MLB The Show 18 Franchise Discussion Thread

[DJ]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Franchise Discussion Thread

Back from vacation and ready to wrap up the regular season. We have 10 games to go. I've managed my starting rotation so that Syndergaard and Harvey start Games 1-2 in the NLDS. Matz will go in Game 3 and Lugo is slotted for Game 4.

[FluffyTonka]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Franchise Discussion Thread

A really busy spring training trading and tinkering and getting the lineup set.

Orioles Ins

D. Kuechel P – For A rated prospects P MLB Jefry & AA Hunter and MLB rookie C - Wynns.
G. Bird 1B – for B rated 3B prospect Ryan and minor league Reliever
Barraclough RP – For A rated Minor league SP & B rated AAA Reliever
Pablo Sandoval - Minor League B rated 2B

and also highly rated C - Chance Sisco & CF - Austin Hays called up to the majors.

First game at home Vs the Twins.

Back and forth game with multiple lead changes as both Aces Keuchel and Berrios left balls hanging in the zone.

Kuechel turned the ball over to the pen in the 7th with a 5-4 lead only for Jhan Marinez to give up a two run shot from Tyler Austin (who raked all game long; 3-4 3RBIs).

A scoreless 8th and at the bottom of the ninth their closer Addison Reed took the mound and walked Adam Jones on 4 balls.

He then caught Kung-fu Panda swinging and then got Tim Beckham on a fly ball to the walking track in deep left.

Final out, Trey Mancini with ) hits for the day. I nearly swapped him out for Trumbo, but decided not to.

... two strikes and two balls and then Reed leaves a fastball over the plate and Mancini crushes it for the walk off homer.

Just a great feeling and a great game! haha

I may need to make one or two more deals for some pitching help. I'm looking at SP Walker Buehler (The O's should have demanded him in the Machado trade) and another reliever ... I still have a ton of minor league pitching depth that I might cash in now for some instant help. B'cos as it stands, this bullpen is going to give me stomach ulcers

Bird - 3 from 4 2HR 4RBI's 3R
Mancini 1-4 HR 2RBI's 1R
Richard Bleier WIN 1IP 0R 0ER 2SO

[KBLover]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Franchise Discussion Thread

Greg Rivera continues to make the Marlins forget about Alfonso Ortega as he had his best game of his career.

Not only has he extended his hitting streak to 17 games and continues to hold his average above .380, but he hit a grand slam and drove in a whopping seven runs in a 11-3 win for the Marlins.

"Greg has just relished getting his chance to hit the field every day. He won't even let us consider other options, and at this rate, we might have to forget about those plans, " Marlins manager Richard Batista commented.

Those alternate plans were moving Bo Winter to first base. Well, Winter is still playing platoon at left field, and now it might be that the Marlins will move on from Winter if Rivera's play resembles anything close to what he's doing now.

The question would then become...do the Marlins try to find a taker for Winter this season or ride it out this year and next and let him depart via free agency? Winter's bat still has some play in it, and he's hitting near .300 with some power. An AL team could ignore his defense if it wanted, removing the biggest issue in Winter's game.

But, that same bat could be useful for the Marlins in the playoffs. Still, with Griffith Stadium as home park, it might not be worth it.

It presents something the Marlins will have to think about after the All-Star Break as the trading deadline creeps closer.

[KBLover]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Franchise Discussion Thread

Marlins top performers at the All-Star Break:

Spoiler

Batting Average
Rivera, .381
Brito, .363
Gonzalez, .319

Home Runs
Brito, 26
Gonzalez, 24
Winter, 18

RBI
Brito, 87
Gonzalez, 86
Winter, 65
Craft, 65

OBP
Rivera, .460
Brito, .453
Winter, .409

SLG
Rivera, .743
Brito, .700
Gonzalez .632

WAR
Brito, 5.4
Gonzalez, 4.9
Craft, 3.6

Walk Rate
Peralta, 13.8%
Brito, 13.3%
Craft, 11.5%

Strikeout Rate
Rivera, 8.1%
Brito, 12.1%
Craft, 12.5%

Wins
Boeve, 15
Paris, 7
Kane, 7

Innings Pitched
Boeve, 124 2/3
Paris, 88
Kane, 73 1/3

ERA (Starters)
Boeve, 2.09
Kane, 2.70
Morales, 3.00

ERA (Relievers)
Guerra, 1.25
Anders, 2.25
Luis, 2.92

WHIP
Luis, 0.92
Boeve, 0.93
Kane, 1.09

FIP (Starters)
Boeve, 2.49
Kiser, 2.68
Morales, 3.48

FIP (Relievers)
Guerra, 1.89
Samuels, 2.40
Anders, 3.50

Pitching WAR
Boeve, 3.8
Paris, 1.4
Kane, 1.4

Notable performances at the Break around the league:

Spoiler

Jason Little (Rays) leads all of baseball in HR with 27 despite having good but not great power.

Charlie Sharpe (Cubs) remains unbeaten at 14-0. He's also lowered his incredibly low ERA to 1.19. He also leads all starting pitchers in WHIP with 0.74.

Ricky Penn (Mariners), however, leads the league in shutouts with 4.

Alec Dugan (Giants) has 172 K's with a 11.8 K/9 rate. The K's total leads MLB pitchers. He's second only to Sharpe in WAR with 4.6 as well.

Courtney Hawkins (Mariners) leads all hitters in WAR with 5.7.

Sam Kroeger (Indians), with his completely average speed, has the most triples in baseball with 8.

[FSanchez12]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Franchise Discussion Thread

Bucco Blasts - Blurbs on FSanchez12's Pirates - Draft Day 2018

Pirates grab Navarro, add Pittsburgh-born SP in Comp Round

The Pirates have gone ahead with their instincts and taken recently graduated 3B prospect, Oscar Navarro from the University of Miami in the 2018 First-Year Player Draft. Navarro, who led the entire nation in HR's in 2018 with 44 HR's. His 44 HR's marked the most in the nation since Pete Incaviglia hit 48 in 1985. His power could translate right into the Pirates plans for 2018, but his average is a different story. Described as a future "all-or-nothing" swinger, lauding comparisons to Pedro Alvarez, Navarro will almost certainly start in AA Altoona in 2019 before advancing his way through the system. It looks like Ken Strong and Rick Lancelotti better keep there eyes out on their record of 41 in the Eastern League. The Pirates didn't have to look far for their 1st pick in the Compensation potion of Round 1. They just had to take a quick trip down I-79 to choose Jackson Phillips of Cannonsburg. Phillips, drafted after his Jr season at NC State, graduated in 2015 from Canon Mac High School, where he left holding just about every Big Mac pitching record you can think of. He'll certainly be excited to get started with his hometown team. He does have big shoes to fill -- The Pirates received the pick used to take Phillips from the A's for signing Andrew McCutchen.

McMullen Stars at 2B for Altoona

The Pirates took a lot of fliers with unsigned free agents of the 2017 draft, and while some have seen a fair bit of success (see Deandre Cohen), others such as Sonny Mackey and Derrick Dean have had some difficulty coming around developmentally. Robert McMullen is not one of those players. McMullen is leading the Altoona Curve in average, and does not seem to be slowing down any time soon. McMullen was signed after concerns regarding his commitment to playing baseball over his hockey career at Arizona State (potential was a D, adjusted to a low B to reflect his performance). The Pirates gave McMullen an offer he could not refuse, and gave him a shot starting in Altoona. McMullen reminds a lot of development staff of current 2B, Josh Harrison. Short, speedy, and scappy. McMullen led his home state in SHG and apparently Corsi % (who the hell tracks HS kids on this) in his Senior Season. It seems that McMullen might just factor into the Bucs future plans at 2B

[countryboy]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Franchise Discussion Thread

Unleash the Kraken! This Yankees fan hopes Sanchez is a beast for you.

One day after trading Kelly to the Rays and getting Sanchez from the Yankees, the Rays have offered me a trade of Kelly for Sanchez...

I guess the Rays wanted Sanchez (he was on Yanks trade block originally) but the Yankees wouldn't deal with a division rival.

Gotta be honest I'm tempted.

Well....we unleashed the Kraken as Sanchez never stepped on the field in a Cardinals uniform. He is now in Tampa.

We/I had a bit of trader's remorse after sending Kelly to the Rays and decided to facilitate an odd 3 team trade in sending Sanchez to the Rays to get Kelly back.

Crazy I know.

So out of all of this we got Brendan McKay.

[KBLover]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Franchise Discussion Thread

Bo Winter will be heading to Tampa as the Rays look to upgrade either their left field situation or their DH.

In return, the Marlins take Maikel Franco as part of a salary swap along with a RP Fernando Delgado, a strong reliever, and a flier of the relief prospect in Enrique Velasco.

Some will wonder if the Marlins let Winter go too cheaply, but with his salary number, it would be hard to get full value. Plus, the Marlins get a potential bullpen ace.

"They [the Marlins] could have a serious bullpen. We saw today as their bullpen gave up four runs, three charged to them, in just 1 2/3 innings of work. This could have turned into a loss and in the playoffs, it might have been a loss, " one analyst spoke.

The Marlins also need the financial space. Several key players will be coming up for free agency...and it will be difficult to keep them all and keep the squad together...perhaps impossible with Winter's contract.

Stan Brito, Jay Craft, Miguel Ramirez, Arturo Gonzalez, and Mark Morrow are all up for free agency. Mario Morales is among those hitting arbitration.

"It's going to be a challenge and they need all the dollars they can get to throw at those free agents-to-be. We might be seeing a very different team in 2029, " Dan Plesac commented.

Indeed, the Marlins always have this kind of thing on the mind and try to keep the farm robust. That new crop might be pushed into action sooner than later.

[notsobabybombers]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Franchise Discussion Thread

Well....we unleashed the Kraken as Sanchez never stepped on the field in a Cardinals uniform. He is now in Tampa.

We/I had a bit of trader's remorse after sending Kelly to the Rays and decided to facilitate an odd 3 team trade in sending Sanchez to the Rays to get Kelly back.

Crazy I know.

So out of all of this we got Brendan McKay.

Haha that's awesome, man.

[countryboy]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Franchise Discussion Thread

Haha that's awesome, man.

Yeah...not my best of moments as usually I think the trades through and if later I have remorse, well then so be it. But this was a more spur of the moment type deal when I saw Sanchez's name pop up on the trade block.

I don't feel too bad as I didn't cheat the Rays or anything like that. They basically got the same deal they got when I traded Kelly, Littrell, and Saucedo to them for McKay, just instead of Kelly they received Sanchez.

I'm the one that took it on the chin a bit as between the Yanks and Rays I gave up:

Corey Ray
Corey Littrell
Matthew Saucedo
Greg Garcia
Jeremy Hazelbaker
Jeremy Martinez
Gary Sanchez

That's a bit much...LOL

[tcsox11]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Franchise Discussion Thread

Been a while since I've played consistently, but here we are. Prior to the last couple of days I had been in May, but I finally got over my obsession with playing every game in order to make some progress and reach future seasons.

Heading into the last two series of June with the Red Sox and we have a strong hold on the division. The second place Orioles are 9.5 games back while the 40-40 Yankees are 11.5 back from us.

Had the Draft the other night, and wow did we improve our farm system.

SP Roger Ayala 18 y/o 86 POT
LF Edgar Castillo 19 y/o 87 POT
LF Luis Cabrera 22 y/o 85 POT (with a ML ready bat for sure)
C Andres Escalona 18 y/o 78 POT
SP Alejandro Ramirez 18 y/o 80 POT
SP Boone Woodson 20 y/o 73 OVR 95 POT (!!!)

Excited to see what they can do in the future to help a deprived minor league system.

In terms of the big league club, I am beginning to look at possible trade targets. A starter would be ideal since Porcello and Pomeranz both have ERAs approaching 5. Will give Steven Wright a start or two before making a move but one option I am looking at is Nathan Eovaldi who is pitching well for the Rays AAA team currently.

[boxboy99]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Franchise Discussion Thread

Cubbies lose to the Brewers 4-3 in an uneventful game today. I shouldn't have started a game before I was fully awake. Cardinals win, so we are 1 game back now with 17 games to go.

I likely play my franchise in the funniest way. I work at home and just play a little here and there throughout the day. Sometimes it takes me an entire day to finish a game. Weekend a bit different, I'll play uninterrupted. We're getting close to the stretch though so soon all games will be played in the evening. Anyway, that is how I get through playing every game. I get about a month ahead quickly after the game comes out. Then I just try to play a game a day.

[reyes the roof]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Franchise Discussion Thread

I had my first non simming injury last night, Ryu had to leave in the middle of the 6th inning. I was expecting the worst and it was just a neck sprain and he's out for a few days. I think I'm going to manually injure him until September just to keep things interesting. I have a week until the trade deadline so I need to decide if I want to call Lugo up and stick with him until September or make a deal for someone

[Bm7414206]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Franchise Discussion Thread

So I tried doing a draft with the #1 overall pick but didn't like the huge gap between picks. I like to have a pick somewhere in the middle of the round between pick 12-19. So I restarted the draft and I'm pick #15 which I'm really happy about. Usually around 97% of the time I go hitter first but I decided to go pitching first. So I've done the first 6 rounds and went SP first.

Round 1:
SP Noah Syndergaard (92)
He's only 25 and has 4 years of control. Has power everything for all his pitches. It was between Snydergaard, Strasburg or Kluber.

Round 2:
LF Marcel Ozuna (87)
Hes 27 and has 2 years of control. Excellent fielder (90) with 60+ power versus both LH and RH with high 60's speed. Decided to go with LF because it is a weaker overall position.

Round 3:
SP Carlos Martinez (84)
Hes 25/26 and has 5 years on his contract. Like Snydergaard all his pitches are power pitches. Will form amazing 1-2 with Snydergaard. It was between Martinez, Garrett Richards and Michael Fulmer. I chose Martinez because of contract control plus his numbers were better than the other 2.

Round 4:
3B Mike Moustakas (84)
He's 29 on a 1 year deal. He plays excellent defense with 70's for all his contact and power numbers. Good 3-4 with Ozuna. Will probably end up resigning him in the offseason on like a 3 or 4 year deal depending how this season goes.

Round 5:
1B Eric Hosmer (83)
He's 28 on a 8 year deal. Plays excellent defense with above average contact and decent power. A middle of the order of some combination of Moustakas, Ozuna and Hosmer is a pretty good 3-4-5.

Round 6:
RF Chris Taylor (81)
He's 27 with 4 years of control. Has above average contact with decent power. Mid 70's speed with 70's fielding. I chose him because of his versatility being able to play all positions except 1B and C. Possibly looking at him as my leadoff hitter or maybe from the 2 spot.

As you can see I'm drafting players with above average to gold glove defense that can also hit for average and power. Also looking at players that can play multiple positions in case there is injuries or someone steps up, I can always still have my best players on the field.

I'm using OSFM 1.5 that I have made a few tweaks to it mainly potential changes and position changes. Didn't touch attributes. Will let you know how the rest of my draft goes

[HVNCHO11]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Franchise Discussion Thread

Any tips on my first the show franchise/gaming experience? Bought my ps4 because of it. Recently got Madden 19 but The show will be my focus these next couple of weeks until regular season. I live in Houston and and go to a few Astros games so I have thought about them since it's my 1st franchise but I a cubs fan since I could understand baseball. I want a franchise that's deep and enjoyable alongside my long term madden franchise. Thanks.

[FluffyTonka]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Franchise Discussion Thread

The O's finished up their opening series taking it two games to 1.

We were shut out in game two, I couldn't get anything on Ervin Santana ... he was locating everything and I lost 2-0 with only three hits for the game. They two hits, but a Joe Mauer HR was the difference. A shame bcos Bundy pitched his tail off.

Game three, we swarmed Pineada in the bottom of the first. Hays with a lead off single, Villar flied out to shallow centre, then bird singled to right then Adam jnes was walked to load the bases with one out.

Enter Kung Fu Panda who took a 2-0 pitch right down the chute, to the yard for a 457ft HR off the warehouse in right field. First ever grand slam I've hit. haha

Buehler was incredible for his first start. The rookie has a big future.

6IP 2H 0R 0ER 9SO

Baltimore 6 def Minnesota 1

Panda 1-4 HR 4RBI
Mancini 2-3 3B 1RBI BB

series leaders
Chance Sisco 4BB 3RBI - Leads the team with .629 BA and a .788 OBP

Minnesota
Eddie Rosario .525 .700 OBP 3HR 8RBI

Now we travel to Houston against the defending champs for 3 games then the Yankees for a 4-game road set.

Tough times. lol