I'm joining HBD for the first time in an existing league and taking over a vacated franchise, the first screen I see is city selection on the left coast.  Varying city and stadium sizes, what do I need to look for?  What follows?

I don't want to put myself in a big hole by blindly walking through this...

The only thing that matters with ballparks are the ratings.   Negative numbers will mean less of that sort of hit, positive numbers will mean more.

Picking a stadium isn't a huge deal, you can't really put yourself in a hole.  But you can take a lot at your team and see if there's a stadium that fits.  I wouldn't take a team with a ton of power hitters and strikeout pitchers and put them in Seattle or Fresno, for example.  I might put them in Tuscon, though.

Pick a neutral Stadium.  Less to worry about that way.

Done went with Vegas since I work there occasionally and it was fairly nuetral with slight favoring of pitching.

The budget is next, since I'm new to this I've been told/read that generally I shouldn't make a ton of moves until I understand player ratings fully.  What budget thought process should I use?

Max out everything and deal with the payroll under that budget.  That way, once you start figuring things out, you'll be that much closer to 20m in what you need to be 20m in.

As a bonus, it limits the bad moves you can make payroll-wise.

Oh, are you a showgirl?   Because that would be awesome.

Now that's funny, I've got long wavy red hair... but look kinda like that guy on Workaholics...

Can you describe what maxing out is?  The season hasn't started and I can't see anything:

World::Finance::Budget Analysis:: "Franchise Finances are not available"
World::Finance::Payroll Analysis::





/sigh, just right click on the image to view and you'll see full size

I don't know why they're showing as thumbs...

You can only move 4m at a time.  Max in everything but payroll/prospect is 20m.   So, if you're at 14m now, you're two seasons away from 20m. 

So the goal is to increase Payroll and Prospect to 20M (the max for every category?) ASAP?

I'm sure it will make sense when I can see the budgets?

No, payroll is based on the other items.  Prospect can be increased by transferring(50% penalty).

The goal is to figure out which ones you need/want in order to win the most games now and in the future.   I've got a lot of experience so my budget is very extreme.  You're learning so you still have to figure out where you want to be.

OK I think I get it, I max all the drop down categories and let my player payroll decrease to about $65M?

Looking at the Payroll History last year (season 10) the team spent 20 in Coll/HS scouting but it only lets me select 14 each in those categories. Does it reset for a new owner?

Season	Player	Prospect	Coach	Coll. Scout	HS Scout	Int'l Scout	Adv Scout	Training	Medical
11	69	20	16	14	14	14	14	14	10
10	55	14	10	20	20	8	18	20	20

Yes

I would move medical to 14 myself.