FCM Podcast - Returns 11/14 - 7:30 PM EST

[gmoney]

http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/tal...043&cmd=tc

Call in, talk mogul.

[gmoney]

If you want to email the show, send an email to georgemfitzpatrick at gmail dot com.

[arod12]

I wanna call in!

[gmoney]

Call in number for the podcast is (724) 444-7444.

Christ, that's a lot of fours.

Call ID number might be needed as well - that's 131043.

[gmoney]

Bump to remind everyone.

[gmoney]

Podcast is out, click on the link above to listen if you missed it live.

[mattynokes]

Pretty good job, here's some running impressions on the topics discussed:

1. Salary Cap - I think the numbers suggest something that's not totally true. If more teams attempted to put out a competitive team (or at least a half competitive team) the highest payrolls wouldn't only be from playoff teams. Then there's also the fact that a lot of rebuilding teams will dump high salaries (likely to contenders) for cheap. My Rockies had Brad Anthony (24.5M) and Bruce Verbos (14.8M) to start the year and then picked up Isaac Radway (15.1M) part way through the season. For what they gave me they were definitely overpriced. Plus Mogul doesn't prorate the "Team Payroll" figure even though it is actually prorated - so what you get is inflated numbers by the end of the season.

I think moneyball is still definitely an option in FCM. I feel like I've made a living on finding those cheap players that produce (Brent Stawell of this year and Eduardo Valerrama of 2040). If it wasn't for me accepting overpriced players, my payroll would be much closer to 100M annually.

Small markets can build up. Look at TOR and FLA in FCM. Without even going back and checking, I'm damn sure they didn't have a cozy payroll budget. Maybe FLA not so much now, but back when hokey originally had them, they were fine. I've also brought the Rockies up from around 85-90M when I started to 130M+.

Like G$ said, it starts with not totally scrapping your team and "tanking" if you will. If you're rebuilding, fine. But put some effort into it. Sign some good players or fan favs. Put butts in the seats and don't piss off your fans. Also, keep your stadium up to date. Personally I think dropping some cash into Sight Lines and the other two was what jettisoned me into have a comfortable budget. You won't see the impact right away, but a few years down the road it can pay off big time.

2. New Compensation - I like the talk on it. The point of it is to ward off the fringe players or at least make it a very risky decision. I also like the fact that it leaves the decision totally up to the GM. So no matter the stats or injuries if you think you player can get comp, go for it! I think this helps add realism (I know I would've let Lincoln go to Comp if it was an average salary). And I think it helps rebuilding teams in the fact that they know if they have a good vitals player and he doesn't perform or gets hurt, they know they have comp in their back pocket if they want it and don't have to settle for a "better than nothing" offer at the deadline.

I see G's concerns on the average salaries if a player has a 30M figure already. However, a player of that caliber is likely to get bid up real well, so the starting figure isn't that much of an issue. Plus if it's still 80% if the last salary, he may not enter FA with all fallback of 24M when his in-game asking price could be well under that. In the end, the point is to entice good players to enter FA.

3. Salary Demands - It's the cash in the league. Simple as that. Your cash effects your team to a large extent, but the rest of the cash bumps the prices a little as well. Then there's also the fact the Mogul doesn't deal with anomaly seasons very well in arbitration. Audley had a 1.200 OPS, that's insane. I also have James Faller get a ton in arby because of one good season. Then we move onto the fact the salaries, whether coming from arbitration or free agency play a role into the increased demands.

What we need to do is have a league-wide effort to spend money and get rid of it in-game. Put money in the bank to build a new stadium. Or I think we'd even be open to allowing banking for large, costly stadium upgrades. Then we need to go in-game and allow teams to pay down some salaries (i.e. a guy making 30M for 3 Years might be changed to 20M/3 and 30M is taken from the team's cash).

Since we've capped the bank at 50M, we've seen a good amount of teams attempting to get rid of the amount of cash they have, but not everyone. Everyone needs to chip in, otherwise this problem will continue!

4. Deadline - I think it's something we could look into if there were more activity at the deadline. With the slash and burn style of rebuilding that's been going on, those teams don't have much worth trading to contenders. And with there seemingly being more rebuilding teams than competing ones, it hurts the market.

I think it comes back to #1. Put some money in your rebuilding team. You can still bank a lot of money for a new stadium/upgrades and maybe have a decent team. You might have a decent trade chip that can further help your rebuild process. And hell, you might pull a KCR and surprise a lot of people in the league. Granted KCR was quickly ousted in the playoffs, it still looks good to fan loyalty and will help in future seasons when you're a more legit contender.