How much money to keep at start of season

[PAULMINICUCCI]

I try to use as much money as I can to start a season but I'm not sure it is agood idea. Is it smart to hold out $3mil or so for flexibility?

[MICHAELTARBELL]

[quote:38b70492e5="Sacramento Yankees"]I try to use as much money as I can to start a season but I'm not sure it is agood idea. Is it smart to hold out $3mil or so for flexibility?[/quote:38b70492e5]

NO!! Spend it all if you can! Your best value is before the season starts! No sense holding on to cash, use it all, and build the best team you can! You can't expect to beat an 80 million dollar team with a 77 million dollar team very often! :wink: :)

[The Biomechanical Man]

Having played online now for several years, my feeling is this: hold about $200,000 - $500,000 to start a season for your first several teams, as you build your knowledge. This will give you some flexibility for replacing cheapie players or for swinging a trade. After you've played many, many teams and think you know what you're doing, :roll: you might as well build teams with no money in reserve or as little as possible.

[CHARLESBELL]

I have to agree with mtarbell. Even $500k could be used to upgrade a player to a better one. I can empathize with BM, though, since small salary differences can often sink trades when you don't have much flexibility, but the down side with holding cash is that you are starting out with less team than you could have.

[IM Bacchus]

ZERO.....$0.... Nothin.....

[PAULMINICUCCI]

Well that's great because I have less than $500,000 for each of my four teams. I am trying to pick up from you guys the bargain guys who are rarely .500 mil but there are a lot of bargains in the 1million range. One of my teams had four injuries in the first three games with players who all had a 1 in injury ratings. So, I had people playing out of position and HAL used some funky line-ups (that is, I could not list palyers in positions that they don't have in their listing but hey) it is all about learning.

[tersignf]

Not to disagree, but hey--there are plenty of .50-ish bargains!

Wes Helms and Kaz Matsui DH vs lefties
JGathright as bench OF and PR...AMiles...TGraffanino...BGrieve...Amezaga for his D
JLima...DGraves...JNFranco...DSanchez

to name a few off the top of my cranium!

[Play By The Rules]

Spend every penny. All your backups (carry only 13 unless you have a ton of injury guys) should be .50. Maximize salary spent on starting players SP or crucial RP.

If you happen to end up with .10m you will have enough money to be able to afford to dump one of your .50m guys (with the 20% penalty) for a different one if you get a crucial injury or what not.

[PAULMINICUCCI]

Just wanted to say thanks to all who answered my query. Sound advise which I will use.

[cummings2]

The only times I start the season with more than .3 M is when there is a player I have targeted in the off season and couldn't get him or there is a particular need I know my team will most likely have and I couldn't fix before the season starts.
Then I spot the player(s) that can help fix the problem, keep the salary open and wait until the season starts. Most of the times the player that I targeted become available around games 40-60 and then I don't have to dump any other player and loose the cap. It's a risky tactic since some managers are quite smart and just don't dump players but there is often the chance that the player they wouldn't trade you before the season started becomes available once the season starts and their teams struggle a bit.
I do have to point out that I am talking mostly about platoon players vs. LHP, base stealers, defensive replacements and the sort that you can get for 2M or under. I never start with more than 2 Mil unused.
Different tactics for different leagues, different teams...