hi everyone, 

Typing on an iphone so I will try to be brief... 

I just joined this game and I have some questions. What are the best financing options for a new team that wants to rebuild and develop players from within?  

I would also welcome any other information they would like to share I am open to that as well.  Sitemails welcome! 

Thanks!  

If you already have some good talent in your minor league system, put a lot into coaching. At least enough to secure some good hitting/pitching coaches at your lower levels. Also put a lot into HS/College scouting. What is your draft position? Do you have any supplemental picks?

Getting/keeping a good fielding instructor is essential no matter what.  If you have early draft position, put as much into both draft scouting categories (ie 14).  If you have late draft position, you should probably pick one or the other draft scouting department to pump up, and take away from the other.  Take a look at what everyone else has historically tended to allocate to draft scouting, and go the other way.  Also, if you have late draft position, another way to acquire prospects is to pump up your international scouting.  If you go with the international route, you will need to have 20 million allocated to prospect payroll, or else you won't be able to keep up with the bidding for anyone good.  Also keep in mind that if you are in a world where everyone else is putting all of their money into prospect payroll to score the best internationals, that usually means that not everyone is bidding for free agents, so you might be able to put a good team together on the cheap by signing free agents rather easily.  If nobody puts in an offer to a free agent, they  eventually start dropping their demands (term and amount).  One strategy is to sign young type A free agents for cheap, short contracts, and you'll reap draft picks from when they become free agents at the end of their deals.  Just remember that if your true draft position (excluding type D) is 17th or later, you'll have to forfeit your first round pick to sign a type A free agent.  If it's before the true 17th position, you give up a 2nd round pick.  As a new player, I recommend that you don't make any trades with anyone for your first season, and don't sign any long term contracts (ie - longer than 3 seasons).  Good luck and have fun.

There isn't one correct answer to your question.

It sounds like you've picked a strategy.  The budgets are well explained in the help section.  You get what you pay for.  With the possible exception of Adv Scouting. Player development is very predictable. If you think you might want to trade ML players for prospects, don't drop Adv too low too soon. If it's too low, you really won't know much about the prospect you trade for.

Take a little time to study success.  Pick 2-3 worlds that have been around a while.  Look at the teams that have done well.  Look at how they set their budgets.

Before you set your budget, use the reports to figure out what your current ML payroll is really going to be.  The Budget Projection report is assumes you're re-signing every player.  If you're not, figure out who you're not going to sign and a budget, if any, for FAs you might want to sign.  To figure out what an average 3B (for example) will probably go for, look at what others in your world are paying their starting 3B.

If you're rebuilding, don't go into the season with a lot of unspent payroll money.  Better to put more into coaching and Coll/HS scouting.

And don't get caught up in a FA bidding war.  If you win, that means you're paying top dollar plus .  Makes trading that player at any time during the contract difficult.

I disagree with shobob about trading.  It's a fun part of the game.  And it's a good way to speed up improving your team.  But don't make any trades before you have studied how ratings translate into performance and how player progression works.  Look at the ratings of best hitter in your world. And the average hitters. And the ones that suck.  Same for pitchers.  Take notes on what ratings translate into performance.

In theory, players can develop until their 27. In reality, almost none of them develop much after 3-4 season, no matter the level.  If anyone offers you a 25-26 year old with poor current ratings & a lot of potential, politely ignore them for at least the rest of the season.  They're trying to rip you off.

If you want to make a trade, get the opinion of at least 2 people that are on the mentor page.  Those owners are there because they know what they are doing.  I agree trading is a lot of fun, but you want to make sure that the trade is good for you.  If you are a numbers geek and know what numbers (ratings) are important at each position that is a very good tool to have to evaluate trades.  In reality some players continue to develop into their very early 30s (really only SPs) but in general of course well over 50 even 60% of every players development happens in their first 2 seasons.  Sometimes its even as high as 80%.

If you want to sign 1 type A you might as well sign 3 or 4.