MLB The Show 18 Franchise Discussion Thread

[countryboy]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Franchise Discussion Thread

As for an update I am currently at the end of June and I am playing the Texas League AA All-Star Game. I love playing these games. Scouting players, getting to see my players, and playing pressure free baseball.

[rkocjay]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Franchise Discussion Thread

Just started a new Mets franchise doing the entire first season as quick manage games. It has actually been pretty fun, similar to OOTP. We are in the middle of May and struggling alot of players are cold so its hard to switch out. Yoenis, Jay Bruce, and deGrom has been the bright spot for our team who is in last place in our division

[FluffyTonka]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Franchise Discussion Thread

My last two games sum up the Show 18 in a nutshell.


Game one, the last in a 4-game series with the Bosox. They're up 2 games in the division so every game i play them is like playoff baseball. every pitch i make i consider before throwing it.

I dominated it from start to finish. I collected 8 hits over the first 8 innings, I drew 4 walks and was hit by two pitches. But I left men on base in just about every innings and I could only manage two runs.

A crush davis solo shot and another Davis sac fly to deep centre.

Going into the 9th and only up by a run (2-1) I turn it over to Givens my closer. He struck out Leon and got Xander to ground out to 2nd.

Betts then gets walked, and the last two pitches were totally in the zone on the inside top corner ... but the umps screwed him.

JD Martinez comes in to bat in a series where I've struck him out 8 times and all he's managed was a blooper single... down 0-2 in the count, of course he goes yard on a ball (i nailed the pitch meter and put the ball on the outside away corner right where i wanted it too, no less!)

Walk off 2-run shot. To dominate that game and lose was a killer.

So much so, the next game V the Twins I was down 3-1 and swinging for everything. the twins were murdering me. Pineada starts pitching the 9th on only 76 pitches and he walks my leadoff, then my SS (rosario) gets a single, and then their closer Reed comes out, and first pitch Beckham takes him in deep centre for a 437ft walk off 3 run shot.

The game i dominate, i lose, the game I had no business winning, using 5 pitchers to barely hang on and keep the twins to just 3 runs ... and I win on a walk off 4-3.

the show

[DJ]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Franchise Discussion Thread

Jay Bruce went on the 60-day DL after dislocating his shoulder diving for a fly ball (missed it). Brandon Nimmo will get a lot of playing time now, and I'll also be looking hard at the trade market to find another bat.

[countryboy]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Franchise Discussion Thread

Jay Bruce went on the 60-day DL after dislocating his shoulder diving for a fly ball (missed it). Brandon Nimmo will get a lot of playing time now, and I'll also be looking hard at the trade market to find another bat.

Injuries destroy the best of plans

Good luck with Nimmo and the market.

You still in April?


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[DJ]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Franchise Discussion Thread

Injuries destroy the best of plans

Good luck with Nimmo and the market.

You still in April?


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

Yeah, we're 17 games into the 2019 season, so while the injury stinks, at least Bruce will be back for the second half of the season.

The Mets traded for Marwin Gonzalez, sending reliever A.J. Ramos and catcher Jose Lobaton to Houston. Gonzalez was in a platoon with Gurriel, so he'll now get the chance to play everyday. Love that he's a switch hitter and can play up to 6 different positions. He will play 1B/RF, but can fill in at LF, 3B, 2B and SS.

The trade paid immediate dividends as Gonzalez went 2-for-5 with a double and a 2-run HR in New York's 5-0 win over Philadelphia.

[reyes the roof]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Franchise Discussion Thread

Jay Bruce went on the 60-day DL after dislocating his shoulder diving for a fly ball (missed it). Brandon Nimmo will get a lot of playing time now, and I'll also be looking hard at the trade market to find another bat.

Who do you have playing first base? My plan for 19 is to move Bruce there so that I can get both him and Nimmo in the lineup regularly, Nimmo would probably lead my team in RBIs if I could consistently get him at bats. It looks like Dominic Smith is at least another year away from being a realistic option at 1B

[Gagnon39]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Franchise Discussion Thread

Speaking of injuries, I had Jose Qunitana go down with a shoulder tear and had to place him on the 60-day disabled list. He's due back in a couple weeks but in the meantime Mike Montgomery has been nothing short of spectacular. He was 4-0 as a reliever prior to being slotted into the rotation but since he has been he's now 12-0 with an ERA around 1.00. It's unbelievable. Every time I pitch with him he's just lights out, no one can square him up.

Tyler Chatwood has been struggling with an ERA over 5.00 and I'm starting to think that when Quintana comes back, Chatwood may have to find himself in the bullpen. The real dilemma, which will be a good problem to have is that I'm about two weeks away from acquiring Cole Hamels. When that happens I think Montgomery will have to go back into the bullpen. Which will be nice as he'll shore up an already strong bullpen for me. He will become my Andrew Miller. Pitch multiple innings out of the pen if need be, close a game, etc.

[DJ]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Franchise Discussion Thread

Who do you have playing first base? My plan for 19 is to move Bruce there so that I can get both him and Nimmo in the lineup regularly, Nimmo would probably lead my team in RBIs if I could consistently get him at bats. It looks like Dominic Smith is at least another year away from being a realistic option at 1B

I thought about that, but like having Bruce's arm in the OF still. He may wind up at 1B at some point, though. Right now it's going to be mostly be Marwin Gonzlaez, with Wilmer Flores getting some time there and I have Joe Mauer as insurance.

I dealt Dominic Smith away, getting Clint Frazier in return. Smith just wasn't progressing, even with his A potential.

[countryboy]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Franchise Discussion Thread

We closed out the month of June with a sweep of the Phillies, extending our winning streak to 6 games and maintaining our lead over the Cubs in the Central of 7 1/2 games. We have the best record in the National League and second best record in baseball. (Orioles are the best)

Harrison Bader will be returning from the DL in a day and he'll go to Memphis to start working on getting back into the groove. He will remain there until the All-Star break at least that is the plan.

Looking at our roster, I honestly don't know what we need as we seem very well balanced. Randal Grichuk is in Memphis working out the kinks, Harrison Bader is rehabbing, and we'll get Juan Fabregas back in late July so we are set in the outfield. Only thing I could think of is possibly depth in infield, where we have Carpenter, Wong, DeJong, and Wisdom around the horn, and then Marwin Gonzalez and Aledmys Diaz on the bench. Diaz is an amazing fielder, but his bat leaves something to desire.

One area we have kicked around is the thought of getting a left handed starter as I really desire that and think its important in post season play. It's tough because Wacha, Martinez, and Lynn have been solid. Flaherty has struggled this year a bit and Mikolas is good but has been injured.

We will continue to monitor our roster and injuries to see if we need to make a move, but right now I don't see a desperate need.

[reyes the roof]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Franchise Discussion Thread

I've been playing video games for about 30 years and I've never experienced anything like the streakiness that I go through in my franchise without changing the difficulty. The first month of the season I go 14-14, then from May through the All Star break I'm on fire and go 47-20. At this point I think the first month of the season was my learning curve and now I've got the hang of things and I need to consider tweaking sliders, I'm hitting HRs at a ridiculous pace and my pitching staff is untouchable. All Star break comes and the wheels have fallen off, I've gone 19-24 since and it seems like everyone is hitting below the Mendoza line since the break. I think I've won three series since the break, but two of them were against the first place Nationals, and a Cubs team that is so good they clinched their division on Sept 2nd so go figure. I keep trading first place with the Nationals and it looks like I have the first wildcard spot locked up as a fallback, but if I don't figure things out fast the Phillies are getting hot and I'm fearing another 2007esque collapse. If I could just pitch deGrom everyday I'd be set

[Subway_sub]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Franchise Discussion Thread

I've been playing video games for about 30 years and I've never experienced anything like the streakiness that I go through in my franchise without changing the difficulty. The first month of the season I go 14-14, then from May through the All Star break I'm on fire and go 47-20. At this point I think the first month of the season was my learning curve and now I've got the hang of things and I need to consider tweaking sliders, I'm hitting HRs at a ridiculous pace and my pitching staff is untouchable. All Star break comes and the wheels have fallen off, I've gone 19-24 since and it seems like everyone is hitting below the Mendoza line since the break. I think I've won three series since the break, but two of them were against the first place Nationals, and a Cubs team that is so good they clinched their division on Sept 2nd so go figure. I keep trading first place with the Nationals and it looks like I have the first wildcard spot locked up as a fallback, but if I don't figure things out fast the Phillies are getting hot and I'm fearing another 2007esque collapse. If I could just pitch deGrom everyday I'd be set

I'm fresh off a world series that was a result of a season where I went on two huge hot streaks while otherwise being crappy. Roster remained mostly untouched minus some minor tweaks. Now new season I can't buy a win. One game can't get a hit, the next starter implodes, the next the bullpen blows it. It's interesting but the swings seem so drastic, to the point where I feel I need to adjust difficulties/sliders but then it swings again.

[countryboy]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Franchise Discussion Thread

Our winning streak now stands at 9 games as we just finished the sweep of the Giants in San Francisco. We are just playing really good baseball right now and continue to find ways to win.

I was going to type out the standings as are at July 4th, but remembered I learned how to stream and so I recorded the standings for viewing, if anyone cares.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tciUaQUcl5Q" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Next up is a 3 games series in Petco Park against the NL West leading Padres.

[FluffyTonka]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Franchise Discussion Thread

A horror stretch in every sense of the word.

Just lost my SS - Camargo for the rest of the season with a broken ankle (I'm still in april!) diving for a hard liner up the middle. His defence is a massive loss in the middle.

I got swept by the Bosox in 3 tight, playoff-like games at Fenway. 3-2; 2-0 (pomeranz shut me out with a CG!) and the final game was a tense back 'n forth with Dylan Bundy and Chris Sale going at it.

I was actually leading 2-1 when Sale left in the 8th. but Bundy – as I seem to do, I left him in for one inning too many, walked the lead off, Mookie singles it. So I bring on Givens for the JD matchup and JD crushes the first pitch he sees off the green monster and Xander and Betts both score for a 3-2 lead going into the 9th.

I frustratingly load the bases on kimbrel on a hit by pitch, a blooper of 1B's head and then Villar earns an 11 pitch walk where he fouled off 6 pitches in a row!

With 2 outs, up steps Dixon Machado, my replacement for Carmago who was lost on the first pitch of the game. I use zone hitting, and Dixon Machado's circle, against Kimbrel is this tiny little speck that I can barely see.

Machado then proceeded to strike out in 4 pitches. I mean the guy looked like he was swinging a garden hose at fireflies. haha ... far out.


In my old season with the latest rosters, I never saw an injury unless I was sim'ing. Now using the defaults, there's injuries everywhere. lol

In this series alone; I've lost Alex Cobb for 3-4 months with a shoulder, and Trumbo who stretched out for 1st on an infield single did his hammie.

Now I'm looking for some veteran infield help.

Possibly David Wright at 3rd, move Beckham to SS. Or try and get Tulo from the Jays as a straight up swap.

I could dig into my well of prospects and go for some permanent 3rd base help ... but either way, now I'm 3.5 games behind the bosox and the Yankees are 1 game clear in second with the wildcard.

While I'm at it, I probably need another veteran starting pitcher. Looking at Trevor Cahill ... I used him last year and his action worked for me.

[reyes the roof]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Franchise Discussion Thread

Hyun-Jin Ryu got shelled in his first start back from the DL, so I debated yanking him from the rotation, fortunately I didn't because he pitched a Greg Maddux complete game on only 87 pitches to get us back in the win column vs Philly after getting swept in LA and dropping 5 of six on our west coast road trip. Not one to be outdone, Jacob deGrom followed that up with a one hit complete game shutout. deGrom is a lock for the Cy Young barring an implosion over his next four starts and he's in the lead for the MVP race, plus he has a realistic shot at 300 Ks if he averages 9 per start over his last four. I was hoping to get some help from the Cubs as the have the best record in baseball and are playing Washington, but the Nationals have won the first two games of the series, so I remain in second place but only because Washington has played two more games than me.


Since I'm offensively challenged and I had a few extra spots on my 40 man, I went and signed the two fastest free agents that were available to be my designated pinch runners during the expanded rosters. I'm doing everything I can to get some extra run support