General Description - From this page, you may select a city and name your team.

Select a City - After you have selected a division, a list of available big league cities for that division will appear. You may select any of the cities by clicking in the radio button to its left.

Logo - Each city option has its own logo. This logo will appear throughout the game when you are logged in. Logos cannot be changed by the user.

Ballpark - Each city option also has a unique ballpark. These are ballparks used by the big league team in this city. Minor league ballparks will be different at each level and may vary from world to world. Ballpark effects are ranked on a scale from - 4 to + 4, based on their impact on singles (1B), doubles (2B), triples (3B), homeruns to left field (HR LF) and homeruns to right field (HR RF). These values are based how the ballpark has historically performed in each of these respects as compared to its contemporary ballparks. A negative number indicates that the ballpark yields less than the average for the type of hit, while a positive indicates that the ballpark yields more than the average for the type of hit. The more negative or positive number, the more extreme the effect for that hit in that direction. These numbers are just indicators of the relative effect in the simulation engine. They are important for users and founded entirely on historical fact, but are meant for display purposes and not explicitly used in the simulation engine. PF refers to the ballpark's park factor. This indicates the effect a ballpark has on offense as compared to its contemporary parks. A value of 1.00 means that the ballpark gives up exactly the league average number of runs over its history. Please note that this is not necessarily a measure of exactly how the ballparks will or even should perform in this Hardball Dynasty world. This is an indicator of how the ballpark performed against mostly different ballparks. For instance, Dodger Stadium historically gives up 87% of the average runs scored in a game. However, if all franchise owners had Dodger Stadium (or similar pitcher's parks), we would expect this stadium to give up the league average number of runs per game. For all current real-life big league and most minor league cities, ballpark dimensions and effects are directly tied to their real counterparts. Choosing a ballpark can have a profound impact on the style and/or performance of your big league team. Capacity has no bearing on the game.

Choose a Team Name - Users will be able to name their franchises. While cities, logos and ballparks are tied together, a user's team name can be unique. After selecting a city, please scroll to the bottom of the page to enter a team name in the box provided. Profanity is prohibited. Please report any offensive names to customer support . After choosing your team name, please click 'Continue' to advance to the purchase page. To go back and change divisions, please click 'Cancel.'

General Description - From this page, you may view all of your current franchises in various worlds.

Available Seasons - This number indicates the number of Hardball Dynasty seasons that you have purchased for this userid and have not been assigned/used. To purchase more seasons for this account, please click the 'Seasons - Buy' graphic to the right. This will take you to the purchase page. Previously purchased seasons may be allocated to a franchise/world by clicking on '[reserve]' under Next Season Reserved.

Your Franchises - This table allows you to view the status of all of your franchises. You may also enter any franchise by clicking the name under 'World' or 'Franchise.' The value under Current Season indicates the number of seasons that have been completed since the inception of the world. If the world is active, this value will also include the current season. Days Rem refers to the number of calendar days left in the world. Each Hardball Dynasty season lasts 85 days, so this number will always be 85 or less. Status will give a glimpse into the world's schedule. And, Next Season Reserved will note whether you have allocated a purchased season to this world for the upcoming season. You may reserve this franchise for next season by clicking '[reserve].' If you do not have seasons remaining, you must first purchase more seasons to reserve this franchise for next season. To purchase more seasons for this account, please click the 'Seasons - Buy' graphic to the right. This will take you to the purchase page. No matter how many Seasons Available a user has, Hardball Dynasty franchises will not automatically renew unless the next season has been reserved. The next season may be reserved from the start of this season to the end of the renewal period following the playoffs.

Your Most Recent 5 Games at the Big League Level - This table gives you the ability to view your last 5 big league games across all your worlds without seeing the result ahead of time.

General Description - From this page you may select which office to enter.

World Office - The world office contains most of the general and analytical reports available to the user. Within the office, users may view schedules, standings, statistics and awards, franchise reports, franchise and league news and finances. The world chat is also located here. No administrative or managerial decisions are made in the world office. It is designed to allow users to view as much information pertaining to the world as possible.

Manager's Office - The manager's office houses all of the managerial decisions for the user's entire franchise. Within the office, users may access the management console, edit lineups and pitching staffs, adjust player settings and set unique managerial settings for each team within the franchise.

GM's Office - The general manager's office includes all of the administrative and personnel decisions for the user's franchise. Within the office, users may edit rosters, propose trades, view and manage waivers and scout player development.

Correspondence and Personnel - This office includes all negotiations between the user and players as well as budgeting for personnel. The Hardball Dynasty FAQ, Terms and Rules are also located in this office.

General Description - The HBD Player's Guide is high-level overview of the game intended for first-time users.

General Description - From this page, you may enter then name of your Private World (if you're the creator) as well as read the important rules regarding Private Worlds.

General Description - From this page, you may send out emails and/or site mails inviting others to join your private world.

Private World Information - This section details the current status of your private world and also provides an area for you to enter in personal notes to be included in your invitations.

Site Mail Invitations - Friends with people on the site? Enter their user names in this area and they'll receive an invitation.

Buddy List Invitations - If you want to invite some of your buddies, simply check the box next to their name.

Email Invitations - Want to invite some friends that aren't on the site yet (we think you should!)? Enter their name and email address and save them as a buddy. Clicking the 'Send' button will send out your list of invitations.

General Description - From this page you will officially purchase your franchise.

Purchase - Please verify that this is the World, City and Name that you would like for your Hardball Dynasty franchise. If it is, please complete the necessary payment information and click 'Purchase.' You have now purchased a Hardball Dynasty franchise and will be taken to a purchase confirmation page. From there, you may access your franchise, but may not make any roster moves until the league fills and the schedule has generated. Good luck!

General Description - From this page, you may select a franchise to use in this world.

Leagues - All 32 franchises for the world that you selected are displayed here. If a franchise has already been chosen by another user, the user's name will be listed next to the franchise he/she has created with a link to the user's profile. If a franchise is available, it will state 'Open' and have a selectable radio button. Each world is divided into 16 NL and 16 AL franchises. At this point, the only rule difference between the NL and NL is that the NL (at the big league level only) does not have the designated hitter, while the AL does. All minor league teams will use the DH. All franchises must be filled by users before the world begins play.

Divisions - Each league is divided into four divisions: North, South, East and West. Only four franchises will be allowed per division. When selecting a division, keep in mind that there are a limited number of cities available for each region. For instance, Minneapolis may only be available in the North division, while Seattle may be available in the North and the West. Once you select a division, a list of available cities, with logos and ballpark information will appear. If you would like to change divisions, you may click "Back" in your browser and select another "Open" franchise. With the exception of New York and Chicago, only one occurrence of each city is allowed per world. New York and Chicago may be used twice per world, but must be in separate leagues. Please select a division and click 'Continue.' If you wish to return to the World Selection page, please click 'Cancel.'

General Description - From this page, you may enter the Hardball Dynasty world. Congratulations, you have now purchased a Hardball Dynasty franchise. This page serves as confirmation of your purchase. Please verify that this is the World, City and Name that you would like for your Hardball Dynasty franchise. If there is a mistake, please contact customer support. If everything is correct, you may access your franchise by clicking 'Continue.' You may view all of your offices and pages, but may not make any roster moves until the league fills and the schedule has generated. Thanks and good luck!

General Description - The HBD Rules is a broad overview of how the game works. Each page has more specific rules regarding the contents and actions related to the page.

General Description - This page is a simple list of links for every menu item in the game.

General Description - From this page, you can view statistics covering all current seasons of all current worlds. The purpose of the page is to provide summary statistics for how the current engine is playing under the current set of conditions.

Options - There are two options for the statistical snapshot. You can select the date the snapshot was taken and you can specify the level of data. Snapshots are taken every Monday evening.

Statistical Snapshot - Statistics have been broken down into batting, pitching and fielding. In addition, the average ballpark factors are listed. If you're not sure what a statistic is, please see the glossary information listed below. Some data on the page may not have much meaning, but is displayed for validation purposes.

General Description - From this page you may select and join a world or create a new world.

Join An Open World - All users may join Open Worlds where franchises are available. Open Worlds are open to the public and all follow the same default rules for league play and schedule. Please note that you may only participate in one active Open World at a time.

World - This indicates the name of the world. Clicking on the world will take you to its World Office with all active franchises.

Season - This indicates the number of seasons that have been played in this world. If this world has a season in progress, there will be no openings and you can only be added to its waiting list.

Openings - This indicates the available franchises of a possible 32 in this particular world. If the number is greater than zero, the world is open and you may choose to join it.

Notes - This indicates special features found in this world that are not found in a standard open league. For example, standard open worlds will use the DH in the AL and not in the NL. In the future, the league commissioner of a world may change this for an upcoming season. This will be noted here.

Choose - If this is the world you would like to join, you may choose it here. Clicking on "Select" in the row of the world you would like to join will take you to the Franchise Selection page where you will be able to view the world's current franchises and begin selecting your team's city and name.

Join A Private World - Users who have attained the name and password for a private world from another user may enter it here. Private Worlds are only accessible by users who have been invited by the world's creator.

World - Here, you may enter the name of the Private World you intend to join. If you do not know of any Private Worlds, please join an Open World or create your own Private World.

Password - Here, you must enter the password that corresponds with the Private World you would like to join. The world's creator will know the password. You must receive the name and password from this user.

Create a New Private World - If you would like to build your own Private World, please click "Next" to begin this process. Please remember that no league will begin until all 32 franchises are run by users.

General Description - This is the Help feature for Hardball Dynasty. Every page within the game has a 'Help' icon. To learn more about that page, please click on 'Help.' A page will popup with a comprehensive explanation of the page. The size of the box cannot be changed, but you may drag the page anywhere on the screen and scroll through the information using the arrows on the side of the page. If you have a question about the page that is not answered in the 'Help,' please contact customer support.

General Description - From this page, you can view highlights throughout the worlds of HBD. It includes both regular season game highlights and World Series highlights. To view a boxscore just click on the text in the Result column. To view a world just click on the world name in the World column.

General Description - From this page, you may select a world to join.

Open Worlds - These are all of the worlds that are available to join. Season indicates the upcoming season number for the world. For instance, a new world will always say season 1, while a world just completing its first season will say 2. Openings refer to the number of franchises still available in the world. The Notes section will display any unique information to the world. To view the World Office pages for the world, please click on the World's name. To join the world, please click on 'Purchase' under Action.

Private Worlds - This is where you can either join an existing private world or create your own private world for others to join. Also displayed is your list of private worlds still waiting to fill or to be finalized. Clicking the 'Remove' link will remove you from the world. If you're the private world creator, you can click the 'Invites' link to send additional invitations. If you're in season 2 or beyond, you can click the "Open to Public" link to open the world to the public or you can click the "Extend Privacy" link to keep the world private for another 7 days. Clicking the name of the world will display the list of users who have already joined the world. If you're the private world creator and the world is full, you must click the 'Approve' link to finalize the creation process. Please remember to review the list of owners in the league before doing so, because you never know who might slide their way in (from forum posts, etc).

Private Worlds (cont'd) - After creating or signing up for a private world, you won't be able to see your franchise or world until the world is full. This is due to the fact we don't actually create the world until we're sure it will fill. Once the world is full and the commish approves membership, the world will be created within 12 hours.

Active Worlds - These are the worlds that are currently in-season. A user may not join a world until the entire season is complete, and then only if there are spots available. To view World Office pages for the world, please click on the World's name. Season indicates the current season number for the world. Days remaining indicates the number of actual days left in the full-season, including Playoffs. Once the World Series has been completed, the Status of the world lists the date the world is eligible to be rolled over into the next season. The date the world will actually roll over depends on the number of worlds waiting to rollover. Currently, only 2 worlds are rolled over each day.

General Description - From this page, you may view more advanced league standings for all leagues at all levels in your world.

Season - You may select the current Hardball Dynasty season and any previous Hardball Dynasty seasons in this world from which you would like to view league standings. Once a full season is complete, its regular season standings will be archived here for the duration of the world.

Level - After selecting a franchise to view, users may select the level at which to view the standings. Levels from the dropdown menu include Majors, Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, Low-A and rookie ball teams.

League - Each level in each world is separated into two leagues, the AL and NL. Please select the league from the dropdown menu from which you would like to view standings. After selecting a Hardball Dynasty season, level and league please click on 'go' to view the standings.

Divisional Standings - Each league is divided into four divisions, North, South, East and West of four teams each.

W-L - This feature indicates the overall record (wins and then losses) of the team to its left. If the season has not yet completed, the standings will reflect all regular season games played up to that point.

PCT - This is the teams winning percentage, as calculated by wins divided by total games. Teams are sorted by winning percentage.

GB - This indicates the number of games the team is behind the division leader. When teams have not played the same amount of games, this difference may be represented by a half game, meaning that the team behind could make up that half game with a win when the team ahead has its next off day.

Division - This indicates the team's record (wins and then losses) against the other three teams in its division.

1-Run Games - This indicates the team's record (wins and then losses) in games that are decided by just a one run margin.

Extra Inning - This indicates the team's record (wins and then losses) in games that go into the 10th inning or later.

Spring Training - This indicates the team's record (wins and then losses) from games played in spring training.

RS - This indicates the team's runs scored thus far. It includes earned and unearned runs.

RA - This indicates the team's runs given up ("allowed"). It includes earned and unearned runs.

EXP PCT - This is the team's expected winning percentage based on a formula developed by Bill James that uses Runs Scored and Runs Allowed to approximate the team's winning percentage. A team whose winning percentage exceeds its expected winning percentage is generally "over-achieving," while a team whose expected winning percentage is higher than its actual should expect to improve (assuming runs scored and runs allowed rates remain similar).

Owner - This refers to the WhatIfSports.com user name of the owner of this franchise. Clicking on the name will display the owner's Hardball Dynasty user profile in a pop-up window. An asterisk (*) indicates the user has already reserved his/her franchise for next season.

General Description - From this page, you may view the previous World Series winner and major award winners by season.

Season - Users may select which season from the world they'd like to view.

General Description - From this page, you may vote for your choice for Major League MVP, Cy Young and Rookie of the Year for both AL and NL. After voting, you may change your vote by simply selecting a different player and clicking the "Vote" button.

Vote - Clicking this button will cast your vote for the players selected. Not all awards need to be voted for. Votes will only be counted for those awards where a player has been chosen.

Clear - Clears current award candidate selections. Note: This does not remove any previous votes during this season.

General Description - From this page, you may view the ballparks used by each franchise in the world.

Season - You may select the current Hardball Dynasty season and any previous Hardball Dynasty seasons in this world from which you would like to view ballpark information. Once a full season is complete, its regular season ballpark information will be archived here for the duration of the world. While dimensions and effects will not change from season to season, the ballparks within a world may due to user turnover and franchise movement.

Level - After selecting a franchise to view, users may select the level at which to view the information. Levels from the dropdown menu include Majors, Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, Low-A and rookie ball teams. Each level uses a different ballpark with its own unique dimensions and effects. After selecting a season and level, please click 'Go' to view ballparks.

Ballpark - This indicates the name of the franchise's ballpark at that level.

Franchise - This indicates the name of the franchise using this ballpark.

User - This refers to the WhatIfSports.com user name of the owner of this franchise. Clicking on the name will display the owner's Hardball Dynasty user profile in a pop-up window.

S - This indicates the surface utilized at the ballpark. Surfaces are either grass (G) or turf (T). Turf parks generally yield more doubles and triples, while grass parks give up more infield singles.

Dimensions - These are the lengths (in feet) from home to the left field foul pole (LF), the straight-ahead center field wall (CF), the right field foul pole (RF) and the distances half way between LF and CF (LCF) and RF and CF (RCF) typically known as the power alleys. Dimensions are sortable. Clicking on the type of dimensions, like LF, will rank ballparks from closest to that location to furthest.

Effects - Ballpark effects are ranked on a scale from - 4 to + 4, based on their impact on hits (1B), doubles (2B), triples (3B), homeruns to left field (HR LF) and homeruns to right field (HR RF). These values are based how the ballpark has historically performed in each of these respects as compared to its contemporary ballparks. A negative number indicates that the ballpark yields less than the average for the type of hit, while a positive indicates that the ballpark yields more than the average for the type of hit. The more negative or positive number, the more extreme the effect for that hit in that direction. These numbers are just indicators of the relative effect in the simulation engine. They are important for users and founded entirely on historical fact, but are meant for display purposes and not explicitly used in the simulation engine.

General Description - From this page, you may view start-of-season budget breakdowns of all franchises in the world.

Season - You may select the current Hardball Dynasty season or any previous Hardball Dynasty seasons in this world from which you would like to view budgets. Once a full season is complete, its budget breakdown will be archived here for the duration of the world. Users may also select 'All' to view budgets from throughout the world's history.

Franchise - Users may select the franchise's roster they wish to view from a dropdown menu of all 32 user-controlled franchises within the world. Users can also select 'All' franchises to view a comprehensive list of budgets from throughout the world. After selecting a season and franchise, please click 'Go' to view budget(s).

Season - This refers to the world's season during which this budget was used.

Franchise - This refers to the user-named franchise that has selected this budget.

User - This refers to the WhatIfSports.com user name of the owner of this franchise. Clicking on the name will display the owner's Hardball Dynasty user profile in a pop-up window.

Salary Cap - This refers to the total units available for budgeting from this season. All franchises will have an equal budget, but budgets may change from season to season.

Budgets - The budgets for each franchise as chosen by each franchise's owner are listed. This includes units allocated toward Coaches, College Scouts, High School Scouts, International Scouts, Training and Medical staff. Each column is sortable. To sort by a budget category, please click on its title at the top of the table. Budgets will sort from most to least. Clicking on the title again will sort from least to most for the selected category. Player, prospect, and coaching budgets may contain "( )"; The number in parentheses is the current/final budget following any budget transfer(s).

General Description - From this page, you may view Coaches from throughout the world.

Season - You may select the current Hardball Dynasty season and any previous Hardball Dynasty seasons in this world from which you would like to view coaches. Once a full season is complete, its list of coaches will be archived here for the duration of the world. You may only view one season at a time.

Franchise - After selecting a season, you may select a particular franchise to view or select 'All Franchises' to view a list of all of the coaches fulfilling the role at the level you choose.

Role - You may limit the list of coaches to a specific role. These include Bench, Hitting, Pitching, Bullpen, First Base and Third Base coaches. Bullpen, First Base and Third Base coaches are only used at the ML level. You may also select 'All' to view a list of all of the coaches at the selected level for the chosen franchise.

Level - Users may select the level at which to view the standings. Levels from the dropdown menu include Majors, Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, Low-A and rookie ball teams. 'All' is an available choice here as well. However, one may not view all coaches at all levels and roles throughout the world. After selecting your Season, Franchise, Role and Level, please click 'Go' to view coaches.

Coach - This is the coach's name. Please 'click' his name to view his Coaching Profile. You may also click on his franchise to view its Franchise Profile.

Salary - This is the coach's salary for the chosen season. It comes out of the Coaching budget and is negotiated during Coaching Negotiations in the off-season.

General Description - From this page, you may view all of the player's selected as Diamonds in the Rough for a world

Season - Users may select the season in which to view players.

Franchise - Users may select the franchise they wish to view from a dropdown menu of all 32 user-controlled franchises within the world. Users can also select 'All' franchises to view a comprehensive list of players from the world.

View - You can select either current or projected ratings when viewing the list of players.

General Description - From this page, you may view the current disabled list for any team or franchise in the world. If a player is labeled as OFS that means that he is out for the season.

Franchise - Users may select the franchise's roster they wish to view from a dropdown menu of all 32 user-controlled franchises within the world. Users can also select 'All' franchises to view a comprehensive list of injuries from throughout the world. After selecting a team and franchise, please click on 'Go' to view the disabled list.

Level - Users may select the level at which to view the disabled list. Levels from the dropdown menu include Majors, Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, Low-A and rookie ball teams. There is also an option to view 'all' injuries for a franchise. This will return the disabled list of each level separately, but on the same page.

Player - This indicates the player's name. Clicking on the player's name will open his player profile in a pop-up window.

Level - This indicates the level of the player when he was placed on the disabled list.

Type - This indicates whether the player was placed on the 7 (minor league only), 15 (big league only), or 60-Day Disabled List. A trip to the 60-Day DL frees a spot on the 40-Man Roster. The number of days for the disabled list is a function of Hardball Dynasty cycles. In other words, the 15-day disabled list will actually only take five calendar days because there are three cycles per calendar day.

Added - This indicates the calendar date when the player was added to the disabled list by his franchise's owner.

RetroActive - This indicates the respective calendar date to the last day the player participated in a game (typically the game after he suffered an injury). For instance, if a player is seriously injured on 5/3 AM, and his owner does not place the player on the 60-day disabled list until 5/7 PM, the player's 60 days may begin retroactively on 5/3 PM (the first game that he did not play).

Expected- This indicates the respective calendar date to the game day when the player will recover from his injury. It does not indicate when he is eligible to come off the DL. If a player is labeled as OFS it means that he is out for the season.

Eligible- This indicates the respective calendar date to the game day when the player is eligible to be removed from the DL. If a player is labeled as OFS it means that he is out for the season.

Injury - This is the actual injury that the player suffered. Even after recovery, the injury may effect a player's performance, the extent to which can be determined based on severity and actual type of injury. For instance, a pitcher who dislocates his pitching shoulder may never do as well as the same pitcher who breaks a finger on his non-throwing hand.

General Description - From this page, you may view the results and information about prospects from any Amateur Draft in the history of this Hardball Dynasty world.

Franchise - Users may select the franchise's draft results they wish to view from a dropdown menu of all 32 user-controlled franchises within the world. Users can also select 'All Franchises' to view a comprehensive list of prospects from that season's draft.

Season - You may select the current Hardball Dynasty season and any previous Hardball Dynasty seasons in this world from which you would like to view draft information. Once a full season is complete, its regular season draft information will be archived here for the duration of the world. You may also select 'All' seasons to view every pick from that franchise. You may not select 'All Franchises' and 'All' seasons. After selecting a franchise and season please click on 'Go' to view the draft history.

Rnd - This indicates the round in which this prospect was drafted.

Pick - This indicates overall pick in the draft at which this player was drafted.

Fran - This indicates the franchise that drafted the player. This will only be different than other picks if the 'All Franchises' option is selected.

User - This indicates the handle of the user who controlled the franchise during this season. Clicking on the userid will pop-up the appropriate User Profile.

Player - This is the prospect drafted. Clicking on his name will pop-up his current player profile. If he is no longer in the league, the profile will list him without a franchise.

Age - This is the player's age at the time of his draft. Age is a good indication of how close he is to his projected peak. Most players will peak in their late 20s.

Background - A player's background will reflect whether he played in college or was drafted out of high school.

Contract - This will indicate the contract agreements of the original contract. Users have until the end of the Hardball Dynasty season to sign prospects before losing him to free agency. Most players, those without special contractual demands or other leverage, will sign for the rookie league minimum salary plus slot money as bonus. The bonus is reflected in the next column. Players who sign for more than the rookie minimum may also sign big league contracts. For more information on the player's contract history since he has been drafted, please click on the 'Contract' tab in his player profile.

Bonus - Each year ML assigns a value at which each position in the draft should expect to be signed. This is what is meant by slot money. Hardball Dynasty uses the exact slot money values from 2005. Players who accept slot money will receive this as their bonus as well as a one-year minor league contract for the rookie-ball minimum. Players who sign for more than slot money may also sign big league contracts. For more information on the player's contract history since he has been drafted, please click on the 'Contract' tab in his player profile.

Pro Yrs - This is the number of years the player spent in pro ball.

ML Yrs - This is the number of years the player spent in the majors.

Current Fran - This is the franchise that currently owns this player's rights. Since the draft, the prospect could have been traded, released, or never signed by his original franchise. To view more about the player's history, please view his player profile.

General Description - From this page, you may view any franchise's payroll broken down by level.

Bonus - The amount the franchise has paid this player in the form of a signing bonus.

Salary - The amount the franchise originally agreed to pay this player at the time he was signed.

Adjustments - The amount the franchise no longer has to pay this player due to a roster transaction (player lost to waivers, traded away, etc.)

Total - The amount the franchise is currently responsible for paying this player.

Budget Information, Player Payroll Budget - This captures your current budget status. The player payroll figure represents the amount that you have allocated to your player payroll +/- any transferred cash from trades. The amount that you may allocate to future seasons is reduced by 80%, 70%, 50% and 50% in order to prevent trashing a franchise for the future. You may not allocate more than this payroll budget for any season.

Budget Information, Player Payroll Used - This illustrates the amount that you currently have tied up in signed player contracts for that season. For instance, if you have $8,000,000 in season 4, you have eight million dollars worth of players under contract with your franchise during Season 4 (via multi-year deals). These numbers are updated as players are signed.

Budget Information, Player Payroll Offered - This represents the money you currently have tied up in outstanding offers. This amount plus the payroll allocated cannot exceed the player payroll budget, so be wise in your offers. If a signing would put your franchise over your budget, you will not be able to make the offer to the player.

General Description - From this page you can view the average player ratings and status information for all of the franchises in your world. This will give you a good idea of how you stack up against your competition.

Level- You may select the level at which you want to see average ratings or status information for. Levels include ML, AAA, AA, Hi-A, Lo-A, and Rookie. There is also an option to view all levels, this will allow you to view comprehensive averages for all levels in the World.

League  - After selecting a level to view, you may select the league at which to view the ratings. The leagues available are AL, NL, and All. This will show you how you stack up in your division alone or throughout the entire league.

View  - The view selection contains the options "Current Ratings" and "Status Info". Current ratings will display average ratings for each players on each franchises roster. Status info will display general franchise info including average age, roster size, average current season salary, etc.

Grouping  - The grouping selection contains different criteria for which you can filter the current ratings. Want to see who has the most powerful starting lineup? Just select it in this box and the averages will be displayed. You can also view the most (or least) powerful bench, 40-man roster, starting rotation, and bullpen. There is also an "Overall Ratings" selection which will display the average ratings of every player on the franchise. Grouping is only available if you have selected "Current Ratings" from the view selection. Also, players on the disabled list and/or inactive list are included in all averages.

Note - All column headers are sortable.

General Description - From this page, you may view the league standings for all of your teams at each level.

Season - You may select the current Hardball Dynasty season and any previous Hardball Dynasty seasons in this world from which you would like to view league standings. Once a full season is complete, its regular season standings will be archived here for the duration of the world.

Franchise - You may select any franchise in your world and view the standings for each of their teams at every level. When you first load this page the drop down list will always default to your franchise first.

W-L - This feature indicates the overall record (wins and then losses) of the team to its left. If the season has not yet completed, the standings will reflect all regular season games played up to that point.

PCT - This is the teams winning percentage, as calculated by wins divided by total games. Teams are sorted by winning percentage.

GB - This indicates the number of games the team is behind the division leader. When teams have not played the same amount of games, this difference may be represented by a half game, meaning that the team behind could make up that half game with a win when the team ahead has its next off day.

L10 - This indicates the team's record (wins and then losses) over its last ten regular season games. If the season has completed, this refers to the last ten games of that year's regular season.

Strk - This refers to the current streak of a team. A streak is a string of games with all of the same outcomes, consecutive wins or losses.

Home - This indicates the team's record (wins and then losses) at home.

Road - This indicates the team's record (wins and then losses) at opponents' venues.

Login - The last time the user logged in and visited his World Office.

Owner - This refers to the WhatIfSports.com user name of the owner of this franchise. Clicking on the name will display the owner's Hardball Dynasty user profile in a pop-up window. An asterisk (*) indicates the user has already reserved his/her franchise for next season.

LIVE - This indicates whether this owner has indicated that he/she is available to play games live at this time. This indicator is only relevant during a regular season for another user who would like to play a future game live. Live games are not yet available in Hardball Dynasty, but should be coming soon.

General Description - From this page, you may view interesting feats from the last 3 HBD days.

Franchise - Users may select the franchise's game list they wish to view from a dropdown menu of all 32 user-controlled franchises within the world. Users can also select 'All' franchises to view a comprehensive list of highlights from throughout the world.

Level - Users may select the level at which to view the highlights. Levels from the dropdown menu include Majors, Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, Low-A and rookie ball teams. There is also an option to view 'all' highlights for a franchise. This will return schedules of each level separately, but on the same page. After selecting a team and franchise, please click on 'Go' to view game highlights.

Game - This is the result of the game. Click on the game to view its boxscore in a pop-up window.

Highlights - Each game will have an associated highlight that notes the top individual performance from the game. This will include such feats as no-hitters or hitting for the cycle, as well as game-winning RBI or strong pitching in relief. For more information, you may view the boxscore by clicking on the game, or view the player's profile by clicking on his name in the highlight.

General Description - This page contains all of the players that have been inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Season - You may select the season in which players were inducted into the Hall of Fame. Alternatively, you can view all of the player's in the Hall of Fame by selecting the "All" option.

Position - You may select a specific position by selecting the corresponding item in the drop down list. If you would like to view all of the players, regardless of position, simply select the "All" option.

Franchise - If you would like to view a specific franchises Hall of Fame inductees just select one from the drop down list. Again, if you would like to view all of the players, regardless of franchise, select the "All" option

General Description - This page contains the player's that are eligible to be nominated for the Hall of Fame. Eligiblity is based on career statistics (explained below). Any player that played for your franchise at any time during their career are highlighted in yellow and are eligible for you to nominate. To nominate a player, click the "Nominate" link. Once nominated, you can remove a players nomination by clicking the "Remove" link. If you see a player that is highlighted in yellow but does not have a link available it means that he has already been nominated by another franchise. Lastly, if you see a link labeled "AI" that means that he has already been auto nominated by the AI and is not eligible to be nominated by any user. 

You are only allowed to nominate two players per season. You can adjust your nomination list from the beginning of the season until the Hall of Fame voting period begins (please see the League Schedule).

Players may also have their nomination status adjusted via their player profile.

Franchise - To limit the list of eligible players from a specific franchise, choose the franchise name or all franchises from the list and click the "Go" button.

Position - You may view either position players or pitchers. To view each position group simply select the item from the drop down list and click the "Go" button.

Eligibility - Position players: 10+ years of ML experience with 400+ PA per season. Relief pitchers: 10+ years of ML experience with 50+ IP per season. Starting pitchers: 10+ years of ML experience with 150+ IP per season.

General Description - This page contains all of the players that are eligible to be voted into the Hall of Fame.

A player can be up for voting one of two ways. The first is automatic qualifications (described below) and the second is by user nomination.

To vote for a player, click the empty white box located next to the "Cast Vote" label. To remove a vote, click the same icon. Users may vote for up to 5 players per season.

In order for a player to be inducted, he must receive 17 total votes. Votes are finalized and players are inducted on the first day after Spring training has concluded. The franchise that the player will be inducted into the Hall of Fame with is the franchise that he played the most total games with in his career.

Each player that is eligible to be inducted into the Hall of Fame has their own discussion board. If you would like to chat about a player click the chat icon located in the top right hand corner of the voting card. This will load the eligible player's chat board. From there you can see what others are saying and post a message about him. The number to the left of the icon indicates how many active messages have currently been posted for the player. 

Position - You may view either position players or pitchers. To view each position group simply select the item from the drop down list and click the "Go" button.

Eligibility - Position Players: 7+ Silver Slugger, 10+ Gold Gloves, 7+ All Star Appearances, 3+ MVPs, 500+ HRs, or 3,000+ HRs

Pitchers: 7+ All Star Appearances, 3+ Fireman of the Year, 3+ Cy Young Awards, 300+ wins, 3000+ Ks, or 500+ SVs

General Description - This page contains your worlds voting results for the current season.

General Description - From this page, you may view injury types and a general prognosis. When a player gets hurt, his time off will vary between these lengths depending on medical budget, the player's durability, health and fatigue and randomness. The injury list and frequency of occurrence are based on real-life big league injuries.

General Description - From this page, you may view all of the international signings that have occurred in the world for a specific season or over all seasons.

Season - You may select any season that the world has been in existence. You can also select the "All" option to view every signing from every season in the world.

Franchise- You can select a specific franchise to view their initiated and received trades. Alternatively, you can also select the "All Franchises" option to view all of the signings that have occurred in the world.

Season - The season in which the player was signed.

Signing Franchise - The franchise that signed the player.

Signing Owner - The owner that signed the player.

Signing Age- Player's age at the time of signing.

Bonus - The player's signing bonus

Contract Type - The type of contract the player signed. ML (Big League Contract) MILB (Minor League Contract)

Additional information : Player Ratings | Player Statistics | GM Basics

General Description - From this page, you may view the top 25 players in any statistic in any league from the world.

Level - Users may select the level at which to view the statistics. Levels from the dropdown menu include Majors, Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, Low-A and Rookie ball teams.

League - Users may select the league in which to view the statistics. Leagues from the dropdown menu include AL, NL or All (every team at that level).

Category - After selecting a level and type, users may select the category of league statistics to view. Categories in the dropdown menus include batting, pitching and fielding. Comprehensive, cumulative statistics are kept in each category from all games of the selected type. For instance, a player who plays ten games for a Triple-A team, but then is called up will only have his statistics added to the Triple-A totals for the games in which he played at that level. Keys indicating which stats are kept for each category are listed below.

Split - After selecting level, league and category, users may select splits from the dropdown menu. These include totals, vs lhp, vs rhp, home, away, lhb, rhb and extended. Totals are fully cumulative statistics from all games played. VS LHP and VS RHP refer to statistics for batters facing a left-handed pitchers (LHP) and right-handed pitchers (RHP) respectively. When the pitching category is selected, this refers to team's pitching performance by its LHP or RHP. When fielding is selected, this refers to the fielding performance from opposing at-bats against the team's LHP or RHP. Home and Away refer to only games played either at that team's ballpark or at his opponents' ballparks. Away games are the sum of all games played away from the team's home ballpark, regardless of opponent. These statistics are maintained for each category. LHB and RHB refer to statistics for pitchers facing a left-handed batter (LHB) and right-handed batter (RHB) respectively. When the batting category is selected, this refers to team's offense performance from its LHB or RHB. When fielding is selected, this refers to the fielding performance from opposing at-bats by LHB or RHB. Extended statistics display some of the more atypical team statistics in baseball.

POS - Users may select the league leaders at a specific position. This includes all nine fielding positions, the DH and just outfielders or just infielders. To qualify at a position, a player must meet the "qualified" requirements at that position if "yes" is selected for qualified. If "no" is selected for qualified, a player must have played at least one-third of an inning at the position.

Qualified - Users may limit a league leaders search to just those who qualify for the league lead in that category. For batting stats, players must average 3.1 plate appearances per team game or more in order to qualify. Pitchers must average one inning pitched per team game. Position players must appear in 50% of their team's innings played to qualify for fielding leaders. Once you have selected a level, league, category, split, position and qualified (yes or no), please click on the "Go" button to view league leaders. All statistics are sortable. Below is a glossary of statistics.

Statistics - All statistics are sortable. Clicking on the abbreviation for a statistic once will sort teams from best to worst in that category. For instance, clicking on AVG under batting stats will order players from highest AVG to lowest; while clicking on ERA in the pitching stats will order players from lowest ERA to highest.

General Description - From this page, you may view all transactions made by franchises in the world.

Level - Users may select the level at which to view the franchise's transactions. Levels from the dropdown menu include Majors, Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, Low-A and Rookie ball teams. There is also an option to view 'All' transactions for a franchise. This will return all of the franchise's transactions over the selected time period. Transactions such as call-ups that involve the same player, but multiple levels, will be listed in each relevant level and just once under 'All'.

Franchise - Users may select the franchise's roster they wish to view from a dropdown menu of all 32 user-controlled franchises within the world. Users can also select 'All Franchises' to view a comprehensive list of transactions from throughout the world.

Transaction Type - Users may select the type of transactions to view. Along with 'all' transactions, the dropdown includes Free Agency signings (FA), Arbitration offerings (ARB), contract Renewals, contract Extensions signed, Trades, players Released, players placed on Waivers, signing of Free Agent after six Minor League seasons (FA 6 Year), Retirings, players lost do to Free Agency signings to another team (Left as FA), players invited to Spring Training (Invitee), Non-drafted prospects signed (NonDrafted), prospects Drafted in amateur draft, player Promoted to level, player Demoted from level, Disabled List placements (DLOn), removals from Disabled List (DLOff), player added to 40-man roster (40ManOn), player removed from 40-man roster (40ManOff), Designations for assignment (Designated), Deactivations, player Reinstated after suspension. For more information concerning transactions please visit the Edit Rosters page in the GM's Office or the GM Basics tab in the Additional Information below.

Timeframe - Users may select a timeframe over which to view all selected transactions. All of the timeframes refer to real-life calendar time periods. This dropdown list includes over the Last 24 Hours, over the Last Week, over the Last Month and over the course of the entire season (All Season). Timeframes are not reset between seasons. For instance, at the beginning of the Hardball Dynasty season, a user may view transactions from the last month of the previous season. After selecting a level, franchise, transaction type and timeframe, please click 'Go' to view transactions.

Date/Time - This indicates the calendar date and time of the transaction by the franchise's owner.

User - This refers to the WhatIfSports.com user name of the owner of this franchise. Clicking on the name will display the owner's Hardball Dynasty user profile in a pop-up window.

Franchise - This refers to the user-named franchise that conducted the transaction.

Player - This indicates the name of the player involved in the transaction. Clicking on the player's name will open his player profile in a pop-up window.

Action - This refers to the type of transaction. Often times, many transactions are linked so a player could show up in many different transactions around the same time. For instance, a player designated for assignment who does not have any options remaining will be placed on waivers. If he clears waivers, he can then be reclaimed by his original franchise.

General Description - From this page, you may view interesting feats occurring in games at each level. Only exceptionally notable games, such as no-hitters and cycles will be listed here. Not every game is noteworthy. To find interesting feats from every game, please go to the Game Highlights page. To view noteworthy games, please select a level or 'All' levels and click 'Go.' You will be able to see the level, game result and feat. To view the game boxscore, please click on the game under Result. To view the notable player's profile, please click on his name under Highlight.

General Description - From this page, you may view the player awards handed out for any season in the history of this Hardball Dynasty world. Awards are updated during the PM2 cycle. Mid-season awards are not available until 1 week before the All-Star game. End of the season awards are not available until 2 weeks prior to the completion of the regular season. Once the regular season has ended users will be able to vote for Major league MVP, Cy Young and Rookie of the Year awards by clicking on a link entitled, "Award Voting", at the bottom of each of these categories. Voting results will be available during the World Series.

Season - You may select the current Hardball Dynasty season and any previous Hardball Dynasty seasons in this world from which you would like to view awards. Once a full season is complete, its awards information will be archived here for the duration of the world.

Level - Users may select the level at which to view the awards. Levels from the dropdown menu include Majors, Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, Low-A and Rookie ball teams. After selecting a season and level please click on 'Go' to view player awards.

Player - This is a player who has won the award or is in contention to win the award. Clicking on his name will pop-up his current player profile. If he is no longer in the league, the profile will list him without a franchise.

Franchise - This indicates the franchise for which the player played when he won the award.

User - This indicates the handle of the user who controlled the franchise during this season. Clicking on the userid will pop-up the appropriate User Profile.

Rooke of the Year & Newcomer of the Year Qualifications - In order to be eligible for the ROY or NOY, a player must not have more than 150 career AB or 50 IP at the current level. For instance, if a player had 87 at-bats at the big league level in season 1 and 90 at-bats at the big league level in season 2, then he will not be eligible for the award in season 3 and beyond.

General Description - From this page you may view comprehensive records from the big league level throughout the history of your Hardball Dynasty world. No records will be included until one full regular season has completed and are only updated at the end of the season (during the season rollover).

Record Type - Choose between single-season and career records.

Franchise - Choose one of the franchises from within the world, or go with "All Franchises" to see the overall world records.

Category - Choose between Batting, Pitching or Fielding Records. Types in the dropdown menu include each of the statistics in the Player Statistics glossary.

Statistic - Choose the individual record from the list. The definition of each stat can be found using the Statistics Glossary link located at the bottom of each help page.

Player - This is the player who achieved this spot on the all-time list. Clicking on his name will pop-up his current player profile. If he is no longer in the league, the profile will list him without a franchise.

Season - For single-season records, this is the year in which the player achieved the record.

Franchise - For single-season records, this indicates the franchise for which the player played when he achieved the record. Clicking this link will pop-up the Franchise Profile.

User - For single-season records, this indicates the handle of the user who controlled the franchise during this season. Clicking on the userid will pop-up the appropriate User Profile.

Stat - This is the value achieved by the player at this level for the category and type chosen.

General Description - From this page, you can search for any player on any team or franchise in the world.

Last Name - Users may enter a player's last name or part of their last name to search for a specific player or one's starting with a that sequence of letters. At least the first letter of the name must be entered to limit the search.

Franchise - Users may select the franchise's roster they wish to view from a dropdown menu of all 32 user-controlled franchises within the world.

Position - Users may select the position they wish to search by from the dropdown menu. All positions and All franchises will not return any results and will instruct the user to narrow their search.

Level - After selecting a franchise to view, users may select the level at which to view the statistics. Levels from the dropdown menu include Majors, Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, Low-A and Rookie ball teams. There is also an option to view 'all' players for a franchise. All franchises and all levels will not return any results and will instruct the user to narrow their search.

View - Users can choose to view player attributes such as Regular Season Stats, Current Ratings, or Status Info. Stats will only be populated if that type of season has already begun. After choosing your search criteria, please click the "GO" button to view the player's meeting your specifications.

Player - This indicates the player's name. Clicking on the player's name will open his player profile in a pop-up window.

Lvl - This indicates the player's team level.

Frn - This indicates the player's franchise. Clicking on the player's franchise will open the franchise profile in a pop-up window.

Pos - This indicates the player's primary position as chosen by the franchise's owner.

% - This indicates the player's fatigue.

Age - This indicates the player's current age (in years).

Statistics - All statistics/ratings are sortable. Clicking on the abbreviation for a statistic once will sort players from best to worst in that category. Clicking on the statistic another time will sort from worst to best.

$ - This indicates the player's salary.

General Description - From this page you may view comprehensive, current, cumulative individual statistics for all players at each level in your world.

Franchise - Users may select the franchise's roster they wish to view from a dropdown menu of all 32 user-controlled franchises within the world.

Season - Users may select which season from the world they'd like to view.

Level - After selecting a franchise to view, users may select the level at which to view the statistics. Levels from the dropdown menu include Majors, Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, Low-A and Rookie ball teams.

Type - Users may select the type of individual statistics to view. Types in the dropdown menu include regular season, post-season and spring training. Each type refers just to the current season, so only completed games from this season will be included in the statistics.

Category - After selecting a level and type, users may select the category of team statistics to view. Categories in the dropdown menus include batting, pitching and fielding. Cumulative statistics are kept in each category from all games of the selected type. For instance, a player who plays ten games for a Triple-A team, but then is called up will only have his statistics listed under Triple-A totals for the games in which he played for the Triple-A team. Only players who have accumulated a statistic for the team (franchise and level) in the selected category will be listed. For instance, a batter who has not pitched will not be listed on a team's individual statistics page if the pitching category is chosen. Keys indicating which stats are kept for each category are listed below.

Splits - After selecting level, type and category, users may select splits from the dropdown menu. These include totals, vs lhp, vs rhp, home, away, lhb, rhb and extended. Totals are fully cumulative statistics from all games played. VS LHP and VS RHP refer to statistics for batters facing a left-handed pitchers (LHP) and right-handed pitchers (RHP) respectively. This split is unavailable for the pitching and fielding categories. Home and Away refer to only games played either at the player's team's ballpark or at his opponents' ballparks. Away games are the sum of all games played away from the player's team's home ballpark, regardless of opponent. These statistics are maintained for each category. LHB and RHB refer to statistics for pitchers facing a left-handed batter (LHB) and right-handed batter (RHB) respectively. These individual statistics are not maintained for the batting or fielding categories. Extended statistics display some of the more atypical team statistics in baseball. These are not available for fielding as all fielding statistics will be listed on page. After selecting a league, type, category and split, please click 'go' to view team statistics.

Statistics - All team statistics are sortable. Clicking on the abbreviation for a statistic once will sort teams from best to worst in that category. Clicking on the statistic another time will sort from worst to best. For instance, clicking on AVG under team batting stats will order teams from highest team AVG to lowest; while clicking on ERA in the pitching stats will order teams from lowest team ERA to highest. The league average will always be displayed amongst the 32 teams for reference.

# - Indicates the player is no longer on the active roster.

General Description - This page shows the top 5 hitters and top 5 pitchers for a franchise's minor league team. In order to qualify, a position player must average at least 1 plate appearance per team game and a pitcher must average pitching at least once every five team games.

Franchise - Users may select the franchise's prospects they wish to view from a dropdown menu of all 32 user-controlled franchises within the world.

Level - After selecting a franchise to view, users may select the level at which to view the prospects. Levels from the dropdown menu include Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, Low-A and Rookie ball teams. After choosing your franchise and level, please click the "GO" button to view that team's prospects.

Player - This indicates the player's name. Clicking on the player's name will open his player profile in a pop-up window.

Lvl - This indicates the player's team level.

Frn - This indicates the player's franchise. Clicking on the player's franchise will open the franchise profile in a pop-up window.

Pos - This indicates the player's primary position as chosen by the franchise's owner.

% - This indicates the player's fatigue.

Age - This indicates the player's current age (in years).

Statistics - This indicates the player's regular season statistics at the specified level. Minimum 1 plate appearance per game for batters or has played in 15% of team games for pitchers at the specified level.

$ - This indicates the player's salary.

General Description - From this page, you may view the results and information about players from any Rule 5 Draft in the history of this Hardball Dynasty world.

Franchise - Users may select the franchise's draft results they wish to view from a dropdown menu of all 32 user-controlled franchises within the world. Users can also select 'All Franchises' to view a comprehensive list of prospects from that season's draft.

Season - You may select the current Hardball Dynasty season and any previous Hardball Dynasty seasons in this world from which you would like to view Rule 5 draft information. Once a full season is complete, its regular season Rule 5 draft information will be archived here for the duration of the world. You may also select 'All' seasons to view every pick from that franchise. You may not select 'All Franchises' and 'All' seasons. After selecting a franchise and season please click on 'Go' to view the draft history.

Rnd - This indicates the round in which this prospect was drafted.

Pick - This indicates overall pick in the draft at which this player was drafted.

Fran - This indicates the franchise that drafted the player. This will only be different than other picks if the 'All Franchises' option is selected.

Owner - This indicates the handle of the user who controlled the franchise during this season. Clicking on the userid will pop-up the appropriate User Profile.

Player - This is the prospect drafted. Clicking on his name will pop-up his current player profile. If he is no longer in the league, the profile will list him without a franchise.

Pos - This is the player's position at the time of his draft.

Age - This is the player's age at the time of his draft. Age is a good indication of how close he is to his projected peak. Most players will peak in their late 20s.

Orig Fran - This is the original franchise the player was on before he was drafted.

Pro Yrs - This is the number of years the player spent in pro ball.

ML Yrs - This is the number of years the player spent in the majors.

Current Fran - This is the franchise that currently owns this player's rights. Since the Rule 5 draft, the player could have been traded, released, or waived by his original franchise. To view more about the player's history, please view his player profile.

General Description - From this page, you may view schedules for all franchises in your world.

Franchise - Users may select the franchise's schedule they wish to view from a dropdown menu of all 32 user-controlled franchises within the world.

Level - After selecting a franchise to view, users may select the level at which to view the schedule. Levels from the dropdown menu include Majors, Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, Low-A and Rookie ball teams. When viewing the big league level, the entire franchise schedule will be visible. Selecting any other level to view will just return the regular season schedule of play for that level.

View - After selecting a franchise and team level to view, users may select which option they would like to view. The dropdown menu includes an option to view a team's entire schedule or just a two-week period. Schedules are generated immediately upon a franchise's entrance into a world. For non-big league franchises, only game days appear on the schedule. Most minor league teams play 144 game schedules. Two week schedules display the previous seven and next seven real-life days. During the season, there are three game cycles for each calendar day, AM, PM and PM2. For example, if the team is in at the start of its third week, the two-week schedule will depict weeks two and three, or cycles #22 through #64. After selecting a franchise, level and view, please click on 'go' to view the schedule.

Date - The actual real-life calendar date on which these games will occur. AM games will typically be simulated at 3:00 am EST, PM games will typically be simulated at 11:00 am EST, and PM2 games will typically be simulated at 7:00 pm EST.

Opponent/Event - During a team's regular season, this indicates the opponent and location of the game on that game day. The @ symbol indicates that the game will be played at the opposing team's ballpark. When there is not a game scheduled for that game day, this will display an event. During the regular season, teams will receive scheduled off-days. These are different for each team at each level. Other events listed here will include items such as budgeting, transaction and roster deadlines, the amateur draft, arbitration and free-agency. Clicking on the event will take you to the necessary page to both learn more and take action. This is important to do as the first event is available upon world creation.

Score - This lists the final score of the game. The home team is always listed second. Please click on the score to view the boxscore and play-by-play from the game. If no game (spring training, regular season or postseason) is scheduled for this game day, this will remain blank.

W/L - This feature indicates whether this game was a win or a loss for the team selected from the franchise and level dropdown menus. If no game (spring training, regular season or postseason) is scheduled for this game day, this will remain blank.

General Description - From this page, you may view a chronological list of the events that occur in each Hardball Dynasty season. Each event is noted with its own graphic and includes the date of the event in this world as well as a brief synopsis of the event and user responsibilities. You may use this page as a general overview of the Hardball Dynasty, but it will not include links. On the day of the event, the world office main page will provide users with a similar synopsis as well as direction. Events can also be reached through links on the league schedule page.

General Description - From this page, you may view all of your worlds scores from the most current completed simulation cycle.

Franchise - Users may select the franchise's game list they wish to view from a dropdown menu of all 32 user-controlled franchises within the world. Users can also select 'All' franchises to view a comprehensive list of scores from throughout the world. Games that appear highlighted are either considered noteworthy or are your franchises game.

Level - Users may select the level at which to view the scores. Levels from the dropdown menu include Majors, Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, Low-A and rookie ball teams.

Date - Use this drop down to select any previous playable date throughout the season.

General Description - From this page, you may view league standings for all leagues at all levels in your world.

Season - You may select the current Hardball Dynasty season and any previous Hardball Dynasty seasons in this world from which you would like to view league standings. Once a full season is complete, its regular season standings will be archived here for the duration of the world.

Level - After selecting a franchise to view, users may select the level at which to view the standings. Levels from the dropdown menu include Majors, Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, Low-A and rookie ball teams.

League - Each level in each world is separated into two leagues, the AL and NL. Please select the league from the dropdown menu from which you would like to view standings. After selecting a Hardball Dynasty season, level and league please click on 'go' to view the standings.

Divisional Standings - Each league is divided into four divisions, North, South, East and West of four teams each.

W-L - This feature indicates the overall record (wins and then losses) of the team to its left. If the season has not yet completed, the standings will reflect all regular season games played up to that point.

PCT - This is the teams winning percentage, as calculated by wins divided by total games. Teams are sorted by winning percentage.

GB - This indicates the number of games the team is behind the division leader. When teams have not played the same amount of games, this difference may be represented by a half game, meaning that the team behind could make up that half game with a win when the team ahead has its next off day.

L10 - This indicates the team's record (wins and then losses) over its last ten regular season games. If the season has completed, this refers to the last ten games of that year's regular season.

Strk - This refers to the current streak of a team. A streak is a string of games with all of the same outcomes, consecutive wins or losses.

Home - This indicates the team's record (wins and then losses) at home.

Road - This indicates the team's record (wins and then losses) at opponents' venues.

Login - The last time the user logged in and visited his World Office.

Owner - This refers to the WhatIfSports.com user name of the owner of this franchise. Clicking on the name will display the owner's Hardball Dynasty user profile in a pop-up window. An asterisk (*) indicates the user has already reserved his/her franchise for next season.

LIVE - This indicates whether this owner has indicated that he/she is available to play games live at this time. This indicator is only relevant during a regular season for another user who would like to play a future game live. Live games are not yet available in Hardball Dynasty, but should be coming soon.

General Description - From this page, you may view the playoff bracket for any level in your world.

Level - Users may select the level at which to view the standings. Levels from the dropdown menu include Majors, Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, Low-A and rookie ball teams. After selecting the level you would like to view, please click 'Go' to view the updated bracket. Brackets will remain empty until the end of the regular season for that level.

Season - The season for which you would like to view the playoff brackets.

Division Play-In - With 32 franchises in each world and at every level, six teams from each league will make the playoffs. The four division winners in each league will each receive playoff berths. The other two playoff spots will be given to the two non-division winners with the best records in each league. These represent the two Wild Card teams. In the Division Play-In Series, the division winners with the third and fourth best overall records in their league will play the Wild Card teams. The third best division winner will play the Wild Card team in its league with the worst overall record. The winner from that Best-of-Five series will move on to face the second best division winner in the Division Champion Series. The best two division winners from each league receive byes for this round. The numbers next to the teams indicate how many games it has won in the series. The first team with three wins advances. Home field will be assigned to the division winner in the last two games.

Division Championship Series - The winners from the Division Play-in Series will advance to face the division winners who received byes in a Best-of-Five Division Championship Series. The numbers next to the teams indicate how many games it has won in the series. The first team to three wins wins the series. Home field will be assigned to the top-two seeded division winner in the last three games.

League Championship Series - The winners from the Division Championship Series will advance to face each other in the Best-of-Seven League Championship Series. The numbers next to the teams indicate how many games it has won in the series. The first team to four wins wins the series and plays in the World Series. Home field will be assigned to the team with the better seed in the first two games, then the opposing team for the next three and end with two games, if necessary, at the higher-seeded team's ballpark.

World Series - The winners from the League Championship Series will advance to face each other in the Best-of-Seven World Series. The numbers next to the teams indicate how many games it has won in the series. The first team to four wins wins that level's championship. Home field will be assigned to the team with the better seed (if equal seeding, then the team with the better record, then a coin flip) in the first two games and then the opposing team for the next three and end with two games, if necessary, at the first team's ballpark.

Note - Clicking on listed game results will display the games' boxscores.

Tiebreakers - A tiebreaker system is used if two or more teams tie for a playoff berth. Head-to-head record is used first, then division record, then run differential, then last season's record and finally a coin flip.

Prizes - Credits and Reward Points are distributed following the conclusion of the big league World Series.

General Description - From this page, you may view depth charts for any team or franchise in the world. This will not show users the exact depth chart as selected by the franchise's owner, but will provide a means to view the viable players at each position.

Franchise - Users may select the franchise's roster they wish to view from a dropdown menu of all 32 user-controlled franchises within the world.

Level - After selecting a franchise to view, users may select the level at which to view the statistics. Levels from the dropdown menu include Majors, Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, Low-A and Rookie ball teams. There is also an option to view 'all' players for a franchise. This will return every available player throughout the franchise at each position.

Sort by - After selecting a franchise and level, users may sort the players at each position by name, age, overall rating or level in the dropdown menu. Name will sort players alphabetically (A-Z) by last name. Age will sort players by age (oldest to youngest). Overall rating will sort the players at each position by their overall rating (highest to lowest). Level will sort players by their current level (Majors to Rookie ball). Unless the level 'all' has been selected, players will all be of the same level and the default sort (by name) will be implemented.

Include Secondary Positions - Franchise owners have the option of declaring a secondary position for each player (besides his given primary position). Checking this box before clicking 'Go' will display the depth at each position including all players who are listed as either primary or secondary players at that position. In this case, most players will show up in multiple locations on the depth chart. Players appearing on the depth chart at a secondary position will be indicated by an *. Users may add secondary positions and/or change primary positions in the Player Settings page of the Manager's Office. If this box is not checked, players will only be displayed once, at their primary positions. Each position, including center, right and left field, is listed separately with a unique depth. After selecting a franchise, level and means to sort by, please click 'Go' to access the depth chart.

Player - This indicates the player's name. Clicking on the player's name will open his player profile in a pop-up window.

POS - This indicates the player's primary position as chosen by the franchise's owner.

Age - This indicates the player's current age (in years).

Current Rating - This is the current overall rating for the player.

Projected Rating - This is the projected overall maximum rating for this player based on your current scouting staff.

General Description - From this page, you may view 40-man rosters for any team or franchise in the world.

Franchise - Users may select the franchise's roster they wish to view from a dropdown menu of all 32 user-controlled franchises within the world.

View - Users can choose to view player attributes such as Regular Season Stats, Current Ratings, or Status Info. Stats will only be populated if that type of season has already begun. After choosing your search criteria, please click the "GO" button to view the player's meeting your specifications.

Player - This indicates the player's name. Clicking on the player's name will open his player profile in a pop-up window.

Lvl - This indicates the player's team level.

Pos - This indicates the player's primary position as chosen by the franchise's owner.

Age - This indicates the player's current age (in years).

Statistics - All statistics/ratings are sortable. Clicking on the abbreviation for a statistic once will sort players from best to worst in that category. Clicking on the statistic another time will sort from worst to best.

$ - This indicates the player's salary.

General Description - From this page, you may view active rosters for any team or franchise in the world.

Franchise - Users may select the franchise's roster they wish to view from a dropdown menu of all 32 user-controlled franchises within the world.

Level - After selecting a franchise to view, users may select the level at which to view the statistics. Levels from the dropdown menu include Majors, Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, Low-A and Rookie ball teams. There is also an option to view 'all' players for a franchise. This will return the roster of each level separately, but on the same page. After selecting a franchise and level, please click 'Go' to access the roster.

Player - This indicates the player's name. Clicking on the player's name will open his player profile in a pop-up window.

POS - This indicates the player's primary position as chosen by the franchise's owner.

B/T - This indicates in which manner (right-handed - R, left-handed - L or both/switch - B) the player bats/throws. For example, B/R indicates that the player is a switch hitter and throws right-handed.

H/W - This indicates the player's current height (in feet and inches) and weight (in pounds).

Age - This indicates the player's current age (in years).

ML Years - This indicates the number of years in which a player has appeared in the majors

Pro Years - This indicates the number of years in which a player has appeared professionally at any level.

40-Man - This indicates whether the player is currently listed on the franchise's 40-Man roster. 'Y' denotes that yes, he is.

Options - This indicates the number and type of options that the player currently has remaining. For more information concerning options, please view the Roster Management tab in the GM's Office.

OVR - This indicates the player's current overall rating (summation of each of his ratings in 25 categories).

Salary - This indicates the player's salary for the current season.

General Description - From this page, you may view comprehensive, current, cumulative team statistics for all teams at each level in your world.

Season - Users may select which season from the world they'd like to view.

Level - Users may select the level at which to view the statistics. Levels from the dropdown menu include Majors, Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, Low-A and Rookie ball teams.

Type - Users may select the type of team statistics to view. Types in the dropdown menu include regular season, post-season and spring training. Each type refers just to the current season, so only completed games from this season will be included in the statistics.

Category - After selecting a level and type, users may select the category of team statistics to view. Categories in the dropdown menus include batting, pitching and fielding. Comprehensive, cumulative statistics are kept in each category from all games of the selected type. For instance, a player who plays ten games for a Triple-A team, but then is called up will only have his statistics added to the Triple-A totals for the games in which he played at that level. Keys indicating which stats are kept for each category are listed below.

Splits - After selecting level, type and category, users may select splits from the dropdown menu. These include totals, vs lhp, vs rhp, home, away, lhb, rhb and extended. Totals are fully cumulative statistics from all games played. VS LHP and VS RHP refer to statistics for batters facing a left-handed pitchers (LHP) and right-handed pitchers (RHP) respectively. When the pitching category is selected, this refers to team's pitching performance by its LHP or RHP. When fielding is selected, this refers to the fielding performance from opposing at-bats against the team's LHP or RHP. Home and Away refer to only games played either at that team's ballpark or at his opponents' ballparks. Away games are the sum of all games played away from the team's home ballpark, regardless of opponent. These statistics are maintained for each category. LHB and RHB refer to statistics for pitchers facing a left-handed batter (LHB) and right-handed batter (RHB) respectively. When the batting category is selected, this refers to team's offense performance from its LHB or RHB. When fielding is selected, this refers to the fielding performance from opposing at-bats by LHB or RHB. Extended statistics display some of the more atypical team statistics in baseball. After selecting a league, type, category and split, please click 'Go' to view team statistics.

Fran - This refers to the user-named franchise from which the team at the selected level comes.

Owner - This refers to the WhatIfSports.com user name of the owner of this franchise. Clicking on the name will display the owner's WhatIfSports.com user profile in a pop-up window.

Statistics - All team statistics are sortable. Clicking on the abbreviation for a statistic once will sort teams from best to worst in that category. Clicking on the statistic another time will sort from worst to best. For instance, clicking on AVG under team batting stats will order teams from highest team AVG to lowest; while clicking on ERA in the pitching stats will order teams from lowest team ERA to highest. The league average will always be displayed along with the 32 teams for reference.

General Description - From this page, you may view all of the trades that have occurred in the world for a specific season or over all seasons. This inlcudes all of the players involved and any cash that was involved in the trade.

Season - You may select any season that the world has been in existence. You can also select the "All" option to view every trade from every season in the world.

Franchise- You can select a specific franchise to view their initiated and received trades. Alternatively, you can also select the "All Franchises" option to view all of the trades that have occurred in the world.

Season - The season in which the trade occurred.

Franchise - The franchises that were involved in the trade. The initiating franchise is always listed first.

Owner - The owners involved in the trade.

Cash- Any cash that was involved in the trade is listed in this column.

Player 1, 2, 3 - The players that were involved in the trade

Additional information : Player Ratings | Player Statistics | GM Basics

General Description - From this page, you may track your franchise's schedule and alerts as well as see the latest entries from the world chat and upcoming off-field events.

Alerts - In the dark box at the top of the page, various franchise alerts are listed. Clicking on the alert label will take you to the related page. You may address the situation there. For more information about each alert, please reference the help on that page.

Alerts - Commissioner Note - The top item within this section will detail the processing status of the world once the season has begun. Worlds are processed 6 times per day, every 4 hours starting at 3:00 AM ET. Worlds are processed in order of when they were created. Each "event" in HBD is 8 hours log and made up of 2 processing cycles. The dark content box at the bottom of the page ("Today's Event") will always let you know what "event" you are currently in. The "Commissioner's Note" section lets you know the status of the two processing cycles within the event. The status of the world does not advance to the next "event" until the "Today's Event" section changes.

Inbox - Your last three pieces of correspondence will be partially displayed. Click on View Inbox to read the rest of your messages.

Chat - The last three world forum messages will be partially displayed. Click on View Chat to read the rest of the world chat.

Standings - The franchise's divisional standings at the ML level will always be updated on this page as of the most recently simulated game.

Results - Yesterday's game results for your entire franchise are displayed here for quick reference to boxscores. This is only available once spring training has begun. You may hide/show results by clicking the appropriate link. The selected option will be saved for this franchise only.

Matchup - The upcoming big league matchup information is highlighted here. The ballpark includes its effects (1B, 2B, 3B, HR LF, HR RF). To edit the lineup for the game, click on the Edit Lineup link.

Today's Event - Off-the-field events from the team schedule, such as the amateur draft, will be promoted and explained in the dark notes box at the bottom of the page. Links within the section will take you to the applicable page so you may handle or prepare for the event. If there are no upcoming off-the-field events, this section will rotate with interesting news, stats, league leaders or game highlights.

Note - This is the main office page for Hardball Dynasty. You may view comprehensive stats, rosters and standings reports in the World Office. Lineups, depth charts and settings can be adjusted in the Manager's Office. The GM's Office contains roster modifications and player improvement. And, the inbox and budget can be accessed in Correspondence and Personnel.

General Description - From this page, you may chat with other users in the world. All WhatIfSports.com users will be able to view the chat, but only those in the world may post.

User - This is the WhatIfSports userid of the franchise GM who is posting.

Franchise - This is the franchise owned and operated by the user.

Date - This is the actual calendar date and time at which the post was made.

Message - This is the message already posted by a user. Messages are listed in reverse chronological with the most recent post at the top of the page. The most recent 25 posts will always be displayed,

New Message - To post a new message, first click in the white box under the "New message" heading, so you see a cursor. You may type as much text as you would like. The chat application will divide each post to fit the 255 character limit, while still maintaining correct order. Please be advised that profanity is prohibited and that inappropriate behavior in the forums may result in banning from the forums, the game or the site. Forum issues are dealt with on a case-by-case basis. To report offensive behavior, please contact customer support. When you have completed your post, please click "Post Message."

Clipboard - You can click the "paste" button to insert a link to an item you've previously added to the clipboard via any profile page or boxscore page. While it looks like gibberish when you paste it, it is displayed properly when you post the message.

Block/Unblock Users - You can block individual user's from appearing in your world chat by clicking on their user profile and then clicking the Block/Unblock link. If a user is blocked, his posts will appear as "-".

General Description - From this page, you may set the defensive replacement hierarchy the manager uses during the game. For instance, if Gomes is the starting LF and your team is ahead by 1 in the 9th (which meets your managerial settings for a defensive replacement situation), then the manager will scan the hierarchy to see if the top available player in the hierarchy is superior defensively and should enter the game. Before the regular season starts, users will only be able to change their hierarchies for Spring Training Squad rosters.

Level - Users may select the level at which to set a hierarchy. Levels from the dropdown menu include Majors, Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, Low-A and rookie ball teams.

View - Users may select the type of individual statistics or ratings to view. Types in the dropdown menu include regular season, playoff, spring training and last season's statistics. Regular, playoff and spring training refer just to the current Hardball Dynasty season, so only completed games from this season will be included in these statistics. Last season refers to the previous Hardball Dynasty regular season. The statistics listed are just for these players at the level selected. Current and projected ratings refer to a subset of player ratings applicable to player rest (for a full list of ratings, click on the player for his Player Profile). Current ratings are the values from 0-100 that represent a player's ability for the category at this time. This is what is input into the simulation engine. Projected ratings are an approximation of a player's highest possible rating in the category. The accuracy of these ratings is directly linked to the franchise's advance scouting budget. Scrolling over each ratings icon will indicate the rating category. After selecting Level and View, please click 'Go' to begin setting hierarchies.

Pos - Pos refers to all 8 defensive positions. Click on the 'Edit' button to begin adjusting hierarchy. When finished, click the 'Save' button.

1-5 - Each hierarchy can be set up to 5 players deep. One refers to the first player considered, while five is the last player in the hierarchy considered for replacement.

Show Recs - Clicking 'Show Recs' will utilize an algorithm based on overall ratings, primary positions, and secondary positions. This will generate the recommended hierarchy based on the data available (which is based on your franchise's Advanced Scouting Budget and any modified position assignments). To save the recommendations, please click 'Save Recs.'

Copy to Player Rest - Clicking this will copy the Defensive Replacements Hierarchy to the Player Rest Hierarchy. The DH spot in the Player Rest Hierarchy will be left untouched.

Clear All - Clicking this button will clear your hierarchies so that you can start anew.

Statistics/Ratings Table - This table should provide help in figuring out who goes where in the hierarchy. Current Ratings are utilized in recommendations.

General Description - From this page, you may set your batting lineups for any level that you have previously not given to the game's AI in the management console.

Level - Users may select the level at which to set a lineup. Levels from the dropdown menu include Majors, Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, Low-A and rookie ball teams. During spring training, you may only

Type - Users may select which of the four different lineups to set. These include facing a left-handed or right-handed starting pitcher with and without the DH implemented in the game. Users should be sure to fill in each roster as the existence of interleague play ensures that all teams will play some games at AL ballparks (DH utilized) and NL ballparks (DH not utilized). The DH is always used at the minor league level.

View - Users may select the type of individual statistics or ratings to view. Types in the dropdown menu include regular season, regular season splits, playoff, spring training and last season's statistics. Regular, playoff and spring training refer just to the current Hardball Dynasty season, so only completed games from this season will be included in these statistics. Regular season splits refer to the split vs. the pitcher type selected from the Type dropdown. Last season refers to the previous Hardball Dynasty regular season. The statistics listed are just for these players at the level selected and for the active franchise only. A statistics key is listed below. Current and projected ratings refer to the 14 player ratings applicable to batting and fielding (as lineups also determine starters at each position). Current ratings are the values from 0-100 that represent a player's ability for the category at this time. This is what is input into the simulation engine. Projected ratings are an approximation of a player's highest possible achievable rating in the category. The accuracy of these ratings is directly linked to the franchise's advance scouting budget. Scrolling over each ratings icon will indicate the rating category. A player's batting type (left - L, right - R or switch - S), current fatigue (%) based on recent usage and this season's salary ($) will always be available in the view. After selecting Level, Type and View, please click 'Go' to begin setting lineups.

Name - # indicates the player is not on the active roster, but is part of the spring training squad.

Pos/Order - Pos refers to all nine positions (including DH - which cannot be set when 'no DH' type set) that are listed next to all of the active non-pitchers on the team's roster. The positions default to the player's primary position. If you would like to change the position of a player for the selected lineup, please click on the dropdown arrow next to the player's name and select that position. Order refers to all nine spots in the batting lineup (beginning with 1 who leads off and ending with 9 who bats just before 1 bats again). If you would like a player to be your starter at a position, please click on the dropdown arrow next to the player's name and select the number in the batting lineup where you would like the player to bat. Please note that if you are setting a non-DH lineup and choose the number nine, the unused spot in the batting order will be reserved for the pitcher. If you select 1-8 for position players, the pitcher will bat 9th. If you would not like a player to start, please select 'B' for bench or 'R' for rest. A player on the bench can enter the game in place of a starter. A player set to rest will not enter the game under any circumstances unless in-game injuries limit the active roster and a replacement must be made. We do not recommend resting more than two players for DH lineups and three players for non-DH lineups for any game. You may change the positions and order of as many players as you would like before saving your lineup. However, your lineup will not be valid if you have more than one player at a position that has a numerical order value (i.e. You cannot start two CFs and no 1B). Your lineup will also be invalid if more or less than the number of players for the lineup are ordered. For DH lineups, you must choose one player to start at each of the spots 1-9. For non-DH lineups, you must select a player playing a unique position for eight of the spots in the lineup. Once you have finalized your lineup for the selected lineup type, please click on 'Save to lineup' to save this lineup type for this level. For other options, please see below.

Show Recs - Clicking 'show recs' will utilize an algorithm based on overall ratings for the situation to recommend a current lineup best suited for winning. For example, your team's fastest, low-power, position player starter will likely be placed at the top of the lineup, while the top overall offensive player will probably be placed in the third spot of the lineup. This will not necessarily optimize your team for player development as the same logic is used for lineup optimization at each level. Also, using this feature will supersede any hierarchies set in respect to starters. For instance, if you have set a player at number one on the Catcher's player rest hierarchy, but he is not deemed the recommended catcher, the player you have ranked highest will come in as the first replacement. Upon a world's creation, all lineups are automatically optimized. So this is not necessary to do if you have not made any changes.

Save Current Lineup - Clicking this feature will save the lineup you have created to that type of batting lineup.

Save to Opposite - Clicking on this feature will save the lineup you have created for the same type (DH or not) but against starting pitchers of the opposite throwing arm. The page will refresh, but the lineup will stay in the window whether you have saved it to the current lineup type or not. However, for safety sake, we recommend saving the current lineup first before clicking this option as clicking this option does not automatically save the lineup for this type. This feature allows users to cut down time by setting one universal DH and one non-DH lineup. It also can serve as a good reference for users if they would like their lineup against one type of pitcher to closely resemble the same type of lineup against a different type of pitcher.

Save to All Lineups - Clicking this feature will save the lineup you have created to all four types of batting lineups. If you are currently viewing a DH lineup, the DH will simply be removed and all positional players after the DH will be moved up one spot with the pitcher batting ninth for the two non-DH lineups. If you are currently viewing a non-DH lineup, the AI will choose the next best overall offensive player from your bench and place him in the pitcher's spot in the lineup as the DH for DH lineups. For example, if you have created a non-DH lineup with position players batting 1-8, selecting this option will make your best offensive bench player the DH in the ninth spot of the lineup for the two DH lineups. This feature allows users to cut down time by setting one universal lineup. It also can serve as a good reference for users if they would like their lineup against one type of pitcher to closely resemble the lineup against a different type of pitcher.

Spring Training - During Spring Training, only the big league spring training squad is available. Once spring training concludes, you can view all levels within the Manager's Office.

Mgmt Console - Don't forget that if you have the AI set to manage your lineups, then any moves you make will be overridden following the next game played.

General Description - From this page, you may set your pitching roles for any level that you have previously not given to the game's AI in the management console. Before the regular season starts, users will only be able to set their pitching staffs for Spring Training ML rosters.

Level - Users may select the level at which to set a staff. Levels from the dropdown menu include Majors, Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, Low-A and rookie ball teams.

View - Users may select the type of individual statistics or ratings to view. Types in the dropdown menu include regular season, playoff, spring training and last season's statistics. Regular, playoff and spring training refer just to the current Hardball Dynasty season, so only completed games from this season will be included in these statistics. Last season refers to the previous Hardball Dynasty regular season. The statistics listed are just for these players at the level selected and for the active franchise only. A statistics key is listed below. Current and projected ratings refer to the 13 player ratings applicable to pitching. Current ratings are the values from 0-100 that represent a player's ability for the category at this time. This is what is input into the simulation engine. Projected ratings are an approximation of a player's highest possible achievable rating in the category. The accuracy of these ratings is directly linked to the franchise's advance scouting budget. Scrolling over each ratings icon will indicate the rating category. A player's throwing type (left - L or right - R), current fatigue (%) based on recent usage and this season's salary ($) will always be available in the view. After selecting Level and View, please click 'Go' to begin setting pitcher's roles.

Name - # indicates the player is not on the active roster, but is part of the spring training squad. The Fatigue value in parenthesis indicates the player's fatigue if he were to not appear in the next game.

Role - Role refers to all of the pitching positions (a list and explanation of roles is below) that are listed next to all of the active pitchers on the team's roster. Roles default to the player's primary position. If you would like a player to pitch in a different role, please click on the dropdown arrow next to the player's name and select the role. If you would not like a player to pitch at all, please select Rest. A player set to rest will not enter the game under any circumstances unless in-game injuries limit the active roster and a replacement must be made. We do not recommend resting more than three pitchers for any game. You may change the roles of as many pitchers as you would like before saving your staff. However, your staff will not be valid if you have more than one pitcher listed for the same starting pitcher (#1-#6) or tandem (#1A-#4B) role. You may have multiple pitchers listed for any of the other/relief pitching roles. Once you have finalized your staff roles, please click on 'Save roles' to save this staff for this level.

Show Recs - Clicking 'Show Recs' will force the game's AI will assess the pitchers most likely to start (tandem or not) and relieve (with priority given to more valuable relief positions) based on overall rating for the type of pitching situation and primary positions set in the GM's Office. It will then utilize an algorithm based on ratings to recommend the optimal rotation and relief roles for winning. For example, your team's best starting pitcher will be set to Starter #1. Your team's best relief pitcher will generally become its closer. This will not necessarily optimize your team for player development as the same logic is used for lineup optimization at each level. Upon a world's creation, all staffs are automatically set to recommendations. So this is not necessary to do if you have not made any changes.

Starters (#1-#6) - This refers to the pitcher who begins the game for this team. Starters pitch in chronological order, beginning each season with #1 and proceeding through as many starters as are indicated. Users may decide not to utilize all six potential starting positions, but due to the nature of pitching fatigue, we highly recommend using at least four starters at each level. Users can also utilize starters in the same rotation as a starting tandem. In this case, the same starting number cannot be used by both Starters and Tandem Starters as the rotation proceeds chronologically from the lowest number to the highest. Individual pitcher settings, such as pitch counts and call bullpen settings will be set on the Edit Player Settings Page.

Tandem Starters (#1A-#4B) - Tandem starters are relatively common in lower minor leagues. This refers to the practice of always pairing two starting pitchers (generally inexperienced as starters or with low fatigue but starter potential) in the same game. The 'A' starter will pitch until he reaches his pull threshold based on the Edit Player Settings. He is then always relieved by the 'B' starter. If you would like to use Tandem starters, you must always select an 'A' and a 'B' for each starting pair. You must also choose a number in the rotation unique from your starters.

Long Relief A/B - Long relief pitchers are the first to come in when the starting pitcher is removed early (generally before the 7th) in a game that is still in doubt. These are usually relief pitchers who are capable of pitching multiple innings of relief at maximum effectiveness. Unless settings in the Edit Players Settings page dictate otherwise, the long relief A pitcher will be given first priority to enter a game when this situation arises and the score is still close. If there is a wide margin in the score your long relief B pitcher will have a better chance of appearing in the game. If a long relief pitcher must leave the game during what is still a long relief situation, first replacement priority will be given to another long relief pitcher. For reference, these are also often times spot starters for teams in case of injury.

Setup A/B - Setup relief pitchers are the first to come in when a pitcher is removed late (generally during the 7th or later) in a game that is still in doubt. These are usually relief pitchers who are only capable of pitching an inning of relief at maximum effectiveness. Their appearances are usually higher than any other pitching role, while they may not pitch as many total innings as starters or long relief pitchers. Unless settings in the Edit Players Settings page dictate otherwise, the setup A pitcher will be given first priority to enter a game when this situation arises and the score is still close. If there is a wide margin in the score your setup B pitcher will have a better chance of appearing in the game. If a setup pitcher must leave the game during what is still a setup relief situation, first replacement priority will be given to another setup relief pitcher. Setup pitchers are intended to bridge the gap from starters to closers.

LH/RH Specialist - Specialists have become quite common in baseball. These are pitchers who are almost solely used just to get the opposing team's most feared hitter out late in a close game. For example, a left-handed specialist will enter the game to face the opponent's best left-handed hitter (and vice versa).

Mopup - The mop up setting is used to designate a pitcher to be used in blowouts (either winning or losing). Blowout is determined by the deficit (or lead) and the inning, e.g. an 8 run deficit in the 2nd inning would not be considered a blowout, but the same deficit in the 8th inning would be. Mop up designated pitchers could possibly be used in non-mop up situations. They will always be used before pitchers marked as 'rest'. For example, if you have 5 relievers and 1 is marked as rest, 1 is marked as mop up, 1 is marked as long relief, 1 is marked as setup and the last as your closer, and your game went to extra innings, if your closer, setup, and long relief had already been used, then your mop up pitcher would see action.

Closer A/B - Closers come in when a pitcher is removed late (generally during the 8th or later) in a game that is still very much in doubt. These are usually relief pitchers who are only capable of pitching an inning of relief at maximum effectiveness. They are also usually the best relief pitchers on a staff. Unless settings in the Edit Players Settings page dictate otherwise, the closer A pitcher will be given first priority to enter a game when this situation arises. If a closer must leave the game during what is still a save situation, first replacement priority will be given to another closer relief pitcher. Closers are supposed to seal victory for teams in close games.

Role Management - During all managerial relief decisions, the manager looks to find a pitcher in the most appropriate role. If a player isn't available due to fatigue, the Minimum Inning Available setting or simply because there aren't any pitchers assigned the specific role, he'll go to plan B. For instance, if it's the 5th inning and he needs a Long Reliever but there aren't any available, he'll then look for a Setup B pitcher. If there aren't any Setup B pitchers available, he'll then look for Setup A pitchers. This type of chaining is used in all circumstances.

- This indicates the next game's starting pitcher. Once locked in, this starter can't be removed from his next start unless removed from the team. This is done so that the opponent can prepare for the game (i.e. lineup adjustments). If the player is removed from the team, the first starter will be used.

Spring Training - During Spring Training, only the big league spring training squad is available. Once spring training concludes, you can view all levels within the Manager's Office.

Playoffs - For each round of the playoffs, the first listed starting pitcher will be used to start game 1. This is done to allow for rotation flexibility. The first non-injured listed starting pitcher will be selected to make the start, regardless of fatigue/autorest setting. Please keep this in mind come playoff time!

Mgmt Console - Don't forget that if you have the AI set to manage your pitching staff, then any moves you make will be overridden following the next game played.

General Description - From this page, you may choose the degree to which the game's artificial intelligence (AI) controls your teams. All boxes are initially checked for AI control at the minor league levels.

Manage Offense? - Checking this box will indicate to the game's AI that you would like to relinquish control over your four batting lineups (VS LHP, VS RHP, VS LHP w/DH and VS RHP w/DH), hierarchies and position player player settings for your minor league team(s). The game's AI will assess the players most likely to start at each position based on overall rating for the situation (vs. LHP or vs. RHP) and primary positions. It will then utilize an algorithm based on current ratings to optimize your lineups for winning. For example, your team's fastest, low-power, position player starter will likely be placed at the top of the lineup, while the top overall offensive player will probably placed in the third spot of the lineup. This will not necessarily optimize your team for player development as the same logic is used for lineup optimization at each level. Any time a player is promoted or demoted to this level, the AI will re-order lineups to account for new players and removed players. You may select to have the AI set all of your minor league lineups, any of the five levels (AAA, AA, High-A, Low-A and Rookie Ball) or any combination of the levels.

Manage Pitching Staff? - Checking this box will indicate to the game's AI that you would like to relinquish control over your pitching staff and pitcher player settings for your minor league team(s). The game's AI will assess the pitchers most likely to start (tandem or not) and relieve (with priority given to more valuable relief positions) based on overall rating for the type of pitching situation. It will then utilize an algorithm based on current ratings to optimize your rotation and relief roles for winning. For example, your team's best starting pitcher will be set to Starter #1. Your team's best relief pitcher will generally become its closer. This will not necessarily optimize your team for player development as the same logic is used for staff optimization at each level. Any time a pitcher is promoted or demoted to this level, the AI will make related adjustments. You may select to have the AI set roles for all of your minor league pitching staffs, any of the five levels (AAA, AA, High-A, Low-A and Rookie Ball) or any combination of the levels.

Manage Pitching Staff Cont'd? - The AI will also automatically shuffle relief pitchers to and from the inactive list based on your specified fatigue setting. For example, let's say your setting is 30%. If, following a game, one of your relief pitchers is listed at 0% (20%) fatigue, then he will be de-activated if another pitcher is available on the Inactive List (above his auto rest level). The roster move would be made because the pitcher's fatigue level after a day of rest would be 20%, which falls below the 30% setting.

Manage Disabled Lists? - Checking this box will indicate to the game's AI that the it should be responsible for placing injured players on the appropriate disabled lists as well as activating players when healthy. These types of moves typically result in player promotions/demotions and/or the removal/addition of players to the Inactive List. These roster moves then trigger the other AI pieces to be used (if the AI is checked to do so.) You may select to have the AI set roles for all of your minor league pitching staffs, any of the five levels (AAA, AA, High-A, Low-A and Rookie Ball) or any combination of the levels.

Manage your big league roster? - Checking this box will indicate to the game's AI that the it should be responsible for handling injuries and the necessary promotions, demotions, lineup changes, pitching staff changes and player setting changes stemming from the disabled list moves. It will also make offers to the players selected in the amateur draft. As noted on the page, it is not a recommended option for winning and is geared towards keeping a franchise's big league team healthy.

Minimum Auto Rest Recommendations - By setting the values in the drop down lists you can define what the Auto Rest recommendations are for your starting pitchers, relievers, and position players. Simply select the values that you want, head on over to the player settings page, click the "Show Recs" button and you will see the impact of your changes immediately. Please note that these settings DO NOT affect any pitcher set to the mopup role; mopup pitchers always use the 50% value as their recommendation.

Save - After checking or unchecking boxes, please click 'Save' to ensure that any changes will apply.

Franchise Recommendations - Click the desired level's 'Recs' button to automatically set the recommendations for all managerial settings.

GM Edit Rosters Option - If you have completed 3 seasons of Hardball Dynasty, then you'll be able to take advantage of the Advanced Edit Rosters Mode feature. If this section is available to you, simply click the desired mode and click the 'Save' button. Your next trip to the GM's Office will reflect the change.

General Description - From this page, you may set the tendencies of you manager at each level. In simulated game play, these settings are used to make managerial decisions. For example, if you set your manager's argumentative rating to a five he is highly likely to contest a call at a pivotal point in the game. In this case, if he argues the call his players immediately receive a ratings boost for that half inning. However, if he is ejected, the bench coach must take over for the remainder of the game. Bench coaches use the default neutral managerial settings. Also, having an argumentative manager will increase the player's temper rating. There are positives and negatives associated with every tendency. Users are recommended to choose the brand of baseball they most believe in and stick to it. Changing managerial settings often is not recommended as consistency fosters player development

Level - Users may select the level at which to view the disabled list. Levels from the dropdown menu include Majors, Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, Low-A and rookie ball teams. At the bottom of the page there is also a 'Save to All Levels' button that will allow users to save the settings on the screen to all levels with one click. After choosing your level, please click 'Go' to view and change managerial settings.

Managerial Settings - Users may select the level to which to their managers will perform for each category. Five always indicates a more active manager in that category, while 0 indicates a manager who does not utilize the action in the category. An explanation of each category appears to the right of the category. Please select a level from the drop down menu that corresponds with your managerial philosophy. You may change each of the categories before saving. When you have set all of the categories to a setting that you would like, you may click on 'Save to All Levels' to use these settings for all levels, or you may click the 'Save to Level' button to save these settings to this level only.

Defensive Subs if Winning by X or More Runs in the Zth Inning - This allows you to specify how big the winning margin must be how late in the game before your position players will be replaced by superior fielders on the bench. For example, your team is winning by 3 in the 9th, should your current SS be taken down in favor of a slick fielding SS on the bench? When you have determined your philosophy on defensive substitutions, you may click on 'Save to All Levels' to use these settings for all levels, or you may click the 'Save to Level' button to save these settings to this level only.

Rest players if up/down by X or More Runs in the Zth Inning - This allows you to specify how big the score differential must be and how late in the game before your starting position players will be rested in favor of players on the bench. For example, your team is winning by 6 in the 8th, should your starters be rested? When you have determined your philosophy on rest, you may click on 'Save to All Levels' to use these settings for all levels, or you may click the 'Save to Level' button to save these settings to this level only.

Use MopUp Only When Losing - Please check this box if you would not like your mopup pitchers to pitch at all unless your team is losing. This helps to ensure victory when your squad has a big lead, but it does not allow mopup pitchers to eat up innings, possibly leading to fatigue of other pitchers in your staff. When you have determined your philosophy on mop-up, you may click on 'Save to All Levels' to use these settings for all levels, or you may click the 'Save to Level' button to save these settings to this level only.

Use Closer in Save Situations Only - Please check this box if you only want your closers pitching in save situations. Otherwise, closers can also be brought in during tie ballgames. A save situation occurs when a pitcher is set to enter the game with a three run lead or less at the beginning of the final inning or with the tying run on base, at the plate or on deck at any point in the final inning. This helps to keep your closer fresh by only using him in crucial situations, but it does not allow your team to bring in its presumably best pitcher with the game on the line. For instance, if the game is tied in the going into the ninth inning and the user has this box checked, the manager will not bring in a closer unless his team takes the lead in the top of the inning. When you have determined your philosophy on closers, you may click on 'Save to All Levels' to use these settings for all levels, or you may click the 'Save to Level' button to save these settings to this level only.

General Description - From this page, you may set the pinch hitting hierarchy the manager uses during the game. For instance, if Gomes is batting and your team is behind by 1 in the 9th (which meets your managerial settings for a pinch hitting situation), the manager will scan the hierarchy to see if any the next available player is offensively superior for the situation and should enter the game. Before the regular season starts, users will only be able to change their hierarchies for Spring Training Squad rosters.

Level - Users may select the level at which to set a hierarchy. Levels from the dropdown menu include Majors, Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, Low-A and rookie ball teams.

View - Users may select the type of individual statistics or ratings to view. Types in the dropdown menu include regular season, playoff, spring training and last season's statistics. Regular, playoff and spring training refer just to the current Hardball Dynasty season, so only completed games from this season will be included in these statistics. Last season refers to the previous Hardball Dynasty regular season. The statistics listed are just for these players at the level selected. Current and projected ratings refer to a subset of player ratings applicable to player rest (for a full list of ratings, click on the player for his Player Profile). Current ratings are the values from 0-100 that represent a player's ability for the category at this time. This is what is input into the simulation engine. Projected ratings are an approximation of a player's highest possible rating in the category. The accuracy of these ratings is directly linked to the franchise's advance scouting budget. Scrolling over each ratings icon will indicate the rating category. After selecting Level and View, please click 'Go' to begin setting hierarchies.

Pinch-Hit vs. RHP/Pinch-Hit vs. LHP - Below each option are the three situations in which one can pinch hit against a right-handed or left-handed pitcher. Generally, it is better to utilize left-handed batters versus right-handed pitchers and vice versa, but a better indication of this can be seen in a player's ratings. To change the hierarchy for a specific situation, please click 'Edit' under the situation. You may then select players from the dropdown and place them in the order you would like. It is important to remember to rank everyone, because this will be used for every pinch-hitting situation and one can never predict exactly who will be on the bench. After ranking each position player, click 'Save' to save the hierarchy for that situation.

Late/Close Need Power - Late and close signifies that game is in the seventh inning or later and within three runs. There are many circumstances in which a power hitter is more valuable than a contact hitter. For instance, down one run with no one and one or two outs a manager would like to bring in a hitter capable of tying the game with one swing.

Late/Close Need Contact - Late and close signifies that game is in the seventh inning or later and within three runs. There are many circumstances in which a contact hitter is more valuable than a power hitter. For instance, down one run with two men in scoring position and two outs a manager would like to bring in a contact hitter with a high likelihood of getting any hit to at least tie the game if not go ahead by one.

Other - Situations that are not late and close but call for a pinch hitter will use the Other setting.

1-X - Each hierarchy can be set up to the number of positional players on the roster for this level.

Show Recs - Clicking 'Show Recs' will utilize an algorithm based on situation, offensive ratings, primary positions, and secondary positions. This will generate the recommended hierarchy based on the data available (which is based on your franchise's Advanced Scouting Budget and any modified position assignments). To save the recommendations, please click 'Save Recs.'

Clear All - Clicking this button will clear your hierarchies so that you can start anew.

Statistics/Ratings Table - This table should provide help in figuring out who goes where in the hierarchy. Current Ratings are used for recommendations.

General Description - From this page, you may set the player rest hierarchy the manager uses to determine playing time. This hierarchy is used in conjunction with the individual player AutoRest setting to decide who starts at what position and is also used during the game in blowout and injury/ejection situations. For instance, if Gomes is the LF in your starting lineup but his fatigue is below his AutoRest setting, then the #2 choice in the hierarchy would get the start instead. If he's not available, then the #3 guy gets the nod, etc. Before the regular season starts, users will only be able to change their hierarchies for Spring Training Squad rosters.

Level - Users may select the level at which to set a hierarchy. Levels from the dropdown menu include Majors, Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, Low-A and rookie ball teams.

View - Users may select the type of individual statistics or ratings to view. Types in the dropdown menu include regular season, playoff, spring training and last season's statistics. Regular, playoff and spring training refer just to the current Hardball Dynasty season, so only completed games from this season will be included in these statistics. Last season refers to the previous Hardball Dynasty regular season. The statistics listed are just for these players at the level selected. Current and projected ratings refer to a subset of player ratings applicable to player rest (for a full list of ratings, click on the player for his Player Profile). Current ratings are the values from 0-100 that represent a player's ability for the category at this time. This is what is input into the simulation engine. Projected ratings are an approximation of a player's highest possible rating in the category. The accuracy of these ratings is directly linked to the franchise's advance scouting budget. Scrolling over each ratings icon will indicate the rating category. After selecting Level and View, please click 'Go' to begin setting hierarchies.

Pos - Pos refers to all nine offensive positions. Click on the 'Edit' button to begin adjusting the hierarchy. When finished, click the 'Save' button.

1-5 - Each hierarchy can be set up to 5 players deep. Remember, the team's lineup dictates who should start. The hierarchy is only used if a starting player is below his AutoRest setting or if a player needs replacing during a game.

Show Recs - Clicking 'Show Recs' will utilize an algorithm based on overall ratings, primary positions, and secondary positions. This will generate the recommended hierarchy based on the data available (which is based on your franchise's Advanced Scouting Budget and any modified position assignments). To save the recommendations, please click 'Save Recs.'

Copy to Def Reps - Clicking this will copy the Player Rest Hierarchy to the Defensive Replacements Hierarchy, minus the DH position.

Clear All - Clicking this button will clear your hierarchies so that you can start anew.

Statistics/Ratings Table - This table should provide help in figuring out who goes where in the hierarchy. Current Ratings used in the recommendations.

General Description - From this page, you may set individual tendencies for players at any level that you have previously not given to the game's AI in the management console. During the off-season and spring training, only the players on the Spring Training Squad may have their settings adjusted.

Level - Users may select the level at which to view the player settings. Levels from the dropdown menu include Majors, Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, Low-A and rookie ball teams. Level returns a full roster of players from this team. Minor league levels will only be visible after spring training and if the user has accepted full control of the level on the management console page. After choosing your level, please click 'Go' to view and change player settings.

Action - Users may only adjust settings for one player at a time. To edit a player's settings, please click 'Edit' next to his name. This will activate the settings for that player. When you have finished the settings for an individual, please click 'Save' to save that player's settings. After saving, you will receive a status update that the player's settings have been saved. At this point, you may click 'Edit' next to another player to adjust his settings. Each setting is described below. Upon world creation, all settings default to the recommendations.

Show Recs - Clicking 'Show Recs' will force the game's AI to assess each player's capabilities and determine the most optimal settings given his current ratings and position/role. These settings are the AI's best guess as to the way in which the player should play in attempt to win the game. The recommendations do not take player development into consideration. Upon world creation, all settings default to the recommendations. After viewing recommendations, you may save all players' settings by clicking the 'Save Recs' button. While recommendations are being viewed, you may alter another player's settings without losing another's recommended settings. After you have saved the settings that you would like based on the recommendations, you may click on 'Clear Recs' to clear any settings that you have not saved and return them to the most recently saved settings for that player. Each time you click on 'Show Recs' the recommendations appear for all players, but the previous settings for each player are saved until you click the 'Save' button by the player or the 'Save Recs' button. Also, the 'Save Recs' button only refers to the level currently in view.

POS - This is the player's current primary position. A player will always be given the same ratings regardless of the position he is playing. Primary positions are set by the user to indicate the optimal position for that player and are useful when setting hierarchies, depth charts and lineups. To change a player's primary position and/or add secondary positions, please click on the position. A window will pop-up displaying the player's defensive ratings as well as ML averages for each rating at each position. Under Primary Position, you may select a new position from the dropdown menu. You may also click in any box under Secondary Position to mark that player as being capable of also playing that position. There is no limit to the number of positions that may be checked. To save changes, please click 'Save.' 'Show Recs (Current)' will show the player's optimal primary and secondary positions based on his current ratings. 'Show Recs (Projected)' will show the player's optimal primary and secondary positions based on his projected ratings. This may only be done after setting the budget and before the conclusion of the regular season. To clear recommendations, please click 'Reset.'

PH - Check this box for a player for whom it is ok to replace with a pinch hitter. If this box is unchecked, the player will not come out for a pinch-hitter regardless of the situation. In some cases, users will never want to pinch hit for their best overall player no matter what the context of the game. By default and when clicking 'Show Recs', this box is always checked. Pinch hit situations are determined by your managerial settings in respect to the game being simulated. The player doing the pinch hitting will be chosen based on your pinch hit hierarchy for the situation as indicated under the Manager Settings tab.

PR - Check this box for a player for whom you would like to pinch-run in an applicable situation. If this box is unchecked, the player will not come out for a pinch-runner regardless of the situation. In some cases, users will never want to pinch run for a player they would like to keep in the game, no matter what the context. By default and when clicking 'Show Recs', this box is always checked. Pinch running situations are determined by your managerial settings in respect to the game being simulated. The player doing the pinch run will be chosen based on speed ratings and position.

Def Rep - Check this box for a player for whom it is ok to replace in the field in applicable situations. If this box is unchecked, the player will not come out for a better defensive player regardless of the situation. In some cases, users will never want to replace a poor defensive player who may be needed at the plate no matter what the context of the game. By default and when clicking 'Show Recs' this box is always checked. Defensive replacement situations are determined by your managerial settings in respect to the game being simulated. The player entering the field for replacement will be chosen based on your defensive replacement hierarchy for the defensive replacement situation as indicated under the Manager Settings tab.

Allow Rest - Check this box for a player for whom it is ok to replace to rest in applicable situations. If this box is unchecked, the player will not come out of the game unless he is injured or ejected. In some cases, users will never want to rest a player to aid in that player's development or if other players are also resting. By default and when clicking 'Show Recs', this box is always checked. Rest situations are determined by your managerial settings in respect to the game being simulated. The player entering the game for replacement will be chosen based on your rest hierarchy as indicated under the Manager Settings tab.

Auto Rest - This value is associated with the player's fatigue level as he enters a game. The fatigue level is under the % on this page. If a player's % is below his Auto Rest value on game day, he will automatically be removed from the lineup and will not play in the game. If it's a position player, he must have a backup listed in the Player Rest hierarchy or else he'll remain in the lineup. Based on the status of the team (other players' fatigue), there are occasional instances where a player will play despite being under his auto rest setting. To edit this value, please click on the dropdown arrow for the player under player rest and select one of the values listed. You may choose not to use this feature for the player by selecting N/A (not applicable). In this case, the player will be available to play in every game no matter how low his stamina is. Pre-game fatigue effects the player's maximum performance for the game. As the player is used throughout the game, he may fatigue more and incur a larger performance hit. On top of the performance hits, fatigued players are also more prone to injury. The player entering the game for replacement will be chosen based on your rest hierarchy as indicated under the Manager Settings tab. Please note, you can adjust the default auto rest setting from the Management Console.

Relief - Check this box for a player for whom it is ok to enter as a pitcher in relief. If this box is unchecked, the player will never come into the game in relief (unless assigned a relief role via the Pitching Staff page). In some cases, users will want to allow positional players who are rated relatively well in pitching to fill in for relief when necessary. By default and when clicking 'Show Recs', this box is checked for relief pitchers and not for any other player. Also, starters may pitch in relief for non-started games, but only if this box is checked. The game's AI will treat all players who are not set to a relief role, yet are available in relief, as the lowest priority Long Relief pitchers. Relief situations are determined by your edit pitching staff settings in respect to the game being simulated.

Inning Avail - This value refers to the point at which you would like your manager to bring in a pitcher. If it is the indicated inning or later, and the player may be used in relief, he will be considered among the candidates to enter the game. All starters should be set to 'Any'. To edit this value, please click on the dropdown arrow for the player under Inning Avail and select one of the values listed. If the Relief box is not checked and the player is not scheduled to start the game, this setting does not apply. Upon submitting pitching roles in the Edit Pitching Staff page, the recommendations will optimize available innings based on the player role and distribution of player roles. For instance, the recommendations will list a Long A player as being available beginning with the fourth inning, while all mop-up pitchers will be available any inning and closers in the eighth inning or later. Users may change these settings to use players in roles that vary. When a situation calls for a relief pitcher, the AI will assess pitcher roles first and then availability in choosing the replacement.

TPC - This value refers to a player's target pitch count per appearance as a pitcher. The player will try to reach this pitch count in an outing. This is crucial to achieving maximum value (his best performance for the most amount of games over the season) out of a pitcher. Generally, a pitcher will be pulled after the plate appearance in which he exceeds his target pitch count. If he is still pitching exceptionally well, the AI will leave the pitcher in until a relief pitcher is necessary. The tendency to pull a pitcher before he reaches his pitch count is based on the Call Bullpen setting on this page. To edit the TPC value, please click on the dropdown arrow for the player under TPC and select one of the values listed. You may choose not to set a pitch limit for a player by selecting none. In this case, if a player enters a game as a pitcher, his removal will depend almost entirely on his call bullpen setting. Recommended settings are based on a player's current fatigue, durability and health ratings and role as well as the role distribution on the active roster. For instance a player listed as Starting Pitcher #1 will be recommended to pitch more pitches per game if the team is using a six-man rotation than a four-man rotation, because he will only need to pitch one out of every six days instead of one out of every four days. When the pitch count situation calls for a relief pitcher, the AI will assess pitcher roles first and then availability in choosing the player's replacement.

MPC - This value refers to a player's maximum pitch count per appearance as a pitcher. The player will try to reach this pitch count in an outing. When he does, he will be immediately removed no matter how well he is performing. This can also be crucial to achieving maximum value (his best performance for the most amount of games over the season) out of a pitcher. The tendency to pull a pitcher before he reaches his maximum pitch count is based on the Call Bullpen setting on this page. To edit the MPC value, please click on the dropdown arrow for the player under MPC and select one of the values listed. You may choose not to set a maximum pitch limit for a player by selecting none. In this case, if a player enters a game as a pitcher, his removal will depend first on his TPC and then almost entirely on his call bullpen setting. Recommended settings are based on a player's current fatigue, durability and health ratings and role as well as the role distribution on the active roster. When the maximum pitch count situation calls for an immediate relief pitcher, the AI will assess pitcher roles first and then availability in choosing the player's replacement. Please verify that the maximum pitch count is the same amount or larger than the target pitch count. If not, the player will always be immediately removed upon reaching his maximum pitch count and the target pitch count has no real value.

Call Bullpen - This value refers to the situation at which you would like your manager to take out a pitcher. This setting functions in a similar manner to the team managerial settings where the scale is 1-5, with a one indicating the least aggressive/rarer option and the five the most aggressive/frequent option. In this respect a pitcher will be removed at the first sign of danger if his call bullpen setting is set to five. If his Call Bullpen setting is set to 1 a manager will do his best to allow the pitcher to pitch out of a jam and reach the player's target pitch count. To edit this value, please click on the dropdown arrow for the player under Call Bullpen and select one of the values listed. Upon submitting pitching roles in the Edit Pitching Staff page, the recommendations will optimize Call Bullpen settings based on the player role and his pitching ability in respect to winning individual games. It will not optimize for player development, individual durability of the player or the durability of other pitchers on the team. For instance, the recommendations will list a poor pitcher or pitcher with a poor makeup, temper and/or patience ratings as a four or five for his Call Bullpen setting. If this pitcher has the highest stamina on the team and must eat innings to protect the rest of the staff, you may want to change his Call Bullpen setting to a one or two. When a situation calls for a relief pitcher, the AI will assess pitcher roles first and then availability in choosing the replacement.

General Description - From this page, you may set your spring training roster. ML players must always be on spring training squads. This page gives the user the opportunity to bring up and send down any Minor League player or release a spring training invitee.

Type - Users may select whether to view All Position Players or Pitchers.

Level - Users may select the level at which to view Minor Leaguers when considering a spring training call-up. Levels from the dropdown menu include Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, Low-A and rookie ball teams.

View - Users may select the type of individual statistics or player ratings to view. Types in the dropdown menu include current spring training statistics, last year's regular season stats, current ratings and status information. After selecting a Type, Level and View, please click 'Go' to see the Minor League players who may be placed on the spring training squad. Once viewed, clicking on any player name will popup his player profile. Clicking on any category will sort players by that category from best to worst in both the Spring Training Squad table and applicable Minor League table.

Spring Training Squad Summary - Pitchers refers to the number of pitchers who are currently listed on the Spring Training Squad. Position Players refers to the number of such players on the Spring Training Squad. Total Players denotes the sum of these two numbers. There is no limit to any franchise's Spring Training roster moves. However, there is a maximum of 70 players who can be on the Spring Training Squad at any time. Please remember that during Spring Training, Edit Lineups and Edit Pitching Staffs pages will only include the players currently assigned to the Spring Training Squad.

Action - All Minor League players will have an action next to their name based on their current status. A Minor League player who has not been assigned to the Spring Training Squad, may be added by clicking 'Add' next to his name on this page. To take a Minor League player off of the Spring Training Squad and send him back to his team, please click 'Remove.' ML players cannot be dropped from the Spring Training Squad. Non-roster invitees will only have one action option and that is to 'Release.' Clicking this action will remove the player from the franchise entirely.

General Description - From this page, you may view the order of selection for the upcoming draft. Draft order is based on the previous season's regular season winning percentage. The worst team gets the first pick. If multiple teams have the same winning percentage, the tiebreaker is run differential then runs scored then coin flip. In season 1, the order is based on the average overall rating of your entire organization.

Season - You may select the current Hardball Dynasty season or any previous Hardball Dynasty season in this world from which you would like to view the draft order.

Round(s) - You may view the order by a block of five rounds listed here. After selecting a season and a block of five rounds to view, please click 'Go' to view the draft order.

Round - This is the round of the pick. Each team receives one selection per round, so there are 32 picks.

Pick - This is the overall number of the selection. For example, if there are no supplemental first round selections, the second pick in the second round will be number 34 because there are 32 picks in the first.

Free Agent/Prospect - This indicates whether the pick changed hands through free agency and, if so, which free-agent was involved in the transaction. When a team loses a Type A free agent it will receive a supplemental pick between the first and second rounds and a first round draft choice from the other team if the other team finished in the top half of the league standings the previous year or its second round pick if the team finished in the bottom half. Type B players result in a supplmental round pick only. If this pick has not changed hands, this column will remain blank.

Former Franchise - This indicates the franchise that originally owned this pick, but lost it through free agency. If this pick has not changed hands, this column will remain blank.

Free-Agent Type - This indicates the type of free-agent that caused this pick to change hands. Type A players are those who rank in the top 20% at their position group in the big leagues (C, 1B/OF/DH, 2B/3B/SS, SP and RP). Type B players rank between 20% and 40% at their position groups in the big leagues.

When a team loses a Type A free agent it will receive a supplemental pick between the first and second rounds and a first round draft choice from the other team if the other team finished in the top half of the league standings the previous year or its second round pick if the team finished in the bottom half.

Type B players result in a supplemental round pick.

Supplemental round picks are indicated by an asterisk next to the round number. For instance, 1* indicates the supplemental round between the first and second round.

A Type "D" pick is the result of a franchise not being able to sign a non-supplemental pick from the first 3 rounds of the previous amateur draft. In order to receive Type "D" compensation, you must offer the draft pick his initial demands, he must refuse to sign the contract, and the contract must never be withdrawn at any time during the current season. If you are unable to sign your first, second, or third round draft pick you will be awarded a compensation pick in next season's amateur draft. The compensation pick will be at the same position as last season plus one except for unsigned third rounders in which a supplemental pick is added at the end of the third round.

For example, if you couldn't sign the 25th pick last season you will have a compensation pick next season and you will have the 26th pick (assuming there were no other Type D insertions prior to that pick).

Compensation Ordering Type A compensation picks are inserted in the proper order (based on the draft order) when the offer is accepted. Supplemental round picks are also inserted at the same time, but they are not re-ordered in the proper order until the day the Amateur Draft prospects are announced.

General Description - From this page, you can see your franchise's draft board. The draft board was assembled by your high school and college scouts in conjunction with your specified draft settings.

Show - You may view the Top 25, Top 50, Top 100 or Top 500 of the players in the draft pool. At this point, the accuracy of each player's projected and current ratings is directly related to the amount spent on the scouting department to which the player is assigned - high school or college. If a user selects Top 25, then limits his search by position, the search will return all of the players at that position who fall within the combined scouting department's overall Top 25. The listed positions are the positions the relevant scouting department projects the player to play at the big league level.

View - After selecting the number to show, users may select the attributes to view. These include Background Info, Current Hitting Ratings, Current Pitching Ratings, Current Fielding/General Ratings, Projected Hitting Ratings, Projected Pitching Ratings and Projected Fielding/General Ratings. The ratings categories are the same as those found throughout the game, but are solely based on the scouting department to which the player is assigned. The more money a franchise spends on college or high school scouting, the more players they will scout and the more accurate the projections will be. The more players scouted, the more likely those types of players will be drafted.

Rank - Clicking this button will allow you to rank, on an individual basis, the players that you want drafted. Your player pool will immediately reflect any changes that you make. Keep in mind that any changes you make to the position targets, weights, or player types on the Draft Settings page will nullify all of the previous rankings that you have made. Alternatively, any changes you make to the drafting strategy or risk levels on the Draft Settings page will NOT change your manual draft rankings.

The Draft - Be sure to read over the Draft Settings page. The settings you choose determine which players are ranked where and which players are selected when.

General Description - From this page, you may view draft results and begin to negotiate with drafted prospects. After the draft, your franchise's selected prospects will be listed on this page.

Rnd - This indicates the round in which this prospect was drafted.

Pick - This indicates overall pick in the draft at which this player was drafted.

Rank - This indicates the original overall rank of this prospect on your draft board. If the prospect's rank is lower than his pick number, then he was a bargain according to your scouting rankings. If you have excellent scouting, this is obviously good. That may not be the case, if you have poor scouting. However, draft selections are also relative to other team needs and scouting.

Pos - This indicates the player's projected primary position. Though you may later decide to change the player's primary position as he advances, your scouting services have rated this player at this position.

Age - A player's age is a good indication of how close he is to his projected peak. Most players will peak in their late 20s.

Contract Info - This will indicate the contract agreements once they have been finalized. Users have until the end of the Hardball Dynasty season to sign prospects before losing him to free agency. Most players, those without special contractual demands or other leverage, will sign for slot money. Each year ML assigns a value at which each position in the draft should expect to be signed. This is what is meant by slot money. Hardball Dynasty uses the exact slot money values from 2005. Players who accept slot money will receive this as their bonus as well as a one-year minor league contract for the rookie-ball minimum. At the beginning of each season, all minor league players who have not previously been offered contract extensions will have their contracts renewed at their current level.

Action - If you would like to negotiate with a prospect, please click 'Negotiate' next to that prospect's name. The negotiation process is similar to signing coaches and free agents. With prospects though, the type of contract and bonus matters. Bonuses reflect guaranteed money that will deduct from this year's prospect payroll. Still, most players will sign at minor league minimums. Those who demand big league contracts are looking for guaranteed big league money and an immediate spot on the 40-man roster.

Offer - By using the checkboxes in this column you can offer your draft picks their demands without having to go to each page individually. If you want to offer all of your draft picks their demands simply click the checkbox directly underneath the header. You can also offer individual draftees their demands by clicking the checkbox that corresponds to their row.

How does it all work? - Baseball's Amateur Draft is unlike the other professional sports' drafts. Some of the players will choose to head off to college, return to college or play another sport. Many draft picks come with signability concerns, because the players haven't fully devoted themselves to baseball. If they are drafted, it's up to the franchise to try and sway them with a signing bonus. A slotting system is used as a guideline for signing bonuses, but some players can go above this depending on their leverage. Some players that are drafted and don't sign will return in a future draft.

When will they sign? - Some draft picks will sign immediately if you come close to their needs. Others will drag out the process while making up their minds. Others will wait to see what others sign for and then up their demands. Expect a large percentage of players to sign soon after the draft and some to make it a season long process. Since it's one-on-one negotiating, though, you can always up your offer!

General Description - From this page, users may choose their draft strategy. The explanations of each setting is listed within the page itself.

Player Types - The player types are self-explanatory. Power pitchers are those pitchers that throw hard stuff (fastballs, hard breaking balls) with a high velocity. Finesse pitchers throw offspeed stuff (curveballs, change-ups, etc.) Workhorses have high stamina/durability. Movement pitchers have the best effectiveness without regard to pitch type or control. Specialists pitch particularly well against righties or lefties. Slugging position players are those that hit for high slugging percentages.

Save - Your changes will not be implemented until you click 'Save' at the bottom of the page. The save option is only available prior to the draft.

Cancel - If you have made changes to your selection or position limits that you would not like to save, you may click 'Cancel' to view your most recently saved settings.

General Description - From this page, you may arbitrate with your eligible players during the scheduled arbitration cycles.

Player Information - The top half of the page includes the player's information including a link to his picture, player profile and all of his status info.

Budget Information - This will capture your current budget status, helping you make decisions about arbitration eligible players. The player payroll figure represents the amount that you have budgeted for your player payroll in the current season. Player Payroll Season X illustrates the amount that you have already allocated to player salaries for this season. Player Payroll remaining is the difference between the budgeted payroll and the payroll that has already been allotted.

About Arbitration - Please read this section carefully to learn more about arbitration because we don't want to type it in here. Then, you may overview salaries for comparable players before making an offer.

Contract Offers - To make an offer, please enter a value you believe is a reasonable annual salary for this player into the box next to Team Offer. If you are satisfied with your offer, please click 'Submit Offer.' The hearing will be conducted instantaneously and you will have to pay the winning salary for this season.

General Description - From this page, you may view arbitration eligible players, negotiate long-term contracts with players and arbitrate with your players during the arbitration hearing period on the schedule.

Arbitration Eligibility - A player is eligible for arbitration when he has 3, 4, or 5 years of big league experience and is not under contract for the upcoming season. For the sake of this report, it is assumed the player will be earning a year of big league experience for each season in the future.

Franchise - Users may select a single franchise's arbitration eligible players to view, or select 'All Franchises' to see all applicable players. After the schedule is generated, users may negotiate long-term deals with their own players to avoid arbitration. During this time, it would make sense to search by your franchise only.

Season - This represents the season in which the player will be arbitration eligible. A player cannot be arbitration eligible until he has played in three big league seasons and then, only players who have played between three and five years in the big leagues and have expiring contracts are eligible. For instance, upon world creation selecting the Current Season (1) will return all players who will be up for arbitration if they are not re-signed by their teams before the hearing date on the top of the page.

Position - This will return any player with that listed primary position as chosen by the franchise's owner. Besides each position on the field, you may also broaden your search with 'All Position' players and 'All Pitchers' as well as position groupings like middle infield (MIF - 2B, SS), corner infield (CIF - 1B, 3B), infield (IF) and outfield (OF). Due to stats and ratings differences, you may not look at position players and pitchers at the same time. Please remember this when arbitrating. You should arbitrate with all position players and pitchers. Players with whom you do not arbitrate will automatically win their hearings.

View - You may select the stats or categories to view with the player search. These include stats from the most recent season (Stat Varieties), Current Ratings, Projected Ratings and Status Info. After selecting a Franchise, Season, Position and View type please click 'Go' to see applicable arbitration eligible players.

Budget Information - This will capture your current budget status, helping you make decisions about arbitration eligible players. The Player Payroll figure represents the amount that you have budgeted for your player payroll in the current season. Player Payroll Season X illustrates the amount that you have already allocated to player salaries for this season. Player Payroll Remaining is the difference between the budgeted payroll and the payroll that has already been allotted.

Arbitration Hearings Remaining - This indicates the number of arbitration cases that your franchise needs to conduct. Please remember to arbitrate with all pitchers and position players. If you still have players needing an arbitration hearing midway through the final cycle, your franchise will automatically offer 70% of the player's demands, unless he is asking for the league minimum or less. If the salary totals following arbitration put you over your player payroll budget, your budget will be automatically adjusted to get you back in compliance.

$ - The dollar amount listed represents the player's arbitration demands for the selected season. You may offer the player any amount of money you deem reasonable during hearings and an arbitrator will rule immediately.

Action - To begin a hearing with a player, please click 'Arbitrate.' You will be taken to this player's arbitration hearing page where you may make an offer. Before the scheduled arbitration period, you may negotiate long-term contracts with your eligible players. To do so, please click 'Negotiate Long-Term.' You will be taken to the Long Term Contract Negotiations page.

General Description - From this page, you may view the order of selection for the upcoming draft. Draft order is based on the previous season's regular season winning percentage. The worst team gets the first pick. If multiple teams have the same winning percentage, the tiebreaker is run differential then runs scored then coin flip. In season 1, the order is random but is the reverse of the waiver rank.

Season - You may select the current Hardball Dynasty season or any previous Hardball Dynasty season in this world from which you would like to view the draft order.

Round(s) - You may view the order by a block of five rounds listed here. After selecting a season and a block of five rounds to view, please click 'Go' to view the draft order.

Round - This is the round of the pick. Each team receives one selection per round, so there are 32 picks.

Pick - This is the overall number of the selection. For example, if there are no supplemental first round selections, the second pick in the second round will be number 34 because there are 32 picks in the first.

Free Agent/Prospect - This indicates whether the pick changed hands through free agency and, if so, which free-agent was involved in the transaction. When a team loses a Type A free agent it will receive a supplemental pick between the first and second rounds and a first round draft choice from the other team if the other team finished in the top half of the league standings the previous year or its second round pick if the team finished in the bottom half. Type B players result in a supplmental round pick only. If this pick has not changed hands, this column will remain blank.

Former Franchise - This indicates the franchise that originally owned this pick, but lost it through free agency. If this pick has not changed hands, this column will remain blank.

Free Agent-Type - This indicates that type of free-agent that caused this pick to change hands. Type A players are those who rank in the top 20% at their position group in the big leagues (C, 1B/OF/DH, 2B/3B/SS, SP and RP). Type B players rank between 20% and 40% at their position groups in the big leagues. When a team loses a Type A free agent it will receive a supplemental pick between the first and second rounds and a first round draft choice from the other team if the other team finished in the top half of the league standings the previous year or its second round pick if the team finished in the bottom half. Type B players result in a supplemental round pick. A Type "D" pick is the result of a franchise not being able to sign it's first round draft pick the previous amateur draft. If this pick has not changed hands, this column will remain blank.

General Description - From this page, you may complete roster moves such as demoting, promoting or assigning players. Because this page includes so many options, there is a sub-page for each option explaining the ramifications of the chosen move. At the bottom of every help page, there is also a glossary discussing roster moves and other important information on the general manager role titled GM Basics. No moves can be made until after the world has filled and the schedule has been generated.

View - Users can choose to view player attributes such as Spring Training Stats for this season, Regular Season Stats, Current Ratings, Projected Ratings or Status Info. Stats will only be populated if that type of season has already begun. Projected Ratings will not exist until scouting budgets have been allocated.

Level - Users may also select the franchise level to view. You may choose ML, AAA, AA, Hi-A, Low-A, Rookie ball or 40-Man Roster. If you are conducting a move that requires a counter move from another level, the move will be saved in the Pending Roster Moves at the bottom of the page allowing you to switch view levels. If you simply need to see who's on your 40-Man Roster, this option will show players on your 40-Man Roster at all levels. After selecting a view type and level, please click on 'Go' to see the applicable roster.

Batters or Pitchers Needing Assignment - This box will only show up when players have been acquired and not yet assigned. To assign a player, please check the radio box next to his name, choose assign from the move dropdown and click 'Submit.' You must then choose a level for assignment and confirm the move. A set of moves can never result in a roster above its limits. Most assignments will force the demotion or designation of another player. Players must be assigned to a team within ten actual days of acquisition or they will be automatically released. For instance, if the player is signed during Free Agent Negotiations in the off-season, he must be assigned by the end of the tenth calendar day (30th game) of regular season games.

Batters or Pitchers at Level - These boxes represent the roster of players at the chosen level. To move a player, please check the radio button next to his name, select the move you would like to make and click 'Submit.' You will be directed to a page that explains this move and how it applies to this player in better detail. After confirming the move, the transaction will be listed in the Pending Roster Moves box. Ultimately, you may use the pending roster moves to finalize up to ten transactions at one time.

Active Roster Sizes - The current number (left) represents the size of your total rosters at each level if all of the moves in the Pending Roster Moves box are conducted. You will never be able to submit moves if they will result in any roster being over its maximum (right). If you are over your active roster limit in the minor leagues, but not over your total roster limit, you may deactivate players by adding them to the Inactive list via the moves dropdown list.

Total Roster Sizes - The current number (left) represents the size of your active rosters at each level if all of the moves in the Pending Roster Moves box are conducted. You will never be able to submit moves if they will result in any roster being over its maximum (right).

Pending Roster Moves - This box will display all moves that you have entered, but not yet confirmed. To remove a move from this list, please click 'Undo.' Once you have verified that you would like to conduct all of the moves in this list and that they are all legal moves, please click 'Submit.' You will receive confirmation that the moves have been conducted. Affected players should be at their correct levels and rosters will be updated. To remove all Pending Roster Moves at one time, please click 'Clear.'

Rookie League Note - Players assigned to the Rookie League club prior to the start of the Rookie League season will not receive daily rest since they are considered to be performing daily duties in extended spring training.

Spring Training Invites - Players invited to camp on a spring training invite will be automatically released if not signed by the last spring training game.

Playoff Eligibility Note - In order for a player to be eligible for a spot on the big league playoff roster, he must be on the 40-man roster prior to the date rosters expand. Any player on the 40-man roster but not on the big league roster is then eligible to replace any player injured before or during the playoffs at the beginning of each round.

- This player has an associated note in his profile.

- This player will be exposed in this season's Rule 5 Draft because he has at least 4 years of pro experience, is not on the 40-man roster and is not signed beyond this season. Players signed to Spring Training Only contracts (non-roster invitees) or who were acquired the day before the roster freeze are also excluded from the Rule 5 Draft.

- This player is a Rule 5 pick this season and must remain on the team's big league squad or be offered back to his original team. You have until spring training to add this player to your big league team or else he'll be automatically offered back to his original franchise. If it's after spring training and he's been acquired via waiver claim or trade, you have 3 days (72 hours) to assign him to your big league team or else he'll be automatically offered back to his original franchise.

- This player is a Rule 5 pick and has been offered back to his original team.

General Description - From this page, you can review your franchise's rosters by level and position.

Position - Users may select the position they wish to search by from the dropdown menu.

Level - Users may select the level at which to view the statistics. Levels from the dropdown menu include Majors, Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, Low-A and Rookie ball teams. There is also an option to view 'all' players for a franchise.

View - Users can choose to view player attributes such as Regular Season Stats, Current Ratings, or Status Info. Stats will only be populated if that type of season has already begun. After choosing your search criteria, please click the "GO" button to view the player's meeting your specifications.

Player - This indicates the player's name. Clicking on the player's name will open his player profile in a pop-up window.

Lvl - This indicates the player's team level.

Pos - This indicates the player's primary position as chosen by the franchise's owner.

Age - This indicates the player's current age (in years).

Statistics - All statistics/ratings are sortable. Clicking on the abbreviation for a statistic once will sort players from best to worst in that category. Clicking on the statistic another time will sort from worst to best.

$ - This indicates the player's salary.

General Description - From this page you may negotiate with free-agents. You may only reach this page by clicking 'Negotiate' on the free-agent Report page.

Player Information - The top half of the page includes the player's information including a link to his picture, player profile and all of his status info.

Budget Information, Player Payroll Budget - This captures your current budget status. The player payroll figure represents the amount that you have allocated to your player payroll +/- any transferred cash from trades. The amount that you may allocate to future seasons is reduced by 80%, 70%, 50% and 50% in order to prevent trashing a franchise for the future. You may not allocate more than this payroll budget for any season.

Budget Information, Player Payroll Used - This illustrates the amount that you currently have tied up in signed player contracts for that season. For instance, if you have $8,000,000 in season 4, you have eight million dollars worth of players under contract with your franchise during Season 4 (via multi-year deals). These numbers are updated as players are signed.

Budget Information, Player Payroll Offered - This represents the money you currently have tied up in outstanding offers. This amount plus the payroll allocated cannot exceed the player payroll budget, so be wise in your offers. If a signing would put your franchise over your budget, you will not be able to make the offer to the player.

Previous Correspondence - This will return the results from previous negotiations and offers. You will know whether you had the top offer, the player is considering your offer or if he has rejected it. Just because you have the top offer now, does not mean that he will sign a contract to play for your franchise so you may still want to update your offer. If a player rejects an offer, he will never sign that contract, but you may offer him another contract without penalty.

Contract Demands - These are the contract demands of the player. They are a good starting point for free agency. Generally, players will sign for their demands, but the free-agent market will dictate the player's true worth.

Agent - At this time the agent does not play a significant role in negotiations.

Type - Players can either sign big league, Minor League, Minor League with Spring Training Invitation or Invitation only contracts. Most players will demand Major or Minor League contracts depending on experience.

Years - Players will demand between 1-5 years on their contracts. Most players who demand longer contracts will also ask for No-Trade Clauses or Player options. This will be represented in the Player Comments section.

Total Amount - This is the amount that the player would like to earn from the contract. It is up to the user to determine how to allocate this money over the duration of the contract.

Player Remarks - These are general special notes by the player. They will include discussions on such topics as playing time, team success, contract type, No Trade Clauses and Last Season Options.

Notes - These are general notes about the player including whether the player is a Type A or Type B free agent.

Type A Free-Agent - A Type A player is in the top 20% of all players at his position group (based on ratings). The position groups include C, 1B/OF/DH, 2B/3B/SS, SP and RP. If you sign a Type A free-agent, you forfeit your first round pick in the upcoming Amateur Draft to the player's previous franchise. If your first round pick is in the first half of the draft, then you forfeit your second round pick instead. The player's previous franchise also receives a supplemental round pick between rounds 1 and 2.

Type B Free-Agent - A Type B player falls in the top 20% - 40% of all players at his listed position group (based on ratings). If you sign a Type B free-agent, the player's former franchise will be compensated with a sandwich pick between round 1 and round 2.

Contract Offer - After finalizing an offer in this box, please click 'Submit Offer.' After your offer is submitted, it will be reviewed and responded to by the player by the end of the negotiations cycle. To go back to the free-agent Reports page, please click 'Return.'

Bonus - Bonuses are guaranteed money that comes out of the player payroll upon signing. Bonuses cannot be transferred through trades or waiver moves. Bonuses are limited to $10 million.

Season - This is the actual season salary that you would like to offer the player. In a two-year contract, neither season can comprise more than 60% of the total value of the contract. In a three-year contract, no season can comprise more than 40% of the total value of the contract. In a four-year contract, no season can comprise more than 30% of the total value of the contract. In a five-year contract, no season can comprise more than 25% or less than 10% of the total value of the contract. There is a maximum allowable offer of $20 million for any season. The minimum for any season is the minimum annual salary at that level. For the big leagues, this is 325K. To change the offer for any season, please click in the box next to the season and enter an integer value. For a three year contract, you must enter in values for the first three seasons, but you may leave seasons 4 and 5 blank. The total value of the contract will appear at the bottom of the page.

Last Season Option - This refers to the option that a player and/or organization has to release the player from his contract after his second-to-last season under contract. Player Options come into play when a player feels he has outplayed his contract and would like test the free-agent waters. Players do not have to invoke their options. Team options allow users to release a player while only being held responsible for 25% of their agreed upon salary (buyout amount). These also do not have to be used. Mutual Option contracts give the opportunity to both the player and franchise to end the contract before its last season. Players with Last Season Options will not be reflected in the free-agent Report until the contract has ended or been terminated.

No Trade Clause - Players who want to stay with a franchise for the long-term may request a No Trade Clause. These players may still be traded, but the player will have to waive his No Trade Clause to do so.

Note - At the conclusion of the Free-Agent Negotiation Period, all unaccepted offers will be automatically cancelled.

Compensation Note - Any Type A or Type B free-agents signed before the first day of preparation for the amateur draft will result in compensation picks being awarded.

Additional information : Player Ratings | Player Statistics | GM Basics

General Description - From this page, you may view eligible and potential free-agents. No free-agents may be negotiated with until after the season starts and the appropriate days are reached. Any player under contract with your franchise whose contract is up at the end of the season may also be negotiated with.

Free-Agent Eligibility - A player is eligible for free-agency when he has 6 or more years of big league experience or if he has 6 or more years of professional experience and is not on the franchise's 40-man roster. For the sake of this report, it is assumed the player will be earning a year of big league experience for each season in the future. For the current season, this report also includes any players that are not under a current contract.

Franchise - Users may select a single franchise's free agents to view, 'All Franchises' to see all applicable free agents, or 'All Previous Negotiations' to see only players with previous negotiation history with your franchise. The Re-Signing portion of free-agent negotiations is just for franchises renegotiating with their own departing free-agents. During this time, it would make sense to search by your franchise's free-agents.

Season - This represents the season in which the player will be a free-agent. A player cannot be a free-agent until he has played in six big league seasons or has played in 6 minor league seasons and is not on a team's 40-man roster (6-Year Minor League Free-Agent). Undrafted and international players immediately become free-agents unless they declare for or return to college. This search will only return players who are slated to be free-agents in the offseason preceding the selected season. For instance, upon world creation selecting the Current Season (1) will return all Free-Agents-to-be for the first off-season. You will never be able to negotiate with a player unless he is a current free-agent or part of your franchise at the big league level.

Position - This will return any player with that listed primary position as chosen by the franchise's owner. Besides each position on the field, you may also broaden your search with 'All Positions' players and 'All Pitchers' as well as position groupings like middle infield (MIF - 2B, SS), corner infield (CIF - 1B, 3B), infield (IF) and outfield (OF). Due to stats and ratings differences, you may not look at position players and pitchers at the same time.

View - You may select the stats or categories to view with the player search. These include stats from the most recent season (Stat Varieties), Current Ratings, Projected Ratings and Status Info.

Level - Users may select to view big league free-agents or minor league free-agents. If you have selected "Minors" in the level drop down list and you are viewing the current seasons list of minor league free agents checkboxes will appear next to each eligible player. The checkboxes are in place so that you can select up to 5 minor league free agents at once and negotiate with them. Once you have selected the free agents that you would like to negotiate with or sign simply click the "Submit Offers" button at the bottom of the page. 

Criteria - You may enter certain criteria based on the selections you have made in the Position and View drop down lists. You can filter the free agents that are displayed on the screen by a variety of different criteria types including stats, current/projected ratings, and status info. Just select the criteria you want to filter by, choose >=, <=, or = and type in the value you want to see. The results will then be displayed on the page.

$ - The dollar amount listed represents the player's demands if it's the current season or the player's current salary if it's a future season. The player may also request a signing bonus, a multi-year contract, no-trade clause or contract option. If it is the current season and the regular season has already started, the listed demands have already been prorated based on the number of big league games your franchise has played.

$ Pro - This indicates the player cleared waivers after being released and is available for a prorated amount of the league minimum. Since the player is already being paid by his former club, he'll be happy to accept a minor league contract for a prorated portion of the league minimum.

Who can I negotiate with and when? - During the current season, you can negotiate with anyone on the list. If you're viewing the list of free-agents for future seasons, you can only negotiate with players on your franchise that will be true major league free-agents next season who are also currently on your big league roster.

Negotiate Contract - To begin negotiating with a player, please click 'Negotiate Contract.' You will be taken to a negotiation page where you may make him an offer. Outside of the scheduled free-agency periods, you may only negotiate with your own players or unsigned players. After each cycle of negotiations, you will receive correspondence indicating the status of your offer (if it changed). This will also be reflected as an icon in the first column on this page (clicking it will take you to your correspondence with this player/agent). You may continue negotiations at any time by clicking 'Negotiate Contract' next to the player's name.

Add (to free-agent target list) You can also add a player to your free-agent targets by clicking the "Add" link. This will add the player to your target list instantly so that you don't have to continually come back to the free-agent report page. All of your free agent targets (along with those free-agents you've previously negotiated with) are conveniently located in one spot. Please keep in mind that you may only have 50 free agent targets per negotiation period. The free-agent target functionality is only available after budgets have been set until the end of the free-agent negotiation period and only pertains to current free-agents.

Remove (from free-agent target list) You can also remove a player from your free-agent targets by clicking the "Remove" link. This will instantly remove the player from your target list.

General Description - From this page, you may view, negotiate, and remove the free-agent targets you have added via the free-agent report. This functionality is only available after budgets have been set until the end of the free-agent negotiation period and only pertains to current free-agents.

View - You may select the stats or categories to view with the player search. These include stats from the most recent season (Stat Varieties), Current Ratings, Projected Ratings and Status Info.

$ - The dollar amount listed represents the player's demands. The player may also request a signing bonus, a multi-year contract, no-trade clause or contract option.

Negotiate Contract - To begin negotiating with a player, please click 'Negotiate Contract.' You will be taken to a negotiation page where you may make him an offer. Outside of the scheduled free-agency periods, you may only negotiate with your own players or unsigned players. After each cycle of negotiations, you will receive correspondence indicating the status of your offer (if it changed). This will also be reflected as an icon in the first column on this page (clicking it will take you to your correspondence with this player/agent). You may continue negotiations at any time by clicking 'Negotiate Contract' next to the player's name.

Remove (from free-agent target list) You can also remove a player from your free-agent targets by clicking the "Remove" link. This will instantly remove the player from your target list.

Compensation Note - Any Type A or Type B free-agents signed before the first day of preparation for the amateur draft will result in compensation picks being awarded.

General Description - From this page, you may view the international prospects your scouting staff has discovered.

View - Prospect info may be displayed in several different ways including Background Info, Current Hitting Ratings, Current Pitching Ratings, Current Fielding/General Ratings, Projected Hitting Ratings, Projected Pitching Ratings and Projected Fielding/General Ratings. The ratings categories are the same as those found throughout the game, but are solely based on the international scouting department.

Pos - You can narrow down the pool by selecting a position to view.

Negotiate - Clicking the 'Negotiate' link will begin the process of trying to land the prospect.

How does this work? - Throughout the season, your international scouts will discover prospects around the world (the higher your international scouting budget, the more players you'll discover). Once discovered, your franchise will have one week to outbid any other franchises that may have also discovered the player. If a week goes by and nobody signs the player, all the other franchises will have a crack at him, too. Remember to be patient, though. Some of the best prospects may not be uncovered until late in the season.

General Description - From this page you may negotiate long-term contracts with your own players. You may only reach this page by clicking 'Negotiate Long-Term' on the Arbitration Report page before an arbitration hearing, or from the Free-Agent Report page if the player is in the last year of his contract with your team.

Player Information - The top half of the page includes the player's information including a link to his picture, player profile and all of his status info.

Budget Information, Player Payroll Budget - This captures your current budget status. The player payroll figure represents the amount that you have allocated to your player payroll +/- any transferred cash from trades. The amount that you may allocate to future seasons is reduced by 80%, 70%, 50% and 50% in order to prevent trashing a franchise for the future. You may not allocate more than this payroll budget for any season.

Budget Information, Player Payroll Used - This illustrates the amount that you currently have tied up in signed player contracts for that season. For instance, if you have $8,000,000 in season 4, you have eight million dollars worth of players under contract with your franchise during Season 4 (via multi-year deals). These numbers are updated as players are signed.

Budget Information, Player Payroll Offered - This represents the money you currently have tied up in outstanding offers. This amount plus the payroll allocated cannot exceed the player payroll budget, so be wise in your offers. If a signing would put your franchise over your budget, you will not be able to make the offer to the player.

Contract Demands - These are the contract demands of the player and are a good starting point for negotiation. Generally, players will sign for their demands, but the free agent market will dictate the player's true worth.

Agent - At this time the agent does not play a significant role in negotiations.

Type - Players can either sign big league, Minor League, Minor League with Spring Training Invitation or Invitation only contracts. Most players will demand Major or Minor League contracts depending on experience.

Years - Players will demand between 1-5 years on their contracts. Most players who demand longer contracts will also ask for No-Trade Clauses or Player options. This will be represented in the Player Comments section.

Total Amount - This is the amount that the player would like to earn from the contract. It is up to the user to determine how to allocate this money over the duration of the contract.

Notes - These are general special notes by the player. They will include discussions on such topics as playing time, team success, contract type, No Trade Clauses and Last Season Options.

Contract Offer - After finalizing an offer in this box, please click 'Submit Offer.' After your offer is submitted, it will be reviewed and responded to by the player immediately. To go back to the previous page, please click 'Return.'

Type - Players can either sign big league, Minor League, Minor League with Spring Training Invitation or Invitation only contracts. A player signed to a big league contract must be placed on the 40-man roster. To do so, please go to the Edit Rosters page and Assign him to the Majors or AAA if he has available options. If the 40-man roster is full, you must release a player or designate a player for assignment from the list. Minor League contracts with invitations will allow a player to be immediately placed on the Spring Training Squad. The player must be assigned a level within ten days of the contract signing. Spring Training invitees will immediately be placed on the Spring Training Squad and must either be assigned to a level at the minimum salary within ten days of the end of spring training or released.

Bonus - Bonuses are guaranteed money that comes out of the future season player payroll upon signing. For instance, if you're in season 1 and you offer a 3-year contract extension including a bonus of $2M, it will come out of the Season 2 Player Payroll. Bonuses cannot be transferred through trades or waiver moves. Bonuses are limited to $10 million.

Season - This is the actual season salary that you would like to offer the player. Season 1 refers to the first season in which the player is not already under contract with your franchise. So, if the player is currently arbitration eligible and has not gone through an arbitration hearing, season 1 means this current season. If the player is in the final year of his contract with your team and will soon become a free agent, season 1 indicates the next Hardball Dynasty season. In a two-year contract, neither season can comprise more than 60% of the total value of the contract. In a three-year contract, no season can comprise more than 40% of the total value of the contract. In a four-year contract, no season can comprise more than 30% of the total value of the contract. In a five-year contract, no season can comprise more than 25% or less than 10% of the total value of the contract. There is a maximum allowable offer of $20 million for any season. The minimum for any season is the minimum annual salary at that level. For the big leagues, this is 325K. To change the offer for any season, please click in the box next to the season and enter an integer value. For a three-year contract, you must enter in values for the first three seasons, but you may leave seasons 4 and 5 blank. The total value of the contract will appear at the bottom of the page.

Last Season Option - This refers to the option that a player and/or organization has to release the player from his contract at the beginning of his last season under contract. Player Options come into play when a player feels he has outplayed his contract and would like test the free-agent waters. Players do not have to invoke their options. Team options allow users to buyout and release a player. These also do not have to be used. Mutual Option contracts give the opportunity to both the player and franchise to end the contract before its last season. If you sign a player to a Team or Mutual option and decide to release him at the beginning of his last contract year, you must buy the player out for 25% his agreed upon salary for that season. Players with Last Season Options will not be reflected in the Free Agent Report until the contract has ended or been terminated.

No Trade Clause - Players who want to stay with a franchise for the long-term may request a No Trade Clause. These players may still be traded, but the player will have to waive his No Trade Clause to do so.

In-season Free-Agents - Free-agents signed after the regular season has already started prorate their demands. Once signed, the listed contract will continue to be their full-season amount demanded, but your franchise is only responsible for paying the prorated amount. For instance, a player may be asking for $1M after your franchise has played 81 big league games. After he signs for $1M, his listed contract will be $2M, but you will only be paying him $1M. The World Office Franchise Payroll Analysis page clearly outlines how much your franchise is responsible for all player contracts.

General Description - From this page, you may view all of the contract options for the current season that you have agreed to in previous negotiations. In the first season of any world, this will always be blank, as you have not negotiated any options for the final seasons of a player's contract. If you sign a player to a two year deal with a Team, Player or Mutual option in the final year of the contract, this will be noted here in the second season. Once budgets have been set, you'll be able to make your decision on these players.

Budget Information, Player Payroll Budget - This captures your current budget status. The player payroll figure represents the amount that you have allocated to your player payroll for the current season. Future seasons are reduced by 80%, 70%, 50% and 50% in order to prevent trashing a franchise for the future. You may not allocate more than this payroll budget for any season.

Budget Information, Player Payroll Allocated - This illustrates the amount that you currently have tied up in signed player contracts for that season. For instance, if you have $8,000,000 in season 4, you have eight million dollars worth of players under contract with your franchise during Season 4 (via multi-year deals). These numbers are updated as players are signed.

Budget Information, Player Payroll Offered - This represents the money you currently have tied up in outstanding offers. This amount plus the payroll allocated cannot exceed the player payroll budget, so be wise in your offers. If a signing would put your franchise over your budget, you will not be able to make the offer to the player.

Type - This indicates the type of option that was agreed upon for this season. Types include Team, Player or Mutual. Player options are immediately accepted or rejected by the player at the beginning of the season. Team options are completely under your control. And, Mutual options are acted upon by the player immediately with the start of the season as well. If the player accepts the option, you may still reject it and offer the buyout.

Status - This indicates whether the player has accepted or rejected a Player option or just rejected a Mutual option. If the status is pending, you must decide whether to accept or reject it. A pending Mutual option means that the player has accepted it.

Action - This allows you to make decisions on team and mutual options. To sign this player for the amount originally agreed upon, please click 'Exercise.' To buyout and release the player, please click 'Decline.' The buyout will cost you 25% of his original salary for this season.

Note - All players with team or mutual options will have their option automatically picked up if not rejected by the end of the arbitration hearings.

General Description - From this page, you may track your player's overall progress from the time he is drafted to now.

Level - Users may select the level at which to view development. Levels from the dropdown menu include Majors, Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, Low-A and rookie ball teams. There is also an option to view 'All' players for a franchise. This will return all players of the selected position in the franchise.

Position - After selecting a level to view, users may select a specific position or 'All' positions to view. For instance, if you would like to look at the progress of all of your AAA shortstops, select AAA from Level and SS from Position. After selecting a level and position, please click 'Go' to view the player development report.

Player - You may click on the player's name to view his profile.

Level - This is the level to which the player is currently assigned. This will be the same for every player unless you have selected 'All' from the Level dropdown.

Pos - This is the primary position to which the player is currently assigned. This will be the same for every player unless you have selected 'All' from the Position dropdown.

B/T - This indicates whether the player bats right-handed (R), left-handed (L) or is a switch hitter (S) and then if he throws with his right (R) or left (L) hand.

Age - This is the player's current age.

Time of Draft - This will indicate the player's overall rating on his draft date. For players entered upon world creation, this will display N/A. If it is the first season of the world, all improvement will be captured by the difference between Start of Season and Current.

Last Season - This will indicate the player's overall rating at the beginning of last season. If it is the first season of the world, N/A will be displayed as all improvement will be captured by the difference between Start of Season and Current.

Start of Season - This will indicate the player's overall rating at the beginning of this Hardball Dynasty season.

Current - This is the player's current overall rating in the sim. Please note how the player has improved or digressed over time.

Projected - This is projected peak overall rating according to your current scouting department. The accuracy of this rating is directly related to the amount that you have spent on scouting.

General Description - From this page you may negotiate with prospects. You may only reach this page by clicking 'Negotiate' on the Amateur Draft Results page.

Player Information - The top half of the page includes the player's information including a link to his picture, player profile and all of his status info. If the player notes that he is looking to sign for slot money, these will be his demands.

Budget Information, Prospect Payroll Budget - This captures your current prospect payroll status, helping you make decisions about prospects. The prospect payroll figure represents the amount that you have allocated to bonuses for prospects in the current season. You may never offer more than the prospect payroll available.

Budget Information, Player Payroll Budget - This captures your current budget status, helping you make decisions about long-term negotiations with prospects. Only prospects asking for big league contracts will want long-term contracts. The player payroll figure represents the amount that you have allocated to your player payroll for the current season. Future seasons are reduced by 80%, 70%, 50% and 50% in order to prevent trashing a franchise for the future.

Previous Correspondence - This will return the results from previous negotiations and offers. You will know whether your offer contract has been accepted, rejected or does not meet the player's demands. Anyone looking for slot money should sign by the end of the next negotiation cycle. If a player rejects an offer, he will never sign that contract, but you may offer him another contract without penalty.

Contract Demands - These are the contract demands of the player. They are a good starting point for prospects. Generally, players will sign for slot money, but some prospects have special demands and those will be reflected here.

Agent - At this time the agent does not play a significant role in negotiations.

Type - Players can either sign big league or Minor League contracts. Those willing to sign for slot money will be asking for their slot money bonuses and a minor league contract for the Rookie league minimum. If a prospect signs a big league contract, he will be placed on the 40-Man roster and earn the 40-Man roster minimum plus bonus. The current season will also mark the player's first of three consecutive option years.

Years - Prospects will demand between 1-5 years on their contracts. Only players who have special demands beyond slot money will ask for longer contracts. If a prospect signs a minor league contract for this season, his contract will automatically be renewed next season at the minimum for the level at which he finishes the season.

Bonus - This is the amount that the player would like to earn in guaranteed money. The prospect will usually not sign for less bonus.

Contract Offer - After finalizing an offer in this box, please click 'Submit Offer.' After your offer is submitted, it will be reviewed and responded to by the player with an inbox message by the end of the negotiations cycle. To go back to the Amateur Draft Results page, please click 'Cancel.'

Type - Players can either sign big league or minor league contracts. Those willing to sign for slot money will be asking for their slot money bonuses and a minor league contract for the Rookie league minimum. If a prospect signs a big league contract, he will be placed on the 40-Man roster and earn the 40-Man roster minimum plus bonus. The current season will also mark the player's first of three consecutive option years.

Bonus - Bonuses are guaranteed money that comes out of the player payroll upon signing. Bonuses cannot be transferred through trades or waiver moves.

Season - This is the actual season salary that you would like to offer the player. The values in the boxes for the seasons will default to his demands. For minor league contracts, this will be the Rookie league minimum of $7,650. For big league contracts, this will be the 40-Man minimum of $54,000. After a player signs a contract, you must assign him to a team from the Edit Rosters page in the GM's Office. If a prospect is signed to a minor league contract and then assigned to any team but the rookie league, his salary will be increased to the minimum for that level. If a player signs a big league contract for $54,000 and is assigned to the big leagues, his salary will increase to the big league minimum, because this contract type only places the player on the 40-Man roster, not the ML roster. There is a maximum allowable offer of $327,000 for any season. The total value of the contract will appear at the bottom of the page. A prospect will not accept a big league contract for more than 3 years unless specifically requesting it.

Holdouts - Some players will take longer to sign than others. Be patient. At some point, they will get back with you and either raise their demands, accept your offer, or let you know that the will not be signing to pursue other endeavors.

Compensation - If a franchise is unable to sign their first, second, or third round draft pick, they are compensated with a supplemental pick in the following season's draft. For any unsigned 1st or 2nd round pick who had 100% of his initial demands offered and refused to sign the contract without it ever being withdrawn the negotiating franchise will receive a pick in next seasons amateur draft at the same slot as the current season plus one. For any unsigned third round draft pick who had 100% of his initial demands offered and refused to sign the contract without it ever being withdrawn will entitle the negotiating franchise to a compensation pick at the end of the third round the following season.

Additional information : Player Ratings | Player Statistics | GM Basics

General Description - From this page, you may view the order of selection for the upcoming Rule 5 draft.

Season - You may select the current Hardball Dynasty season or any previous Hardball Dynasty season in this world from which you would like to view the draft order. After selecting a season to view, please click 'Go' to view the draft order.

Pick - This is the order in which teams will draft each round. In season 1 it is based on the average overall rating of your entire organization.

Num. Players on 40 man - This indicates the number of players currently on a franchise's 40-man roster. This is important as a team can only draft players while below 40 players on their 40-man.

General Description - From this page, you can see your franchise's draft board. The draft board was assembled of all eligible players for the Rule 5 draft in conjunction with your specified draft settings.

Show - You may view the Top 25, Top 50, Top 100 or Top 500 of the players in the draft pool. If a user selects Top 25, then limits his search by position, the search will return all of the players at that position who fall within the advanced scouting department's overall Top 25. The listed positions are the positions the relevant scouting department projects the player to play at the big league level.

View - After selecting the number to show, users may select the attributes to view. These include Background Info, Current Hitting Ratings, Current Pitching Ratings, Current Fielding/General Ratings, Projected Hitting Ratings, Projected Pitching Ratings and Projected Fielding/General Ratings. The ratings categories are the same as those found throughout the game, but are solely based on the advanced scouting department for your franchise. The more money a franchise spends on advanced scouting, the more accurate the projections will be.

Rank - Clicking this button will allow you to rank, on an individual basis, the players that you want drafted. Your player pool will immediately reflect any changes that you make. Keep in mind that any changes you make to the position targets, weights, or player types on the Rule 5 Draft Settings page will nullify all of the previous rankings that you have made. Alternatively, any changes you make to the player rank cutoff or max salary on the Rule 5 Draft Settings page will NOT change your manual draft rankings.

Position - Please note that the position listed is based on your advance scouting department's recommendations. This means it may differ from how the player's current organization lists him.

The Draft - Be sure to read over the Rule 5 Draft Settings page. The settings you choose determine which players are ranked where and which players are selected when.

General Description - From this page, you may view the Rule 5 draft results for the current season. After the draft, your franchise's selected prospects will be listed on this page.

Rnd - This indicates the round in which this prospect was drafted.

Pick - This indicates overall pick in the draft at which this player was drafted.

Rank - This indicates the original overall rank of this prospect on your draft board. If the prospect's rank is lower than his pick number, then he was a bargain according to your advanced scouting rankings. If you have excellent advanced scouting, this is obviously good. That may not be the case, if you have poor advanced scouting. However, draft selections are also relative to other team needs and advanced scouting.

Pos - This indicates the player's projected primary position. Though you may later decide to change the player's primary position as he advances, your advanced scouting services have rated this player at this position.

Age - A player's age is a good indication of how close he is to his projected peak. Most players will peak in their late 20s.

Original Franchise - This is the team that originally had the player on their franchise. If you decide to move this player, this is the franchise that they will be offered back to.

How does it all work? - Baseball's Rule 5 Draft is a draft unique to the world of baseball. It was designed to prevent franchises from keeping talent in the minors. Players with at least 4 years of pro experience, not on the club's 40-man roster and not signed beyond the current season are exposed to the draft. To protect players from going into the draft, they must be added to the 40-man roster before the Rule 5 Roster Freeze following Free Agency. During the Roster Freeze, all eligible players form the draft class. At that time, you can rank all of your players and fine tune your settings. As a word of note, though, there are several stipulations to drafting a player.

1. You can't draft a player from your own franchise.
2. You can draft a maximum of 10 players.
3. You can only draft enough players to fill your 40-man roster. For example, if you have 38 players on your 40-man roster, you can only select two players.
4. You must have enough available player payroll to cover the $50,000 it costs to draft a player plus his salary. If his salary is below the big league minimum, it will be bumped up to the big league minimum.
5. And, of course, all of your draft settings will be adhered to.

What happens after I draft a player? - After you draft a player, he will join your franchise and appear in your group of players needing assignment. You then have until the end of Spring Training in which to put him on your big league roster. If you don't put him on your big league roster by then, the player will go through the Rule 5 Offer back process. The first step in this process is that the player gets put onto the waiver wire. If he is claimed by another owner, then he and his special Rule 5 status are tranferred to the new club. If he isn't claimed, he will be sent back to his original franchise. They then have 2 days to either accept the offer back for $25,000 or decline it. If they accept the offer back, the team that drafted him loses all rights to the player. If the original franchise decides to decline the option, the player then loses his unique Rule 5 status and becomes a player with no additional rights. If a Rule 5 pick is acquired via trade or waiver claim, the new club has 72 hours to assign the player to his big league team or else the whole Rule 5 Offer back process starts again.

General Description - From this page, users may choose their draft strategy for the Rule 5 Draft. The explanations of each setting is listed within the page itself. Please keep in mind that you need to target a position in order draft a player. In other words, if you target 0 players you will draft 0 players.

Player Types - The player types are self-explanatory. Power pitchers are those pitchers that throw hard stuff (fastballs, hard breaking balls) with a high velocity. Finesse pitchers throw offspeed stuff (curveballs, change-ups, etc.) Workhorses have high stamina/durability. Movement pitchers have the best effectiveness without regard to pitch type or control. Specialists pitch particularly well against righties or lefties. Slugging position players are those that hit for high slugging percentages.

Finances - When it's your franchise's turn to draft, current finances play a role. If your franchise doesn't have enough player payroll to draft a player, it will skip it's turn in the draft. This player payroll is dynamic during the draft, because in one round you may only have $100K available, for instance, but in the next you may have $477K available if another club happened to draft away a player making $327K and also paid you the $50K draft fee. This is a very important piece, so don't neglect its impact on the draft.

Save - Your changes will not be implemented until you click 'Save' at the bottom of the page. The save option is only available prior to the draft.

Cancel - If you have made changes to your selection or position limits that you would not like to save, you may click 'Cancel' to view your most recently saved settings.

General Description - From this page, you will confirm the roster move that you indicated on the Edit Rosters main page. Please review the text in the white box to note any additional, related roster moves that must be undertaken as well as special notes concerning this move.

Player Information - The black box on the left lists the player's applicable information. If you are demoting, assigning or promoting, please remember to choose the level to which you would like the player sent.

OK - After verifying that you would like to conduct this roster move, please click 'OK.' You will be taken back to the Edit Roster page. The move will not be officially conducted until you click 'Submit' on the main Edit Rosters page. If you cannot click on the 'Ok' button, there is a problem with your transaction or it is before the schedule has been generated for this world. Any issue will be noted in the white information box. To clear this transaction and return to the Edit Rosters page, please click 'Cancel.'

General Description - From this page, you can view players that are currently available for trading. Players may be added or removed from the Trading Block on the Roster Management page.

Franchise - You may narrow your viewing options by an individual franchise.

Level - You may narrow your viewing options by an individual playing level.

Position - You may narrow your viewing options by an individual position or group of positions.

View - You may view the player info in several different ways including current ratings, projected ratings, season statistics or status information.

Action - Clicking the 'Propose' link will begin the trade process with the franchise and player.

General Description - From this page, you may include players for a trade. You can only reach this page by clicking 'Edit Players/Cash' in the Trade Build box on the Trade Proposals page. You may not conduct any trades until after the schedule has been generated and budgets have been set.

Level - Users may select the level at which to view the franchise's players. Levels from the dropdown menu include Majors, Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, Low-A and Rookie ball teams. There is also an option to view 'all' players for a franchise. This will return a list of all players with the franchise sorted alphabetically. You may also sort by any of the categories returned in the search.

Position - This will return any player with that listed primary position as chosen by the franchise's owner. Besides each position on the field, you may also broaden your search with 'All Position' players and 'All Pitchers' as well as position groupings like middle infield (MIF - 2B, SS), corner infield (CIF - 1B, 3B), infield (IF) and outfield (OF).

View - You may select the stats or categories to view with the player search. These include stats from the most recent season (Stat Varieties), Current Ratings, Projected Ratings and Status Info. After choosing a level, position and type to view, please click 'Go' to see this franchise's players.

Proposed Trade Players and Cash - This box reflects the players from this franchise that you would you like to include in the trade. You are limited to trading three players from either franchise in one trade. To remove an added player from the list, please click 'Remove' next to his name. This will open up that spot for another player. You may click on the player to view his profile. Also listed are his primary position, current annual salary and prorated salary. The prorated salary illustrates the amount that the player's new team would have to pay the player if the trade were accepted. From this box, cash can also be added to the trade. To do so, please click in the box next to the dollar sign and enter a value that this team would give up to even out the trade. One can never offer more than $5,000,000 in cash during a trade. Once you are satisfied with this franchise's portion of the trade, please click 'Save Changes.' To clear players and cash and start over, please click 'Cancel Changes.'

Player Selection - To add a player to the list, please click 'Add' next to his name. The player will be removed from this list and placed in the box above.

Eligibility - Arbitration eligible players are not allowed to be traded before arbitration. After the trading deadline, all players on the initiating franchise's 40-man roster involved in the trade must have cleared waivers, be in the process of clearing waivers, or been claimed by the other franchise involved in the trade to be added to the list. Any player, not arbitration eligible, on the receiving franchise's team may be added after the trading deadline, but the trade can not be accepted until all players on the 40-man roster involved in trade have cleared or are pending on waivers. Any prospect must have been with the organization for at least 1 season before he may be traded away. All players who have 10 years of Major League experience and have played the last 5 seasons with one club automatically have a no-trade clause.

General Description - From this page you can correspond with other users in your world on an individual basis. Click the Chat Link that corresponds with the user you would like to chat with to get started.

Franchise - Lists the franchises in world.

User - Lists of users in world.

Chat (Total/New) - The Chat link allows you to correspond with other users. After clicking the chat link you will be able to correspond with the selected user. "Total" refers to the total number of messages you have received from a user. "New" indicates how many unread messages you have from the corresponding user.

General Description - From this page, make your trade demands known to the rest of the league as well as view what other owners are demanding. This info should help pinpoint what franchises you should target for trade proposals.

Other Franchise Needs - Each franchise may keep a list of anywhere from 0 to 3 needs. This info contains the desired position, batting side, throwing arm, experience level and any additional notes.

Your Franchise Needs - This is your current list of trade needs. You may click on the 'Remove' link to remove a need from the list.

New Trade Needs - Click the "Add Need" button to add your newest need to your list. The Notes section is limited to 64 characters. This section is only available when you have less than 3 trade needs.

General Description - From this page, you may initiate trades, view trades proposed to you and/or vote on trades conducted by two other teams in the world. You may not conduct any trades until after the schedule has been generated and budgets have been set.

Franchise - To view a franchise with which you would like to trade, please select the franchise from the dropdown menu and click 'Go.' The franchise logo will appear in the box next to your team with the option to add players and cash from the franchise in the trade. Proposed and accepted trades will always appear in the Existing Trades section regardless of the franchise view.

Existing Trades - Trades in this box represent trades that you have proposed to other teams, trades that have been proposed to you and/or trades between two other teams in the world that you may veto. The number in parentheses after a user's name indicates the number of previous HBD seasons the player has completed.

If you have proposed the trade, you may click 'Review' under action to view the trade in the box below. To cancel the proposed trade, please click 'Withdraw Proposal.' This will only function if the other user has not yet acted on the trade proposal. If a trade has been proposed to you, it will be indicated here in a similar fashion, with the initializing franchise and user. To look at the proposed trade, please click 'Review.' You may overview the trade in the window below. Click on the players' names to view their profiles. To accept the trade, please click 'Accept Proposal.' An accepted trade takes 24 hours to process during which time it is voted upon by the other users. After the trading deadline, all players involved in trade must have cleared or be pending on waivers. You may decline the trade outright by clicking 'Reject Proposal.'

If you would like to offer a different, yet similar trade to the same user, please click 'Counter Offer.' This will decline the previous trade offer and allow you to edit players and cash in the trade. To vote on a pending trade between two other users, please click 'Vote' next to trade. You will be able to 'Approve' or 'Veto' the trade. You need not do either. A trade will fail if at least ten, of the other users veto the trade. After 24 hours, the trade status will be updated with the users who voted listed with their vote. If the trade is accepted and not vetoed, players will be sent to the Edit Rosters page for assignment and any applicable cash for that season will be immediately awarded. Trade proposals that are in the Existing Trades box for greater than four days will be automatically removed. Trades will continue to process until the final game of the big league World Series. Any trades at that point are considered nullified.

Trade Proposal Build - To initiate trades, you must use the Edit Players/Cash option from this box. To include players and/or cash from your team, please click the 'Edit Players/Cash' button on the left. This will take you to a new page where you may add players or money to the trade. After doing so, you will be directed back to this page where you may do the same with another franchise. Please click the 'Edit Players/Cash' button on the right to add other players or money to the trade. After that, you will again be directed to this page. From here you can review the trade again before submitting it. Any cash changing hands is represented in the Finances table. You may also add a Note to be read by the other user upon review. To do that, please click in the box next to 'Note:' and type what you would like to say. There is a 128 character limit to Notes. To send the trade to the other user, please click 'Submit Proposal.' The user will see a new trade on this page as well as on the World Office home page. To clear your work and restart, please click 'Clear Proposal.'

Nullified Trades - Occasionally, you'll see a trade proposal listed as 'Nullified'. This indicates there was another roster move made that made this trade proposal null and void. For instance, if an owner has two outstanding proposals involving the same player and one is completed, the other will be immediately nullified. Also, if a franchise signs a free-agent or wavier claim which causes their finances to no longer be able to acquire the players in a particular trade, it will be nullified. A trade can also be nullified if it involves a player that is drafted in the Rule 5 draft. Another instance in which a trade can be nullified is if one or more of the player's involved has a stint on the DL longer than 5 days. If a player involved in a trade has his contract or salary adjusted prior to the completion of the trade, the trade will be nullified. With regards to the contract or salary change of a player, it's important to note that the timing of the contract or salary change is not based on actual timestamp but on the HBD cycle. For instance, if a trade is proposed and accepted during the AM cycle but a player has his contract extended earlier but also in the AM cycle, the trade will still be nullified.

How does the Rule 5 Roster Freeze affect trades? - Any outstanding trade at the time of the Rule 5 Roster Freeze will have it's timeline extended by one full calendar day. This will allow owners the proper amount of time to veto any accepted trades.

General Description - From this page, you can quickly scan the strengths and weaknesses of each franchise by position and level..

Level - Specify the level or range of levels to search.

Position - Specify the level or range of positions to search.

Count - The number of players meeting the search criteria.

Cur Avg - The average current overall rating of the players meeting the search criteria.

Top Current - The player with the highest overall current rating meeting the search criteria. The actual rating is adjacent.

Proj Avg - The average projected overall rating of the players meeting the search criteria.

Top Projected - The player with the highest overall projected rating meeting the search criteria. The actual rating is adjacent.

Initiate - Click to initiate a trade with the franchise.

General Description - From this page, you may view pitchers that have recently tried out at big league camps across the country. These pitchers were not drafted out of high school or college and don't offer much potential for reaching the big leagues but could provide some much needed depth at the lower levels of the minor leagues. Tryout Camps are held after the regular season begins and occur anytime the pool drops below 16 players.

$ - The dollar amount listed represents the player's demands.

Action - To begin negotiating with a player, please click 'Negotiate Contract.' You will be taken to a negotiation page where you may make him an offer. You may only offer players from tryout camp a contract once the regular free-agency period begins.

General Description - From this page, you can review your franchise's rosters by level and position.

Position - Users may select the position they wish to search by from the dropdown menu.

Level - Users may select the level at which to view the statistics. Levels from the dropdown menu include Majors, Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, Low-A and Rookie ball teams. There is also an option to view 'all' players for a franchise.

View - Users can choose to view player attributes such as Regular Season Stats, Current Ratings, or Status Info. Stats will only be populated if that type of season has already begun. After choosing your search criteria, please click the "GO" button to view the player's meeting your specifications.

Player - This indicates the player's name. Clicking on the player's name will open his player profile in a pop-up window.

Lvl - This indicates the player's team level.

Pos - This indicates the player's primary position as chosen by the franchise's owner.

Age - This indicates the player's current age (in years).

Statistics - All statistics/ratings are sortable. Clicking on the abbreviation for a statistic once will sort players from best to worst in that category. Clicking on the statistic another time will sort from worst to best.

$ - This indicates the player's salary.

General Description - From this page, you may view players who have been placed on waivers by any of the franchises in the league, as well as your franchise's pending waiver claims. Please note that no moves may be made before the world is full and a schedule has been generated.

Type - Users may select whether to view position players or pitchers on the waiver wire.

View - After selecting the type of players to view, users may select the type of attributes of waived players to view. These include regular season stats, current ratings, projected ratings and status info. Season stats will display players' core statistics thus far this season. Current ratings will display the players' actual ratings and projected ratings are the levels of each rating category at which your advance scouting department projects the player to peak. This is directly related to the amount that you allocated for advance scouting. Status information displays historical information including Franchise (FRN), Position (POS), health (%), current Age, whether the player has been waived or released (Rel), Playing Status, years PRO, years in the ML, years with the big league team that waived the player (SAME TEAM), Options remaining, years he has been on the 40-Man Roster, seasons remaining on his contract (SIGNED THRU) and this year's Salary. After selecting a type and view please click 'Go' to see players involved in waiver transactions.

Pending Claims - Pending claims always display the player's name, previous franchise, position, health (%), age, this year's salary and waiver date. The Waiver Date is the date the claim is evaluated (sometime shortly after midnight).

How Does It Work - Shortly after midnight on the second day after the player was waived/released, the player's waiver status will be evaluated. For instance, if a player is waived on Tuesday at 3:00 PM, his waiver status will be evaluated on Wednesday night at midnight (technically Thursday). Prior to the trade deadline, any player with a claim placed will be transferred to the claiming team with the lowest rank. After the trade deadline, the original team has the opportunity to pull the player back. In order to be awarded the claim for a player prior to the transaction deadline or after the deadline when a player is not set to be automatically pulled back, the franchise must be able to take on his remaining salary for the season as well as the remainder of the contract. Otherwise, the next franchise in the waiver rank will be eligible for the claim.

Franchise Rank - This indicates your waiver rank and is decided by 1 of 2 ways. Prior to the 28th regular season game of the season, the big league club's winning percentage from the previous season is used. If 28 games have been played, then the current season's winning percentage is used. The lower your number (i.e. closer to 1), the better chance you will have at successfully acquiring the player. For instance, if your team is 1/32 (worst winning percentage), you can expect to acquire the player you claim. If the world is in season 1 and it is before the 28th regular season game the franchise rank is the inverse of the amateur draft order.

Released Versus Waived - If a player has been waived and you are awarded the claim, then you are responsible for a prorated amount of his full salary for the current season and the full amount of all subsequent years under his current contract. If the player was released, then you are only responsible for a prorated amount of the league minimum for the current season and the league minimum for all subsequent seasons under his current contract.

$0 - If it's before the arbitration hearing cycles and a player is listed at $0, be careful. If he has between 3 and 5 years of big league experience, he's scheduled for an arbitration hearing and you'll be responsible for his contract.

Daily Remaining - Teams are limited to two waiver claims per day. The number listed is the amount of waiver claims you can make before the end of the day (midnight EST).

Season Remaining - Teams are limited to fifty waiver claims per season. The number listed is the amount of waiver claims you can make before the end of the season. Waiver claims can be made after the transaction deadline, but do not forget that playoff rosters must be set before the end of the year.

Action - To claim a player from the Waiver Wire list, please click on 'Claim' next to the player's attributes. He will be remain on the waiver wire list, but also appear under your Pending Claims list. If no one with a better waiver position makes a claim on the player before his waiver period is over, you will acquire the player and he will need to be assigned from the Edit Rosters page.

- This player is a Rule 5 pick this season and must remain on the team's big league squad or be offered back to his original team. If you claim this player, you will have 72 hours to put him on your ML team or he will automatically be put back through the Rule 5 Offer back process.

General Description - From this page, you can view all of the player's on your watch list. Any player from within the world can be added to your watch list excluding unsigned International and Amateur draft prospects. To add a player to your watch list simply open his player profile and click on the icon of the binocculars.

View - The view drop down contains the following options:

• Last Game Stats: The player's last game stats. This is displayed based on the team's last game, not the last game the player had played in.
• Stat Varieties: This displays a variety of the current seasons stats.
• Current Ratings: The player's current ratings.
• Projected Ratings: The player's projected ratings. This will only be visible after the budgets for the upcoming season have been set.
• Postseason Stats: The player's playoff statistics.

Level- The level you wish to view. The "All" option returns all players available on your watch list.

Icons - The icons listed below can be viewed when you open the player profile.

• This indicates that the player can be added to your watch list.
• This icon lets you know that the player is currently on your watch list.
• This icon indicates that you are at your watch list limit.

Note - You can remove players from your watch list by clicking the "Remove" link at the far right of the table. The player watch list is limited to 60 total players of any type.

Additional information : Player Ratings | Player Statistics | GM Basics

General Description - From this page, you, as a franchise owner, can put the pieces in place to begin molding your entire franchise. This is the place to hire coaches to fill the job openings throughout your organization. Since coaches can only accept 1-year deals in the game, it's an annual process that has a huge impact on player development during the upcoming season. Remember, though, it's not just you trying to hire a coach but it's all 31 other owners attempting to land the better coaches. So focus on the guys you want, use your entire coaching budget (since any excess doesn't roll over to the following season), and go for it!

Coaching Role Description - The big league level requires 7 coaches and each minor league level requires 3 coaches. The fielding instructor is a roving coach that impacts player development at each level. Bench coaches at the minor league level play a role in all facets of player development. Pitching coaches and bullpen coaches impact pitcher ratings. Hitting coaches, 1B coaches and 3B coaches impact hitting and baserunning ratings.

View Options, Coach List - The Coach List lets you filter on what coaches you want to see listed. "Previous Season" will show the coaches that were part of your staff the previous season. "Available" shows all coaches that are looking for a gig. "Negotiating" shows all coaches you are currently negotiating with. Please note that any coach with an asterisk (*) beside his name is a former player who has since retired and become a coach.

View Options, Previous Level - The Previous Level filters the coach list by where they coached the previous season.

View Options, Previous Role - The Previous Role filters the coach list by the role in which the coaches were assigned the previous season. Click the "Go" button when you're happy with the View Options.

Status, Negotiations Begin - You can only hire coaches during a specific timeline during the season schedule. This lists the date/time when negotiating can begin.

Status, Negotiations End - You can only hire coaches during a specific timeline during the season schedule. This lists the date/time when negotiating ends. If you haven't filled all of your roles, you'll be assigned the coaches from the bottom of the scrap heap.

Status, Coaching Staff Budget - This is the amount you assigned to the coaching staff from your franchise budget.

Status, Total Salary From Signed Coaches - This is the amount you've already spent locking up coaches for the season.

Status, Required Minimum Remaining - This is the minimum amount you have to spend in order to fill all available coaching positions.

Status, Additional After Minimum - This is the amount you have to play with above the minimum required. Use this money to bring in the guys you want molding your players!

Coaching Needs - This chart shows you your franchise's coaching staff broken down by level and role. The big league team has 7 roles whereas the minor league clubs only have 3. The chart lists the minimum salary for each role as well as the coach in place if the slot is filled. If you are currently negotiationg with a coach the chart will display the number of pending negotiations you have out for that level and role combination. Please keep in mind that you may only have 3 pending negotiations for any role/level combination. You can click on the coach's name for his Coach Profile. The number in parenthesis indicates how many vacancies there are at that role and level. If that number is high you can expect a bidding war for that combination.

Coach List, Icons - If you've made any previous offers to a coach, an icon will be displayed next to his name. Click on the icon to view the last piece of correspondence you've had with him.

Coach List, Exp - This is the amount of professional experience the coach has had. For more complete details regarding his coaching history, click on his name for his Profile.

Coach List, Prev Fran - This is who the coach coached for the previous season. Click on the abbreviation for the Franchise Profile.

Coach List, Prev Level - This is the level the coach was stationed at the previous season.

Coach List, Prev Role - This is the role the coach served last season. The role abbreviations are taken from the Coaching Needs chart.

Coach List, Prev Salary - This is how much the coach was paid the previous season.

- This is the coach's hitting IQ rating. The higher the rating, the more he'll help your players develop their batting skills.

- This is the coach's pitching IQ rating. The higher the rating, the more he'll help your players develop their pitching skills.

- This is the coach's fielding IQ rating. The higher the rating, the more he'll help your players develop their fielding skills.

- This is the coach's baserunning IQ rating. The higher the rating, the more he'll help your players develop their baserunning skills.

- This is the coach's patience rating. The higher the rating, the easier it will be for him to tolerate and coach younger players. Of course, if he's really good in the other areas, his lack of patience may be acceptable.

- This is the coach's strategy rating. The higher the rating, the more likely he'll succeed as a bench coach. Bench coaches are important, because they can improve/hurt the day-to-day management operations of a minor league franchise as well as affect in-game decision making (even at the big league level if the manager gets ejected). They generally have different managerial settings than the ones you've set, for instance.

- This is the coach's discipline rating. The higher the rating, the more focused he'll be on the fundamentals such as bunting, throwing strikes and hitting the cutoff man. Of course, this means he'll spend less time on some of the other important aspects of his role.

- This is the coach's loyalty rating. The higher the rating, the more likely the coach is to re-sign with your club.

Interested Franchises - This is the count of franchises with an offer on the table for this particular coach. This count includes any offer your franchise may have pending/considering for this coach. "1+" indicates 1 or more franchises are interested.

Coach List, Action - If you want to begin or continue the negotiating process, this is what you want to click.

Conclusion - The actual negotiation/communication process is described in the Coach Negotiation page.

General Description - From this page, you may choose to set your budget for the year. This is the first major task of any team owner. Each franchise will begin the world with the same amount to spend (owners keeping a franchise from one season to the next retain their previous season's settings), but is not required to spend all of the available dollars or to allocate funds in any specific manner. The default settings represent averages for each item. For instance, the average player payroll plus expected arbitration and free-agents signing of an entire franchise upon world creation is $105 million. And, spending $10 million on your medical staff will return average performance from your medical staff. Only player, prospect and coach payrolls have minimums for any year. Those are $25 million for players, $6 million for prospects and $6 million for coaches. For these three categories, users will need money to negotiate individual contracts. In respect to scouting, training and medical, users pay for a staff and should be able to gauge expected staff performance immediately by comparing the staff's budget to the average. Making a note of this on this page is highly recommended. For all other categories, the minimum is zero (or very close to that) and the maximum yearly funds available is $20 million. There is also a maximum limit to the change that any category may be increased or decreased from one year to the next. This limit is $4M increase/decrease from season to season for all budgets but player, prospect, and coaching staff payroll. The value of each individual category is listed below.

Budget Amount - Next to each category there is an open box in which an owner may enter funds allocated to this category. To do so, please click on the arrow next to any category besides player payroll and choose one of your options. You may only do this during the budget allocation time (see ML league schedule in World Office). If you are unable to make budget changes at this time, you will still be able to make notes. You may change as many values as you would like before clicking on 'Save Budget.' The player payroll will always reflect the remainder of funds available after each change you make so that the total allocated box always reads $185 million.

Budget Finalization After clicking on 'Save Budget' you may still make changes until the deadline to finalize your budget. Once the budget deadline has been reached, all departments with the exception of player payroll, coach payroll and prospect payroll are locked in until the next season. Player payroll, coach payroll and prospect payroll may be adjusted using the "Transfer Budget" page following arbitration hearings, but each transfer includes a stiff 50% penalty so be sure to set your budgets as carefully as possible.

Notes - Notes are intended to allow users to prepare for future seasons as well as recap decisions made at the beginning of this season. Notes are entirely up to the user and may only be seen by the user of the franchise when logged in. To create a note, please click in the notes box next to the budget category needing a note and begin typing. There is a 255 character limit to notes. You may make notes in all categories. When you are finished writing notes, please click on 'Save Budget Notes.' This will save any changes to budget notes and display notes in the box until further changes are made and saved. Notes may be altered at any time throughout the Hardball Dynasty season.

Player Payroll - This refers to the value allotted to the payroll of the player's across all levels (big leagues, AAA, AA, High A, Low A and Rookie Ball). This also includes the actual contract portions (individual season salaries) of players signed from the amateur draft and international free-agents. Big league teams will average about $80 million in player payroll. At lower levels, most players will be signed for around the minimum yearly salary for their level. Minimum salaries at each level are $327,000 Major, $53,750 AAA, $37,500 AA, $25,250 all A and $7,650 for Rookies. Upon world creation, teams will be given a total player payroll of existing signed players of less than $105 million. Please remember to leave room for off and in-season transactions such as Free Agency, acquiring players via trade and bonuses such as through promotion. Any promotion of a player who is not already making more than the minimum for his new level will result in an increase in his yearly salary. This includes adding a player to the 40-man roster. Player demotions will not result in a savings as players will not take pay decreases over the course of the season.

Prospect Payroll - This refers to the value allotted to the signing bonuses of players drafted during the amateur draft and international prospect signing. The prospect payroll needed by franchises to sign most of their prospects is close to $10 million. However, teams looking to plan for the long-run may want to focus on signing the top players from the draft and abroad (regardless of signability risk) as soon as possible. Please note this does NOT include the individual season salary values -- it's part of the player payroll budget.

Coaches Payroll - This refers to the value allotted to the payroll of a franchise's coaches for all levels. Managing teams is taken care of by users, but player development at all levels relies on the performance and abilities of the coaches. Bench, hitting and pitching coaches will need to be signed at each minor league level as well as bench, hitting, pitching, 3rd base, 1st base, fielding and bullpen coaches for big league teams. Signing all coaches to the minimum at each level will total approximately $6 million. Users must spend at least this much. Coach negotiations and signing begin soon after budgets are set.

Domestic College Scouting Department - This refers to the value allotted to scouting college players from Canada and the United States who are eligible for the upcoming amateur draft. Funds allocated to each scouting department directly relate to the accuracy and scope of the college scouting department. A higher budget will result in more prospect reports and more accurate prospect reports. For instance, if you ignore the college scene and have a low budget, you might not see a future all-star that another franchise sees.

Domestic High School Scouting Department - This works the same way as the college scouting department, but pertains to high-school players eligible in the Amateur Draft.

International Scouting Department - This works the same way as the college scouting department, but pertains to international prospects.

Advance Scouting Department - The advance scouts are responsible for projecting the ratings of all signed players within the franchise and on other franchises. The higher the budget, the more accurate your projected ratings will be for all players who have not yet reached the peak of their career. After a player reaches his peak, projected and current ratings are the same.

Training - This refers to the value allotted to preventing injuries. Training specifically refers to the preparations made by players and staff to keep the team healthy. While some players will always be more injury-prone than others, spending money on training can significantly limit or minimize player injuries. In addition to preventing injuries your previous seasons budget will impact certain ratings during the offseason. The ratings that are impacted include power, stamina, durability, and velocity.

Medical - This refers to the value allotted to be spent on players recovering from injuries. The medical staff works with injured players in attempt to ensure quick, efficient and full recovery. While some players will always be more injury-prone than others, spending money on a medical staff can reduce a player's stint on the disabled list and aid his performance following recovery.

Arbitration Effects - Player arbitration is one of the first events in a HBD season and is one of the few actions where you aren't involved in the final decision. As such, there's a chance you may lose a case and exceed your player payroll budget. If this occurs, your franchise owner will contact you with some budget adjustments. For each million over the player payroll, a million will be removed from the other budgets in the following order: Prospect Payroll, Coach Payroll, International Scouting, College Scouting, High School Scouting, Training Staff, Medical Staff.

General Description - From this page you may allocate any excess funds over $2 million into one of three departments: players, prospects, or coaches. You may only transfer funds after the arbitration hearings have completed. All transferred amounts will be forfeited at a rate of 50 cents on the dollar. You must maintain at least $6 million dollars in your prospect budget in order to fill your rookie league roster unless that money has already been allocated in signing bonuses for international prospects or amateur draftees or until you've signed at least 15 players from the current season's draft. Once the coach hiring process has been completed you may not transfer funds to coaches. Finally, the remaining minimum amount to hire your coaches is factored into the used value until you have filled all of your openings.

Department - The department in which you would like to transfer funds from. This includes players, prospects, and coaches

Budget- The initial budget you have set at the beginning of the season. As you transfer excess funds this will be your adjusted budget.

Cash - This refers to any cash you have received via trades with other franchises and only applies to the player payroll.

Used- This is the amount of money you currently have allocated in each department. In regards to players, it includes all contracts that your players are currently under for the current season. For amateur draft and international prospects, it includes all signed prospects' bonus money. For coaches, it includes all signed contracts. In all three cases, it includes all outstanding contract offers. Used player payroll does not include any pending waiver claims or trade offers, so keep this in mind. If you drop your player payroll budget below the amount necessary to sign the waiver claim or complete the trade, the waiver claim will be ignored or the trade will be cancelled.

Available - This reflects the amount you have available to transfer. For players and coaches this is a direct reflection of the total budget subtracted from the total amount used. For prospects it works a little differently; if your used column is less than $6 million then it is the total budget minus $6 million. We do this so that you can fill your rookie league roster after the amateur draft. Alternatively, if your used column is greater than $6 million, you have already allocated your $6 million earmark so it is the total prospect budget subtracted from your allocated amount.

Transfer To - The department to which you want to transfer the excess funds.

Transfer Amount - The amount you would like to transfer. Each value is an even number starting at $2 million dollars up to the amount you have available as described above.

Adjusted Amount  - This is the adjusted amount of you selected transfer amount. The rate is 50% of the total transfer amount.

Forfeited Amount - The amount you will forfeit in order to transfer funds. The rate is 50% of the total transfer amount.

New Budget - This refers to the adjusted budget you would have if you were to transfer funds. It is calculated based on the selections you have chosen and is reflected immediately upon changing any values. It is not saved until you click the "Transfer" button.

New Available- This is the new amount you will have remaining calculated based on the selections you have chosen. It is updated as soon as you change any selected value.

General Description - From this page, you may negotiate with coaches. You may only reach this page by clicking 'Negotiate' on the Coach Hiring page. Please keep in mind that you may only have three negotiations out for each level and role combination.

Budget Information - This will capture your current budget status, helping you make decisions about coaches. The Coaching Staff Budget figure represents the amount that you have allocated to your coaching staff for the current season. Total Allocated from Signed Coaches represents the amount that has already been agreed to by coaches during negotiations. The Required Minimum Remaining refers to the amount that would need to be spent to hire coaches at open coaching positions for the minimum salary for that position and level. These minimums are displayed at the bottom of the page. Additional After Minimum is the amount from the coaching budget on top of the minimum that can spent on open coaching positions. For instance, if $20 million is allocated to coaches in the budget and no coaches have been signed, the Required Minimum Remaining will be $5,495,000 and the Additional After Minimum will be $14,505,000.

Coach Information - The middle of the page includes the player's information including a link to his picture, coach profile and all of his status info.

Negotiations History - This will return the results from previous negotiations and offers. You will know whether the coach is considering your offer or if he has rejected it. If a coach rejects an offer, he will never sign that contract, but you may offer him another contract without penalty. This will also show the coaches previous season's salary and position as well as his current demands.

Contract Demands - These are the contract demands of the coach for this season. They are a good starting point for free agency. Generally, coaches will sign for their demands, but the coaching market will dictate the player's true worth.

Type - This refers to the type of coach at the desired level. Only the ML has Bullpen, Fielding, Third Base and First Base coaches. Most coaches would prefer to coach at this position, but may take an upgrade from a specialized position like pitching or hitting to a more generalized position like bench coach at the desired level. Please select a Type from the dropdown menu.

Level - This refers to the Major or Minor League level at which you would like the coach to work. Coaches generally only want to coach at their requested level or higher regardless of the money. Please select a Level from the dropdown menu.

Amount - You may offer a coach anywhere from the minimum annual salary for that position up to the Additional After Minimum remaining figure plus the minimum salary for that position. For instance, someone with a $20 million budget and no coaches signed could offer a big league bench coach any amount from $600k to $15,105,000. Please enter an amount and click 'Submit Offer.' After your offer is submitted, it will be reviewed and responded to by the player by the end of the negotiations cycle. To go back to the available coaches page, please click 'Return to Hiring.'

General Description - From this page, you are able to bring back coaches from the previous season without having to worry about higher offers coming in from other franchises. Only certain coaches will choose to come back and some may want a promotion in playing level or role. Meet their demands, and they'll return without any negotiations needed. If you choose not to re-hire a coach, then you'll have to risk losing him to another franchise during the all-out coach negotiations stage.

Coaching Role Description - The big league level requires 7 coaches and each minor league level requires 3 coaches. The fielding instructor is a roving coach that impacts player development at each level. Bench coaches at the minor league level play a role in all facets of player development. Pitching coaches and bullpen coaches impact pitcher ratings. Hitting coaches, 1B coaches and 3B coaches impact hitting and baserunning ratings.

Status, Rehiring Begins - You can only rehire coaches during a specific timeline during the season schedule. This lists the date/time when rehiring can begin.

Status, Rehiring Ends - You can only rehire coaches during a specific timeline during the season schedule. This lists the date/time when rehiring ends. Once the rehiring process has ended you will be able to negotiate with all of the available coaches in the World to fill any vacant spots you may have.

Status, Coaching Staff Budget - This is the amount you assigned to the coaching staff from your franchise budget.

Status, Total Salary From Signed Coaches - This is the amount you've already spent locking up coaches for the season.

Status, Required Minimum Remaining - This is the minimum amount you have to spend in order to fill all available coaching positions.

Status, Additional After Minimum - This is the amount you have to play with above the minimum required. Use this money to bring in the guys you want molding your players!

Coaching Needs - This chart shows you your franchise's coaching staff broken down by level and role. The big league team has 7 roles whereas the minor league clubs only have 3. The chart lists the minimum salary for each role as well as the coach in place if the slot is filled. You can click on the coach's name for his Coach Profile. The number in parenthesis indicates how many vacancies there are at that role and level. If that number is high you can expect a bidding war for that combination.

Coach List, Exp - This is the amount of professional experience the coach has had. For more complete details regarding his coaching history, click on his name for his Profile.

Coach List, Dmd Level - This is the demanded level that the coach would like to coach at.

Coach List, Dmd Role - This is the demanded role the coach would like to serve. The role abbreviations are taken from the Coaching Needs chart.

- This is the coach's hitting IQ rating. The higher the rating, the more he'll help your players develop their batting skills.

- This is the coach's pitching IQ rating. The higher the rating, the more he'll help your players develop their pitching skills.

- This is the coach's fielding IQ rating. The higher the rating, the more he'll help your players develop their fielding skills.

- This is the coach's baserunning IQ rating. The higher the rating, the more he'll help your players develop their baserunning skills.

- This is the coach's patience rating. The higher the rating, the easier it will be for him to tolerate and coach younger players. Of course, if he's really good in the other areas, his lack of patience may be acceptable.

- This is the coach's strategy rating. The higher the rating, the more likely he'll succeed as a bench coach. Bench coaches are important, because they can improve/hurt the day-to-day management operations of a minor league franchise as well as affect in-game decision making (even at the big league level if the manager gets ejected). They generally have different managerial settings than the ones you've set, for instance.

- This is the coach's discipline rating. The higher the rating, the more focused he'll be on the fundamentals such as bunting, throwing strikes and hitting the cutoff man. Of course, this means he'll spend less time on some of the other important aspects of his role.

- This is the coach's loyalty rating. The higher the rating, the more likely the coach is to re-sign with your club.

Outlook - This is the coach's current outlook for the season. There are four possible directions he can take:

- this coach will sign with you automatically for his demanded salary

- this coach will sign with you automatically at a different level than he coached at in the previous season for his demanded salary.

- this coach will sign with you automatically at a different role than he coached at in the previous season for his demanded salary.

- this coach will not sign with you, because he wants to test the market this season. You will have to negotiate with him when the open coaching negotiations start.

Level - Use this drop down to select the level for your coach. You can only select a level that is equal to or higher than the current level your coach is demanding. If the coach is not willing to resign with your franchise the drop down will be disabled. Please note that you can only promote Minor League coaches.

Role - Use this drop down to select the role for your coach. The options in the drop down list are relevant to that coaches demands.

New Salary - This is how much you will pay the coach if you rehire him at the level/role combination you select. 

Rehire - If you want to rehire a single coach, simply check the box that corresponds to his row. If you want to rehire all of your coaches in one click, check the box directly under the column header named "Rehire". Be aware that some coaches may be demanding the same role and level. In this case you can not hire both of them, you must choose one or wait to sign a new coach when open coaching negotiations start.

Additional information : Player Ratings | Player Statistics | GM Basics

General Description - From this page, you may view answers to some frequently asked questions about Hardball Dynasty. If you have a question that is not addressed on this page or in the appropriate page-specific Help, please submit the question to customer support.

General Description - From this page, you may view all of the help pages from throughout the game in their entirety. Clicking on the yellow 'Help' icon on any page, will bring up the page specific help in the current window. To view a Help page from the manual, please click on the office on the left in which the page resides. Then, click on the corresponding page on the right. The help file will appear exactly as it does on the page in the box below. However, you cannot view the page from the Manual, nor can you move the Help text to another location on the screen as you usually may. The page does not include links to the Player Stats, Player Ratings and GM Basics glossaries as those can viewed individually by clicking on Glossaries and the specific page name. Clicking 'View All' will return every help page in the game and allow you to print every Help page.

General Description - From this page, you may access correspondence received from players and coaches as well as trainers, medical staff, scouts and league officials.

Message Filter - Users will be able to filter messages from certain types of people to better concentrate on that process. For example, free agent and coach negotiations overlap, so a user may want to focus just on messages received from coaches, address them, and then switch to players. Types include Free Agent Negotiations, Prospect Negotiations, Coach Negotiations, Scouting, League Officials, Medical, Training, General and All. The default is to show All messages. League Official's correspondence will serve as a means for game developers to make announcements concerning updates or news related to Hardball Dynasty or this specific world.

Mail - All new, unopened mail is indicated by a closed envelope icon. Next to the icon, the sender (From), Subject of the message and actual calendar date Received are listed. To open a message, please click on the Subject. The message will pop-up in a new window. To delete a message, please check the box next to the mail and click 'Delete Checked.' You may delete as many emails as you would like. If you want to delete all emails in your inbox, please 'Select All' by checking the box in the top, left corner and then clicking 'Delete Checked.' If you have read all of the emails that you intend to read and would prefer not to continue to receive an alert that you have new mail, you may select the box next to all unopened mail and click 'Mark as Read.' All unopened envelope icons will be replaced with opened mail icons.

- Indicates a direct link to negotiate with any Free Agent, Draft Pick, International Prospect, or Coach that you have had previous negotiations with. Just click the icon and it will take you directly to the negotations page.

General Description - If a private world uses custom rules, they must be entered on this page. These rules may then be enforced via customer support. Rules should be detailed and non-vague. It's also important that league members discuss these rules before they go into effect. New rules can not be retroactive. Typically, these rules allow private world commissioners to restrict access to future seasons of the world. In some circumstances, the rules can be used to immediately remove an owner from a private world. In all instances, customer support reviews the situation before making a decision.

- Rules may not be deleted or edited so that we can maintain a record of all rules throughout a world's history.

General Description - From this page, you may view the terms that Hardball Dynasty users agree to by purchasing and playing in seasons. These are the same terms and fair play guidelines that are used for all of WhatIfSports.com's games. If a users is found to be in violation of any of these terms, WhatIfSports.com reserves the right to invoke the proper penalty.

	The Overall rating combines a player's overall skill set into one value.
	Range reflects how mobile a player is in the field, how skilled at positioning himself in the field for different hitters, and plays a key role in determining what position the player is capable of playing.
	The Glove rating indicates how skilled the player is at fielding balls.
	Arm Strength plays a key role in what position a player can handle. After all, weak arms don't end up on the left side of the infield, behind the plate or in right field.
	Arm Accuracy is used in every fielding play that involves a throw.
	Pitch Calling indicates how well the player handles pitchers behind the plate.
	The Durability rating determines how much time off a guy needs during the course of a season and how quickly he can bounce back between pitching appearances.
	Health dictates a player's ability to avoid injury. A rating of 100 indicates a player that is incredibly durable.
	Speed signals how fast the player is.
	Patience plays a role in a player's ability to deal with adversity following demotions, injuries and lack of promotions.
	Temper reflects how well a player deals with spur-of-the-moment adversity such as being hit by a pitch or called out on strikes.
	Makeup is similar to work ethic and plays a key role in a player's ability to improve and hold off decline.
	Contact determines how well the player can make contact at the plate.
	Power determines how well a player hits the ball and plays the primary role in slugging percentage.
	Batting Versus Left-Handed Pitching determines how a batter fares against lefties, both in terms of making contact and power.
	Batting Versus Right-Handed Pitching determines how a batter fares against righties, both in terms of making contact and power.
	Batting Eye involves plate recognition and dictates a player's ability to draw the walk, avoid the strike out looking, and taking advantage of mistake pitches.
	Base running determines how adept the player is at running the bases. This includes taking an extra base or holding up, and knowing when and when not to steal a bag.
	The Bunt rating is a good indicator of how well the player is at laying down sacrifice bunts as well as laying down bunt singles.
	The Push/Pull rating indicates whether the player is a pull hitter or opposite field hitter. A rating of 0 indicates an extreme pull hitter.
	Stamina indicates how many pitches a player can make in a ballgame.
	Control indicates how successful a pitcher is at locating his pitches.
	Effectiveness Versus Left-Handed Batters determines how the pitcher fares against left-handed hitters.
	Effectiveness Versus Right-Handed Batters determines how the pitcher fares against right-handed hitters.
	Velocity determines how fast the player can throw a pitch.
	The Groundball/Flyball rating determines a pitcher's ability to induce a groundball versus a flyball. A rating of 0 would be a pure flyball pitcher.
	The Pitch 1 rating determines the skill with which a player can throw his #1 pitch.
	The Pitch 2 rating determines the skill with which a player can throw his #2 pitch.
	The Pitch 3 rating determines the skill with which a player can throw his #3 pitch.
	The Pitch 4 rating determines the skill with which a player can throw his #4 pitch.
	The Pitch 5 rating determines the skill with which a player can throw his #5 pitch.
?	A question mark indicates that your scouting department can't evaluate the player's projected ratings because the budget has not been set yet or because the player was not scouted.