Baseball Mogul is a series of career baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 management computer game

Personal computer game

A PC game, also known as a computer game, is a video game played on a personal computer, rather than on a video game console or arcade machine...

s created by game designer Clay Dreslough

Clay Dreslough

Clay Dreslough is the creator of the Baseball Mogul and Football Mogul computer sports games, and is the co-founder and President of Sports Mogul, Inc...

. The product was first published in 1997. The thirteenth and latest installment, Baseball Mogul 2012, was released March 18, 2011. A proprietary database, included with the game, permits play in any season of historical baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 from 1901 to the present. The early Baseball Mogul games are considered to be influential works in the baseball management simulation genre.

Versions

The Baseball Mogul series has incorporated many features over the years. Examples include sortable statistics in more than 150 categories, more realistic aging curves, and detailed scouting reports.

Baseball Mogul 2012

• 2011 Rosters with ratings for over 2,000 active players.
• Updated historical database
• Correct 2011 MLB schedule, with support for starting seasons as early as March 1st.
• New Play-by play improvements (stadium backgrounds, ability to use pitchers as hitters and vice versa, multiple runners may now tag up, truck the catcher, and wall climb among other things.)
• New stats such as WAR (wins above replacement)

Baseball Mogul 2011

• Baseball Mogul 2011 was released on March 26, 2010.
• Free Agent Bidding Wars - The CPU will engage in a bidding war over high-priced free agents with the user.
• New "Skip Inning" Button - During a game a user can now skip through innings he or she does not wish to play, and then return to the game.
• All-Star Game playable in Play-By-Play Mode - A user can now play the All-Star game.
• 2010 Rosters and Ratings
• 2010 MLB Schedule
• Thousands of small improvements in gameplay, league setup and simulation, and roster control.

Baseball Mogul 2010

• Expansion teams - You can now start as an expansion team and run the expansion draft for yourself.
• Custom Leagues - Play different teams and players from different eras in one league.
• 2009 Rosters and Ratings
• 2009 MLB Schedule
• More realistic historical season simulator.
• New Roster options - You can now adjust the number of pitchers that a team carries on their major league roster, ranging from 8 of 25 to 14 of 25. Minor league pitchers can also be assigned a role in the minor leagues of Starter, Spot Starter, Long Reliever, Middle Reliever, Short Reliever, or Closer.
• Other improvements/bug fixes.

Baseball Mogul 2009

Developed and published by Sports Mogul

Sports Mogul

Sports Mogul Inc. is a United States computer game developer and publisher with 5 employees, founded in 1997 by Clay Dreslough. They are the creators of Baseball Mogul, Football Mogul and Baseball Mogul Online...

.

• Added new pre-game screens - Instead of adjusting all the settings themselves, players now have five options on this new screen: Modern, Classic, Fictional, Expansion, or Custom (used with player-made rosters.)
• Base-running screen - Players can now see where the ball is on the field in situations where they have an opportunity to tag up or take an extra base.
• Play-by-play improvements - The sound effects and crowd sounds have been replaced, and the ball physics
  Physics
  Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
  
   have been improved.
• Depth Chart Screen - A depth chart screen has been added to help players view all of their talent and shop for free agents.
• Status Bar - Allows you to see breaking news stories without interrupting your game.

Features:

• Baseball Mogul Encyclopedia - Outputs interlinked HTML pages. Historical leaders tracked for over 70 stats, by team and season; hitting, pitching and fielding stats at every level; annual financial records.
• Database Engine - Records every stat for every player, even after they're dead. Also automatically loads every historical player to easily compare promising rookies to the best players of all time.
• Financial Model - Automatically adjusts revenue levels and salaries to the correct level for each era.
• Player Development Engine - More realistic aging and scouting algorithms. Draft day is now more unpredictable, with the ability to adjust these settings.
• Physics
  Physics
  Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
  
  -Based Simulation - Follow the path of the ball on-screen, with correct underlying physics.
• Expanded Scouting Report - More room for more stats like OPS, GDP, Intentional Walks, Ground Ball Percent, and DICE
  Defense-Independent Component ERA
  Abbreviated 'DICE', Defense-Independent Component ERA is a recent variation on Component ERA, one of an increasing number of baseball sabermetrics that fall under the umbrella of defense independent pitching statistics...
  
  .
• 2007 Rosters - Off-season moves, free agent
  Free agent
  In professional sports, a free agent is a player whose contract with a team has expired and who is thus eligible to sign with another club or franchise....
  
   signings, and trades. Detailed career stats, ratings, contracts and projections as of Opening Day. Plus new hand-edited data for over 2,500 minor leaguers.
• Updated Player Database - Includes more than 18,000 players from 1901
  1901 in baseball
  -Major League Baseball:* American League: Chicago White Stockings* National League: Pittsburgh PiratesWorld Series: Not played due to AL-NL war over player contracts.-Other champions:* Minor leagues** California League: San Francisco Wasps...
  
   through 2007
  2007 in baseball
  -Major League Baseball:*Regular Season Champions*World Series Champion – [Boston Red Sox]*Postseason – October 2 to October 28Click on any series score to link to that series' page....
  
   using the Lahman
  Sean Lahman
  Sean Lahman is an award-winning author and journalist.-Sports Research:He is most noted for the Lahman Baseball Database, a collection of baseball statistics for every team and player in Major League history...
  
   database.
• Updated Pitcher Database - Season-by-season pitch data for over 1,200 pitchers. Includes individually researched listings for every pitch in each pitcher's arsenal, going back to 1901.

Baseball Mogul 2009 has an average score of 65 on Metacritic. Reviewers complained there were not enough new features.

Baseball Mogul 2008

Baseball Mogul 2008 was the best-selling PC baseball of 2007, selling over 115,000 units.

Baseball Mogul 2007

Developed by Sports Mogul. Published by Enlight Software. Released 4 April 2007.

Features:

• Animated play-by-play for all games.
• In-game Manager Mode to call plays and make substitutions.
• Pitch-by-pitch mode for complete control of the game, with graphical batting and pitching interface to pinpoint each pitch.
• Individually researched ratings for each pitcher's arsenal, going back to 1901. Platoon statistics (lefties batting against righties, and vice versa) are accounted for.
• A Minor League simulation engine simulates every pitch from AAA to high school for the entire league.
• 11-point personality profiles for every player and every team, affecting contract negotiations, on-field performance, and team chemistry.

The game now has MLBPA

Major League Baseball Players Association

The Major League Baseball Players Association is the union of professional major-league baseball players.-History of MLBPA:The MLBPA was not the first attempt to unionize baseball players...

 licensing, while early versions required players to input their own team names and used fake player names. (i.e.: Bill Mueller

Bill Mueller

William Richard Mueller is a former Major League Baseball third baseman. Mueller's playing career was spent with the San Francisco Giants , Chicago Cubs , Boston Red Sox , and Los Angeles Dodgers . He won the American League batting title in 2003, and helped the Red Sox win the 2004 World Series...

 is Bert Mack and Barry Bonds

Barry Bonds

Barry Lamar Bonds is an American former Major League Baseball outfielder. Bonds played from 1986 to 2007, for the Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants. He is the son of former major league All-Star Bobby Bonds...

 is Bert Brundage. Players had the same initials as their major league counterparts but different first and last names)

Baseball Mogul 2007 was the best-selling PC baseball game of 2006, selling over 100,000 units according to NPD

NPD Group

The NPD Group, Inc. is a leading North American market research company. The NPD Group consistently ranks among the top 25 market research companies in the independent Honomichl Top 50 report, which the media and the research industry acknowledge as a credible source of information on the market...

 data.

Baseball Mogul 2006

Baseball Mogul 2006 was developed by Sports Mogul and released on Mar 15, 2005. It received average to high review scores. Computer Gaming World and Computer Games Mag awarded 3.5 and 3 out of 5 respectively, while PC Gamer awarded 90% and GameSpot 8.0 out of 10. GameSpot highlighted the addition of Lahman Database support, player personalities and realistic features such as expansion drafts and arbitration. The simplistic financial model was criticised, as was the lack of long-requested features such as lefty/righty splits and more managerial options.

The full 2006 version was made available to download for free when 2007 was released.

Baseball Mogul 2004

Developed by Sports Mogul. Published by Hip Interactive.

The amateur draft was not included in early versions of the game, as instead the computer randomly generated new players and put them in the minor leagues at the start of each new season. It was not until Baseball Mogul 2004 that the amateur draft was created.

Other games using the Baseball Mogul engine

Microsoft Baseball 2001

Microsoft Baseball 2001

Microsoft Baseball 2001 is a baseball game made for the 2000 MLB season. It used the Baseball Mogul engine, which required players to act as general manager of an MLB franchise, forcing players to deal with realistic payroll constraints and city-related issues along the way...

was an action-oriented baseball game that used the Baseball Mogul engine and allowed players to control the franchise. MLB Slugfest and MLB Slugfest: Loaded are a series of action-oriented baseball games for PS2

PlayStation 2

The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...

, Xbox

Xbox

The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...

 and GameCube

Nintendo GameCube

The , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...

 that used the Baseball Mogul engine for in-game and franchise simulation.

Gameplay

Prior to Baseball Mogul 2007, all games were simulated, with the player assuming the combined role of general manager

General manager

General manager is a descriptive term for certain executives in a business operation. It is also a formal title held by some business executives, most commonly in the hospitality industry.-Generic usage:...

/manager

Manager (baseball)

In baseball, the field manager is an individual who is responsible for matters of team strategy on the field and team leadership. Managers are typically assisted by between one and six assistant coaches, whose responsibilities are specialized...

/owner

Ownership

Ownership is the state or fact of exclusive rights and control over property, which may be an object, land/real estate or intellectual property. Ownership involves multiple rights, collectively referred to as title, which may be separated and held by different parties. The concept of ownership has...

. Players oversee an entire baseball franchise, and possess the ability to set batting lineups

Batting order (baseball)

The batting order, or batting lineup, in baseball is the sequence in which the nine members of the offense take their turns in batting against the pitcher. The batting order is the main component of a team's offensive strategy. The batting order is set by the manager before the game begins...

, make trades, and set ticket and concession prices. Baseball Mogul 2007 added a play-by-play option to control every pitch of a game.

Baseball Mogul relies primarily on text-based menus. Its accurate simulation and expansive option set are popular among baseball fans of the genre.

Configuration

When starting a new game, the player must choose from one of five options:

• Modern - Take control of a team with its Opening Day 2008 roster.
• Classic - Play in any year from 1901
  1901 in baseball
  -Major League Baseball:* American League: Chicago White Stockings* National League: Pittsburgh PiratesWorld Series: Not played due to AL-NL war over player contracts.-Other champions:* Minor leagues** California League: San Francisco Wasps...
  
   through 2011
  2011 in baseball
  -Major League Baseball:December*December 5: Last time to outright a player prior to the Rule 5 Draft – 5 p.m. ET.*December 7: Last date for player who declared free agency to accept an arbitration offer from former club...
  
  .
• Fictional - Play in a league with fictional players and fictional team names. This takes a bit longer to start because it simulates some fictional years to develop stats for the players that will appear on each team.
• Expansion - Play any of the 14 expansion teams that developed between 1961
  1961 in baseball
  -Major League Baseball:*World Series: New York Yankees over Cincinnati Reds ; Whitey Ford, MVP*All-Star Game , July 11 at Candlestick Park: National League, 5-4 *All-Star Game , July 31 at Fenway Park: 1–1 tie...
  
   and 1998
  1998 in baseball
  -Headline events of the year:*Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Ken Griffey, Jr., and Greg Vaughn all hit 30 home runs before the All-Star break and engage in a historic chase for Roger Maris's single-season record of 61 home runs...
  
  .
• Custom - This allows you to use any saved game as your Universe. This is how player-made rosters are used in-game.

After selecting one of those five options the players must choose the level of difficulty (Fan, Coach, Manager, or Mogul). The opposing AI

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...

 strengthens, and the player's initial operating budget shrinks with each increment in difficulty. The following options further determine the nature of the game's simulation and are listed under "Advanced Options":

• Equalize Cities generates cities and regions with identical population bases. This offers an advantage to real-world teams from smaller markets, such as the Tampa Bay Rays
  Tampa Bay Rays
  The Tampa Bay Rays are a Major League Baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Rays are a member of the Eastern Division of MLB's American League. Since their inception in , the club has played at Tropicana Field...
  
   or the Cincinnati Reds
  Cincinnati Reds
  The Cincinnati Reds are a Major League Baseball team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. They are members of the National League Central Division. The club was established in 1882 as a charter member of the American Association and joined the National League in 1890....
  
  .
• Shuffle All Teams reassigns every roster, so each team has a random set of players.
• Fictional Players generates a new set of players with randomly generated statistics.
• Fictional Teams renames all teams, complete with nicknames (i.e. the San Francisco Giants
  San Francisco Giants
  The San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the National League West Division....
  
   become the California Cowboys). It does not create any teams in cities that do not already have a Major League Franchise, and the Team History option still shows the actual team's history up until the year the league started.
• Fictional Rookies supplies randomly generated rookies to the Amateur Draft. This option may be combined with Historical Rookies, but it will automatically be on if Historical Rookies is turned off.
• Historical Rookies supplies historical players (and associated data) as rookies to the Amateur Draft. Only players with Major League experience qualify, and the depth of the player pool depends on the game year. Lack of data may produce player shortages if Fictional Rookies is disabled. Games set in the present cannot enable Historical Rookies.
• Don't Randomize Players smooths fluctuations in player performance, allowing more accurate prediction of game outcomes. This was formerly named Simulation Mode.

Player ratings

A variety of player attributes are rated numerically on a 100-point scale, though none are likely to score lower than 40 or 50 except for relief pitchers' Endurance. Ratings vary over time with player development, aging, and injuries suffered. All players possess an Overall rating, a combination of all other measures weighted by position, a Peak projection of overall performance at the height of his career, and an indication of Health, the likelihood of succumbing to personal injury, which declines with age and major injuries.

Position player

Position player

In baseball, a position player is a player who on defense plays as an infielder, outfielder, or catcher. This is generally all players on a team except for the pitcher, who is considered separate from the position players; in the American League, there is also a designated hitter, who bats but...

s are rated for a variety of measures of batting

Batting (baseball)

In baseball, batting is the act of facing the opposing pitcher and trying to produce offense for one's team. A batter or hitter is a person whose turn it is to face the pitcher...

, baserunning

Baserunning

In baseball, baserunning is the act of running around the bases performed by members of the team at bat.In general, baserunning is a tactical part of the game with the goal of eventually reaching home to score a run. In fact, the goal of batting is generally to produce baserunners, or help move...

, and fielding

Baseball positions

There are 9 fielding positions in baseball. Each position conventionally has an associated number which is used to score putouts...

 prowess. Contact and Power ratings correlate to a batter's ability to connect with pitches and do so solidly, influencing batting average

Batting average

Batting average is a statistic in both cricket and baseball that measures the performance of cricket batsmen and baseball hitters. The two statistics are related in that baseball averages are directly descended from the concept of cricket averages.- Cricket :...

 and extra base hit

Extra base hit

In baseball, an extra base hit , also known as a long hit, is any base hit on which the batter is able to advance past first base without the benefit of a fielder either committing an error or opting to make a throw to retire another base runner...

s. Swinging-at-a-pitch determination, or not, relates to the Eye rating, with highly-rated players properly identifying good pitches from bad. Laying down bunts and running the bases are also measured, by Bunt and Speed ratings. Defensive talent is broken into
Range, Arm, and Fielding ratings, measuring aptitudes to reach and quickly dispose of batted balls with skill and consistency.

Pitcher

Pitcher

In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throwsthe baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the...

s are rated for a variety of measures of pitching skills. Power measures pitch velocity and strikeout

Strikeout

In baseball or softball, a strikeout or strike-out occurs when a batter receives three strikes during his time at bat. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters....

 rate. Accuracy in pitch placement and walk

Base on balls

A base on balls is credited to a batter and against a pitcher in baseball statistics when a batter receives four pitches that the umpire calls balls. It is better known as a walk. The base on balls is defined in Section 2.00 of baseball's Official Rules, and further detail is given in 6.08...

 rate relates to a pitcher's Control rating. Movement indicates the action, or movement, on pitches thrown, with highly-rated pitchers inducing more ground balls or popups from opposing batters. Endurance roughly indicates the pitch count

Pitch count

In baseball statistics, pitch count is the number of pitches thrown by a pitcher in a game.Pitch counts are especially a concern for young pitchers, pitchers recovering from injury, or pitchers who have a history of injuries. The pitcher wants to keep the pitch count low because of his stamina...

 that can be thrown before fatigue sets in, adversely affecting velocity, control, or movement.

Batting and fielding skills for pitchers are conflated into "Hitting" and "Defense" ratings, respectively, with values comparable only to other pitchers. For example, a Hitting score of 90 would not qualify a pitcher to start as a position player.

Online play

Many players choose to run leagues with their friends using Baseball Mogul. This gameplay is similar to fantasy baseball

Fantasy baseball

Fantasy baseball is a game where participants manage an imaginary roster of real Major League baseball players. The participants compete against one another using those players' real life statistics to score points...

, except that the games are simulated by the engine and thus leagues can continue beyond the Major League Baseball season.

The league commissioner

Commissioner

Commissioner is in principle the title given to a member of a commission or to an individual who has been given a commission ....

 posts game results as a saved game file, and each player downloads this file, makes adjustments to his team, and sends his updated file to the league commissioner.

It had a short run from 1999-2008

Deprecated features (in previous versions)

• For a couple of versions, Baseball Mogul used a "point" system instead of dollars for assessing values for contracts.
• Players used to be graded by letter grades, and are now graded numerically. This allows for a greater degree of granularity
  Granularity
  Granularity is the extent to which a system is broken down into small parts, either the system itself or its description or observation. It is the "extent to which a larger entity is subdivided...
  
   in assessing players. For example, both an 80 and an 82 would be displayed as a 'B-', but one is slightly better than the other, and the numerical scale covers that difference.

Updates and patches

Every several months, a patch is released. Currently, Baseball Mogul's official patch is version 14.07, and the latest "unofficial" patch is version 14.10. When a version is X.5 or higher, it is considered a beta of the next Baseball Mogul iteration. For example, 14.50 would be considered an open beta for Baseball Mogul 2013. On the Sports Mogul

Sports Mogul

Sports Mogul Inc. is a United States computer game developer and publisher with 5 employees, founded in 1997 by Clay Dreslough. They are the creators of Baseball Mogul, Football Mogul and Baseball Mogul Online...

forums, players report bugs with the current patch and also can request ideas for future version of the game.

External links

• Baseball Mogul 2012 (available March 18, 2011)
• Baseball Mogul 2011
• Baseball Mogul 2010
• Baseball Mogul 2009
• Baseball Mogul.net - fan site