This brief piece was written by (arguably) our most successful player of the game in response to a new member's question at the forum.

1) In terms of improving your finances, you're already doing the right thing: reduce payroll. A "C-" is not a bad position to be in, by the way. It means you can't get carried away with spending, but you're a long ways from doing something desperate, like selling draft picks.

2) Don't sign mediocre players to Type 1 contracts. It's a tempting way to save units, and probably one of the top rookie mistakes of new owners (I did it myself when I first started in the league). The Niekro brothers aren't your fault. But ultimately, saddling yourself with bad players you can't get rid of costs you more units than it saves; moreover, you limit your draft options because these players take up roster space.

3) In the Nostalgia baseball economy, you have to spend money to make money. And that means...
DON'T EVER EVER EVER TRADE TOP DRAFT PICKS, especially to divisional rivals like the Trolls, who are the current American East division champs. Nothing gives me gastronomic spasms quite like the continual feeding of top draft choices to the most successful teams in the leagues. However expensive a Babe Ruth or Rogers Hornsby may seem, in terms of producing runs per unit, winning awards, generating units for special feats, and most importantly, generating WINS, players like Ruth & Hornsby (and a handful of others, like Musial, Mantle, & Williams) are bargains. Whatever the Trolls gave you for your future draft pick is paltry in comparison to who they're going to draft in return--and who you're going to be playing against for the next 6 seasons in your own division. A much better strategy would be to draft some superstar, then if you still want to trade him, squeeze as many units, draft choices, and good players as you can from some loser team in the Other Conference, a team you'll only play 4 times and who you won't be competing against for a playoff position.

4) Did I already mention, DON'T TRADE YOUR TOP DRAFT PICKS EVER!!! yet?