Baseball Mogul 2006 Review

Baseball Mogul 2006 gets the series back on track for the first time in ages with what is easily the best game since the original debuted in 1997.

As the original baseball management sim, Baseball Mogul paved the way for a lot of other developers over the past eight years. Quite simply, we wouldn't have great games like Out of the Park Baseball without the pioneering work of developer Clay Dreslough. But something happened along the way to sports-game greatness. The outstanding original design didn't evolve, and Dreslough found himself standing still while his former followers whizzed by with ever-more authentic and complex reproductions of life at the helm of a Major League ballclub. Not any longer. Baseball Mogul 2006 gets the series back on track for the first time in ages with what is easily the best game since the original debuted to all-around praise in 1997. Dreslough and his team at Sports Mogul have made wholesale changes to the design, adding much-needed depth to key areas like player personality, contract negotiations, and historical replay. It feels like this once-great series is finally reaching its potential.

Beating the curse of the Bambino, one more time.
Beating the curse of the Bambino, one more time.

Core aspects of the game remain untouched, however. You still take total control of your favorite Major League Baseball club and attempt to guide the franchise to success, both in the standings and in the accountant's ledger. This remains a baseball business sim, geared toward those who like crunching statistics, setting the going rate for hot dogs, establishing budgets for player development, and shipping recalcitrant outfielders off to Omaha. It still lacks graphical flash (although drag-and-drop support has finally been added, along with an attractive team summary screen), and it's missing some managerial options, including left/right splits, so look elsewhere if you want a game that lets you field hot grounders or become a virtual Casey Stengel.

Baseball Mogul 2006 isn't changing the series' long-standing focus. But the heart of the game has changed, largely because all players now have personality traits, nicknames, friends, and morale that ebbs and flows depending on what's taking place in the clubhouse and on the field. Pedro Martinez, for instance, is no longer just a fantastic starter with great numbers; he's a "generous, down-to-earth" human being who's "glad to be with a team that's committed to winning." Ivan Rodriguez is "gregarious," but also someone who wants to play for a "perennial playoff contender." Vladimir Guerrero is "egotistical," although that apparently makes him "a good fit" with the LA Angels of Anaheim.

Player personality has a tremendous impact on gameplay, turning a predictable manipulation of names and numbers into an authentic simulation of running a big-league ballclub with real people on the roster. Bringing in a star with great numbers used to be a no-brainer. Now you've got to look behind the statistics and see if the player will be happy in the role to which you want to assign him and whether or not he'll add to team chemistry or blow up the clubhouse. Making the right move is also easier said than done. Most players have complex or conflicting characteristics, like "sloppy but outgoing" and "boastful but even-tempered," so at times it feels like you're assembling the Multiple Personality All-Stars.

Taking the time to put together a team of stable individuals really seems to pay off, though. We didn't get solid innings out of Derek Lowe with our LA Dodgers until we moved him up to his desired number-two position in the starting rotation. J.D. Drew's numbers indicated that he was never satisfied in Chavez Ravine, likely because he wanted to be moved to Colorado to play with his brother, Tim. "Gluttonous but silly" Milton Bradley turned in one career season after another hitting leadoff for the Dodgers, after he became "comfortable" with most of his teammates. As in the real world, happy players usually performed well, and unhappy players did not.

Eric Gagne has a lot of friends in LA, huh? Let's lowball him on that contract extension!
Eric Gagne has a lot of friends in LA, huh? Let's lowball him on that contract extension!

Unfortunately, player personalities don't play much of a role in personnel moves. There aren't any real troublemakers in Baseball Mogul 2006. Even Barry Bonds is simply described as "practical," which is probably the nicest epithet that's been applied to him over the course of his stormy career. At any rate, stars with difficult personalities don't refuse trades or minor-league assignments, and they won't turn down a contract offer if you meet their terms or come close. We were always able to sign free agents--even if their personalities indicated that they would be difficult to please, even if rumors stated that they wanted to sign elsewhere, and even if they stated a preference for playing on another Major League club so they could be with their friends.

At least contract options are now more realistic, if player attitudes during talks are not. You now negotiate with player agents and make offers, a much better system than the old one, which tied your hands with fixed cash amounts determined by the number of years in the deal. Here there is lots of back-and-forth with agents, who provide hints of what it takes to sign their clients and offer encouragement if you're getting close. Mess around too much, though, by inching the money up just $50,000 per bid or reneging on a deal, and the agent will stop at nothing but the full asking price.

It's about as far away from flashy as you can get, but the interface is easy to understand, and information is laid out in a clear, concise manner.
It's about as far away from flashy as you can get, but the interface is easy to understand, and information is laid out in a clear, concise manner.

There still isn't much room to maneuver, as you typically have to come pretty close to a player's asking price. But there are exceptions. You can go to arbitration with eligible players or drop carrots like no-trade clauses and player option years. If a player wants to suit up for your club, you can sometimes get away with lowballing him. We pulled this when re-upping a few star players and when persuading pitching phenom Dontrelle Willis to drop his crazy $13-million per season demand to a more reasonable $9 million. And you can mess around with the length of contracts. Players who want five-year deals are often happy with two years, as long as you toss in enough dough to make it worth their while. You can also extend the length of deals and cut back the yearly cash.

Contract lengths are really important in Baseball Mogul 2006, too, because this is one career simulation that you could play for decades. Sim times are incredibly fast, with no apparent loss in statistical accuracy, so you can tear through a dozen or more seasons in a single evening of play. A full season can be simmed in under 30 seconds on a top-line gaming rig, and more-modest hardware clocks almost the same times.

Sports Mogul has made long-term career endeavors more rewarding as well, with greater Lahman Database support. Now you can start a career in any year from 1901 through 2005, and the game depicts history in the making. Teams move when they're supposed to, so if you play through the 1950s, expect to see the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants head west. Expansion also takes place on schedule, and expansion drafts are held when required.

Players also reflect the development of the game, stats are tracked throughout careers, and future stars first show up in minor-league lineups. For example, to properly reexperience the Kansas City Royals' rise to the top in the 1970s, you can start at the beginning of the decade with key future players George Brett and Frank White toiling in Idaho Falls and Wichita. Rookies appear in amateur drafts the year they made their first appearance in the big leagues. Start a career in 1992, and the first amateur draft the following winter features names such as Kevin Millwood, Derek Jeter, and Bobby Abreu.

Yet historical play remains a rough approximation of what really happened in the big-league past. All stats are decidedly modern, so you can't relive the dead-ball era. Contract numbers also fit in with the current era, so players like Babe Ruth demand multimillion-dollar contracts. And agents even say things like "I'll fax the paperwork over right away" in the 1920s. Still, even though season replayers won't be happy, you do get all the big names from Major League history and can at least come close to re-creating classic seasons from the past century.

While Ehrenreich might like Toronto, he'll sign anywhere if you put enough cash on the table.
While Ehrenreich might like Toronto, he'll sign anywhere if you put enough cash on the table.

Even with a few missteps, Baseball Mogul 2006 is a huge leap forward that promises to revitalize this moribund series. While the game needs to refine some of the player personality features and add long-requested refinements, such as lefty/righty splits, more managerial options, and an authentic financial model that doesn't cripple teams after a single losing season, this is an achievement up there with raising the Titanic when you consider how much this new version improves on its predecessors.

The Good

  • New player personality features
  • Added Lahman Database support provides more-accurate historical seasons
  • Other amenities like expansion drafts and arbitration add to the realism

The Bad

  • Managerial options need to be beefed up, and the lefty/righty issue has to finally be addressed
  • Financial model is still overly simplistic

About the Author