, or Previous to return to the Naming screen. mind that if you’re playing with geographic-based finances that the selected city is also close in population size as well.
13 3.2 Association Customization Options roster (25 major and 10 reserves). Available financial resources will be adjusted as well. The Association Customization Options let you further mold your association into the ball league you’ve always dreamed 3.2.2 Schedule Options of. To select an option, click in the appropriate check box or the appropriate option from a drop-down menu. • Customize the Schedule – If selected, you can change the number of games per season. The Select number of games per season drop-down menu will be unfrozen once this option is selected.
• Select number of games per season – With the previous option selected, choose the number of games to be played per season (40, 60, 81, 120, 140, 154, or 162).
3.2.3 Ground Rules • Use Designated Hitter – Select an option to determine whether or not your association will use the Designated Hitter (DH) rule. In an association with two leagues, the drop-down menu will allow the rule to be set for either of the leagues, both of them, or neither of them.
• Default Rotation Size – Select either a five or four man default rotation size for your association.
3.2.4 Player Generation Models 3.2.1 General Options • Generate Fictional Players – Select this option if you would • Total Roster Size – Select the roster size you want for each like PureSim to generate fictional players for your association. team. The default value depends on the type of association you are creating. Typically when replaying a real major league season • Seed Association with Real Major League Players or players with real players the default is 35. This is due to the fact that in from a custom database – Select this option if you would like most cases there will not be a large enough pool of players in to import real players from the Lahman database. Use the Select the real player database to fill rosters of any greater size. If you Seed Year drop-down menu to select the specific year. decide you want to use 50 or above roster sizes then PureSim will generate fictional young players that will be used to round • Append source year to player name – Select this option if out the roster. If you are playing a fictional association then 60- you want a player’s year to be appended to the end of his name man rosters is the default as this is optimal for filling out 3 levels (e.g., Ted Williams’40 instead of Ted Williams). of minors. Additionally you can play with up to 70-man rosters Once all the options you want have been selected, click Continue • Injuries can occur – If selected, players can suffer minor to to proceed to the initial Association Menu, where you can begin major (even career-ending) injuries. Needless to say, select this your draft! option for some serious realism, but remember that an injury can occur at any time during the season…or worse, the playoffs! Note that clicking Cancel here will cancel all progress to this point and return you to the Main Menu. • Allow Computer AI Trades – If selected, any CPU-controlled teams will be allowed to initiate trades with both CPU and human-controlled teams. If you don’t want players moving around in your association, do not select this option.
• Full Minor League roster and game schedule – If selected, you can add the responsibility of managing your team’s associated minor league rosters. You will then be responsible for your minor league team’s lineups and pitching rotation, and minor league games will be simulated during your association’s season. If you choose not to use this option, then PureSim will use a 35 man
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3.3 Association Menu 3.3.2 Team Review At this point, you’re ready for your draft! However, first let’s take a In the lower left corner under the purple heading will be your look at this important screen. (If you're eager to begin your draft, team's review of its top statistical producers. This information go ahead and move forward to Section 4.0 for an overview of will be refreshed every few seconds with different categories, this function). From here you will be able to review all important making for a general idea of how your team is producing. The information from day-to-day during your association’s name of your team, located in the purple header, is a hyperlink operations. Not only are news blurbs displayed here, but leaders that will take you to your Front Office screen (refer to Section 6.0 in offense and pitching as well as a fictional sports network’s for further details). (PSPN) coverage of your entire association!
3.3.1 Association Today 3.3.3 Association Review The Association Today window gives you a brief review of the In the center of the Association menu screen will be a listing of Association's current standing. If you need to run a draft or statistical leaders from all teams. Like the Team Review section Spring Training, an appropriate hyperlink will be displayed here. of this menu screen, these categories will refresh every few Once players are drafted and Spring Training is out of the way, seconds. However, the topmost of the two will always display you can click to review the current day's games or run the season Offensive categories, while the bottom of the two will always in auto play mode if you don't want to manage each game. display Pitching categories.
15 3.3.5 Options and Utilities If your team is lucky enough to have a player on either of these lists, they will be highlighted in bold lettering.
3.3.4 Quick Links
The Quick Links window will provide you with navigation between each team, several add-ins, your Team Management (or, Front Office) screen, and your Rotation and Lineups. Also, several options and utilities can be selected from here.
– Select a team from the drop-down menu to view. Teams Select this option to specify settings for your PureSim Baseball You can view information on any computer-controlled team 2007 game. or human-controlled team. General Options Tab Add-Ins – Add-Ins are user-created mods to the game. PureSim Enter Name and Serial Number – If you have a demo version of fully supports mods via the PureSim Software Development the game, click this button to enter license information to unlock Kit (SDK). Interested programmers should check out the Matrix the full version. forums for more information. Game Logs – Select if you want to Save All Game Logs, Save Team Front Office Screen – By default, your team's name is My Team's Game Logs Only, or Do NOT Save any game logs. here. Click to go to the Front Office screen. Enable Sounds – Select to turn sounds on within the game. My Rotation – Displays the View Rotation screen from the Team Management window. Enable speech engine – If you are running Windows XP and have this option selected, speech will play within the game. My Lineups – Displays the View Lineups screen from the Team Management window. Compact Association Database Now, Run data patch utility – Typically these options will only be needed if you are directed to do so by Matrix support.
Auto backup association – Select to automatically backup your association. If selected, you can choose an option from the Backup Frequency drop-down menu. Like any important data on your computer, it is still a VERY GOOD idea to make your own backups within Windows.
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Auto-Assign player photos – Click this button to automatically Association Settings – (Name of Association) Tab scan your PureSim 2005\mods\faces folder for player photos and assign them to players whose name matches. For fictional players, this utility will scan the PureSim 2004\mods\faces\generic folder and assign those photos randomly (without repeating).
Import Retrosheet Schedule – Click this button to import real Major League schedules released by Retrosheet, a non-profit provider of a wealth of free baseball data. Visit Retrosheet at www.retrosheet.org and download a schedule.
Import an OOTP Schedule – Click this button to import a custom schedule designed for Out Of The Park Baseball 6 into a PureSim Association.
Display Options Tab
Edit League and Division Names – You can change the names of your League(s) and/or Division(s) from this option. Any changes made will take effect immediately.
Misc Association Options
Display Mode Options – Select either to Force 1024x768 Full Expansion Possible – Select this option to make the possibility Screen Mode or Windowed Mode to run PureSim Baseball 2007 of expansion a reality from season to season. The game will (which requires at least 1024x768 resolution from your monitor determine on its own if new teams are created each off season. and system in order to run). Display Player Photos – Select this option to display player Color Depth – Select either High Color (16bit) or 256 Color photos within the game. Mode. PureSim Baseball 2007 will run acceptably in 256 Color Mode, but runs best in 16bit mode. Export Schedule – Use this option to export your current schedule for use in other associations with the same Troubleshooting – Select Disable Mode Switch if PureSim configuration. Baseball 2007 is unable to set your display mode. By checking this option the game will make no attempt to automatically Import Schedule – Select this option to import schedules change your display resolution. This option is only useful if you created by other users are already running in 1024x768 mode or higher and the game fails to run properly. If you are running at a lower resolution than Engine File – Every variable in PureSim’s simulation engine can 1024x768, this option will not help. be modified. Use this feature to apply different models that match the brand of baseball you prefer (for example the dead ball era). Check www.matrixgames.com for new engine files as the PureSim user community builds them.
Ratings Scale – Determines the number scale used to rate player abilities. Selections include 1-100, 1-50, 1-20, 1-10, 1-8, and 1-5.
17 Choosing Sim one week or Sim one month will sim one calendar Multiplayer – Used if the game is to be run with multiple human week or one calendar month, respectively. You can always stop players. If only one team is set to Human control, this option will the sim at any point you like. be unavailable. Sim season will sim the remainder of the season. As with simming for a week or month, you can stop the sim at any point 3.4 Global Options you like. At the bottom of most PureSim Baseball 2007 screens is the Global Options menu bar. These choices allow you to quickly Unattended Auto Play will run your team completely by the navigate to important information within the game. computer, not stopping for anything (including injuries) until either the season ends or you choose to stop the sim.
The drop-down menus at the bottom allow you to view the Front Office screen for any other team in your Association or select a report add-in for viewing. 3.4.1 Games The remainder of this screen displays the selected day's games. Click to view a lineup of the current games that need to be The teams' information includes their current records and current played or simulated. starting pitcher. From here you can choose to run a game or just sim it quickly. For information on running a game in Quick Sim, PSPNCasttm, or Manage Game modes, refer to Section 4.0.
3.4.2 Standings
At left, you can click the Show Minors button to view the schedule of your minor league franchise. When viewing the minor league franchise, this button will instead be Show Majors.
A calendar is displayed beneath this button; each date is hyperlinked so you may jump ahead to view a day's games. You can advance one day forward by clicking the Day > hyperlink, or The Standings button will bring up the veritable baseball one day back by clicking the < Day hyperlink. Furthermore, you standings list for your Association, showing current records and can advance a week or go back a week by clicking Week > or < other statistics. From the left side of the screen, you can select Week, respectively. to Show Minors and view the records of the minor league franchises. You can also view another team's Front Office screen The Go to current day option will display the games for the from the drop-down menu, or view a report add-in. current day. Likewise, you can click a day on the calendar, as mentioned.
When you click on a calendar day, it will display in the next option, Sim through (Month) (Day). Selecting this option will sim all games up to and including that selected date.
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3.4.3 Statistics & Reports • Relative Batting Average (RBA) – Pioneered by David Shoebottom in a Baseball Research article in 1976, this was the first traditional stat normalized to league average so as to permit cross-era comparison. This measure simply divides individual batting average by league batting average.
• Pitching Runs (PR) – The Linear Weights measure of runs saved beyond what a league-average pitcher might have saved.
• Park Factor (PF) – Compares the rate of stats at home versus the rate of stats on the road. A rate higher than 1.000 favors the hitter. Below 1.000 favors the pitcher.
• Runs Created 27 (RC/27) – Measures how many runs per game a team made up of nine of the same player would score.
• Stolen Base Runs (SBR) – Measures the runs gained/lost via stolen base attempts. SBR is calculated on the basis of the 66.7 percent success rate that Sabermetric studies have shown to the break-even point for producing runs beyond the average. This is the heart of PureSim Baseball 2007's wealth of statistics. Interestingly, a man who steals two bases in three attempts is From here you can view just about every statistic for every merely spinning his wheels in terms of value to his team and position and rotation within your Association (including the even a man who succeeds at an 80 percent clip will have to steal minors). a lot of bases (about 65) to create just one win beyond average. You can navigate through the wealth of data from the menus at • Power Index (PI) – Measures hitter's pure power by looking at left. Clicking on one of the first two categories Batting( Leaders various power stats. or Pitching Leaders) will display the associated data in the main screen at right. Further data can be displayed; in the above • Defense Independent Percentage for Pitchers (DIPP) – This screenshot we see that there are many categories we can sort is a major simplification of the popular DIPS calculation. DIPP is by. Click on one of these categories (immediately to the left of the percentage of outs a pitcher records on plays that do not the data list, e.g. Home Runs, Hits, etc.) to sort by that particular involve the defense. category.
Sortable Batting and Sortable Pitching will bring up full data lists that can be sorted by clicking on the heading instead of a 3.4.4 PSPN.com Coverage category.
Team Batting and Team Pitching will bring up the associated list of batting and pitching performance, respectively, by team.
Misc Reports will bring up some miscellaneous reports including Team Financials (showing total finances, player salaries total, and available finances for each team), Player Salaries, Team Ages, and Association Amateur Draft History.
Export Data allows you to export your Association's data to Microsoft Excel, Access 9x or 2000/XP, HTML, or as a Text (Comma Delimited) file.
The Sabermetric Reports Pack is an expansion pack that provides some interesting reports inspired by the works of famous baseball analysts such as Bill James, Branch Rickey, Pete Palmer, and others. Choices include the following: This option brings up the (fictional) PSPN Network, 'The Worldwide Leader In PureSim Baseball Coverage!' This screen
19 will be full of news-related items based on your Association's The Box Score screen will display the box score for the selected performance over the season. This powerful tool gives you the game. You can print this information by clicking Print Preview, feel of true media coverage of your Association and a very in- view the game's detailed game log by clicking View Game Log, depth immersion into the game. or click Close to return.
You can navigate among multiple issues at the bottom of this 3.4.6 Almanac screen; click First Issue to view the season's first issue, Previous Issue to view the most recent issue to the currently displayed one (if available), Next Issue to view the next issue in line (if available), Current Issue to view the most recent issue, and OK/ Close to close the screen.
Otherwise, navigation throughout this document is attained by clicking the hyperlinked story titles at the top of the screen. This will jump your view directly to the related story. Additionally, information within the report (including player's names) can be clicked for more information on that item.
3.4.5 Highlights
The Almanac is a treasure trove of information that is compiled over the seasons your Association plays through. There are several categories that can be viewed.
HTML Almanac – New in PureSim Baseball 2007 is the com- prehensive HTML Almanac. At the end of each season (or on demand if you choose), the Almanac is generated. Thousands of pages of useful stats by player, team, season are written in a format that is “browsable” as an integrated HTML web site. In addition these pages can be published to the web making it easy to share your association’s history with others or build a site for your online PureSim Baseball 207 leagues.
This option will bring up highlights from recent games from Career Records – The top ten performers in 23 categories are across the league. Shutouts, strikeouts, and/or runs scored in great displayed here. You can view this selection by all teams or select numbers will make this list. Note that offensive performances are a specific team in the drop-down menu at top. listed at the top and pitching performances listed at bottom. Single Season Records – If you have multiple seasons under Clicking a player name will bring up their player card, while your Association's belt, you'll be able to view performances clicking on the event (e.g., 4 Hits vs. Midland) will bring up a across multiple seasons here. Box Score screen. Team Win/Loss – Again, if you have multiple seasons under your Association's belt, the top 10 Single Season Records will be displayed here, along with a list of All Time Records.
Hall of Fame – Exemplary players nominated to your Association's Hall of Fame are listed here. You'll have to be in at least your second season of play before anyone appears here, however.
20 NEW GAME
Annual Awards – There are 46 categories of awards granted to 3.4.8 Deals & Moves your Association's players each year, including All Star selections, Golden Glove, Cy Young, and many others.
Past Champions – Champions of your Association from past seasons are listed here.
Post Season Details – Previous playoff performances are listed here.
Standings By Year – Standings from previous seasons are listed here.
This Year in PSPN – A truly special report, this PSPN issue will review the past season.
Favorite Toy – This selection is a tool Bill James developed in his Baseball Abstract days to predict the chance of a player reaching some career milestone. This expansion pack lets you play with Any player moves (including Trades) are displayed here. The the toy in your Association. You cannot run the Favorite Toy most recent deals/moves are displayed first. option until at least two seasons have been played. You can view all transactions for the current season (by default), First, select a statistic to project (Home Runs, Hits, Strikeouts (P), or select any number of sortable categories from the drop-down Wins, or RBI). Next, set the milestone value to test. Finally, run the menu at the top of the screen (including Promotions/Demotions, Favorite Toy calculation to view the results. DL Moves, and Retirements). 3.4.7 Injuries
3.4.9 Players A record of every single player in your Association is listed here. Any injuries suffered in your Association will be listed here. Much like the draft screen, you can click buttons at right to view The player's name, position, team, and injury type and severity all Position Players or all Pitchers. Additionally, you can click will be listed. Also, the expected time for their recovery is also Custom Filters to create your own sortable functions to find the displayed. players you want (refer to Section 5.1.1 for more details on this feature).
Furthermore, you can view the top players by clicking View Top 25%, View Top 50%, or View Top 75%. This will display the top quarter, half, and three quarters, respectively, of all players based
21 on the currently displayed list. For example, if you have Pitchers 3.4.10 Add-In Modules listed and click View Top 50%, the top half of all pitchers will be displayed. View All will, of course, display all players.
By clicking Import Real Player(s), you can import real-world Major League players into your list (if they're not already there). Real-world MLB players that have multiple seasons under their belts can be found by each season they played.
And Add-In Modules of reports throughout the game can be downloaded from this screen. Simply click a hyperlink to view the associated report. Click the Download Add-Ins button at top left to look for and download additional modules. Note that you must have an existing Internet connection for the download feature to work.
For example, clicking this option and entering Bagwell will bring 3.4.11 Home up Jeff Bagwell's performances for each of his past seasons. This button will return you to the Association Menu. You can import the Jeff Bagwell of 1992 (highlighted above) by clicking that name and Import Selected Player(s). You can 3.4.12 Main select multiple names by pressing and holding the Alt key while This button will return you to the Main Menu. clicking on names. In this way, you could technically import thirteen Jeff Bagwells – one from each season from 1992 to 2004 – if you really wanted to! 4.0 Playing the Game
The Create a Hitter and Create a Pitcher options are a powerful By clicking the Games button at the bottom of the screen, you tool that lets you build your own players. In this way, you can will be provided a list of all games that currently need to be create anybody, including yourself if you'd like! This screen is played. For more information on this screen, refer to Section exactly like the Edit Bio screen described in Section 5.1.2 – check X.X. For now, we're only concerned with the Quick Sim, Watch it out there for full details. PSPNCasttm, and Manage Game functions. Using one of these three functions, you will play out your games. Of course, you can choose to sim multiple games over a larger period of time, if you'd like.
4.1 Quick Sim The Quick Sim option is available both to human- and computer- controlled teams. By clicking this hyperlink, you will simulate the displayed game in a matter of seconds and the results automatically displayed within the list. A Box Score and Game Log may be viewed, as well as stellar player performers.
22 PLAYING THE GAME
4.2 Watch PSPNCasttm Even more exciting is the animated ball flight now present in PureSim Baseball 2007. As each play is resolved a realistic This is where the game really begins. By clicking this option, you ball flight and trajectory is rendered on the screen as the play are selecting to watch an actual broadcast of the selected game unfolds. as shown by the PSPN Network. At top left and top right, you will see Visitor and Home Team Data, respectively. The number of Pinch Hitters and Relievers available to each side are displayed.
At bottom left and bottom right are the Home and Visitor Team windows, respectively. Depending on who is at bat and who is on the field, this will either display the batter or pitcher as well as some of their statistics.
Just above each of these windows is a batting lineup for each team (the Home list is on the left, while the Visitor list is on the right). The current batter is highlighted in blue. Note that on the other list, a player's name is printed in blue (instead of highlighted). This indicates the first player that will be up when it is that team's turn to bat.
At bottom center is a report of what's going on out there on the field. The game's location and teams playing are displayed at the First, a game overview screen will be displayed. This will include top, while in the window beneath the most recent activity on the the weather report (which won't matter if you're playing in a screen is displayed. dome), the starting pitchers, starting lineups, and each team's record. Review this information and click OK to continue. In the center of the screen, we see the defensive players for the team on the field with their names in white boxes. As batters make it to the bases, their names will be displayed next to that base in a blue box.
At top is the scoreboard, showing the current score and total number of hits and errors, as well as the current situation (number of outs, players on base).
Finally, just below the scoreboard at the top are three buttons: Play Options, Auto Complete, and Park Info.
4.2.1 Play Options This window will define the settings for the PSPNCasttm games You will hear the final strains of the National Anthem, and the you watch. game will begin. Note that if you have the speech setting on, each At Bat will be announced. Continuous play by play – Select this New for PureSim Baseball 2007 – Ambient sounds and graphics! option if you want the This season’s version of PureSim adds an array of ambient sounds game to play through that greatly increases the level of immersion as you play out a continuously; if it is game. Vendor sounds, umpire calls, the roar of the crowd, its all not selected, after here. We’ve even added an impressive fireworks display when each at bat or out you the home town team goes deep. will have to click in the bottom message
23 area (a hyperlink will display indicating what you need to do to 4.3 Manage Game continue) in order to keep the game moving along. Not having this option selected will make it easier for you to absorb what's The Manage Game option is only available to games where a happening on the field. human player owns one of the teams. This gives you control over what strategies to employ. Game Speed (Very Slow, Slow, Normal (default), Fast, Very Fast, Custom) – Select the speed at which the play by play 4.3.1 On Defense unfolds. The Custom option allows you to set the length of delay When you're on defense, you can click Enter and just let the between game events to a specific duration. players on the field go with regular play. Or, you can choose from several strategies including changing your Lineup, choosing to Graphic/Display Options Walk the current batter, trying for a Pitch Around, or choosing to Guard Lines. More options are available by clicking More. Animate Ball Flight – Select to view a representation of a hit ball's flight. Show "Team Information" windows – Selecting this option will display the two top left and top right Team Information windows; not selecting it will remove them.
Hide on field play result message – If selected, no message will display on the field showing what occurred on that play. If not selected, a small text window will display for a brief period of time.
Information windows always visible – When a batter is up, the information windows on the screen will disappear (except for the bottom window and the scoreboard at top). If this is selected, all windows will continuously be displayed.
Text Play by Play Options
New info on top line – Select to display new activity information on the top line of the bottom window.
New info on bottom line – Select to display new activity information on the bottom line of the bottom window.
4.2.2 Auto Complete
Clicking this button will automatically run the rest of the game without human interaction. You'll essentially be watching a super- fast version of a PSPNCasttm game. If clicked, you can choose to play through until a certain inning, or for the remainder of the Baserunning game. During Auto Complete play, you can press the Escape key to return to normal play. Steal 2nd, Steal 3rd, Steal Home – Selecting any of these options will tell your baserunners to try to steal the selected 4.2.3 Park Info bases, if they feel they can get a good jump on it. If not selected, players won't try nearly as much to steal a base. Clicking this button will bring up a graphic representation of the park you're playing in, indicating distances to the back wall and Hit and Run – Select this so your runners will take off with the the height of the back wall at that position. pitch and your batters will try to make contact with the ball.
24 PLAYING THE GAME - THE DRAFT
Batter 5.0 The Draft SAC Bunt – Select to make the batter attempt a sacrifice bunt. Note that not all players may be able to get the bunt down. To begin, click the link in the Association Today window. A new screen will be displayed where you can confirm the start of your Defense – Pitching draft (by clicking Start Draft) or canceling and returning to the Association Menu. Normal, Intentional Walk, Pitch Around – Select the pitching style. Your first official draft in a new Association will have a hyperlink that looks like this. Click it to proceed. Defense – Infield Depth
Normal, In, Guard Lines – Select the defensive stance for your players. An infield that's drawn in will increase the chance for gunning down the runner at home, but will increase the chance a grounder can get through the infield for a hit.
4.3.2 On Offense
When you're batting, you can click Enter and just let the batters A new screen will be displayed. Click Start Draft to begin, or on the field go with regular play. Or, you can change yourLineup , Cancel to return. or click More for further options.
If you click More, you will get to set the following options:
Baserunning
Steal 2nd, Steal 3rd, Steal Home – Selecting any of these options will tell your baserunners to try to steal the selected bases, if they feel they can get a good jump on it. If not selected, players won’t try nearly as much to steal a base.
Hit and Run – Select this so your runners will take off with the pitch and your batters will try to make contact with the ball.
Batter
SAC Bunt – Select to make the batter attempt a sacrifice bunt. Note that not all players may be able to get the bunt down. 5.1 Selecting and Signing Players Bunt for a hit – Select to make the batter attempt a bunt the ball for a base hit. This can be a great way to start a rally with that Here's where the greatest (or poorest!) choices are made; the speedy guy at the top of your order. Note that not all players will building blocks of each team's greatness will be determined by be able to get a bunt down every time. the selections you make here.
The computer will randomly determine a draft order and will automatically make selections for all CPU-controlled teams. When it comes time for a human-controlled team to draft, the Sign Player window will be displayed. From here, you can review player information and even closely examine each one.
Navigation buttons (allowing sorting of players in the draft pool) are displayed at the top. The draft pool is displayed in the center of the screen. Signing information, as well as a review of your draft to date, is displayed at the bottom.
25 • Position Players or Pitchers – Select the appropriate type of player.
• Bats – Select if you want to view players that bat left-handed (Left), right-handed (Right), or a list of both left and right-handed batters (Either).
• Throws – Select if you want to view pitchers that throw left- handed (Left), right-handed (Right), or a list of both left and right-handed throwers (Either).
• Positions – Select each position that you would like to view a list of.
• Custom Scouting Criteria – You can further customize your search by telling PureSim to only find players with a specified 5.1.1 Draft Navigation Buttons minimum, maximum, or exact rating. You can specify up to three of these types of criterion in order to further narrow the field At the top of the Draft screen are several buttons that will allow down. you to examine specific portions of the available players in the draft pool.
Position Players – Click to view a list of position players (i.e., non-pitchers).
Pitchers – Click to view a list of pitchers (only).
View Current Roster – Can’t recall what positions you still need to draft for? Click this button to view your team’s current listing of players. The first search option indicates the attribute to search for. This can be Age, Contact, Power, Eye, Speed, Hands, Arm, Range, Stuff, Custom Filters – Click to display the Custom Filters menu. You Control, Velocity, Endurance, and Potential. can use this menu to define a more detailed search criteria or criterion for available players you would like to display in the Contact – Determines how good a player is at putting a bat draft list. This screen is displayed in detail below: on the ball. These players will typically strike out less. Higher contract usually results in a higher batting average.
Power – Determines how good a player is at hitting home runs.
Eye – Players with a good Eye rating tend to be more patient and thus will walk more.
Speed – Players with good Speed rating will generally steal more bases.
Hands – Reflects how good a player is on defense, the higher the hands rating the fewer.
Arm – Refers to how strong a player’s arm is.
Range – Players with good Range get to more balls and cover more ground.
26 PLAYING THE GAME - THE DRAFT
Auto Complete Draft – Some players may not want to draft Stuff – Probably the most important rating for a pitcher. It each and every player of a 50, 55, or 60-man roster; it may be determines how sharp his pitches are. more interesting to draft the star-powered players and then leave the computer to draft any remaining spots. To do this, click Control – Pitchers with a high Control rating will walk fewer Auto Complete Draft. batters.
Velocity – Refers to how fast a pitcher throws. Pitchers with high velocity tend to strike out more batters.
Endurance – Represents how long a pitcher can pitch into a game.
Potential – A very important rating that identifies how likely a player is to improve. Typically Potential will decline after age 28.
The second column of drop-down menus allows you to specify a search string involving the range of numbers for the selected • Choose Drafting Philosophy – You can tell the computer what attribute. This includes GreaterThan, LessThan, and EqualTo. kinds of players you’d like it to concentrate on drafting. Click on Then, enter a value in the field immediately to the right of the the option you think best suits your current strategy. search string. • How Long to Follow This Drafting Philosophy – The Note that the number entered will need to be within the range philosophy you select doesn’t necessarily have to be followed of numbers as specified earlier (setting player attributes to 1- for the rest of the draft (although it can if you specify it). From 100, 1-50, etc.) this drop-down menu, you can select how many rounds you want the computer to concentrate on a specific strategy. What happens after that?
When you’ve made both selections (if any), click OK.
As an example, note above that the first custom search criterion Suggest – If you’re having a hard time deciding what position to (Custom 1) involves looking for players with a Speed attribute of draft, or what player to select, click this button to get PureSim to greater than 75. give you a helpful recommendation. You can click the hyperlink (Click here for player scouting report) to review the suggested Sometimes you may want to do a search with multiple Custom player’s information before accepting or rejecting this choice. criteria. The Sort By This Field selection allows you to disable a Click Yes to accept this suggestion or No to close the suggestion criteria if you’d like to do a sort not involving it. This helps by not and return to the draft list. making you have to clear out each field at left. You can examine this player's current information by selecting Furthermore, clicking the Remove All Filters button will clear all the Click here for player scouting report hyperlink. selections made so far so you can start with a clean slate. View Top 25% - Click to view the top quarter of the remaining Click Apply to perform a search based on the criterion specified players available for drafting. If you are currently viewing position or Cancel to return to the draft list. players, the top 25% of players in that category will be displayed; likewise, if you are viewing pitchers, the top 25% will be likewise displayed.
View Top 50% – Click to view the top half of the remaining players available for drafting.
27 View Top 75% - Click to view the top three-quarters of the Season Chart – Displays a chart of the player's performance for remaining players available for drafting. the season thus far.
View All – Click to view all available remaining players.
5.1.2 Draft Pool
The Draft Pool displays all players according to the criteria or criterion you’ve selected thus far. A reminder of how the current display is organized is displayed in blue text above the list.
To view a specific player more closely, click the magnifying glass icon. Attribute ratings are redisplayed, as well as the player’s batting average (AVG), home runs (HR), runs batted in (RBI) and other information. Note that the player's information displayed here will be the same format if a player name is clicked Defense Chart – Drafting a player is one thing, but evaluating on during the regular season. No matter what team he's on, where he could do the most for your team is quite another. The detailed information regarding them and their performance to Defense Chart button will display the Defensive Scouting Report, date is easily accessible. which will detail important positioning information. AVG – The player’s batting average.
HR – Number of home runs.
RBI – Number of runs batted in.
Condition – The player’s current condition.
Height, Weight, Throws, Bats, Position(s), Age – This is all general physical information on the player. It is all taken into consideration
Game Log – Click to view a log of the selected player's Note that you cannot specify which position the player will performance. occupy on the field from this screen; it is only an evaluation of his abilities at each. Players can be assigned to positions from the Modify Roster & Lineups screen (please refer to Section 6.1 for further details.) Click OK to close the window and return to the player’s information.
28 PLAYING THE GAME - THE DRAFT
Ratings History – You can review a player’s ratings as determined Edit Bio – This powerful utility lets you set a selected player’s by your team’s scouts by clicking this number. Note that the information. displayed charts can be useful for spotting trends in a player’s skills as they change over time.
Change Pic… - You can upload an image to represent this player. Click the Change Pic button to bring up a standard window to For detailed information regarding player attributes, please refer browse through your PC’s folders to locate an appropriate image. to Section 5.1.1. Need image size restrictions.
Stats History – Click this button to view a detailed history of the First Name – Edit the player’s first name. player’s statistical performance over past seasons. Last Name – Edit the player’s last name.
NickName – Edit the player’s nickname (if any).
Home Region – Select the region the player is from.
Pos 1 – Specify the position that this player is most suited to play.
Pos 2 – Specify the second position that this player is suited to play.
Bats – Specify left-handed (L), right-handed (R), or switch hitter (S).
Throws – Specify left-handed (L) or right-handed (R).
Ht Feet – Specify the player’s height in feet (either five or six).
Ht In – Specify the player’s height in inches, supplemental to You can select whether to view the player’s performance from their feet height (values can range from zero to 11). his major league career or his minor league career (if applicable) by selecting the appropriate item from the Show statistical Ratings – Specify the ratings for each player. Note this is a VERY history for drop-down menu. powerful tool and creating uber-players can seriously unbalance Click Zoom to inspect a larger version of the thumbnail rating gameplay! For more detail on player ratings, please refer to display. Click OK to close the screen and return to the player’s section X.X.X, “XXX.” information. Contract – Specify information for the player’s current contract.
29 # Pitchers Drafted (21 Pitcher Maximum) – The number of Years Remaining – Specify from one to five years. pitchers currently drafted by your team. Note the maximum number of pitchers depends on whether you selected a 50, 55, Salary per year – Specify the player’s salary per year. or 60-man roster (the number 21 is based on a 50-man roster).
Commissioner Functions – Allows the player to manipulate the # Position Players Drafted (29 Player Maximum) – The player’s health status or retirement status. number of position players currently drafted by your team. Note the maximum number of position players depends on whether Heal Player – Click to remove all of the player’s injuries (if there you selected a 50, 55, or 60-man roster (the number 29 is based are none, this button will be grayed out). on a 50-man roster).
Force Retire Player – Click to immediately remove the player. To draft a player, click their row to highlight it. Information regarding the player’s contract terms will be displayed in the When finished, clickOK to go back to the player’s information or lower left corner. click Cancel to exit without saving any edits or entries.
5.1.3 The Draft Pool All columns in the player list (except Zoom) are clickable in order to sort the list in descending or ascending order (click a heading once to sort it in descending order and once more to change it to ascending). Generally, the more years you sign a player for, the less per year in salary you’ll have to pay them. For example, in the example above we can see that Richard Anton’s one-year contract requires a payment of $10,866,464 per year for a one year deal (which is displayed in the “1 Year Deal” column of the draft listing). However, signing Anton for a five-year contract will mean a A summary of your current draft is displayed in the lower right payment of “only” $9,779,817 per year. What a deal! corner. Highlight the selection from the list and click Select Player to add them to your roster. The draft will then continue. At the end of a round, a summary will be displayed. Your selections will be highlighted as the rounds progress.
Only numbers are listed here to give you a general idea of how your draft is going – for example, determining if you’ve drafted more pitchers than position players, or total salaries that you’ve signed players for. Signing a few big-dollar players can seriously deplete available funds (except, usually, if you’ve chosen the 500-million-dollar option for the team’s finances!), so this helps you keep an eye on the bottom line’s balance.
Total Players – The total number of players your team has drafted so far.
Total Player Salaries – The sum of salaries (per year) of all signed players. Click Move To Next Round to continue the draft, or Quick Draft Available Finances – The remaining balance of funds available if you want the computer to draft the next round for you. for signing players.
30 Playing the Game - Team Management
5.1.4 Draft Complete Current Issue – Click to view the current issue. Once your draft is complete, you are returned to the Associations OK/Close – Click to close and continue. Menu. Instead of a hyperlink prompting you to start your draft (under the Association Today item), a Click here to start the Spring hyperlink is displayed. When you’re ready, click it to begin Spring Training. 6.0 Team Management (Front Office) Screen 5.1.5 Spring Training
The Spring Training function is automated by PureSim. Once completed, a PSPN.com report will be displayed indicating how the sports world thinks Spring Training shaped all teams in your association and which players are ones to keep an eye on.
Overall management of your team is accomplished through the Team Management screen. In the upper left corner is a list of options that let you accomplish this task, including checking your major and minor league rosters, viewing your saved lineups and rotations, monitoring fatigue, checking team statistics, etc. Note that all of these game functions can be used on the CPU-owned teams as well as your own ball club. This gives you the flexibility to experiment with the setup and configuration of opposing teams in your association.
Many of these selections will make it easier to manage your roster. The first and foremost of these is the Modify Roster & Lineups option. This is where most of your important personnel decisions will be enacted while a season is under way (you can Note that the teams listed under the Power Rankings are access this screen from anywhere in PureSim by the CTRL-M not hyperlinks. hotkey.)
Player Names – In the “Most Feared Hitters” list, player names Along the top of the Modify Roster & Lineup screen is a series of may be clicked in order to view their player information. eight buttons that provides important team management tools which we’ll examine in a moment. For now, let's take an overall First Issue – Click to view the first issue of PSPN. look at this important screen.
Previous Issue – Click to view the issue before the currently displayed one.
Next Issue – Click to view the issue after the currently displayed one.
31 6.1 Making Roster and Lineup Changes Insert Players from the Bench into a Lineup Slot or Pitching Rotation)
• Click on a player in the roster grid on the left side of the screen. • Click on the player (or empty slot) you would like to replace on the lineup card or pitching rotation.
Note for position players the player will assume the position of whatever player he replaced. If the player was placed in a blank lineup slot then he will be assigned the first available position.
To Swap Players in the Batting Order, Pitching Rotation, or Bullpen Along the left side are listings of your team’s Position Players and Pitchers; at a glance you can get a general overview of their • Click on the one player, then the second player, and they will statistics. Note the color of their text; this indicates how tired swap places. they are (see section 6.2 for details). You can scroll to the right in each listing to view more information; also, you can view a To Change a Player's Defensive Position full set of data for position players or pitchers by clicking Toggle Expanded View. As with most lists in PureSim, each column • Click on the player on the lineup card. is sortable. Furthermore, if you’d like to access any player’s • Click on the corresponding position on the ball field. complete information card, click on the magnifying glass to the left of his name. To Make Other Roster Moves (such as promotions, demotions, and releases) In the center of the screen a blue diamond is displayed, representing a baseball field. Nine rectangular boxes signify • Click the magnifying glass icon next to a player to bring up their the positions; from here, you will assign a player to a defensive Player Card. The player card has a number of buttons that allow position, as explained below. you to perform these functions.
Below the blue diamond are your lineups versus Left and Right handed pitching. On the far right appear your starting rotation, 6.1.1 Understanding the Action Buttons relief (bullpen), and the closer slot. Again, the player's text color indicates how tired they are, and you can view their individual information as needed. At the top of the Modify Roster & Lineup screen is a selection Finally, in the bottom center of the screen is an active summary of Action Buttons, allowing you to further manage your lineup of how many players are on your major league roster, your minor beyond the basic roster moves listed above. These buttons are league roster, and the disabled list. This will tell you at a glance if discussed in detail below. you have the allowable number of players in your organization and how your major and minor league rosters are balanced. Total Auto Assign Rosters – If your rosters are properly filled, this Roster Players will display a red number whenever you’re over button will instruct your scout to automatically rebuild all or under the organizational limit. Before proceeding to game lineups, rotations and rosters according to his preferences. play, you’ll be forced to address this by signing free agents or releasing players. Autogen Lineup – Instructs your scout/manager to automatically rebuild the batting lineup of your choice (vs. Lefties or vs. Let’s take a look at the options you have on this screen. Righties).
Autogen Rotation – Instructs your scout/manager to automatically rebuild your pitching rotation.
32 Playing the Game - Team Management
Sign Players – Lets you sign Free Agents to your team if you lineups and rotations. The computer will attempt to distribute are at less than full strength, such as if you have just released a playtime as evenly as possible at each level, therefore it is very player (remember that in-season signings are limited to a one- important to avoid a log jam of too many players from the same year contract.) position at a given level.
To use this screen select a player from one of the grids. At the bottom of the screen the appropriate buttons will enable depending on what options are applicable. Note unlike many screens in PureSim a single click does not summon the player card, in order to view a player card from this screen you must double-click the player in the grid.
An additional area of importance when managing your minor league rosters revolves around promotion and demotion of players as they develop. Leaving an aging 27 year old player in A ball will sorely penalize further development. On the flip side rushing a player up to the majors too quickly can have a negative impact as well. It really depends on the player, so be sure to watch their statistics and ratings as they develop. PureSim provides a wide array of reports and charts available from the player’s card to facilitate this analysis.
Here you are shown all of your Association’s free agents and your available finances. This list can be sorted on any of the player characteristics and is filterable by position. Once you’ve found Suggest – This button can be utilized when your roster is not full, a free agent you want to sign, highlight his name from the list to get a suggestion from the scout/manager on which available and click Select Player. He will automatically be added to your player would make the best addition to your roster. team with his one-year salary deducted from your available finances. (If you want to sign him for a longer period of time, Graphical Roster – This button displays a graphical view all your highlight his name and select the contract terms in the lower left player personnel (major league and minor league) by position, corner before clicking Select Player). Remember that you will along with their skill ratings. This is a great tool for evaluating not be able to proceed with the game if your roster is over the your organization at a glance to determine which positions are player limit for your association; you’ll need to release players to weak, which are strong, which are over- or under-manned, etc. get back down to the limit first. All of the player cards can be accessed by hyperlink from this screen.
Show Minors – This button will display your minor league rosters. Minor league statistical results in PureSim are simulated. You need not worry about setting individual minor league
33 Rotation Size – This button allows you to switch between a 4- you can go to your Team Management screen and click the man and 5-man pitching rotation. Trades… option; or you can click Shop Player from any player card. Either way, you’ll find yourself at the trade negotiation screen shown here. 6.2 Monitoring Player Fatigue (View Rotation) All pitchers on your team appear color-coded for fatigue on the View Rotation screen. This allows you to tell at a glance who may need to be rested more frequently, which starting pitchers should be held out of the next game, and so forth. The following text colors correspond with the players’ levels of fatigue:
Note you can also check your players’ fatigue status from the Team Management screen by choosing the View Rotation and View Lineups options. You can reach these screens via hot-key also: CTRL-R to view the rotation and CTRL-L to If you know exactly which player you’re interested in, begin view the lineups. negotiations by selecting his team from the Select Team to Negotiate With drop-down menu in the center of this screen. Then, build your trade offer by adding players on both sides of the deal, each of whom appears in the Currently Proposed Terms section in the lower right portion of the screen. As you proceed, the team you’re dealing with will give you feedback on whether it is happy with the deal, or whether it wants more players added on your side of the transaction. This information is continually updated in the Interests / Satisfaction with deal section in the lower left portion of the screen.
If both sides can be made happy, the deal can be consummated by clicking the Make Trade button. If the number of players involved in any trade is unbalanced, you may have to release players or sign free agents before you can resume the game, in You can also check fatigue on the Lineup Card available before order to meet your Association’s roster limits. the start of each game. You will want to use some combination of all these features to ensure your key players get periodic rest, If instead you are shopping your team to the entire Association, allowing them to stay fresh and avoid injuries. Fatigued players you will find yourself at this screen before you proceed to actual will not perform as well as when they are well-rested. You can negotiations. This Trade Offer screen shows all the players in the set limits for using fatigued players on the Mgr/GM Tendencies Association who are also on the trading block and who might be screen, accessed from the Team Management screen or by the available in a trade for the player you’re shopping. Players listed CTRL-U hotkey. These limits will be applied when the game is in blue are currently on a Major League roster, while players auto-managing your team. listed in black are in the minor leagues. As with most PureSim screens, this screen is fully sortable by the 6.3 Initiating Player Trades (Trades…) statistic/player characteristic columns. Highlight a player on this screen and click OK and you will be taken to the negotiation Occasionally a computer-controlled team will contact you screen as discussed above. during the season with a trade offer. If you’re tempted, the game will walk you through the steps in completing or rejecting the deal. But what if you want to initiate a trade with another team in your Association yourself? There are two ways to do it: First,
34 Playing the Game - Team Management
playing your Association’s weaker teams so they’ll be good to go when you really need them.
• Set lineups based on platoon advantages. When setting your lineups, take note of which players hit lefties and righties both well and which players have a significant platoon differential. The former should appear in both your lineups, while the latter should only be considered for platoon duty. Make sure you have both lefty and righty batters among your reserves for pinch-hitting duties. Have both lefty and righty pitchers in your bullpen.
• Know whose contracts are running out. You should be aware of who might not be back next year well before the current season ends. Run a contract status report using the Team Reports option on the Team Management 6.4 View Lineups page, preferably sometime between the all-star break and the July 31st trade deadline if not more often. Useful players with one or two years left might be good candidates for a contract extension offer if team finances allow. Good GMs want their ball players leaving on the GM’s terms, not the players’; lock your good, young players into long-term contracts early.
• Skip Your Weakest Starter’s Turn Whenever Possible In a five-man rotation you may have times when more than one starter is rested and ready to go. Returning from the All-Star Break is one example. These occasions are perfect for skipping a pitcher’s turn and going with a better hurler, especially if you’re facing a tough opponent. You can do this by reordering your rotation before the game on the Modify Rosters and Lineups screen, or by substituting another starter on the Lineup Card just before game time. Just make sure you have a rested starter when tomorrow arrives. This screen displays the same information as the View Rotation screen does, except for your position players. • Don’t Ignore Fielding Ability when Setting Your Note the colors indicate the same levels of fatigue that are Lineups displayed under the 'Managing Fatigue' section, above. Players of equal hitting talent may have vastly-different capabilities in the field. If your pitching staff isn’t among the 6.4.1 Roster Management Tips league-leaders in strikeouts you need good fielders behind Managing your personnel effectively in PureSim Baseball 2007 them for long-term success, especially “up-the-middle”. will require the same techniques that real Major League General While PureSim Baseball 2007 allows you to play fielders Managers utilize, although there’s nothing to stop you from out-of-position until they learn to play the new post, they experimenting with a few of your own! In general, though, you often never “master” the new position. The defensive chart will want to stick to a few time-honored basics: (available for viewing from every player’s card) doesn’t lie; refer to it early in the season for each of your players, so you • Watch player fatigue closely. can know where your defensive weaknesses are and have Players who are continually used grow tired quickly and, late-innings substitutions in mind. Try to have at least one when pushed too hard, seldom perform up to expectations jack-of-all-trades defensive player on your roster. or can become injured more often. Remember these are human beings - older players tire more easily than younger • Always Know who’s Banged Up, Who’s On your DL, ones, for example. Know which players are at risk for suffering and Make Roster Moves Accordingly from fatigue, and have a plan for platooning or substituting If you’re simming games daily and one of your players suffers for them often. Try to rest your good, older players when an injury requiring a trip to the DL, disable them immediately (e.g., the same day they're injured). Waiting until tomorrow
35 can often mean they have to sit on the DL one day longer Drop down menus at the top of the screen allow you to select than necessary at the end of the 15 day period, having already to display either a player's ratings or stats, or display only Major recovered from the injury. Using players who are suffering League, only minor league, or both major and minor league from minor injuries is usually a bad idea unless you’re late players. in the season fighting for a playoff berth; your bench should be strong enough to sub for those players until they’re fully recovered at any other point of the season. 6.6 Team Statistics No baseball game in its right mind would consider not • Balance Your Roster providing you with a teeming list of statistics. From this In a non-DH league you might want a 10- or 11-man screen, you can view all of your team’s major league statistics pitching staff; the 10-man staff is fairly standard for a DH for each of your players. league. Consider the quality of your starters when making this decision; if they consistently pitch deep into games you’ll need less guys in the bullpen than a team with poorer- quality starters. Monitor the fatigue status of your bullpen a lot in the first month of a season; if the pen is always rested you might be able to send a seldom-used pitcher down to the minors in exchange for a useful position player. If everyone in the pen is exhausted you’ll need to go the other way and call up some help.
6.5 Graphical Roster View While being able to view a lineup of pitchers and position players is nice, PureSim Baseball 2007 has gone a step further. In this screen, you can view a list of players at each position, rendered on a ball field for easy viewing. Pitchers are listed at left, while position players are listed on the field.
These lists represent your team's depth at each position. A blue name indicates a player associated with your Major League 6.7 Team Transactions franchise, while a white name indicates a player from your minor league franchise. At a glance you can see how well stocked you are at each position and whether you should consider picking up a free agent, trading, or calling up a lucky kid from the minors to fill a position (or serve as backup just in case).
Sometimes so many transactions can pass through your office that you may forget what player went to what team or when so-and-so was called up from the minors. The Team Transactions screen gives you a list of all transactions performed during the
36 Playing the Game - Team Management current season. A drop-down menu at the top of the screen allows you to select other seasons to view trends there, if necessary.
6.8 Ball Park
Click OK to keep that park's dimensions or Cancel to change your mind.
The Assign Park Photo button allows you to select an image from your computer that will display if you choose the Park Photo option. Additionally, this image will display on your game screen if you choose to watch/manage a PSPNCast as it is being Ah, the ball park…your team's home away from their palatial played. mansions. This is where you can view your field's current dimensions. You can also modify your field's settings by clicking Yes, that's right…whatever photo you upload using this feature Modify Ball Park. will display on your game screen. So how does it fit a real world photo or image into the space that the computer uses to play This powerful tool allows you to specify distances to your outfield out a PSPNCast? How does it know exactly where first, second, walls as well as the height of each. Note that there are nine total and third bases are (not to mention other positions) on your new outfield positions for which you can specify wall distance and photo? Simple. Click Configure PSPNCast and a new screen will height – three positions to each of the Left Field, Center Field, be displayed. and Right Field walls.
You can also view either your park's dimension graphic (pictured above) by selecting View: Dimensions, or a photo of your park by selecting View: Park Photo.
At the top of this screen, you can change the name of your field to anything you want (by entering a new name in the Park Field line). Furthermore, you can specify the field's Altitude (in feet above sea level, which if set too high can physically exhaust players), set your field as a Dome instead of an open-air arena, and even choose a Grass or Artificial Turf surface.
Some may not want to fiddle with the outfield wall distance or height, but instead want to choose a real-world ballpark as the basis for theirs. No problem – simply click the Select a pre-built park button and a list will be displayed; you can choose any real- world field from the list (or stick with "PureSim Park," the default field setup). As you select fields from this list, their dimensions Note: If you are going to use your own image, the safest bet will display in the graphic. is to try to get one that is from roughly the same perspective as the PureSim Park photo. At least, this is a good idea at first, because if the images are similar then very little alteration
37 will need to be done. Only try new image displays if you are BackGrnd y+1 – Moves the image up slightly. This may be willing to put in the work to make them operate correctly clicked multiple times to move it further. This is a good tool to (especially when considering 'Adjust Ball Flight Locations,' use for tweaking purposes. below). BackGrnd y-1 – Moves the image down slightly. You have complete control over how the PSPNCast displays your new image. You can move the player positions around by Click Help to get some useful information on this screen (which left clicking, holding, and dropping them on the image. At the we've covered above), or Done to bottom, you have four options that can be selected as well as buttons that allow you to manipulate either the image's position or all the player positions at once. You can press SHIFT and F5 in 6.9 Mgr/GM Tendencies order to remove the menu from the bottom of the screen; press these two keys again to redisplay it.
Note: Information windows may be positioned as well; however, in order to keep the game interface consistent, changes made to information windows will apply to ALL parks, not just the one you are currently designing.
Adjust Fielder and Runner Locations – With this option selected (the default setting, incidentally), you have access to each of the position and runner bars on the field. Simply click, drag, and drop the bars to the position they will cover on your new image.
Adjust Ball Flight Locations – The game calculations determine ball flight characteristics based on a lot of factors. The ball flight locations that are displayed correspond to these areas that the computer will determine the balls will land approximately. It is very important to be familiar with these options before moving If you feel you need a little break from managing the team them around, or unrealistic results may become the norm in and want to run things in automatic mode for a while, you can your new ballpark. still leave your imprint on how the computer-run team will act according to different settings as described below. Adjust Window Positions – The PSPNCast isn't just the field and the players; there are many other information windows that appear during a game. If this option is selected, these windows 6.10 Automated Lineup and may be moved around the screen to fit within your new ball Roster Management park's image.
Place Home Plate Origin – This option will allow you to click on Auto Rest Position Players when player condition is – This where home plate should be in your image. option will automatically rest position players when their fatigue level gets to a certain point. Select the option based on All x+5 and All x-5 – Think of the field image as being a large the fatigue level a player should reach before your computer x-y graph, with the origin at the lower left corner of your screen. manager pulls them for a rest (or if they should pull them at all). By clicking All x+5, you will move all positions (except runners) a little to the right. This button may be clicked multiple times for Auto Rest Injured Players if injury severity is – When a player larger moves. The All x-5 button will move all the positions to is injured, this selection will determine when or if the computer the left. manager will pull the player for some rest, depending on the injury severity. This option will take precedence over any selection All y+5 and All y-5 – This is the same as the 'x' items above, except made in the Auto Juggle Lineups (Majors) option, below. the All y+5 button moves all the positions (except runners) up, while the All y-5 button moves all positions down. Auto Juggle Lineups (Majors) – This option tells the computer manager how often to move players around to different positions. You can choose to never allow such movement, or choose a level from Very Rarely to Very Often.
38 Playing the Game - Team Management
6.13 Team Reports Auto Juggle Lineups (Minors) – Just like the Majors option, but instead for your minor league franchise, this option tells the computer manager how often to move players around to different positions. You can choose to never allow such movement, or choose a level from Very Rarely to Very Often.
6.11 Manager Tendencies
Pinch Hit –How often players should pinch hit.
Pinch Run –How often players should pinch run.
Steal Bases – How often players should try to steal bases.
Hook (How patient to be with pitchers) – How patient players should be with pitchers.
Use Defensive Substitutions – How often position players The Team Reports screen allows you to view several different should be changed out while playing defensively. reports on the status of your team. Players listed in blue are Major League players. Call for Intentional Walks – How often pitchers should try to intentionally walk powerful hitters. Team Roster Report – Displays a list of all your players. Includes their position, batting handedness, throwing handedness, Pitch Around – How often players should pitch around. height, weight, age, home region, and college.
Hit & Run Frequency – How often players should try a Hit & Run Spring Training Results – Displays a list of player performance strategy. from Spring Training. Includes their position, batting handedness, and throwing handedness. For pitchers, their ERA, IP, K, and BB 6.12 Injured Players/DL statistics are additionally listed; for position players, their batting average, PA, 2B, and HR statistics are additionally listed.
Contract Status Report – Displays a list of players according to how soon their contracts are up. Includes the player's position, age, stats, and salary.
Salary Report – Where does all the money go? This is a good indication of where – it displays each player by rank (which is determined by salary level, so rank 1 is your top-paid player), position, age, years pro, and their salary.
Game Results Report – Lists each game played to date. Includes the date, team played, whether it was a win or loss, the winning/ losing pitcher from your team, the team's record as a result of that game, and a hyperlink to view the Box Score.
Player Ratings Changes – Lists how your team's scouts think your players are improving (if anyone is improving, that is). This screen displays a list of all of your team's injured players. The player's name, position, injury severity and type, as well as Franchise History – Displays a history of your franchise (if it estimated recovery time are listed here. As mentioned earlier, has one; if this is the first year you're playing, there won't be any injured players should always be pulled on the same day they're information here). hurt, if possible.
39 Amateur Draft History – After your franchise's first season, Additionally, clicking a team's name will take you to that team's before each subsequent season there's an Amateur Draft where Front Office screen summary. you pick up new talent for your team. This report lists a history of the players you've grabbed in these drafts. 6.16 Expanded Team Results 6.14 Short List
Any team statistics for the current season you may be looking for will be located here. Just about everything team-related is listed The Short List is your list of players on other teams that you'd like in this screen, including winning streaks, monthly records, record to keep a close eye on. Adding them to this list is easy; open any by runs, record by weather, record versus other teams, and many player's card and click the Add to Short List button. There is a others. Some categories are hyperlinked, allowing you to view list for position players and a list for pitchers. To erase a particular other information. list, click its associated Clear List button. 7.0 The Playoffs 6.15 Schedule Calendar
The structure of the Playoffs is entirely dependent on the structure The Schedule Calendar gives you an at-a-glance review of your of your Association. For example, in a two-Division, one-League upcoming game schedule. Gray dates have already passed, a Association, only the top team from each Division will advance black date is the current day, blue dates are away games, and red at the end of the season directly to the World Series. If there are dates are home games. You can click on a month hyperlink at the more than two Divisions and/or Leagues in your Association, the top to go to that particular month. Playoff race will be more involved than that.
40 PLAYING THE GAME - PLAYOFFS / OFFSEASON
so until you reach the Associations Menu again with a Click Playoff games are played just like regular season games (except here to start the Amateur Draft hyperlink displayed under you're more likely to sweat a little more). You can choose to Quick the Association Today news area. Sim, Watch PSPNCasttm, or Manage Game. Each of these options is described in greater detail in Section 4.0.
Play through or sim – it's your choice. Enjoy and good luck! 8.0 The Off Season
The World Series is over. You’ve just completed a spectacular pennant drive ending with your players bathed in champagne, the newly-crowned champions of your Association. Free agents are knocking down your door for the chance to join your club next season and bask in its success.
Or…maybe not. Perhaps instead your season was a huge disappointment. The team never jelled under your leadership, and the nucleus of the club is about to depart for free agency with no quality prospects on the farm to give any hope for a boost in the standings next season. Below that is a Whichever of these two possibilities you’re facing as hyperlink (Click General Manager of the franchise, one fact remains: your here to start the off personnel decisions over the next five monthswill make all season). If you’ve the difference between future success and failure for your sated your passion ball club. Baseball’s critical off-season has begun. for end-of-season statistic and award browsing and can’t wait to get going on 8.1 A Step-By-Step Look at your off-season tasks, the PureSim Off-Season go ahead and click it. For now, however, you'll probably want In PureSim Baseball 2007 you will be faced with the same to access the Contract crucial off-season decisions as a real Major League General Status Report from Manager. Knowing who to sign, re-sign, draft, and release are your Team Reports key components to the on-field success (or lack thereof) of next section. Also the final year’s team. Are you trying to build the club around pitching PSPN issue of the year and defense? Do you want to craft an offensive juggernaut? Will has a great section about which players around the Association speed on the base paths and other “small ball” strategies require are eligible for Free Agency, yours included. Check this out so a different set of players? Is it time for a youth movement, or will you’ll be better informed on which star players might be good adding a few grizzled veterans be the final piece of the puzzle? pickups when the signing period begins. Whatever your vision for your ball club, it will have to be fulfilled by a series of carefully planned personnel moves between now and Opening Day. Player names listed in blue are from your team. Make note of them by clicking on their name to view their player card and When your Association’s World Series ends, click Home. In the determine if they're worth a contract extension or not. Players can upper left corner you will see an announcement that the season be released or demoted to the minors. Additionally, you can offer is over along with congratulations for the world champions, them a contract extension or shop them around to see if other much like in the example below – where the Pittsfield Foxes teams may be interested in trading for him. Click on a player's have prevailed. name to access their player card and view the buttons available for determining the player's fate. You can always choose to do IMPORTANT: Do NOT turn off the game or computer while nothing, though, and hope for the best in the Amateur Draft. processing the off season. Once started, it is not safe to do
41 Releasing a player will send them out the door; if their contract The San Antonio Gunners went 89-73 and managed to make expired with the previous season, you'll have no financial it to the World Series…but were swept 4-0 by the Pittsfield obligations to them. However, if they have remaining time on Foxes. Making it to the World Series and having a decent record, their contract, releasing them will cause you a financial hit as you though, counts for a lot, regardless of whether you get slammed have to buy out part of their contract to do so. in the post-season. Their Approval Rating, therefore, is 100 out of a 100 possible. Shopping a player will take you to the Trades screen where a deal may or may not be hammered out.
The Offer Extension option allows you to make an offer to the player. Whether or not they accept it, though, is entirely up to them.
8.1.2 Single Season Records You can select the number of years you want on the contract; just make note of the cash offered. Click a line (which is a Congratulate yourself for keeping your job another year, and hyperlink) and you'll be asked to confirm your selection. Once click Advance. Any single season records set will be displayed confirmed, the player will decide whether or not they want to in a new window. accept your offer. If they accept, they're yours for the specified time. Otherwise, they'll stay with you (if they still have a contract for a year or more remaining) or will leave to Free Agency if this past season was their last with you.
When you're finished with contract extensions, click Home to return to the Association Menu. If you feel you already have a good handle on these issues, click Yes and begin the off season. You’ll be asked if you want to confirm this decision; essentially, you won't be able to offer any more contract extensions if you proceed. Click Yes to move forward or No to return to the Association Menu.
This warning screen, though, offers some good advice. If you have enough money left and think there’s a player on your roster worth offering a contract extension to, click No here and go take care of it – It'll be your last chance! Click OK to proceed.
8.1.1 Moving Right Along: Season Summary 8.1.3 Retirements The next screen is the Season Summary. It shows your Any guys that have had enough of the baseball life – whether organization’s performance in the season just past by displaying because of too many injuries, not enough wins, or what have your win-loss record and approval rating. (Hopefully your you – will retire at this point. Any players from your team will be performance was good enough that you’re not getting the highlighted in bold. Unfortunately, there's no "Beg to Remain" axe!) The Approval Rating indicates how both fans and upper option available; once they're gone, they're gone for good and management feel you've done this past season.
42 PLAYING THE GAME - PLAYOFFS / OFFSEASON
8.2 The Amateur Draft
This is your first chance to take a breather if you so desire; the game can be safely exited at this point and resumed later. Otherwise, select Click here to start the Amateur draft. A screen will appear telling you the Association is ready for next year's Amateur Draft; click Start Draft to proceed. will not return (unless you choose to add them in manually later or bring them back up if they're real-world Major Leaguers!). After the teams in your association take turns doing some last Absorb these developments, make note of them if necessary for minute evaluating, you will then find yourself in the screen the upcoming Amateur Draft, and click OK to proceed. below.
8.1.4 Housekeeping Team Finances Adjustment Next you will get a system message showing any adjustments to your team’s finances for inflation. Curb your enthusiasm. It just means that your player signings will all be asking for extra dough in negotiations. Click OK and move on.
Player Aging PureSim 2004 will next perform an automatic backup. Following that, all players in your association are aged one year. Then statistics for the season just completed are compiled for posterity, becoming the stuff of legend. Not to mention many long hours of Almanac and Player Card surfing by future followers of your Association. This is where you will conduct your team’s portion of the five- Hall of Fame Balloting round amateur draft. Let's review the options you face here, Next on tap is balloting for the Hall of Fame. Players thus honored since they will be instrumental in handling your selections: will be listed via system message, and again you can hyperlink to their player card in case you’ve forgotten what all the fuss was Position Players / Pitchers – These buttons allow you to toggle about. the players shown on the screen between pitchers and position players. New Players Generated PureSim next generates new players for the game. These are View Current Roster - This button takes you to the graphical the young high school and college talent that is about to be roster view of players currently in your organization. These are offered in the amateur draft. They’re then ranked and rated, just great tools for seeing positional shortages or weaknesses that as amateurs are evaluated by professional scouts and player might need to be addressed in the draft. personnel directors each year in the Major League. Hopefully your own scouting department has done a good job of Custom Filters – This button lets you hone the player list down preparation when your turn comes to take part in... to guys who only play certain positions.
This screen is exactly like that one from the section entitled "The Draft," above, but could stand for review here. Four View buttons
43 are available to restrict or expand the number of available players shown at one time on the screen. If you sort the list of draftees by power (which is done by simply clicking on the "Pow" column heading) and click the View Top 25% button, the list will show only the top 25% of the available players based on their power rating. This can be done for any of the columns in this table.
The Draft screen shows a small magnifying glass to the left of each player’s name, allowing you to zoom in on their player card if you want. Also shown are each players age, position, and skill ratings, and their salary demands. Keep an eye on the Front Office Data box in the lower right corner of this screen. It will tell you how many players are on your roster prior to the next pick and how much available finances you have for player acquisition.
When you’re ready to select, highlight the line of the player you want, and the possible contract terms will be displayed. Click on how far along you are! Also at the top right of the screen is your the contract option you wish and click Sign Player. You will have Front Office Data, which lists your current salaries, total finances, a total of five selections in the amateur draft, and while there is a number of pitchers, and number of position players. Skip to End button in case you don’t see anyone you like on the draft list, remember that you are allowed to be over your roster The available Free Agents list occupies the center of the screen. limit at this phase of the year. As with all PureSim Baseball 2007 tables this one is completely sortable, and you can access all the player cards via hyperlink Following amateur drafting, the program takes you back to the (the small magnifying glass icon). Association Menu. Below this is a Pending Offers window which displays players you’ve made contract offers to but who have not yet accepted. 8.3 The Free Agent Bidding Below that is a smaller window for Offers Accepted to show players you’ve already successfully signed and the Signings by and Signing Period Other Teams window to the right of that for players acquired by the other teams in your Association. All three of these windows at the bottom of the screen are continually updated with each new week of the signing period.
The process to make offers to players is fairly simple: highlight the player and then click the Submit Offer button at the top of the screen. You’ll have to decide how many years you’re willing to offer the player at this point, and whether you want him bad enough to “sweeten” your offer by bumping it up using the baseball slider provided. You’ll then be prompted to make sure When you’re ready to start making bids on and signing free you really want to make the offer. If you select Yes the offer will agents, select the Click here to start the Free Agent Period appear in your Pending Offers window along with an analysis of hyperlink. The game will prompt you to confirm your selection which way the player is leaning. There’s nothing stopping you and, if so, will take you to the screen shown below. The layout from going back to the player and improving your offer at this and options are similar to those used in the Amateur Draft, so point, if you want. you’re already partly familiar with this screen. But there are some unique features on this screen we need to cover, as well as When you’ve bid on all the free agents you’re interested in, click the Free Agent signing process itself. the Move To Next Week button. At this point the other teams in your Association will make their own offers, while the players will decide whether to accept offers on the table or mull them At the top of the screen the current week of the Free Agency over for another week. Repeat the Submit Offer/Move To Next period is displayed. As the weeks pass you’ll see fewer Free Agents Week process for as many weeks of the Free Agent period as you left on the board, and the ones remaining will begin lowering care to participate. Don’t forget to keep an eye on the Pending their contract demands. So it’s important to keep a close tab on Offers window to see if other GMs are increasing their offers to
44 PLAYING THE GAME - PLAYOFFS / OFFSEASON the guys you’re interested in. You may have to go back to those 8.3.1 Finalizing Pre-Season Rosters players and up the ante a little to stay on those players’ radar The game will then take you back to the Association Menu for screens. another chance to exit the program and proceed with the off- season later. Whenever you’re ready to press on, select the Click here to finalize rosters hyperlink.
PureSim Baseball 2007 will inform you at this point if you’re over As players begin to accept other offers the details of the signings or under the roster limit for your association. In this screenshot will appear in the Signings By Other Teams window. Naturally San Antonio has been informed that it is two players under the you may have to go back on the market for a new player if you roster limit, meaning a couple of guys will have to be picked up get your offer rejected. Remember that you can go over the roster from the player pool before proceeding to Spring Training: limit in the off-season if you have enough funds to accomplish it. This is accomplished on the Modify Rosters and Lineups screen, shown below. You can click on the Skip the Rest button and drop out of the Free Agent signing process at any point if you’re satisfied with your signings and don’t want to hang around for the final weeks of the draft process.
Eventually you’ll get a message that tells you there are no more teams in contention for Free Agents and that you have no more pending offers. Click OK to proceed.
On this screen you’ll have to study your player personnel closely to determine which positions you’re over-stocked on and who
Sometimes, a team will decide to back up the moving vans and move to another region/city. Usually, this is due to financial considerations. If the team was a perennial doormat in previous seasons, upping their income could make them a force to be reckoned with in upcoming seasons. Keep this in mind.
45 you can afford to release. Once you’ve decided you’ll need to access the player card of those two individuals and click on the release button. You’ll be notified how much remaining salary you’re responsible for on any released players.
Had you been under the roster limit instead of over it, you would have needed to click on the Sign Free Agent button on this page and add more players. The process will be familiar to you now, accept that this time you only have the option to sign the player for one season.
When you have reached the required roster limit (with exactly 25 players on the Major League squad and exactly 25 players on the minor league squad) you can click Close in the lower right corner of the screen to move on to the next phase of the off- season.
8.3.2 Finalize Rosters
At this point you can once again quit and save, or proceed by selecting the Click here to finalize rosters hyperlink.
Any hits you take during this process can be rectified in the next step. You'll be returned to your Association Menu; select the Click here to start the post-expansion draft to continue. This will be the same as the Free Agent draft procedure.
You'll then be given the opportunity to (yet again) finalize your rosters. Select the Click here to finalize rosters hyperlink from your Association Menu to continue. Any holes you have in your minor league franchise that were not filled in the post-expansion draft now must be taken care of in order to proceed.
8.3.4 Spring Training The game will then simulate Spring Training. Essentially, the cycle of baseball is now complete and you can refer to the Spring Training section (5.1.5) to continue the process of dominating the league and creating legends for little ones the world over.
46 CREDITS
CREDITS
Puresim Credits
Design and Programming Shaun Sullivan
Additional Art Direction Joe Stallings
Music and Audio Eric Herman Endres
Thanks to all the loyal PureSim fans and beta testers. Without you it never would have been possible!
Most of all thanks to Patty, Brittany, J.P., Sammy and Collin. I love you guys.
Matrix Games Credits Executive Producer Network and System Administrator David Heath Mike Vahan
Associate Producer Network & PC Support Erik Rutins Ron Duquesnel
Boxart & Logo Design Quality Assurance Lead Marc Schwanebeck Erik Rutins
Manual Editing and Content Very Special Thanks Michael Eckenfels Ron Tedesco, Debra Pugh, Renee Schoenfelder, Marti Nagy, Thomas Heath, Yvonne Heath Manual Design and Layout Marc Schwanebeck Matrix NexGen David Vebber, Megan Vebber, Rowan Lieberman, Andrew Heath, Public Relations & Marketing Nicholas Heath, Shane Heath, Austin Stoltz, Noah Stoltz, Cameron Joe Lieberman Eckenfels, Hannah Eckenfels and Erik Conkling.
Administration Our Strength Liz Stoltz We thank God for giving us the ability and strength to complete this project and follow our dream. We would also like to thank Customer Support Staff our families and friends for giving us their non-stop love and Marc Schwanebeck, Mike Vahan, Daniel Heath, Alex Fiedler, support during this project. Erik Rutins, David Heath
Forum Administration Paul Vebber, Marc Schwanebeck. Erik Rutins , David Heath
Web-Database Design & Development Alex Fiedler
47
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