Prior to
Baseball Mogul 2007, all games were simulated, with the player assuming the combined role of
general manager/
manager/
owner. Players oversee an entire baseball
franchise, and possess the ability to set
batting lineups, 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.
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 2019 roster. •
Classic - Play in any year from
1901 through the present. •
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 and
1998. As of
Baseball Mogul 2015, players can also create their own team in a city of their choice, with the AI making a second team to have 32 teams overall. Players can manually add up to eight teams (a total of 40) through the League Editor, but there is no Expansion Draft in these situations, so the expansion teams created by this method will struggle more than historical ones did. •
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 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 or the
Cincinnati Reds. •
Shuffle All Teams reassigns every roster, so each team has a random set of players. •
Fictional Players generates a new set of players with statistics based on players from the era chosen by the player. •
Fictional Teams renames all teams, complete with nicknames (i.e. the
San Francisco Giants 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 players are rated for a variety of measures of
batting,
baserunning, and
fielding prowess.
Contact and
Power ratings correlate to a batter's ability to connect with pitches and do so solidly, influencing
batting average and
extra base hits. 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.
Pitchers are rated for a variety of measures of pitching skills.
Power measures pitch velocity and
strikeout rate. Accuracy in pitch placement and
walk 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 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, except that the games are simulated by the engine and thus leagues can continue beyond the Major League Baseball season. The league
commissioner 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.
Deprecated features (in previous versions) • For several early 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 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==