Free MLB Manager Online Baseball Sim Game

[Mike1409]

Originally Posted by Sublime 2

Unfortunately I put him on the world trade block, so I have to wait till tomorrow. But I thought I'd mention he is on a 1 cycle contract if that matters for Verlander.

OK Verlander is on a 2 cycle contract.

[PilotMan]

We are nothing but a .500 team at AAA.

[kingfc22]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

We are nothing but a .500 team at AAA.

Are all the teams above you stacked with rosters from a single team or the owner's favorite team?

[SackAttack]

4-3 start to the day, 8-0 finish. Lead on 2nd place is up to 7 games.

[Tasan]

Doing decent with a mixed team in AAA. 4th place, with the top 5 advancing. 2nd-6th is all really close though.

[Neon_Chaos]

Went 14-1 for the day.

Currently at 47-13 in AA , 1st place with a 3-game lead over 2nd.

Slowly building up my pitching lineup.

10* Lincecum, 10* Verlander and 9 * Cain are all in my pitching rotation.

Meanwhile, my fielders are almost all Giants.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by kingfc22

Are all the teams above you stacked with rosters from a single team or the owner's favorite team?

Yep, 3 Rangers, 1 Mariners, 1 Red Sox, 1 Angels, and 1 Rockies, then us with nobody in particular. I guess that's the key to victory then isn't it? Seems rather pointless in a fantasy game that the goal is to get all the players of the same team.

[Mike1409]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Yep, 3 Rangers, 1 Mariners, 1 Red Sox, 1 Angels, and 1 Rockies, then us with nobody in particular. I guess that's the key to victory then isn't it? Seems rather pointless in a fantasy game that the goal is to get all the players of the same team.

Same in my division, in 3rd and the 2 teams above have complete rosters of Philllies and WSox.

Not a fan of this design choice.

[JonInMiddleGA]

For the first time ever, I'm in the top 30 for the ranking matches. Dunno why, since we're a middling 6th place AA team,unless it's just making sure you play your 5 every day.

On a different topic re:

Seems rather pointless in a fantasy game that the goal is to get all the players of the same team.

I'd say this isn't a fantasy game so much as a collectible card game.

[Chubby]

pulled cris carpenter this morning WOOT!

[SackAttack]

Lost 6 of 9 to start the day. DO NOT WANT.

[kingfc22]

Originally Posted by Mike1409

Same in my division, in 3rd and the 2 teams above have complete rosters of Philllies and WSox.

Not a fan of this design choice.

Yep. This design is pretty stupid and will likely kill the fun very quick if it is not changed.

[SackAttack]

Finished the day 1 game up on 2nd place, down from 7 up.

Something I'm noticing is that on top of whatever boost you get for 'favorite team' chemistry, there's also lineup colors for having players from the same team gather, which might be resulting in some double dipping.

***

I pulled a Justin Verlander tonight, so while I don't have room for him in the rotation yet, I now have a pair of 10* starting pitchers. Whee!

[PilotMan]

I pulled Aroldis Chapman, and promptly trained him on speed. He is now up to a 99 speed, or 102.5 MPH on his pitches.

[JonInMiddleGA]

9-1 finish to the day moves me into 2nd place in the "FOFC League" of AA, on the hot bat of PotD Nick Swisher who had 8 HR's & 33 RBI's in the 15 games. Our own bbor remains in 1st place in the league.

And just for those keeping score, there's no hint of the favorite team flavor in my lineup at all.

Son is now mired in 11th place in his AAA, in desperation we've gone with as many Braves as possible but the results have been negligible.

[heybrad]

I'm in 2nd in AAA, 1 game out of first.

[fpres]

Finished in 10th place supposedly (eliminated in the 7th round) for the 3rd Weekend Cup...good for 1,000 pts. We lost to the eventual runner-up.

[bbor]

Good day for you jon...congrats.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by bbor

Good day for you jon...congrats.

Thanks. You're welcome to the league title frankly, I'd just like to earn promotion this time.

[mauchow]

I was having a great season, winning 80% of my games and decided with my 8 game lead we could change things around to maybe find something even better. We picked up Utley and Rollins and made a few smaller changes and bam..we suck. We lost 4 of 5 games after the change. We have kept it a little longer and are showing improvement now. We won 4 of our 5 ranking games very handily. I think we've gotten over the hump and will absolutely get back to our domination that we had before yesterday's disaster that caused us to only have a 3 game lead for 1st place.

[Apathetic Lurker]

Originally Posted by kingfc22

Yep. This design is pretty stupid and will likely kill the fun very quick if it is not changed.

I guess fans of the Royals need not apply

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Apathetic Lurker

I guess fans of the Royals need not apply

I think the concerns about picking only favorite team for your team are a bit overblown. I think I have 3 Royals on my team, but I'm in 2nd place in my AAA league right now. It's not a guaranteed way to do well by any means.

[kingfc22]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

I think the concerns about picking only favorite team for your team are a bit overblown. I think I have 3 Royals on my team, but I'm in 2nd place in my AAA league right now. It's not a guaranteed way to do well by any means.

No you need to have a full lineup of your favorite team get the most "benefits" in "lineup cohesion" which seems to be the biggest deciding factor on how your hitters perform.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by kingfc22

No you need to have a full lineup of your favorite team get the most "benefits" in "lineup cohesion" which seems to be the biggest deciding factor on how your hitters perform.

Unless, of course, those hitters truly suck ... in which case having them maximize their potential doesn't seem to help a whole lot.

[kingfc22]

Currently on a 15 game win streak to put us at 55-29 and 1 GB of the all Cubs lineup.

[PilotMan]

Interest is starting to wane. The whole collecting teams to succeed isn't working for me.

[Travis]

Not sure if this'll sway anybody, but I'm currently in 2nd (been in a battle for top spot all season) in my AA league and I'm using a wide assortment of teams.

My lineup is:

C: Hanigan (CIN)
1B: Barton (OAK)
2B: Schumaker (STL)
3B: Zimmerman (WAS)
SS: Ryan (SEA)
LF: Tabata (PIT)
CF: Jackson (DET)
RF: Borbon (TEX)
DH: Lind (TOR)

66-23 at this point and it's not like my guys are NL or AL heavy or even single division loaded.

[SackAttack]

I have a few Dodgers in my bullpen, but that's mostly because they're the relievers I have who fit the points I have available for the bullpen. Only have one or two in the rotation, and I think I only have one in the starting lineup.

[Travis]

To add, my view on it is this, the cohesion just shows you how close to their max potential guys will play. So if your guys are playing at their best, then you're hitting their ratings, but if not, then they'll play to a percentage of those ratings. So it's a question of whether 3/4 of their ratings is better than the other guys max ratings, etc.

Again, this is just spitballing but as said earlier, just because a guy is playing the best he can doesn't necessarily make him better than a guy not playing to his top form. Maybe the balance is a bit skewed right now but it's still doable with a non single team lineup.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by kingfc22

No you need to have a full lineup of your favorite team get the most "benefits" in "lineup cohesion" which seems to be the biggest deciding factor on how your hitters perform.

Not true. If you stick with a core group of players, their cohesion will improve as you go along. I've got a lineup with 7 different teams and my cohesion is very good. Similarly, I have a catcher (Kendall) who handles a pitching staff that doesn't have a single Royal on it. The cohesion to start was in the 40 range at the start. Now, cohesion for the pitchers is at least 55+ on the entire staff.

[PilotMan]

Beat this. I just did a random scouting where every player was someone I already had. And yeah, again, 1 six, 1 four, and the rest were 3's and 2's. I suck at luck. lol

[bbor]

Just had Brendan Morrow throw a no-no.

[Arles]

I'm 77-19 in AA and here's my current lineup:

1. OF Rasmus (StL)
2. 2b Shumaker (StL)
3. DH Matsui (Oak)
4. 1B Big Popi (Bos)
5. OF Tori Hunter (Ana)
6. OF J Upton (Ari)
7. 3B Alvarez (Pit)
8. SS A Cabrera (Cle)
9. C Y Molina (StL)

So that's only 3 of 9 Cardinals with 7 total teams represented. It's more about sticking with a core set of guys and then doing modest upgrades one spot at a time. I've had Alvarez, Matsui, Hunter, Rasmus and Ortiz since season one. Outside of Upton (who I just added from a trade with Sack) and Molina, none are new starters this season.

As a follow up, my friend is 80-16 in A and doesn't have 2 players from the same team in his lineup.

[Panthersfan75]

All I can say is wait till you get to AAA. It changes drastically. Last year I was tied for first in AA with a mixed team with well over a hundred wins last year but in triple A it is a brand new ball game. Most every team in my league consists of players from one team. I am currently in 11th and at this point I am just hoping to avoid demotion.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Panthersfan75

All I can say is wait till you get to AAA. It changes drastically.

Or not.

Son's team in AAA, mired in 11th place & performing worse with a majority favorite team lineup. Of the top 8 teams in the league, 4 are built around favorites & 4 aren't. Of the top 3, two are and of the top 5, three are.

In other words, there's some of it but that's definitely not all of it.

[Arles]

We'll see how next season goes, but my initial opinion is that a "optimized" mixed lineup all trained to 5/5 (or 4/5) seems to do better than all one team. The problem becomes when that one team forces you to play a 4 or 5 star "scrub" to keep that cohesion when a team using all players is able to slide in better upgrades.

IMO, guys like Matsui and Papi are a steal at their star price. Matsui is currently trained to 73 contact, 75 power and 73 clutch for 4 stars. There's no way I could get Ryan Theriot or another Cards 4-star guy even close to that level at DH. Papi is at 71 con, 80 power and 72 clutch for me as a 5-star 1B. 8-star Ryan Howard starts at 65-78-62 for those numbers.

[heybrad]

For what's it worth, I'm in AAA in 2nd place and a have a very mixed team.

[Chubby]

Originally Posted by Arles

We'll see how next season goes, but my initial opinion is that a "optimized" mixed lineup all trained to 5/5 (or 4/5) seems to do better than all one team. The problem becomes when that one team forces you to play a 4 or 5 star "scrub" to keep that cohesion when a team using all players is able to slide in better upgrades.

IMO, guys like Matsui and Papi are a steal at their star price. Matsui is currently trained to 73 contact, 75 power and 73 clutch for 4 stars. There's no way I could get Ryan Theriot or another Cards 4-star guy even close to that level at DH. Papi is at 71 con, 80 power and 72 clutch for me as a 5-star 1B. 8-star Ryan Howard starts at 65-78-62 for those numbers.

piggy backing on this...

are there any other players out there with similar situations (low star cost but high value)?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Chubby

piggy backing on this...

are there any other players out there with similar situations (low star cost but high value)?

There's going to be a good bit of YMMV on this I think, guys who were can't miss for me for a season or two have been next to worthless (Chipper, I'm looking at you) this season.

A guy that I've gotten more than my money's worth from though is 4* SS Caesar Izturis. His defense is among the best I've seen in the game & if you up his contact/speed, he's usually pretty productive as either a #1 or #2 hitter.

[PilotMan]

Jim Thome is another offensive monster without a high cost.

[fpres]

Originally Posted by Chubby

piggy backing on this...

are there any other players out there with similar situations (low star cost but high value)?

4* Jim Thome and 3* Tim Wakefield have been huge for my team. I have Thome up to 75 contact, 71 power, 69 clutch. And Wakefield led my A league with 24 wins (ahead of guys like Matt Cain and Cliff Lee); he's on pace to win about 15 at the AA level.

[Chubby]

I'll throw in my 2 that have outperformed their star cost for both my seasons so far:

6* Hunter Pence HOU OF
Has batted leadoff for me, was .300+ 30 HR+ last year and so far this season is 100 G, .333, 31 HR, 99 RBI, 13 SB

5* Ike Davis NYM 1B
Has batted out of the 5 hole most of the 2 seasons, last seasons stats were similar to this years: 100 G, .286, 28 HR, 105 RBI

[SackAttack]

Some of that might also be a favorite-teams thing. AJ Ellis has been a stud for me, hitting close to .400 every year, but he's also a low-cost Dodger.

[Chubby]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

Some of that might also be a favorite-teams thing. AJ Ellis has been a stud for me, hitting close to .400 every year, but he's also a low-cost Dodger.

I might agree with you on Ike but that wouldn't affect Pence. also, i think it's useful to know the stat high, low star guys like Matsui who can DH for cheap

[PilotMan]

Josh Thole has been a stud catcher for me. He hasn't hit below 300 yet, and I can move him all over the lineup without having a big blue dot. He's a contact and clutch stud.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Josh Thole has been a stud catcher for me. He hasn't hit below 300 yet, and I can move him all over the lineup without having a big blue dot. He's a contact and clutch stud.

Was the same for me until this season, turned into a black hole in the lineup for no apparent reason. After just .233/3/28 in 43 games, I had to bench him.

[mauchow]

Well, I stopped playing the facebook game when one of my player's that I bought in a card pack was already dropped from my team after his contract ran out after.... 3 days. Lame.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by mauboy1

Well, I stopped playing the facebook game when one of my player's that I bought in a card pack was already dropped from my team after his contract ran out after.... 3 days. Lame.

That's how limited edition players work. The idea is to get you to buy more baseball cash to renew the contracts. Madden does the same thing.

It's EA's monetization option, kinda like how the additional lineup colors will be one of MLBMO's monetization options.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by Chubby

I might agree with you on Ike but that wouldn't affect Pence. also, i think it's useful to know the stat high, low star guys like Matsui who can DH for cheap

Well, I did say 'some.'

There are some underrated guys, for sure, but some of the low-cost breakouts are going to be favorite team guys.

[SackAttack]

Ooh. Today's day 8 and not day 7 like I thought it was.

Promotion is closer than I thought.