Baseball Mogul 2007

by Enlight

Product Features

• Play as General Manager in this exciting baseball simulation game
• 10,000+ players from 1901 to 2006; play as any team in any year
• Pitch-by-pitch simulation engine accurately models each historical era
• Redesigned artificial intelligence built with evolutionary algorithms
• Build the best lineup of players to take your team to the World Series

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000F59AEC
• Item Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: March 31, 2006
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #31,982 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #18 in Video Games > PC Games > Sports > Baseball

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Baseball Mogul begins in any year you choose, from 1900 to 2006 with the full roster of your favorite team--or an entirely fictional team of your own creation. As General Manager (GM), your job is to build the best lineup of players to take your team to the World Series. You can make complex player trades and sign players to multi-year contracts as you build your team, but you'll have to compete with the other General Managers, and negotiate with the player's agents.

As GM you also have to manage all the finances for your ball club, making sure that the team doesn't go bankrupt. Raise revenue for your team by setting the price of tickets and concessions, and selling the TV broadcast rights, while you manage your team's expenses by setting the budget for your farm system, player scouts, medical staff, and player payroll. But be careful, because fans can be fickle if your team doesn't win or if your tickets become too expensive!

If you don’t succeed in your first year, you get a new chance with Baseball Mogul’s in-depth amateur draft. You pick and choose from the best high-school and college talent around the world. If your new players are good enough, have them join your team right away, otherwise send them to your minor league franchise for training and improvement.

Your involvement as GM does not stop in the team's front office. This year’s version of Baseball Mogul gives you complete control over your team on the field. You start by setting the starting defense, batting order, and pitching rotation for your team. On game day, you choose your level of involvement. You can retire to the luxury box and make calls to the dugout as needed. Or you can take control of each player, choosing what pitches to throw and when to bunt or go for an extra base. A powerful game engine simulates each pitch of the game based on customized player ratings and over 100 years of historical data, assuring you the maximum realism possible!

Baseball Mogul is designed to help you manage your team over many simulated years. Manage your team one day at a time, or let the computer simulate weeks or months at a stretch so you can play for virtual years or decades. As your players age, their abilities mature and decline realistically. Don't forget to build your team for the long term, rather than spending all your money on free agents this season.

Watch your team rise and fall in the standings, watch your bank statement, and read the news stories to stay on top of what's happening with all the ball clubs in both leagues. If you pick the right players, manage your finances well, and stick to a winning strategy, your team may win the Championship, and you too may become a Baseball Mogul!

Features:

• New Animated Play-By-Play! All-new in-game Manager mode lets you call plays and make substitutions as if you were in the dugout. Or retire to the owner's box and let your coaches and players control the action. It's up to you!
• New Pitch-By-Pitch Mode! Fully interactive Pitch-by-Pitch mode puts you in complete control of the game. New graphical batting and pitching interface gives you pinpoint control over each pitch. Brush back the batter with an inside fastball, then put him away with a splitter in the dirt.
• New Custom Pitcher Database! Sports Mogul unveils a 30,000 line database with data for over 1,200 pitchers that you can't find anywhere else. Includes individually researched ratings for every pitch in each pitcher's arsenal, going back to 1901. From Gaylord Perry's spitball to Daisuke Matsuzaka's "Gyroball", Baseball Mogul 2007 is the most complete baseball simulation you can buy.
• New Lefty-Righty Stats! Baseball Mogul 2007 tracks every match-up. Whether you are pinch-hitting in the 9th or trading for someone to platoon with your left-handed outfielder, Baseball Mogul 2007 puts all the data at your fingertips. Every scouting report includes lefty/righty splits, plus a skill breakdown against each type of pitcher (or hitter).
• New "Live Coverage"! New play settings let you "cut to the action" in the middle of games. You choose the situations (such as a tight game against a division rival) and Baseball Mogul lets you switch over to Play-by-Play mode with one click.
• New "Tradezilla"! Redesigned artificial intelligence built with evolutionary algorithms. Smarter computer opponents and Trading Block features give you the same challenges as a major league General Manager.
• New Batter Rating System! Travis Hafner's ability to get around on the game's best fastballs. Manny Ramirez feasting on curveballs. Baseball Mogul 2007 features new scouting data for every batter to create maximum realism and strategy.
• New Minor League Simulation Engine! Every pitch from AAA to High School is realistically simulated for the entire league. New research for this year includes improved player development and aging algorithms. A "career graph" for every player tracking their major-league equivalent progress from draft-day until retirement.
• New 11-Point Personality Profiles for every player and every team. Each profile affects contract negotiations. And, as an optional setting, personalities can impact on-field performance and team chemistry.
• New 2006 Rosters! Off-season moves, free agent signings, and trades. Detailed career stats, ratings, contracts, and projections as of Opening Day. Plus personalized data for over 1,500 minor leaguers. Free updated rosters available during the season.
• New Roster Tools! Baseball Mogul 2007 includes new tools for creating, editing, and tweaking your own custom rosters. Cut-and-paste players from any season. Add players from your favorite college and high-school teams. Mogul makes it easy to customize your baseball universe to run a league or just to share with friends.
• Exclusive Licensee of the Sean Lahman Baseball Database! Includes more than 10,000 players from 1901 to 2006. You can play as any team in any year, with a revamped pitch-by-pitch simulation engine accurately modeling each historical era.
• Faster Simulation Speed! It wouldn't be Baseball Mogul if you had to take a bathroom break while the season progressed. Baseball Mogul 2007 can play a full season, including all computer trades and roster moves, in under 30 seconds.

Product Description

Baseball Mogul 2007 begins in any year you choose, from 1900 to 2006 with the full roster of your favourite team -- or an entirely fictional team of your own creation.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most addictive Baseball sim ever, April 6, 2006

By 

Douglas Mashkow - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Baseball Mogul 2007 (CD-ROM)

I've played a lot of baseball sims, and have to say Baseball Mogul is the most addictive of them all. You control all front office duties for any MLB team, past or present. Other games may provide more in-game strategy options, and be more accurate statistically, but to GM a team through a number of years in one sitting is what makes BBM special.

I love taking teams and stripping them down, rebuilding through the draft and trades for prospects. You can start playing your favorite team 10-15 years ago, and see if you could steer them to a better result. The drafts actually contain "historical rookies," so through hindsight you might have an advantage (ie- that Albert Pujols kid might be a good draft pick).

You can get the 2005 version free at their website to check it out, but at under $20, buying the new 2007 version is an incredible bargain recommended for any baseball fan.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars New to this series, April 20, 2006

By 

R. Chandlee - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Baseball Mogul 2007 (CD-ROM)

This is the first in the mogul series that I have played. I have a feeling i'll be spending 10s of hours over the next few weeks on this game. I starterd up a game starting in 1901 on "Fan" difficulty(the easiest setting). I selected all fictional players, i prefer to keep my video gaming stats seperate from my real world MLB stats in my head. You could select to have all the real rosters from 1901 and have historical players show up in the draft in the future.

The game started with 8 teams in each league, 16 total, and each team with a fictional roster. My players already had statistics from previous seasons so i could get an idea what to expect from each of them.

The game defaulted to a 3 man pitching rotation but i could choose to change that to 4 or 5 man although i don't see any upside to doing that at this point. Maybe as the years go by pitchers start needing more days off between starts.

Each player also has a group of abililty ratings. Batters for instance have contact, power, speed, and eye. There are similar ratings for fielding and pitching. Also each player has an "overall" and "peak" rating. I haven't been able to figure out what these ratings stand for. At first i was thinking that overall refered to how good a player is now and peak is how good they can become but so far as i can tell the ability ratings play a much bigger role in preformance. I have several players at 93-overall and 93-peak who are ok, but i also have a guy who is 76-overall and 77-peak who has won 2 MVP awards in 6 seasons. The main difference between them is the MVP winner has great contact and power ratings, in the high 90s, while the other guys are in the high 80s, low 90s.

Anyway i found fan mode to be very easy after the first 2 seasons. I'm making well over 100 million(not quite historically accurate) a year with a $90 million pay roll. While my competition is sitting in the $50-60 million range. My attendance is in the 35000-40000 per game while theirs is around 25000. I'm also selling my tickets for about $6 more a seat. I've won 3 of the first 6 world series and appear to be in a position to win alot for a long time to come. I hope the next level will be a bit more challenging

Between each season you have to deal with player arbitration and contract extension as well as free agency. You'll have to negotiate contracts with each player individually or even cut them completely. The trick is keeping an eye on your payroll while you do this. I've found it's best to do this the day after the world series. If you wait until free agency begins you will be forced to deal with all of these issues without being able to view your roster while doing it. Also players you choose to cut you can also go after in free agency. On the first day of free agency all available players will be demanding a fairly high salary. As the days go by their demands will lessen, sometimes you can wait a player out and get him at a bargin rate, but you risk another owner snatching him up first.

The reason i didn't give this game 5 stars is often times you can't have 2 different windows open at one time. For instance i can't view my lineup while working on a trade proposal.

There's lots to do in this game that i haven't touched on here. If you love baseball it's probably worth a try. I think i'll be increasing the difficulty to "coach" tonight and i'll start planning my new stadium.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hold Out for Mogul 2008... If You Can, March 14, 2007

By 

Kevbo (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Baseball Mogul 2007 (CD-ROM)

This might be a hard thing to do when Amazon is offering Baseball Mogul 2007 for only $10, but try holding out for Baseball Mogul 2008. The reasons are listed below, and I only offer them to show how BM '07 has been upgraded - not replaced. (Which is why holding out is better than buying both titles, if you haven't already.)

First, they are adding a new feature in the '08 title called the Encyclopedia. Basically, it is just thousands of weblinks arranged which provide an awesome resource for fans of the game of baseball. It is not necessarily for just the numbers crunchers, but usually baseball simmers/fantasy players are in it for the sport itself, too.

Also, a new database engine is being released that puts more statistics at your fingertips for comparison purposes, even if you are comparing retired, dead, or active players.

Next, Sports Mogul, Inc. changed the user interface rather sweetly for the BM '08 title. You know when you are watching ESPN and they have that little ticker line scrolling at the bottom? Well, they put that into Mogul '08, and the feature is legitimate - it even scrolls during the Play-By-Play Mode during at bats.

They also added some new logos and icons for your custom teams.

The financial system really blows me away in comparison to Mogul 2007. With '08, you get to adjust the financial records based on the year per inflation (you won't see millionaires in 1907, for example, nor a $10,000 salary in 2006), taxes, and enable/disable the free agency. Basically, if you were any good with the General Manager portion of Mogul '07, expect to spend more hours devising your strategy in '08.

I consider this an upgrade, not a replacement, because you will see more of the same, but now you are to consider more when making strategy in '08. Also, it basically just adds more realism to the numbers side of baseball for the General Manager mode.

Draft Day in Mogul 2008 is more complicated only in that the title has new formulas for how players develop and age. Basically, things are more random now, but to compare that to Mogul 2007, this feature si only optional. It is intended to mimic real life in that we rarely know what players are going to do year-to-year: slump or break out. Not a huge feature, in my opinion, but a respectable option.

Baseball Mogul 2008 hypes up the new physics-based simulations, and comparing that to Mogul 2007, one could argue that the statistics are now more realistic since friction, weather, spin, etc. are now included in the gameplay.

Playing the other Mogul titles, I saw this much like I did with the new player development formulas. Basically, it is a minor change (requiring major work and research) that produces respectable simulations. In all, it makes the Mogul titles more legitimate from an academic point of view, but still keeps the genre intact: this is a simulation game, not an action game.

Other minor, but appreciated, features (and why you should hold out for Baseball Mogul 2008 if you can) are being able to save your season at any time, including the middle of a game (Play-By-Play Mode); expanded statistics for scouting (like IBB, GDP, ground ball and fly ball percentages, etc.); updated rosters before the 2007 MLB season starts; a better player editor so that you can customize him with even more factors; better split statistics comparisons (like left vs. right pitching and hitting, RISP, etc.); and lastly, the simulation for Mogul 2008 was upgraded to speed up those season simulations where you don't intend to do any Play-By-Play (it takes about 30 seconds to sim a full season in Mogul 2008).

Well, that's my review. Again, my intent in bringing it to the Baseball Mogul 2007 section was to point out my opinion that there is going to be an "upgraded 2007 version." If Baseball Mogul 2007 was going to be wholly different than Mogul 2008, then the review would stand for '07 only. But really, if you have played '07 (or if you haven't), the same features are simply made better in the '08 title with a slightly new look.

In terms of baseball simulators, I believe the Mogul franchise is the best around today, but Frontline Sports dominated the 1990s, I believe. My point is that none of these simulators will be perfect, only respectable as they dedicate to research and realism in the numbers side of baseball.

If you don't like applied mathematics or statistics, the Mogul franchise will not help you appreciate the sport of baseball. If you love numbers, the sport of baseball (through great products such as Baseball Mogul) provides an entirely separate universe outside what you watch from your couch. But you get to see that separate world when you are told a batter's accomplishments as they compare to his last 23 At bats or amongst history's shortstops (as examples).

If you love numbers, controlled simulations, and like the tie into baseball, get into the Baseball Mogul series. If you like the Baseball Mogul series and are wondering when to hop in again or upgrade, wait for the Baseball Mogul 2008 product and skip 2007.