If you're a Whatifsports.com Hardball Dynasty (HBD) player, you most certainly have some ideas on how to fix or improve this ever-growing and highly popular internet fantasy baseball game.  If you're never played it or never heard of HBD, read the following anyway, and check HBD out for yourself. 

1) Stolen Base Aggressiveness Tweak

The Manager Settings screen allows you to globally set how often or how "aggressive" your players will be in attempting steals.  However, the game doesn't take into account for players with poor speed or baserunning skills.  If you've got a great leadoff hitter with speed and baserunning ratings in the 90's and set your aggressiveness to a 4, you'll also see your 35-year-old cleanup hitter with multiple knee surgeries and 15 speed attempting stolen bases as well.  There should be a threshold setting where a player below a certain speed or baserunning rating will not attempt steals, or the game should allow players to micro manage basestealing on an individual basis.  I might want that leadoff man to steal every time he reaches first, but that cleanup guy should stay put 100% of the time.  If I set my aggressiveness too low, my leadoff guy won't steal either.  That's a problem.

2) Drag and Drop 'Roster Management' Screen

If you play HBD and also play fantasy sports on Yahoo! just think of the possibilities!  To demote an ML player down to AAA, just click and drag his name over from the ML roster to the AAA roster on a split screen.  The left side shows your ML club with a drop down box showing the other levels (AAA, AA, HiA, LoA, Rookie).  The right side shows the AAA roster with another drop down box.  To move a guy from AA to HiA, select the drop down box on ML and change to AA.  Select the drop down box on AAA and change to HiA.  Drag the AA player's name over to HiA, and press 'submit.'  VOILA!!!  Also, another screen can be added for other moves such as transactions on the 40-man roster,  to and from the DL/trade block/playoff roster, and all moves related to the Rule V draft.  Once perfected, this simple Drag-and-Drop feature must necessarily be copied over to the lineup and pitching staff screens.

3) Pickoff Rating

I understand that this might be somewhat controversial.  A pickoff rating for pitchers would add an extra dimension to the base running game and could also figure in to the stolen base aggressiveness tweak ("Ok, I don't want any player slower than 85 to run on any pitcher with a pickoff rating of 75 or better.").  The pickoff rating, the way I see it, should be two dimensional.  It should obviously tell you how good a pitcher is at picking off baserunners and how often he'll try to pick a runner off.  But it should also tell you how quick a guy is to home plate.  Some righthanded pitchers are not going to actually pick guys off first base, but they are so quick in delivering to home plate that their catcher has a better chance to throw a potential theif out once he is on the move.  A guy like this might still have a decent pickoff rating.

4) Better Homerun AI

Simply put, a guy who hits .185 vs left handed pitching is not always going to hit the ball over the fence 60% of the time he makes contact just because he can bench press 300 pounds.  I'd like to see a lot less players hitting 60+ or even 50+ home runs.  Even in the steroid era in baseball, there were only a handful of players hitting 50 HRs each season, and this year, there will be zero.  I know there are several factors leading to this including the parks and the pitchers that some GMs will throw out there, but I'd still like to see something done to more accurately reflect real life Major League Baseball in the power department.

5) Specialists that actually see Innings

I had a left handed specialst on my roster at one point that was probably born for the role.  He had very low stamina (single digits) and halfway decent control with a rating vs righties in the 30's and a rating vs lefties in the high 70's.  Over approximately 50 games, he saw a grand total of 2.1 innings pitched and didn't allow a baserunner.  Frustrated, I changed his role to setup B to get him some work.  I have no idea how the AI determines how and when a specialist is used but it needs further fixing. 

6) Ability to include Future Cash considerations in Trades

Ok, maybe I shouldn't have given that 33-year-old free agent a 5-year contract.  Ooops, my bad.  But just because I made that mistake doesn't mean I should have to live with it over the life of the contract.  In my world, I've seen GMs try desperately--and unsuccessfully--to trade players with years on their contracts.  Sometimes, paying the full salary for this season isn't enough, but if I could pay half of the remaining two or three years on his deal I am more likely to be able to find a fool--er, ummm, make that a bargain shopper--to take him off my hands.  Everybody wins!

7) Another new rating for pitchers--Command

Command of the strike zone and control are two different things, in my book.  While control is a rating that would indicate how likely a pitcher is to issue a walk, command would tell the GM how likely he is to hit his target within the strikezone.  For example, the count is 0-2 and my pitcher is about to throw his wipeout pitch: Uncle Charlie, the curveball.  A pitcher with a high command rating would put that sucker right in the dirt where it needs to be.  BAM!  Strike 3.  A player with poor command would be more prone to hang that meatball over the middle of the plate. 

8) Coach Hiring

Hardly anybody likes the coach hiring process.  All that needs to be done is allow us to sign coaches to multi-year deals.  Improve the AI a bit so they don't want to get other offers from teams as often, especially when they have a high loyalty rating. 

9) Ability to Convert starters to relievers and relievers to starters

John Smoltz: was a starter, then a closer, now a starter.  Mariano Rivera:  Starter, then closer.  Derek Lowe:  Starter, then closer, now starter.  Jonathan Papelbon:  Starter, then closer.  Kerry Wood:  Starter, now closer.  Bobby Jenks:  Starter, now closer.  Ryan Dempster:  Starter, then closer, now starter.  It's probably not very often that teams draft college and high school pitchers as relief pitchers.  Normally these guys are starters, and sometimes they struggle as such, until a coach with an outside the box mind converts them to the bullpen.  To keep things simple (and realistic), you shouldn't be able to convert any pitcher you want from starter to closer or vice versa, but more likely a pitching coach would send you an email in your correspondance box telling you he feels that Joe Schmoe or John Ron would have a better career if he were converted from one to the other.  The GM has the option to make the change, and to aid in this decision, the pitching coach (with help from the advanced scouts, of course) would tell me what changes I can expect to see in projected stamina and durability.  For example, Joe Schmoe is a starter in Class High A with current/projected stamina of 52/69 and durability of 20/23.  The HiA pitching coach thinks he'll be better as a relief pitcher and says that he can change those ratings to 18/25 and 70/85, along with improving his control and pitch 1 and 2 ratings if converted to a reliever.  It's up to me to decide if I want to do it.  How often and how accurate these projections are depend on:  How good is my pitching coach and how high is my advanced scouting budget?

10) Softer Demotion Penalties

I don't like that if I bring up a mediocre or decent prospect to the majors and then later decide I need the roster spot for somebody else, that I am almost obligated to keep him on the ML roster because if I demote him to AAA I know he will take ratings hits accross the board.  Just make it so only players with terrible makeup will see this effect.  The majority of professional athletes have enough mental fortitude that taking one demotion in their lifetime isn't going to permantly regress their ability to do their job.

11)  Allow injured or demoted players to gain back projected ratings

I had a star player on my roster miss 11 games with a forearm cramp.  Although just 25 years old, and only sustaining the most minor of all injuries, his projected power rating permantly went from 85 to 83.  Absolutely absurd.  More realstically, his current power rating, which is 79 should have fallen to 77 for a couple weeks, while still partially recovering from the cramp.  His projected power should have stayed at 85.  A demoted player might occasionally see current ratings drops, but this should rarely and/or moderately have any affect on his projected ratings.

There are other aesthetic/cosmetic changes I'd like to see made, but these are the major ones that have significant impact on how the player plays the game.  Stay tuned for the possibility of Part II.  And for those interested, I run the Tampa Bay Angry Dragons in public world Spahn.

Don't Tell Me how to Feel
I absolutely hate being told how I should feel after a win or a loss. A feeling is a naturally occurring phenomenon and if my feelings don't match the way some clown thinks I should feel, that doesn't make me an "idiot." Following the recent three game sweep that the White Sox handed the Cubs at U.S. Cellular Field this past weekend, an associate claiming to be a neutral-that is, he is a fan of both the Sox and the Cubs-told me I'm an idiot for being happier than usual after the three wins.

His reasons? We've all heard them before. Because the Cubs are not in the White Sox division-they aren't even in the same league-so I should be happier if they were to sweep the Twins, Tigers, or Indians. While true that sweeping one of the latter teams benefits the White Sox in the standings more so than the Cubs, that doesn't mean I can't put something extra into my celebration.

For the record, I didn't celebrate any more than I would normally have if it were any other team. After all, the Cubs swept the Sox last weekend at Wrigley Field. But I was happy today that I didn't have to walk around with my head hanging low, trying desperately to avoid the fans of the other team and their inevitable humiliating comments. You know the feeling. At the office, you walk down five flights of stairs just because if you take the elevator, you have to walk right past the desk of that obnoxious fan of your team's rival. Sure, you're out of breath when you return from your smoke break, but at least you didn't have to hear that annoying guy rhetorically ask with a big silly grin "Hey, how about them Sox?" Guys like him-I'll call him Loudmouth-make my life hell. What's great is that when the Sox win I don't have to say a darned thing to him. My joy is that Loudmouth hangs his head low and tries to avoid me for a change. I love that.

Besides that, who are you to tell me who I can root for and root against, and why the heck can't I have both? Why is it "Don't worry about what the Cubs do, just worry about what the White Sox do?" That's absurd. I hate the Cubs. I love the White Sox. I'm going to be happy when the Sox win, and I'm going to be happy when the Cubs lose. If both happen in the same game, double the pleasure! I root for the White Sox when they don't play the Cubs, and I root against the Cubs when they don't play the White Sox. That's how it has always been, and that's how it always will be. That doesn't make me, or anybody else who is the same way, an idiot.

What's interesting, is what would happen if the White Sox and Cubs (who have both dominated their respective divisions and have both been in first place for several weeks) were to meet in the World Series. If the Sox won, I'd be happy that they won the World Series. I wouldn't be even more happy because they beat the Cubs. But if the Sox lost, I'd be disappointed about the loss, and I'd be even more disappointed that they lost to the Cubs. I'd rather die than face Loudmouth if that ever happens.

Cub's Chances of Landing Sabathia
From everything I've been hearing, the Cleveland Indians are on the verge of trading their Ace, left handed pitcher C.C. Sabathia, to the highest bidder. The Cubs would seem to be in the mix of possible suitors, and there is no doubt that GM Jim Hendry has a strong interest and prospects to deal. But, on second though, does he really have prospects the Indians want?

I've heard the names Felix Pie, Eric Patterson, Rich Hill, Shawn Marshall, and Ronny Cedeno thrown around. On paper it sounds like an impressive package of talent. But after much thought, I've ruled that the Cubs would have to give up much more if they realistically expect to acquire the services of Sabathia.


The Cubs better be prepared to meet the Indians'
demands.

Pie has been a disappointing prospect up and down between the Cubs and their Triple-A affiliate. When in the majors, he is almost exclusively used as a defensive replacement or spot starter. He has similar problems to former Cub Corey Patterson, such as the big question of whether he is a leadoff hitter with speed, or a middle of the order power hitter. Eric Patterson simply looks lost in the field, and lacks plate discipline. He doesn't look like an every day major league hitter to me. Hill, like Pie, has been up and down, and can't find a spot in a starting rotation that features Jason Marquis and his 4.96 ERA. If Hill can't supplant Marquis, how good is he really? Same goes for Marshall, who is only pitching right now in the majors due to an injury to Ace Carlos Zambrano. Ronny Cedeno has "tools" but he is a career platoon and/or utility player.  Ditto another AAAA outfielder named Matt Murton.

So, if I'm GM Mark Shapiro of the Indians, what does interest me on the Cubs? If I'm Shapiro, the next time Hendry calls me, I tell him, start with your starting SS Ryan Theriot, and build the package from there. Get back to me when you're ready to include an actual major league player instead of five players you can't wait to get rid of.

Does Hendry have the sand to agree to such a swap of blockbuster proportions? That I don't know, but I'm anxious to find out.

Young/Vazquez Trade a Good One for D-Backs and White Sox
CF Chris Young of the Diamondbacks looks to be a stud prospect boasting speed, power, and outstanding defense.  Much has been made of the former White Sox farmhand, who, on December 20, 2005 was traded along with Orlando Hernandez and Luis Vizcaino to Arizona for SP Javier Vazquez.  I've heard general comments from White Sox fans saying that it was a mistake to trade Young, and recently Foxsports.com's own Ken Rosenthal quipped that this past offseason's acquisition of Carlos Quentin from Arizona would finally help ease the pain of losing out on Young to Arizona.  What seems left out in this talk every time is that the White Sox acquired a bona fide #1 or #2 starter in Vazquez, who is MLB's second leading strikeout pitcher since 2001 and went 15-8 with a 3.74 ERA in 2007 while playing his home games in hitter friendly U.S. Cellular Field for a 4th place team that lost 90 games.  Sure, the White Sox could use the speedy CFer in their leadoff spot right now, but something tells me that their GM Kenny Williams wouldn't be willing to give up Vazquez to re-acquire him.  A potential 30/30 OFer is about the going rate these days for an Ace.

Rays' Seeason a Pleasant Surprise But...
This in response to Foxsports.com's Dayn Perry's column that the Tampa Bay [Devil] Rays winning season is great for baseball.  It sure is nice to see somebody besides New York and Boston atop the A.L. East, but I greatly fear a Tampa divisional title would give MLB execs a false sense of parity in baseball.  (By the way, they will always be the Devil Rays to me, just as the Angels will always be the Anaheim Angels, or occasionally, the California Angels).  Before this season, I'd have given the Devil Rays a 0% of ever making the playoffs under MLB's current structure.  I now see that they are a legitimate contender for the not only the division, but the pennant.  However, these types of seasons are few and far between.  MLB is in desperate need of a salary cap that would give other small(er) market teams a more fair chance more often.  All top notch free agents have three teams that can afford to sign them:  the Red Sox, Yankees, and Mets; once in a while the Cubs, Dodgers, or Angels will join the mix.  In a couple seasons when the Devil Rays' players hit free agency, they will let them walk and they'll stink again... that is if they don't head towards Marlin-i-zation and trade them all before it even gets that far.  The Red Sox and Yankees will never stink so long as they are allowed to throw money around like it's candy.

Whatifsports (WIS) a Must See for Any Sports Fan
Here is a unpaid advertisement for www.whatifsports.com, a subsidiary of Foxsports.com.  WIS is just an amazing website, and if you're a sports fan who hasn't heard about it yet, you should check it out immediately.  Ever been sitting in a bar with your buddies and argue about who would win a series between the 1927 Yankees and the 1969 Mets?  Or how about Grant Hill and Christian Laettner vs Bobby Knight's undefeated Indiana team?  '72 Dolphins against the '85 Bears?  Jordan's Bulls against Wilt's Lakers?  Whatifsports uses a highly complex simulation to match any historical teams in MLB, NFL, NBA, CBB, NHL, and CFB, and then generates a box score with play by play so you can read it as if the game were actually played.  I've simmed all these games and hundreds more and I can't get enough.  WIS also has SimLeagues where you can mix and match players from any era on any team and form your all time dream team (How about Nolan Ryan throwing pirtches to Ivan Rodriguez behind the plate with Brooks Robinson, Ozzie Smith, Roberto Alomar, and Keith Hernandez as their infield defense?).  My favorite though is the Dyansty leagues.  I'm in a MLB Hardball Dynasty where I get to play GM of a baseball franchise complete with 5 minor league teams.  There's a Rule 5 draft, amatuer draft, international free agents, and full trades and free agent signing.  It's just absolutely awesome.