Offline, it can take a LOT more time than that. I've sunk a good chunk of my free time into it this past week. As for my historical experiment playing the 2005 Nats, budget went from 105M in 2004 to 54M in 2005. Primary goal: get the finances out of red ink. Secondary goal: Win.
By 2007, I manged to shed the horrible free agent contracts, get the team in the black, had Giancarlo Stanton and Buster Posey raking in the majors and had the Nats 59 win 2008 season a year early. I was fired.
Giants picked me up and in two years I've got the club really turned around. Only major issue was my scouting director was a pretty big fan of the crack pipe so my number one draft pick in 2008 was a phenomenal bust.
Question for the long timers - do players in the development leagues ever suddenly get massive spikes in quality? I've got Tanner Roark in my system projected as a 1/2 star ability, 1 star potential guy who has had zero development in three years. Is there any chance he'll blossom into what the real life one is, or am I basically sitting on a piece of junk?