TONY LA RUSSA FANTASY DRAFT Baseball's starting over. Stripped of their players, forced to begin again from scratch, teams must scramble to get the best talent they can -- in a draft of the very major-leaguers who had just been playing for them. That's what the Fantasy Draft is all about: pooling players from existing teams, then drafting them back onto the teams they were taken from. The general managers make the picks, and you customize the general managers -- or draft your own teams. And when the draft is finished, a new league is born. Name it, save it, then take it into Tony La Russa Baseball II and play it. (An Overview of the Fantasy Draft follows) Overview of The Fantasy Draft Here is an overview of the five menu bar choices in the Tony II Fantasy Draft. After the overview is a brief description of each selection on each menu. THE BASEBALL ICON (on the left end of the menu bar): Load a saved draft, or save a draft in progress. Exit back to the main game from here. THE DRAFT SETUP MENU: Choose draft options, which teams will contribute players to the draft, and which will make selections. Also, calculate or change players' salaries, and restore the general managers to their initial settings. THE DRAFT MENU: Draft and trade players here; set up the general managers for each of the teams. THE MANAGER MENU: Take a look at your player roster and pitching staff as the draft progresses. Consider who might be in the starting lineup or the pitching rotation even though the roster is not yet complete. THE HOME PLATE ICON (at the right end of the menu bar): display, save, or print additional information here. A single keystroke brings up detailed batting, pitching, or fielding stats, or sends the data to your printer, or saves it in a text file for later use. If you get lost anywhere in the game, press F7 for help. (more about each menu below) MORE ABOUT THE MENUS THE BASEBALL ICON: LOAD DRAFT IN PROGRESS: This retrieves a saved draft, including all teams and settings. After a load, the draft can continue as usual. SAVE DRAFT IN PROGRESS: This saves the current state of a draft to disk. You may then quit to DOS, or return to the main program. Select 'Load Draft in Progress' to resume the draft at a later time. NOTE: the program can only maintain one saved draft. New saves destroy old ones. GENERAL DRAFT HELP: this displays the help information you are reading now. DRAFT CREDITS: displays a list of the people who created the Fantasy Draft. EXIT DRAFT: select 'exit draft' to return to the main game. QUIT: exit the draft and return to DOS. THE DRAFT SETUP MENU: DRAFT RULES: Use the draft rules screen to customize the draft: select the order in which the teams pick, how fast the computer picks go by, and whether or not the draft is governed by a salary cap. TEAM POOL: The team pool is a list of players available in a draft. These players may come from any number of teams in the current league. Use the Team Pool screen to select which teams' players go into the pool, and which teams will draft. CALCULATE PLAYER SALARIES: Select 'Calculate Player Salaries' to have the program compute each player's salary (in thousands of dollars) based on his statistics. For the Classic players, this has already been done. For the 1992's, the salaries are the actual amounts paid to the players that season. EDIT PLAYER SALARIES: Use this screen to manually change the salaries of the players, or to input them directly. RESET GENERAL MANAGERS: All the general managers in the Fantasy Draft are preset to Tony La Russa's style. If you change them for a draft, select 'Reset General Managers' to restore them to Tony's settings. THE DRAFT MENU: DRAFT DAY: Selecting 'Draft Day' begins the draft. Teams pick in a random order in the first round, then choose according to the Draft Rules. The program displays the computer general managers' choices as they are selected, and pauses to allow human managers to make their picks. TRADES: Swap players here. Teams may trade zero, one, two, or three players or draft picks with each other. TEAM GENERAL MANAGER: The general manager is a team's decision maker: he decides who to draft, who to trade, and which on-the-field playing style to pursue. The 'Team General Manager' screen allows you to select which teams you will control, and which the computer take care of. GENERAL MANAGER PROFILE: Each general manager has his own personal style, and this style carries over into the draft choices he makes. Some GM's try to build teams with lots of power; they believe teams that hit bunches of homers win bunches of games. Others prefer great pitching; they augment their staffs whenever possible. The General Manager Profile screen allows you to edit the style of each team's GM, customizing the tendencies as you see fit. THE MANAGER MENU: PLAYER ROSTER: The player roster screen presents a list of batters drafted so far. Here you can change the active roster of a team by moving players to and from the reserve list. A player put on the reserve list during the draft will remain there throughout, and will also stay there when the draft is saved as a new league. PITCHING STAFF: The pitching staff screen presents a list of pitchers drafted so far. Here you can change the active roster of a team by moving pitchers to and from the reserve list. A pitcher put on the reserve list during the draft will remain there throughout, and will also stay there when the draft is saved as a new league. PITCHING ROTATION: In the middle of the draft, you can create a pitching rotation with the players you have so far, or ask Tony for his advice: see what he would do with your as yet incomplete staff of pitchers. DEFENSIVE ASSIGNMENTS: Here you can experiment with defensive assignments while the draft is in progress, using Tony's advice to see how your team might line up with a partially filled roster. BATTING ORDER: Come here to see how your batting order is shaping up as the draft progresses. NEW TEAM: Select a new team. THE HOME PLATE ICON (on the right end of the menu bar): On many of the screens in The Fantasy Draft, the function keys, F1 through F3, are available to bring up more detailed player statistics. Point to a player (or high- light him), then press one of the following keys: F1: displays batting stats F2: displays pitching stats F3: displays fielding stats The right mouse button acts as F1 for batters and as F2 for pitchers. F4: is disconnected in the fantasy draft. Use the function keys, F5 and F6, to print screens: F5: prints the screen: the computer sends what you see to the printer. F6: appends what you see to the contents of the file, print.txt. You may print this file, or use any text editor to look at what's in it. When you are viewing box scores, F6 adds the text to the file, boxscore.txt. F7: To get more information about any of the menu selections, click on the item, then press F7 when you get there. F8: During the draft itself, press F8 to display the selection order for that round of the draft. * Draft Rules Help Use the draft rules screen to customize the draft: select the order in which the teams pick, how fast the computer picks go by, and whether or not the draft is governed by a salary cap. The screen is divided into four main areas: DRAFT ORDER: In the first round of a draft, the teams pick in a randomly chosen order. 'Draft order' controls the order in subsequent rounds. There are three options: CYCLE: this means the first-round order is maintained for all rounds. The team that picks first in the first round, will choose first in every round; and the team that gets the last pick in the first round will always choose last. SNAKE: means the draft order of the next round is the reverse of the previous round's. The team that got the first pick will choose last, and the team that chose last will go first. RANDOM: is exactly that: the draft order of each round is completely random and not based at all on the previous round. NOTE: you may only select a new order before a draft begins. If you have already started a draft and wish to change the order, you must restart the draft (see the draft setup menu). SPEED OF DISPLAY: Typically the computer will control the drafting for several of the teams. Select '[return] after computer picks' to ask the machine to wait for a RETURN key press after each computer choice. This will ensure that you can see who was picked before the next team drafts. Check 'computer picks stream by' if you don't want the machine to pause after every computer choice. Tony II allows for rotisserie league style drafting, complete with salary cap. A salary cap is a limit to the amount of money each team may pay its players: the sum of all the player's salaries must be less than the cap. SALARY CAP: Check 'use salary cap' if you want to use the salary cap feature. If you try to draft a player whose salary would cause your team to exceed the cap, the computer will display a message and disallow the choice. Check 'disregard salaries' if you do not want to use the salary cap feature. The remainder of the Draft Rules apply only to drafts for which the salary cap is in effect. SALARY SCALE: 'Real World' means the salaries are in thousands of dollars. For example, 1,250 means 1,250,000 dollars. 'Rotisserie' assigns values to players using a system of points. Typically, these numbers are much lower than the dollar salaries. So, 900 means the player is worth 900 points. DRAFT RIGHTS: Tony II supports both a standard draft and an auction style draft. In 'standard,' the player chosen goes to the team which picked him. In 'auction,' when a player is selected, he is assigned a salary of one, and the other teams may bid on him. A team may offer any number of dollars (or points) for a player, as long as the salary cap is not exceeded. The team that bids the most gets the player, and must give up its next draft pick to the team that originally chose the player. EDIT SALARY CAP FOR ALL TEAMS: Here you may set the salary cap. Click on the box, and type in the number you want. The minimum salary cap is zero. The maximum is 1,000,000 thousand dollars or 10,000 points. When no team can draft a player without exceeding the cap, teams may draft without any salary limits. At the bottom of the screen is a single button: RESTORE: Click here to cancel any changes you have made to the draft rules since coming to the screen. * Team Pool Help The team pool is a list of players available in a draft. These players may come from any number of teams in the current league. Use the Team Pool screen to select which teams' players go into the pool, and which teams will draft. There are two check boxes next each team name in the current league: POOL: check 'pool' to include a team's players in the draft pool. These players will be available to all teams participating in the draft. DRAFT: select 'draft' for each team you want to participate in the draft. Only those teams with 'draft' checked will be allowed to choose players. NOTE: the number of teams drafting cannot be greater than the number of teams in the team pool. If this is true, the program will cancel your team pool choices when you leave the screen. At the bottom of the screen is a single button: RESTORE: click on 'restore' to undo any changes you have made since coming to the Team Pool screen. * Edit Player Salaries Help Each player in Tony II has a salary in thousands of dollars (or in rotisserie-style points). For the classic players included with the game, the salaries are computer- calculated; the 1992's are the actual dollar amounts paid to the players that season. Use this screen to change the salaries of the players. To edit a salary, click on the box to the left of the player's name, then type in the new amount. The minimum salary is 109; the maximum is 9999. These values are in thousands of dollars. At the bottom of the screen are four buttons: MORE: some teams have more batters than will fit on the screen at one time. Click on 'more' to display the rest of them. NEW TEAM: click here to select another team. PITCHERS: saves any changes made to the batters' salaries, then displays a list of the team's pitchers. RESTORE: click on 'restore' to cancel any changes you have made to the batters' salaries since coming to this screen. When you select 'pitchers', the 'more' button vanishes, and 'batters' replaces 'pitchers.' BATTERS: saves changes you have made to the pitchers' salaries, then displays the team's batters. As on many of the screens in Tony La Russa Baseball II, the function keys, F1 through F3, are available to bring up more detailed player statistics. Point to a player (or highlight him), then press one of the following keys: F1: displays batting stats F2: displays pitching stats F3: displays fielding stats F4: is disconnected; only the historical stats are available in the Edit Player Salaries screen. The right mouse button acts as F1 for batters and as F2 for pitchers. NOTE: the F2 pitcher's statistics display contains one additional stat not normally included: RATIO: this is the sum of the pitcher's hits and walks divided by his innings pitched. Use the function keys, F5 and F6, to print screens: F5: prints the screen: the computer sends what you see to the printer. F6: appends what you see to the contents of the file, print.txt. You may print this file, or use any text editor to look at what's in it. Glossary of abbreviations: Batting Statistics AB: at bats AVG: batting average B: batting side, left or right HR: home runs OBA: on base average POS: the player's primary position SA: slugging average SB: stolen bases Pitching Statistics BB: bases on balls (walks) END: the pitcher's endurance rating (1-10) ERA: earned run average IP: innings pitched K: strikeouts SV: saves T: throwing arm, left or right W-L: wins and losses * Team General Manager Help The general manager is a team's decision maker: he decides who to draft, who to trade, and which on-the-field playing style to pursue. In Tony II you can be all or none of the general managers, with the computer taking over for those teams you don't want to control yourself. The team general manager screen lists all the teams in the league, with two check boxes next to each. If you want to control a team yourself, click on the box labeled 'human.' When the draft begins, you will make the choices for that team. To let computer to make a team's decisions, check 'comp.' The machine will take over. At the bottom of the screen is a single button: RESTORE: click here to cancel any general manager assign- ments you have made since coming to this screen. * General Manager Profile Help Each general manager has his own personal style, and this style carries over into the draft choices he makes. Some GM's try to build teams with lots of power; they believe teams which hit bunches of homers win bunches of games. Others prefer great pitching; they augment their staffs whenever possible. The General Manager Profile screen allows you to edit the style of each team's GM, customizing the tendencies as you see fit. A general manager profile is made up of seven categories, each of which is assigned a numerical value from 0-100. The higher the number, the greater the influence that category will have on the GM's decisions. There is one limitation: the sum of all seven values must be 100. For example, a GM whose 'starters' and 'closers' are both set to 50 will have 0's in the other five categories. So, although his team will tend to have excellent starting pitchers and great late-inning bullpen stoppers, the middle relief, hitting, and defense all will be poor. On the left hand side of the screen, under the heading 'Managerial Bias' are several preset GM profiles. Click on the box next to one of these to mold the GM according to the corresponding description. The numbers under 'Profile' on the right will change to reflect your choice. The various biases are: TONY LA RUSSA: click here to draft the kind of team Tony would. POWER HUNGRY: This GM loves the home run. If several players are about equal in skill, he will choose the one with the greatest extra base power. STEAL BASES, STEAL RUNS: Here you emphasize team speed. The GM will bypass power hitters in favor of faster players and better defenders. PITCHING PITCHING PITCHING: Like the title says, this GM will get the best staff he can, but the rest of the team is likely to be no better than average. TOUGH IN THE FIELD: stresses defense. The GM will choose a good defender over a faster player or a better hitter. CUSTOM: Click here to create your own personal GM profile. After selecting 'custom,' click on the box next to the category you want to change, then type in a value. The total at the bottom will change. When you are finished, this total must be 100. If you go over, the program will reduce all the values equally to shrink the total to 100. A short description of each of the profile categories follows: STARTERS: If you want better starting pitching, increase the value here. CLOSERS: Want to make sure that close late-inning game doesn't get away? A high number here will get you quality pitchers to slam the door on an opponent's rally. MIDDLE RELIEF: Not every starting pitcher goes seven, eight, or nine innings. When the starter comes out early, a middle reliever comes in. Put a big number here to get strong middle inning pitchers. SPEED: a fast player can stretch a single into a double, steal a base when you need it, or run down a deep fly an average player might miss. Increase the value here to get greater team speed. POWER: homers win games. If you want your GM to draft more power hitters, put more points here. BATTING AVERAGE: A team can't score without base runners. A higher number here will get players with higher batting averages. DEFENSE: Errors can turn wins into losses. The greater the value here, the better your team's defense will be. At the bottom of the screen are two buttons: NEW TEAM: click here to switch to another team's GM profile. RESTORE: select 'restore' to cancel any changes you have made to the GM profile since coming to this screen. * Trades Help Teams may trade zero, one, two, or three players or draft picks with each other. These may be mixed and matched: any combination of pitchers, batters, and picks is legal. The only limitation is that after the trade, neither team may have more than 24 batters, 16 pitchers, or 40 total players plus draft picks. At the bottom of the screen are several buttons: MORE: If a team's players or draft picks will not all fit on the screen at once, 'more' displays the rest of them. SEE 'TEAM ABBREVIATION': Only one team's pitchers' or batters' names will fit on the screen at one time. Click on this button to view the other team's players. BATTERS: Displays the team's batters. PITCHERS: Brings up the team's pitchers. DRAFT PICKS: Lists the draft picks of the team. These are identified by round number and pick number in that round. For example, '1st Round (10)' means the tenth pick in the first round of the draft. RESTORE: Trades do not become final until you leave the trades screen. Until that time, you may cancel all trades between these two teams by clicking on the 'RESTORE' button. To propose a trade, select one, two, or three batters, pitchers, or draft picks from one team. The player names or draft round numbers will appear in one of the "offered" boxes near the top of the screen. Next switch teams (click on the "see" button at the bottom). Now choose players or picks from the other team. You may offer zero players in a trade. To remove a player from the offered box, click on his name there. For the trade to go through, each team must "agree." Click on the the "agree" button beneath the players offered box to accept the trade for each team. If the trade would result in either team having too many or too few pitchers, batters, or draft picks, the trade will not be allowed. Click on 'reject' to cancel the trade and return the offered players to their rosters. As on many of the screens in Tony La Russa Baseball II, the function keys, F1 through F3, are available to bring up more detailed player statistics. Point to a player (or highlight him), then press one of the following keys: F1: displays batting stats F2: displays pitching stats F3: displays fielding stats F4: is disconnected; only the historical stats are available in the Edit Player Salaries screen. The right mouse button acts as F1 for batters and as F2 for pitchers. NOTE: the F2 pitcher's statistics display contains one additional stat not normally included: RATIO: this is the sum of the pitcher's hits and walks divided by his innings pitched. Use the function keys, F5 and F6, to print screens: F5: prints the screen: the computer sends what you see to the printer. F6: appends what you see to the contents of the file, print.txt. You may print this file, or use any text editor to look at what's in it. * Draft Day Help Selecting 'Draft Day' begins the draft. Teams pick in a random order in the first round, then choose according to the Draft Rules. The program displays the computer general managers' choices as they are selected, and pauses to allow human managers to make their picks. For each player a computer general manager picks, a small window appears in the center of the screen. This displays the name of the player chosen, his salary, and his stats. If you have '[return] after computer picks' checked on the Draft Rules screen, click on the 'okay' button to continue the draft. If 'computer picks stream by' is checked, after a short pause the next team will pick, and the data in the window will change to reflect that team's choice. When it is a human general manager's turn to pick, the program stops the draft to wait for a choice. The small window vanishes, allowing you access to the list of unchosen players. The top portion of the screen displays the team name, the amount of money the team has remaining under the salary cap, and which pick it is in the current round. Below this information is a by-position, color-coded count of players this team has drafted so far. To play an entire season, a team should have adequate experience at every position in the field and at least five starters and five relievers. The color codes indicate the number of players this team has drafted so far at each position: BLACK: the team has drafted no or very little experience at this position so far. Needs much more. BLUE: some experience so far. For fielders, another player with at least 200 at bats is needed. For pitchers, one more will fill out the position. GREEN: a green number means the team has this spot covered. Unless you can draft a superstar to play this position, you would do better to select a player to fill one of the team's other needs. The middle part of the screen lists the players still available and their statistics. To draft a player, click on his name. The small window will appear with the player you have chosen and his stats, and with two buttons. Click on 'accept' to confirm your choice, add the player to your team, and continue with the draft. Select 'cancel' if you change your mind and want to look over the list of players once more. To see more detailed stats for the player, press F1, F2, or F3. If you can't decide who to select, click on ADVICE at the bottom of the screen. The computer will evaluate all the remaining players, taking into account your team's needs and your general manager settings, and recommend a player. You may accept this player as usual, or click on 'cancel' to choose someone else. When the draft is over, the computer will ask each human general manager if he wants Tony's advice. If you answer 'yes,' Tony will select the best players for both the roster and pitching staff, and set up the defense, batting order, and starting rotation. At the completion of the draft, you will have created a new league. The program will ask you for a league name and abbreviation. To use the new league, return to the main game, then select 'change leagues.' Across the top of the player list are several statistical categories. Click on these to sort the players according the various stats. For example, click on 'avg' to sort the players according to their batting averages, from best to worst. See below for a glossary of the column abbreviations. Sometimes the player list can very long. Click on the arrow buttons to the right to scroll list. If you are having difficulty locating a player, type the first letter of his last name. The computer will search the list from top to bottom, stopping at the first player whose last name starts with that letter. Pressing another letter will search for the new letter starting at the current name. At the bottom of the screen are eight buttons, divided into three columns. Use these to limit the player list to a certain group of players to make it easier to find the one you want. HITTERS/PITCHERS: select 'hitters' to display the remaining batters; 'pitchers' brings up the pitchers which have not yet been drafted. BOTH/RIGHT HANDERS/LEFT HANDERS: 'Both' displays all hitters or pitchers. 'Right Handers' brings up only righties, and 'Left Handers' displays only south paws. ALL/BY ORIGINAL POSITION/BY POSITION: 'All' includes all remaining batters or pitchers. 'By Original Team' allows you to display the remaining undrafted players of any one team. 'By Position' limits the list only to players of a certain position. For batters, these are the nine fielding positions plus the DH; for pitchers, the positions are starter, closer, and middle reliever. As on many of the screens in Tony La Russa Baseball II, the function keys, F1 through F3, are available to bring up more detailed player statistics. Point to a player, then press one of the following keys: F1: displays batting stats F2: displays pitching stats F3: displays fielding stats F4: is disconnected; only the historical stats are available in the Edit Player Salaries screen. The right mouse button acts as F1 for batters and as F2 for pitchers. NOTE: the F2 pitcher's statistics display contains one additional stat not normally included: RATIO: this is the sum of the pitcher's hits and walks divided by his innings pitched. Use the function keys, F5 and F6, to print information: F5: sends data to the printer directly. F6: appends data to the contents of the file, print.txt. You may print this file, or use any text editor to look at what's in it. F5 and F6 during the draft are different from F5 and F6 on other screens. During the draft, pressing either of these keys brings up these options: All available players listed Top 20 available players listed Top 40 available players listed All players drafted Current team as drafted All teams as drafted The first three choices apply to the players displayed on the screen. The last three are for printing lists of drafted players or of teams already filled or partially filled with draft picks. To print, select an option, then click on 'accept.' 'Cancel' aborts the print command. Glossary of abbreviations: Batting Statistics AB: at bats AVG: batting average B: batting side, left or right HR: home runs OBA: on base average POS: the player's primary position SA: slugging average SB: stolen bases Pitching Statistics END: the pitcher's endurance rating (1-10) ERA: earned run average IP: innings pitched K: strikeouts SV: saves T: throwing arm, left or right W-L: wins and losses * Draft Player Roster Help The player roster screen presents a list of batters drafted so far. Here you can change the active roster of a team by moving players to and from the reserve list. A player put on the reserve list during the draft will remain there throughout, and will also stay there when the draft is saved as a new league. To move a batter from the reserve list to the active roster, click on the player you want to move, then click on the player you want to replace. At the bottom of the screen are three buttons: MORE: click on more to display the next page of reserve list players. A team may have up nine batters on the reserve list. PITCHERS: this button switches to the Pitching Staff screen, which displays a list of all active and reserve list pitchers. RESTORE: restore cancels any roster moves you have made since coming to this screen. As on many of the screens in Tony La Russa Baseball II, the function keys, F1 through F3, are available to bring up more detailed player statistics. Point to a player (or highlight him), then press one of the following keys: F1: displays batting stats F2: displays pitching stats F3: displays fielding stats F4: is disconnected; only the historical stats are available in the Edit Player Salaries screen. The right mouse button acts as F1 for batters and as F2 for pitchers. NOTE: the F2 pitcher's statistics display contains one additional stat not normally included: RATIO: this is the sum of the pitcher's hits and walks divided by his innings pitched. Use the function keys, F5 and F6, to print screens: F5: prints the screen: the computer sends what you see to the printer. F6: appends what you see to the contents of the file, print.txt. You may print this file, or use any text editor to look at what's in it. Glossary of column abbreviations: AB: at bats AVG: batting average B: stands for batting side, and can be 'R' for right, 'L' for left, or 'S' for switch hitter. DU: stands for days unavailable. For batters, this means the player has been injured and cannot play. If this occurs, a reserve list batter will temporarily fill the injured player's roster spot. HR: home runs OBA: on base average POS1: this is the player's primary position, the one he has the most experience at. POS2: the player's secondary position. He can play here, but is better playing POS1, his primary position. SA: slugging average SB: stolen bases * Draft Pitching Staff Help The pitching staff screen presents a list of pitchers drafted so far. Here you can change the active roster of a team by moving pitchers to and from the reserve list. A pitcher put on the reserve list during the draft will remain there throughout, and will also stay there when the draft is saved as a new league. To move a pitcher from the reserve list to the active roster, click on the player you want to move, then click on the player you want to replace. At the bottom of the screen are two buttons: BATTERS: this button switches to the Player Roster screen, which displays a list of all active and reserve list batters. RESTORE: restore cancels any roster moves you have made since coming to this screen. As on many of the screens in Tony La Russa Baseball II, the function keys, F1 through F3, are available to bring up more detailed player statistics. Point to a player (or highlight him), then press one of the following keys: F1: displays batting stats F2: displays pitching stats F3: displays fielding stats F4: is disconnected; only the historical stats are available in the Edit Player Salaries screen. The right mouse button acts as F1 for batters and as F2 for pitchers. NOTE: the F2 pitcher's statistics display contains one additional stat not normally included: RATIO: this is the sum of the pitcher's hits and walks divided by his innings pitched. Use the function keys, F5 and F6, to print screens: F5: prints the screen: the computer sends what you see to the printer. F6: appends what you see to the contents of the file, print.txt. You may print this file, or use any text editor to look at what's in it. Glossary of column abbreviations: BB: bases on balls (walks) DU: stands for days unavailable. For pitchers, this can mean one of two things. If the number in the DU column is followed by an "r," it means the player has recently pitched and requires time to rest. A resting pitcher may still play, but if he does his chance of injury rises dramatically. If the number in the DU column is not followed by an "r," the pitcher has been injured and cannot play. If this occurs, a reserve list pitcher will temporarily fill the injured player's roster spot. END: this stands for endurance. Roughly, 10 times the endurance is the number of pitches this pitcher can throw before he starts to tire. ERA: earned run average IP: innings pitched K: strike outs SV: saves T: throwing arm, either 'R' for right or 'L' for left. W-L: wins and losses. * Draft Pitching Rotation Help In the middle of the draft, you can create a pitching rotation with the players you have so far, or ask Tony for his advice: see what he would do with your as yet incomplete staff of pitchers. Rotations can be either four or five pitchers deep, but a four-man rotation puts a strain on the players: since they pitch more often, they have a greater chance of injury. In addition, occasionally, every pitcher in a four-man rotation will require rest. If this happens, the computer will auto- matically choose a spot starter from the bullpen. To move a pitcher into the rotation or to swap players already in the rotation, click on one, then click on the other. They will exchange positions. At the bottom of the screen are two buttons: ADVICE: click here to get Tony La Russa's advice. The game will form the best pitching rotation for your staff, according to Tony. RESTORE: click on restore to cancel any changes you have made in your rotation since coming to this screen. As on many of the screens in Tony La Russa Baseball II, the function keys, F1 through F3, are available to bring up more detailed player statistics. Point to a player (or highlight him), then press one of the following keys: F1: displays batting stats F2: displays pitching stats F3: displays fielding stats F4: is disconnected; only the historical stats are available in the Edit Player Salaries screen. The right mouse button acts as F1 for batters and as F2 for pitchers. NOTE: the F2 pitcher's statistics display contains one additional stat not normally included: RATIO: this is the sum of the pitcher's hits and walks divided by his innings pitched. Use the function keys, F5 and F6, to print screens: F5: prints the screen: the computer sends what you see to the printer. F6: appends what you see to the contents of the file, print.txt. You may print this file, or use any text editor to look at what's in it. Glossary of column abbreviations: BB: bases on balls (walks) DU: stands for days unavailable. For pitchers, this can mean one of two things. If the number in the DU column is followed by an "r," it means the player has recently pitched and requires time to rest. A resting pitcher may still play, but if he does his chance of injury rises dramatically. If the number in the DU column is not followed by an "r," the pitcher has been injured and cannot play. If this occurs, a reserve list pitcher will temporarily fill the injured player's roster spot. END: this stands for endurance. Roughly, 10 times the endurance is the number of pitches this pitcher can throw before he starts to tire. ERA: earned run average IP: innings pitched K: strike outs SV: saves T: throwing arm, either 'R' for right or 'L' for left. W-L: wins and losses. * Draft Batting Order Help Come here to see how your batting order is shaping up as the draft progresses. The screen displays the current order on the top half, and the bench and reserve list players on the bottom. To move a player into the batting order or to swap players already in the order, click on one, then click on the other. They will exchange positions. At the bottom of the screen are five buttons: MORE: There are too many bench and reserve list players to fit on the screen at one time. 'More' brings up the rest of them. ADVICE: click here to get Tony La Russa's advice. The computer will choose the best batting order, taking into account speed, power, mixing righties and lefties, and a several other factors, just as Tony would before the game. VS LHP/VS RHP: Tony La Russa Baseball II maintains two different starting lineups for each team - one to go against right handed pitchers, and the other to face lefties. They are not necessarily the same. Click here to make up the other batting order. DEFENSE: while putting together a batting order, you may decide to change your mind about one or more of the defensive assignments. Click here to switch to the 'starting defense' screen. RESTORE: click on restore to cancel any changes you have made to your batting order since coming to this screen. As on many of the screens in Tony La Russa Baseball II, the function keys, F1 through F3, are available to bring up more detailed player statistics. Point to a player (or highlight him), then press one of the following keys: F1: displays batting stats F2: displays pitching stats F3: displays fielding stats F4: is disconnected; only the historical stats are available in the Edit Player Salaries screen. The right mouse button acts as F1 for batters and as F2 for pitchers. NOTE: the F2 pitcher's statistics display contains one additional stat not normally included: RATIO: this is the sum of the pitcher's hits and walks divided by his innings pitched. Use the function keys, F5 and F6, to print screens: F5: prints the screen: the computer sends what you see to the printer. F6: appends what you see to the contents of the file, print.txt. You may print this file, or use any text editor to look at what's in it. Glossary of column abbreviations: AB: at bats AVG: batting average B: stands for batting side, and can be 'R' for right, 'L' for left, or 'S' for switch hitter. DU: stands for days unavailable. For batters, this means the player has been injured and cannot play. If this occurs, a reserve list batter will temporarily fill the injured player's roster spot. HR: home runs OBA: on base average POS1: this is the player's primary position, the one he has the most experience at. POS2: the player's secondary position. He can play here, but is better playing POS1, his primary position. SA: slugging average SB: stolen bases * Draft Defensive Assignments Help Here you can experiment with defensive assignments while the draft is in progress, using Tony's advice to see how your team might line up with a partially filled roster. The screen displays the current defensive assignments on the top half, and the bench and reserve list players on the bottom. To move a player into the starting lineup or to swap players already in the lineup, click on one, then click on the other. They will exchange places. At the bottom of the screen are five buttons: MORE: There are too many bench and reserve list players to fit on the screen at one time. 'More' brings up the rest of them. ADVICE: click here to get Tony La Russa's advice. The game will choose the best player for each defensive position, reasoning along the same lines as Tony would. VS LHP/VS RHP: Tony La Russa Baseball II maintains two different starting lineups for each team - one to go against right handed pitchers, and the other to face lefties. They are not necessarily the same. Click here to make defensive assignments in the other lineup. OFFENSE: After making the defensive assignments, the offense is next. Click here to switch to the 'batting order' screen. RESTORE: click on restore to cancel any changes you have made in your defensive assignments since coming to this screen. As on many of the screens in Tony La Russa Baseball II, the function keys, F1 through F3, are available to bring up more detailed player statistics. Point to a player (or highlight him), then press one of the following keys: F1: displays batting stats F2: displays pitching stats F3: displays fielding stats F4: is disconnected; only the historical stats are available in the Edit Player Salaries screen. The right mouse button acts as F1 for batters and as F2 for pitchers. NOTE: the F2 pitcher's statistics display contains one additional stat not normally included: RATIO: this is the sum of the pitcher's hits and walks divided by his innings pitched. Use the function keys, F5 and F6, to print screens: F5: prints the screen: the computer sends what you see to the printer. F6: appends what you see to the contents of the file, print.txt. You may print this file, or use any text editor to look at what's in it. Glossary of column abbreviations: A: This is the strength of the player's arm. The stronger the fielder's arm, the farther and faster he can throw the ball. AVG: batting average B: stands for batting side, and can be 'R' for right, 'L' for left, or 'S' for switch hitter. DU: stands for days unavailable. For batters, this means the player has been injured and cannot play. If this occurs, a reserve list batter will temporarily fill the injured player's roster spot. FA1: this is the player's fielding average when he plays in his primary position, POS1. FA2: this is the player's fielding average when he plays in his secondary position, POS2. POS1: this is the player's primary position, the one he has the most experience at. POS2: the player's secondary position. He can play here, but is better playing POS1, his primary position. R: Range rates the player's ability to get to hit balls. For example, a shortstop with a high range will field more balls hit in the hole between short and third, than a player with a lesser range would. *