The Quest For Donny Baseball 1987 Yankees Franchise Year 4 MLB The Show 20

[Armor and Sword]

Hello Baseball fans and in particular New York Yankees die hards! JMeyers and Jethro Tull have released their legendary 90 man full minors 1987 roster set for MLB The Show 14. They had made this very same set for MLB The Show 11 and it was amazing. Well they have done it again and I will be doing a 30 team control franchise.





I am taking on the my all time favorite team in the New York Yankees and in particular on a quest for my all time favorite baseball player in Don Mattingly. I was 17 years of age during the 1987 season which brought us the "juiced ball" season. It was a great year and baseball was all that mattered to me back then. As a junior on my high school team I loved watching all the great players from the 80's era coming into their primes.



Mattingly

Henderson

Puckett

Trammell

Whittaker

Sandberg

Ozzie Smith

Saberhagen

Clemens



The list can go on forever quite frankly. It was the golden age of baseball for so many of us Gen X'ers.



So I am going to play each and every game the following way:



Full Counts

Timed Hitting/Directional

Classic Pitching

Auto fielding/manual throwing (button no meter based only on player ratings)

Assisted base-running



Using my custom slider set (All-Star Hitting HOF Pitching) I expect to yield fantastic simulation like results.



This thread will follow this entire franchise and it will be carried over to MLB 15 and 16 and possibly beyond that as I truly plan on playing at least 5-6 season deep at a minimum. So this will be a multi-year franchise going forward on future versions of The Show with the Y2Y save feature. Not only that, I may even switch teams at some point down the road as I will have 30 team control and the ability to move on if my heart desires to.





My plan is to update the thread monthly with highlights from that months games, key players, who is hot and cold for my squad, any injuries, roster moves and some news stories covering the team. I will provide full off-season reports in regards to free agency for my team, any rule 5 draft picks and the amateur draft. Full year end player statistics, team statistics and full game by game post season coverage.



If the Yankees do get knocked out of the post season (if they make it) I will choose a team in both the AL and NL to continue the post season with and report the results through the World Series.



I hope you enjoy following this historic franchise dynasty as much as I will be playing and running it.



Most games will be available on my twitch channel for replay (or to view live if your a follower). When I do broadcast games I do use my mic to interact with my guests while I pitch. When I am at bat I do not typically talk and respond to questions. But I do get excited on big plays, hits and action during the game! We have a lot of fun, talk sports, especially baseball during the broadcast.



Once again enjoy the franchise and games are set to begin next week once the final version of the 1987 90 man roster is complete.



Play ball!

[Armor and Sword]

The depth chart below also shows some promising minor leaguers in the pipeline that will eventually make it up to the big league team within a year or 2.

The 1987 Yankees were managed that year by Lou Pinella and had a 89-73 record finishing 4th in the AL East. A truly great year by a team with below average starting pitching. A key area of development via trade or free agency (as well as hopefully the draft) will be pitching. If we are out of contention by the All-Star break I may dump some veteran players for young pitching prospects. I will never cheese the CPU in trades and I do go through and accept or deny trades for every team (as I want the leagues integrity intact).

I think year one can yield a playoff appearance if everything falls right into place. I will need some big years out of Ron Guidry, Rick Rhoden and my hope is Al Leiter can contribute as a hard throwing lefty. My bullpen looks good (not great). Tommy John is collecting SS at this point but hopefully we can get quality innings out of him and Charles Hudosn can be a sleeper pitcher for me as well.

Offensively I am stacked. Between Henderson at the top and Donny Baseball and Winfield in the middle and Pags as a power hitting lefty 3B we should be OK. Kittle adds some pop at DH and Claudell Washington is a solid pro as well. The Captain Willie Randolph will also contribute.

New York Yankees Depth Chart - 1987

• Catcher
• Rick Cerone
• Joel Skinner

• First Base
• Don Mattingly
• Orestes Destrade
• Hal Morris

• Second Base
• Willie Randolph
• Bob Meecham
• Juan Bonilla

• Third Base
• Mike Pagliarulo

• Shortstop
• Wayne Tolleson
• Bob Meecham
• Randy Velarde

• Left Field
• Gary Ward
• Ron Kittle

• Center Field
• Rickey Henderson
• Claudell Washington
• Roberto Kelly
• Henry Cotto

• Right Field
• Dave Winfield
• Dan Pasque
• Jay Buhner

• Starting Pitcher
• Ron Guidry
• Tommy John
• Rick Rhoden
• Dennis Rasmussen
• Charles Hudson
• Al Leiter

• Relief Pitcher
• Bob Tewksbury
• Tim Stoddard
• Pat Clements
• Cecilio Guante
• Neil Allen
• Bill Gulickson

• Closer
• Dave Riggheti

• Designated Hitter
• Ron Kittle
• Mike Easler

[bhurst99]

God, I'm still trying to forget 1987 and blowing the AL East title.

Good luck to your Yankees.

[jct32]

Gonna be awesome to have a guy like Henderson in center.

[Armor and Sword]

I failed to include Joe Neikro (Phil's little brother) in my rotation. He is on the 25 man roster. Also another minor leaguer to keep an eye on will be Third baseman Mike Blowers. Mike never fulfilled his promise IRL but hopefully I can turn that around in my franchise.

We are so close to beginning the franchise.

[Gronk4M13]

Definitely following, go Yankees!

[PadresWin]

Looks cool.

[Armor and Sword]

Opening Day 1987 The Quest Begins with a 5-3 loss to the Astros

April 1st 1987 - The New York Yankees opened their season on the road in the first of a 3 game set with the Houston Astros. The Astros would jump on Starter Ron Guidry in the first inning as they tagged him with 2 runs coming off a 2 run shot off the bat of Glenn Davis. Going into the 5th inning the Yankees found themselves still down 2-0 as pitcher Mike Scott was in command. However Willie Randolph would single, Don Mattingly would single then Dave Winfield would pop out weakly to third base. Enter DH Ron Kittle. Working the count to 2-2 he would unload on a Scott fastball and make a deposit into Left Field for a 3 run HR.

Guidry would turn the game over to his bullpen down 4-3 and the Yankees never would again threaten Scott and the Astros.