The Las Vegas Outlaws [MLB The Show 20]

[DirtBallNation]

Hello everyone! Welcome to a brand new Franchise that I will bringing you through the forthcoming years! Please bare with me as I explain the whole scenario.

This year on MLB The Show, I wanted to do something a little different with franchise. With the new feature of creating or relocating a team, I knew this was an exciting way to start a franchise. Over the course of the last month or so, I was thinking of ways to start it or story lines that could go along with the franchise. And with all 2017 Astros cheating scandal being the big topic of discussion, lets route it along the lines of that.

In my own fantasy land, Robert Manfred is OUT as the Commissioner of Major League baseball now. Owners of the league decided to vote to have Manfred kicked for the handling of Astros' players when it came to the discipline of the scandal. New Commissioner, Scott Angevin has stepped into the role looking to keep the league clean, happy and healthy.

Scott Angevin's first press conference: December 31st, 2019
"I am happy to be in this new position and want to do anything and everything to make this league better in any way possible. Right now, baseball has an image of cheating and conspiracy. I want to make sure that is fixed right away, so we can carry on with this sport and make it how the founding fathers intended it to be. In the coming days, we will be issuing punishments for organizations, players and personnel involved with any of the cheating that has happened in recent years."

Scott Angevin Press Conference: January 7th, 2020
"MLB along with the other teams and the players association have met and decided to vote on any punishments that will occur, effective immediately. We took what we felt were the necessary procedures to make the game better and give consequences to the players who were guilty of cheating.

First, the Houston Astros organization will be banished of all operations. We felt it was appropriate to take this action because baseball needs a clean start. I apologize to all the fans, I know this can be very difficult. To the players and staff of the organization, I sincerely apologize for this, however you will all have the opportunity to play or work elsewhere - Details on that will be released in the near future.

Lastly, the following players will be punished. The acts that were taken to increase your chance of winning, not only each game but the World Series were despicable. We cannot allow this to slide, so we needed to take action on this.

These following players will receive a 1-year suspension for their roles in the 2017 cheating scandal.
Alex Bregman
Jose Altuve
George Springer
Carlos Correa
Yuli Gurriel

Marwin Gonzalez will receive a 81 game suspension for this role in 2017."

MORE INFO TO COME....

**Lastly, quick shout to to J from TnJ gaming (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo6...ohQJy_4qIb_FbA) who releases AWESOME franchise videos. He started something like this a few days earlier, I saw it and decided to do my own with a twist on it (I took a lot of his ideas). I highly recommend heading to his channel and subscribing - He does some sports gaming videos!

[DirtBallNation]

With the MLB in a whirl wind with the recent news, Steve Angevin announces the next team to take the 30th spot in the MLB.

Introducing, the Las Vegas Outlaws.


https://forums.operationsports.com/f...1&d=1584539917

[DirtBallNation]

PLAYERS/ROSTER
So we have a team set to take over the vacancy of the Astros, but the roster isn't in order yet. Due to this basically being an expansion team, the MLB will not allow all players that were on the Astros roster be signed directly to the Outlaws.

(So back to my fantasy land of making this a challenge)
I took the top 20-ish players on the Astros roster, and i'm "trading" them to random teams.
First, I made a list of the top players. I randomly went through the list and with the help of www.randomlists.com and the MLB Team feature, whatever team was selected for that player was who they were getting sent to. The only stipulation I added to this was if a team that was selected won a division or World Series last year, I would not allow it.

Next, after having the players selected for different teams, I needed to figure out what I would receive in return for them. For this I used www.random.org. A simple number generator I could use. I would take a range (example 55ovr to 75ovr) and generate a random number. Whatever number would come up, I would go to the corresponding teams roster, go to that overall and select a player. I would try to pick the same position as I was giving up, but with some teams, that wasn't an option. So I would seclect whatever player was that overall. I didn't want to pick apart rosters and be loaded with prospects, so I figured this was the most convenient and fair way to do it.

These are the results..

1. 3B Alex Bregman* traded to the Blue Jays for 1B Rowdy Tellez (68ovr, B pot.)
2. SP Justin Verlander traded to the Padres for SP Luis Patino (64ovr, A pot.)
3. 2B Jose Altuve* traded to the Brewers for RP Brent Suter (69ovr, C pot.)
4. SP Zack Greinke traded to the Rays for 1B Brian O'Grady (67ovr, B pot.)
5. CP Roberto Osuna traded to the Red Sox for RP Dedgar Jimenez (53ovr, D pot.)
6. RF Yordan Alvarez traded to the White Sox for SP Michael Kopech (68ovr, A pot.)
7. CF George Springer* traded to the Orioles for RP Luis Ortiz (50ovr, C pot.)
8. SS Carlos Correa* traded to the Mariners for RF Julio Rodriguez (63ovr, A pot.)
9. RP Ryan Pressly traded to the Orioles for SP Tom Eshelman (56ovr, B pot.)
10. LF Michael Brantley traded to the Indians for 1B Alexis Pantoja (57ovr, D pot.)
11. SP Lance McCullers traded to the D-Backs for RF Anfernee Grier (62ovr, B pot.)
12. RP Joe Smith traded to the Athletics for RF Greg Deichman (63ovr, C pot.)
13. 1B Yuli Gurriel* traded to the Red Sox for 2B Marco Hernandez (62ovr, C pot.)
14. 2B Aledmys Diaz traded to the Rockies for RP Heath Holder (61ovr, D pot.)
15. C Martin Maldonado traded to the Marlins for RP Tyler Stevens (56ovr, B pot.)
16. RP Brad Peacock traded to the Giants for 3B Abiatal Avelino (66ovr, B pot.)
17. SP Josh James traded to the Pirates for SP Sam Deardorff (63ovr, B pot.)
18. RF Josh Reddick traded to the Rangers for 2B Eliezer Alvarez (68ovr, C pot.)
19. C Lorenzo Quintan traded to the Mets for LF Tim Tebow (56ovr, D pot.)
20. RP Jared Hughes traded to the Angels for RP Brett Hanewich (59ovr, C pot.)

*= suspended for the 2020 season

This concludes the entire roster shake-up. Definitely some names going to interesting places. Next, i'll inform you on how the Outlaws roster will look to the start the season, a brief summary on Spring training and then it will be onto the Regular season!

Stay Tuned!

[DirtBallNation]

Uniforms and Stadium

Uniforms, we wanted a simplistic, traditional but sharp look.

With our stadium, we had to get a home for our team right away. We can't afford to build one that will hold 40,000 people and there is no way we can build one that fast. So for the foreseeable future, we will be calling Laughing Mountain Park our home. The super deep Center field and HUGE power alleys, the ball park should definitely make for some exciting baseball. A beautiful backdrop should make it a destination for new fans to come from all around to see. One step closer to getting this season under way!

[DirtBallNation]

ROSTER

With us trading away most of the talent on our roster, that didn't leave us left with a whole lot. Some notable names that were left on the team were:
RP Chris Devenksi
SS Myles Straw
RP Austin Pruitt
OF Kyle Tucker
SP Rogelio Armenteros
SP Jose Urquidy
C Garrett Stubbs
SP Forrest Whitley

Which means we had some serious work to do to make this roster competitive enough for the big league roster. These are our key additions before Spring Training got underway.

February 21st
RP Tim Mayza to a 3yr/3.1m contract
RP Arodys Vizcaino to a 2yr/5.3m contract
RF Yasiel Puig to a 2yr/11.3m contract
LF Curtis Granderson to a 1yr/560k contract
SP Ervin Santana to a 1yr/2m contract
SS Tim Beckham to a 2yr/1.3m contract

Couple weeks into ST, we had to make a few minor transactions
Signed C Nick Hundley to a 2yr/1.2m contract
Signed RP Tony Barnette to a 1yr/680k contract

[DirtBallNation]

SPRING TRAINING

....Or a lack there of...

Spring Training was quite ugly. I believe we finished up with around 7 or 8 wins which i'm not surprised by. Our roster was cobbled together within a few weeks and it shows.

Manager Johnnie Cook spoke to the media and he said this after being asked about a poor spring "Our guys have had their worlds spinning over the past few months. We signed guys off the street right before spring training. Our players haven't had the time to mesh with each other yet and get familiar with one another. Once we get in a rhythm, I think these guys can put together a good season and I think we can be competitive enough to be alive in September. But everyone has to take this one day at a time and do their part."

There weren't a lot highlights to share from ST. But we managed to find 26 guys that were ready for opening day, with the exciting future of some of our prospects who may see playing time yet in 2020.

Opening Day Roster preview is coming up next!

[DirtBallNation]

OPENING DAY ROSTER

Lineup:
CF Kyle Tucker
DH Tim Beckham
RF Yasiel Puig
1B Rowdy Tellez
LF Brian O'Grady
C Garrett Stubbs
2B Eliezer Alvarez
3B Jack Mayfield
SS Myles Straw

Bench:
C Nick Hundley
RF Greg Deichmann
3B Abiatal Avelino
LF Curtis Granderson

Rotation:
Ervin Santana
Jose Urquidy
Michael Kopech
Rogelio Armenteros
Cy Sneed

Bullpen:
RHP Bryan Abreu
LHP Tim Mayza
LHP Framber Valdez
RHP Austin Pruitt
LHP Brent Suter
RHP Arodys Vizcaino
RHP Tony Barnette
CP Chris Devenski

Our line up offers alot of speed between Tucker, Straw, Puig, Stubbs, Alvarez and O'Grady. If we can get guys on, I think we can score runs. How the getting guys on will likely be the challenging part.
I wanted to beef up the bullpen as much as possible because I think that was going to be the most difficult area to keep up with throughout the season.

Coming up next are Regular season games! I will likely be updating by the series. I haven't decided if i'm going to play every game or if I will be simming/quick managing games.

I hope you guys enjoy reading all of this! Don't be afraid to give me feedback!

[DirtBallNation]

The First series of 2020

Los Angeles Angels @ Las Vegas Outlaws

Game 1:
Angels 4 8 0
Outlaws 3 8 1
Shohei Otani went 5.1 innings, gave up 6 hits, 2 earned runs and struck out 11 to lead Angels to the opening day win. Andrelton Simmons, Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon all had 2 hits a piece. Kyle Tucker had 3 XBH including two triples, 1 run and an RBI for the Outlaws.
WP- Ohtani (1-0, 11 SO, 3.38 ERA)
LP- Ervin Santana (0-1, 7 SO, 4.50 ERA)
S - Trey Buttrey (1)

Game 2:
Angels 17 21 1
Outlaws 0 7 0
The Angels chased Jose Urquidy after 1.1 innings after giving up 5 ER on 6 hits. Reliever Bryan Abreu didn't fare much better. He also only last 1.1 innings, giving up 5 ER on 4 hits and 3 walks. Andrelton Simmons, Mike Trout and Brian Goodwin each had 4 hits. Trout drove in 5 runs, Rendon drove in 3 and they each had a HR. Matt Andriese got the 3 inning save for the Angels.
WP-Andrew Heaney (1-0, 8 SO, 0.00 ERA)
LP -Jose Urquidy (0-1, 1 SO, 33.75 ERA)
S- Matt Andriese (1)

Game 3:
Angels 4 12 0
Outlaws 5 10 1
Yasiel Puig went 2 for 4 with 2 HR's and 2 RBIs. He hit one in the 4th inning to give the Outlaws a 2-1 lead and one in the 6th inning to put them up by 3. The Angels would come back in the 8th though. Rendon hit a 2 RBI double and Tommy LaStella hit an RBI single to tie the game at 4. In the 9th inning, Jack Mayfield walked to lead off the inning, Avelino was entered to pinch run. Eliezer Alvarez bunted him over, Myles Straw advanced him on an infield single and Kyle Tucker drove in the walk-off single to give the Outlaws the first win of the year! Tim Beckham hit his first HR of the season. Michael Kopech went 5.2 strong innings. Gave up 1 run on 6 hits and had 7 K's.
WP - Tim Mayza (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
LP - Jarred Hughes (0-1, 6.75 ERA)

Game 4:
Angels 5 10 1
Outlaws 10 16 0
Garrett Stubbs and Kyle Tucker both had 4 RBIs as Kyle Tucker hit 2 HR's. Rogelio Armenteros was the starting pitcher for Las Vegas. He went 6 innings allowing 4 runs on 5 hits, 2 walks and had 9 strikeouts. Andrelton Simmons bumped his average up to .666 with a 3 for 5 performance. Jared Hughes got his second consecutive loss when he gave up 3 runs on 3 hits in the 6th inning.
WP - Austin Pruitt (1-0, 5.06 ERA)
LP - Jarren Hughes (0-2, 21.60 ERA)

We will be traveling to Oakland for a 3 game series next!

Puig hitting his 2 home runs in game 3 of the series