Newbie Guide & Checklist
Newbie Checklist
Follow these steps and you will be on your way to turning your newly-acquired franchise into a winner.
1. Customize your Team Color, Team Mascot & Logo: During the off-season, you may also relocate your club to a new city. You can do all this by clicking on Profile and then the Update Settings button.
2. Resize & customize your Ballpark: Adjust your Ballpark capacity to match expected attendance for the current season. The Ballpark has several attributes that affect your club's Finances, as well as the outcome of games. You may change the Ballpark dimensions and name your Ballpark. You can customize for a period of 20 days after an ownership change. You can do this by clicking on Ballpark and then the Modify Ballpark button.
3. Update your Lineup: You may change the club's batting order and the position that each player will play in the field. Setup your regular season Lineup for facing left-handed pitchers (LHP) and right-handed Pitchers (RHP). Left-handed batters hit better against right-handed pitchers and vice versa, while switch hitters always have the platoon advantage. You can do this by clicking on Lineup and then the Update Lineup button.
4. Update your Pitching: Set the starters in the pitching rotation and set your bullpen. Starters need Stamina to pitch many innings and should have high levels in the pitching skills. You can do this by clicking on Pitching and then the Update Pitching button.
5. Update your Lineup & Pitching for Spring Training: Now repeat the previous two steps for your Spring Training Lineup & Pitching. For spring training, you'll want focus on playing time for younger prospects rather than your established players. Give the youngsters a chance to play and develop and watch how they do.
6. Manage your player's individual style of play & tactics: You can create your own game strategy by adjusting the in-game decisions your players and manager make. From here you can choose for your hitters, pitchers and runners to be more aggressive or conservative. Also, you can set limits and determine when players come in from the bullpen or off the bench. You can do this by clicking on Management and altering the settings for each individual player.
7. Realign your minor league players: Make sure your minor league players are at the recommended league level and potentially call up players that might be good enough to play in the big leagues. Click on Minors and then the Reassign Players button at the bottom of the page. Follow the arrows indications and player recommendations as they will help your player reach his full training potential fastest.
8. Reposition your Minor League Players: You can help your minor league players to learn new positions and become more valuable big leaguers by playing them at the most appropriate position. Assign your minor leaguers to the optimal position based on team need and their defensive skills so that they begin gaining experience playing there immediately. They will eventually learn a new position over time. Click on Minors, and then use the drop down menus to reposition each player (pitchers are excluded because their position is essentially permanent).
9. Check your position in the League: You can check your club's progress by viewing the league standings. Media coverage of league transactions and press releases are here as well. Do this by clicking on League. You can also view league statistics leaders by clicking the League Links at the bottom of the page.
10. Check out your recent Game Results: Go to the Schedule page and view the outcomes of your club's most recent games and a list of your upcoming games. You can click on the game result to see a box score and game summary. Or you can click on Play and let the game unfold before you!
11. View your club's History: By clinking on History, you can see all the highs and lows of your franchise. You can also view your trophy cabinet.
12. View your team Rank: Where does your team rank among other Broken Bat clubs? Click on the Rankings and then the Show entire ranking button and find where your clubs stands.
13. Write a Press Release: Announce the club's direction and goals. Include quotes from players and the manager for the other clubs in the League to read. Do this by clicking the New Press Release button on your team page.
14. Visit the Forum: Got questions? Need answers? Want to discuss Broken Bat? Baseball? Anything else? The best resource for all these questions are your fellow Broken Bat managers and the best place to connect with them is on the Forum. Simply click on Forum and start reading and posting!
15. Draft a youngster: Draft a youngster for your minor league system. By clicking on Roster and then the Add Player button, you'll be able to select a draftee from one of the five draft pools: High School, College, Latin Academy, Asian Posting System or International. You can draft a rookie once a week to stock your minor leagues.
16. Sign a Free Agent: Sign Free Agents at a position of need. You can search for non-pitchers (NP) and pitchers (P). You can do this by clicking on Free Agents. Pay attention the salaries of your current players and potential Free Agent signee's player salaries (shown in the search results), as they will affect your club's Finances.