Below are user reviews of Baseball Mogul 2004 and on the right are links to professionally written reviews.
The summary of review scores shows the distribution of scores given by the professional reviewers for Baseball Mogul 2004.
Column height indicates the number of reviews with a score within the range shown at the bottom of the column.
Higher scores (columns further towards the right) are better.
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User Reviews (1 - 11 of 20)
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Fun for a while..
2
Rating: 2,
Useful: 2 / 5
Date: March 13, 2003
Author: Amazon User
This is a fun little game. It does not compare to the other text based games (like out of the park 5), but it does not try to. If you like your game lite w/ out the bother of hiring coaches, scouts etc. and you like it to be easy, this is your game! Try it out, you may fall in love. I recommend this game to any new text based baseball game, then when you are ready to move up go try something else. Great starting point for players!
2k4 or 2k3?
2
Rating: 2,
Useful: 2 / 5
Date: March 13, 2003
Author: Amazon User
2k4 is not much of an upgrade from 2k3 (or 2k2 for that matter). You have full screen now and can upload any season (things you could already do with many other text based sims). I'm not sure the game offers much from 2k3. I would recommend picking up an old copy of Baseball Mogul 2K if you really wanting to play this game. Or go try OOTP 5 (at www.....com) if you want something more advanced. But if you are looking for something a little simple, then pick this game up! It is very good for what it is. Just expect a lite game is all!
Pretty boring
2
Rating: 2,
Useful: 2 / 11
Date: September 17, 2003
Author: Amazon User
This game needs more real strategy scenarios. Just doesn't have the umph!
Fun, but not a good simulation
3
Rating: 3,
Useful: 4 / 6
Date: January 22, 2004
Author: Amazon User
I've enjoyed the game, but its outcomes don't seem realistic. For example, I've just reenacted the 1908 season, and Harry Lumley of Brooklyn hit 132 home runs. In real life, he hit 4. Mike Donlin was the batting leader with a .514 batting average. Perhaps I'm doing something wrong, but I suspect that it would be important to think of this as a game and not as a simulation.
A great game in need of an overhaul
4
Rating: 4,
Useful: 51 / 52
Date: January 02, 2004
Author: Amazon User
I've been playing Baseball Mogul since it first came out a few years ago. I typically play a 100-season marathon (which takes several weeks), and I've done this for each issue of the game, so the following thoughts are based on several hundred seasons of play.
This is a very original and addictive game. You are the general manager of a major-league baseball team, and you control the team's future, handling minor-league development, free-agent signings, trades, and so on--even the lineup and pitching rotation. (The only things you don't control are the managerial decisions on the field.) The prospect of controlling your team for several decades is genuinely exciting, and this game provides that fantasy opportunity like no other.
However, there are some persistent problems with this game, all of which are known to the programmers, and so much time has gone by since the original release that by now they should have fixed the flaws. For me, that reduces what would have been a five-star game in 1998 to a four-star game in 2004.
Within the space allowed for this review, I can't get into everything, so I'll just give an overview:
1. The computer often makes mistakes when awarding wins and losses to pitchers, as you can readily determine by reading the box scores. There's really no excuse for that. For that matter, box scores are annoying, because the statistics are not presented in the standard form that any baseball fan knows (AB-R-H-RBI).
2. Players' careers are too consistent in one sense, and not consistent enough in another sense. On the one hand, a player's career is quite predictable: it's very unlikely that a first-rate player is going to drop off the radar screen all of a sudden--something that really does happen to baseball players (just think of Chuck Knoblauch). So it's too easy to determine which young pitchers are likely to end up in the Hall of Fame. However, you can't predict at all HOW they are going to get there, because their year-to-year performance appears to be almost completely random. You'll find one guy hit .330 in one year, then .258 in the next, and so on. That happens too often in this game. Also, pitchers in this game are substantially more consistent than hitters, but in reality the opposite is true.
3. Batting averages are too low and ERA's are too high. In a given season, this is only a slight problem, but it becomes clearer when you look at career perfomance: you will almost never find a player retire with a .300 batting average or ERA under 3.30. Even with today's scoring inflation, there are still pitchers like Pedro Martinez who can be counted on to have ERA's well below 3.30 year in and year out. And you'll NEVER find a player Tony Gwynn or Wade Boggs, with moderate power but a batting average over .300 year after year. They just don't appear. That's not realistic.
4. There are too many power pitchers who retire with 4000+ strikeouts (and an incommensurate 3.90 ERA). And another oddity: stolen bases are too rare, and the success rate is much too low. I've seen players with 25 SB and 40 CS in one season! You'd think the manager would have told that fellow to stop running in May.
5. The awards voting is not realistic either. Too many shortstops win the MVP and Rookie-of-the-Year awards (and too often you'll find a rookie with a .195 batting average winning the award). Closers NEVER make the Hall of Fame, which is absurd: I've had closers with over 500 saves who didn't get in.
6. Some of the realities of dealing with players need to be worked into the game. The no-trade clause, for example--in this game, you can just ship out an old star anytime you'd like. You can't do that in real life. Signing free agents is too simple, and there is nothing like arbitration.
7. This new version allows you to build your own stadium (a nice improvement) but the mechanism is unrealistic and absurd: you have to pay for your stadium in one lump-sum payment, so you have to save up for many seasons before you can afford it, and for some reason if your ready cash exceeds a certain threshold (around $300 million, I've noticed), your revenue inexplicably starts to suffer. There has to be a way to pay for your stadium by taking a mortgage.
8. This version also allows you to start playing at any year from 1900--but if you start at 1900, there is a bug in the program that will cause pitchers to have ERA's around 10.00 (and Elmer Flick will win the Gold Glove at every position). The makers know about this. Why haven't they fixed it?
Statistical Drug for Baseball Fanatics
4
Rating: 4,
Useful: 15 / 15
Date: March 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User
I'm old enough to remember the old strat-o-matic baseball games, as well as the first fantasy league baseball games, as a kid, and I have always been disappointed by baseball video games more concentrated on graphics, instead of variable and situational realism. Baseball Mogul is an attempt to mitigate some of those shortfalls. It is by no stretch perfect, and if you're simply looking for a software game that gives you enhanced graphics, you're better off with X-Box. Nevertheless, it is a first class game from the perspective of a GM/Owner, in which you can operate your own team, set your lineups, pitching staff, conduct trades, etc., based on real MLB teams, historically, as well as recent ones. It even allows for a draft, although it waits until after the season (even though MLB's draft occurs during the season).
The 2004 version allows for improvement in minor league players, ones you historically know would never be that good in the bigs, simply by spending the most money and resources on minor league player development. You know something is wrong when Joe Oliver can develop into a 50-homerun per year hitter. However, the recent versions of this game, which are not contained on amazon.com, particularly the 2006 version, and its 8.50 patch, correct many of these flaws. It even takes into account year-to-year fence setting changes in ballparks, which the 2004 version does not. Overall, I was extremely pleased and impressed, but again this is a game for those that look to the strategic aspects of baseball over aesthetics.
Well worth it
4
Rating: 4,
Useful: 4 / 4
Date: October 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User
While Baseball Mogul is not perfect, I have logged dozens of hours as a general manager. In fact, I am in the 75% through a campaign to win the World Series with every team in the league and (in homage to Wowbanger the Infinitely Prolonged from Hitchhiker's Guide) in alphabetical order. The fun I have had with this game is particularly suprising since I haven't followed baseball since the strike.
In Baseball Mogul you do not play baseball, you do not coach baseball, you play the general manager. Each season runs by in as little as a minute or two, then you make trades and grab free agents and dump overpaid "stars" to keep you budget in line. This game turns Moneyball into reality: your job is to send the best team you can afford out onto the field.
The interface can seem clunky in some places until you get used to it, and the game is certainly not perfect. However, at this price you will certainly get your money's worth from the game.
Hint - every year grab a bunch of younger relievers, sign them for two years at about 700k-1.2m, and trade them for cash or players the following year. You can trade 3-4 of them for a top notch player, or far more cash than you paid them, and heck, they did pitch for you for a year. Also, never scrimp on scouting, always be first in spending or very nearly first if you cannot afford to outspend every other team.
Highly recommended.
For what its worth...
4
Rating: 4,
Useful: 2 / 2
Date: March 15, 2003
Author: Amazon User
In my view, the game is great. While it is not a huge improvement over past versions it is still better than anything prior. There was enough done to the game for me to buy the 2004 version.
I would have liked to see an Amateur draft included, but I realize how difficult of a change this would be, however I do look forward to it being included in a future version.
In the end I must say that for the price I definitely get much more than my money's worth with this game. I will keep me thoroughly entertained for many months.
Do You?
4
Rating: 4,
Useful: 1 / 20
Date: September 20, 2003
Author: Amazon User
I want to buy this game and i don't know if you get to watch the games and if you do please rate the graphics from 1-5.
PLEASE WRITE SOMEBODY WHO KNOWS!
If you're a fantasy baseball junkie, you'll love this game!
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 22 / 23
Date: March 16, 2003
Author: Amazon User
If you're a fantasy baseball junkie, you'll love this game. I looked at the version from last year and didn't pick it up but based upon things I'd heard about this year's game I decided to give it a try, and I'm glad I did!
The ability to draft your own team and not just start with the rosters of each team is great. Face it fantasy baseball junkies, half the fun is drafting. You'll get your draft fix with this game and then the fun is only beginning.
From there it's your job to keep your team winning while also attempting to improve your team by trades, free agent signings, and bringing up kids from the farm. On top of that you also have to keep your owner happy by keeping his team in the black making money. You also have the option to eventually build a new stadium and move your team into it.
The only real drawback to the game is the lack of a disabled list. It would be nice to put a guy on the DL when he's going to be out for more than 2 weeks rather than waste a bench spot on him. I've also noticed that many of the injuries are repetitive, stress fractures seem to be the most popular by far and foot stress fractures hit almost everybody eventually which is weird.
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