Rebuilding Tips

[Leobrn12]

Re: Rebuilding Tips

I did a full rebuild of the Tigers, everything was set to manual minus lineups and pitching rotation. It was not 30 team control.

I traded anyone on the wrong side of 30 away for prospects. I had to wait until year 2 to trade Miggy (contract reasons).
I built my team around my ballpark. Comerica Park is not friendly towards power hitters, but its great for gap hitters. So I focused on high contact and Speed players.
Tigers Farm system has a lot of SP prospects so I focused on position players my first 2 draft classes. I'm not afraid to draft 2 or 3 same position players in the same draft. I figured the odds of one becoming an impact players increase. For example, I drafted 2 CF in my first draft. One became a stud, and the other a good player, so I moved him to LF. Knocked out 2 birds with one stone.
Every draft I try to draft one SP. I draft CP and/or CP in the last 2 rounds.
I've never draft C, and never have my scouts focus on Catchers.
I sign FA catchers that are 19-21 year old range that have C potential or better, that goes to my next line
Once Spring training starts I look at all the FA, you'll be surprised at what you find. I look for 19-22 year old kids with C or B potential and sign them up regardless of position.
When my team gets close to contention, I look for the weak spot on my team, and find another team that has a MLB ready player, favorable contract, player ready to breakout, and trade my prospects away. (usually have to get rid of my top prospect)

It takes time, took me 4 years to get a winning record, and I won the world series in my 7th year.

[mariner690]

Re: Rebuilding Tips

Thanks for all the tips. I agree with getting speed guys as I do enjoy stealing bases and defense. And that is an interesting idea on not ever drafting catchers. I had not thought of that.

I made the following trades to start the rebuild:
-Trade DH Nelson Cruz and C Mike Zunino to the Twins for SP Phil Hughes, SP Brusdar Graterol and RF Alex Kirilloff
-Trade 3B Kyle Seager, RP Mark Rzepcynski to the White Sox for SP James Shields, C Omar Narvaez and RP Zack Burdi
-Trade SS Jean Segura, SP Andrew Moore and LF Chuck Taylor to the Phillies for 2B Cesar Hernandez and SP Adonis Medina
-Trade LF Ben Gamel, SP Erasmo Ramirez and SS Taylor Motter to the Brewers for RF Domingo Santana
-Trade 2B Robinson Cano to the Mets for 2B Asdrubal Cabrera, CF Juan Lagares and SP Jason Dunn
-Traded SP James Paxton, SP Mike Leake and RP James Pazos to the Reds for SP Homer Bailey, 3B Nick Senzel, and LF Taylor Trammell
-Traded RP Nick Vincent and SP Matt Festa to the A's for SS Jorge Mateo and 3B Renalto Nunez

I trtied to make trades that seemed realistic and in some cases took on bad contracts to off set the money of players like Seager and Cano going the other way.

[Leobrn12]

Re: Rebuilding Tips

Thanks for all the tips. I agree with getting speed guys as I do enjoy stealing bases and defense. And that is an interesting idea on not ever drafting catchers. I had not thought of that.

I made the following trades to start the rebuild:
-Trade DH Nelson Cruz and C Mike Zunino to the Twins for SP Phil Hughes, SP Brusdar Graterol and RF Alex Kirilloff
-Trade 3B Kyle Seager, RP Mark Rzepcynski to the White Sox for SP James Shields, C Omar Narvaez and RP Zack Burdi
-Trade SS Jean Segura, SP Andrew Moore and LF Chuck Taylor to the Phillies for 2B Cesar Hernandez and SP Adonis Medina
-Trade LF Ben Gamel, SP Erasmo Ramirez and SS Taylor Motter to the Brewers for RF Domingo Santana
-Trade 2B Robinson Cano to the Mets for 2B Asdrubal Cabrera, CF Juan Lagares and SP Jason Dunn
-Traded SP James Paxton, SP Mike Leake and RP James Pazos to the Reds for SP Homer Bailey, 3B Nick Senzel, and LF Taylor Trammell
-Traded RP Nick Vincent and SP Matt Festa to the A's for SS Jorge Mateo and 3B Renalto Nunez

I trtied to make trades that seemed realistic and in some cases took on bad contracts to off set the money of players like Seager and Cano going the other way.

I am the same way, I am to make realistic trades, and made trades to dump larger contracts.

I'm not big on adding a big time FA. I've only signed one big time FA in my franchise mode (Marcus Stroman).
I basically built my team like the Royals did a few years back, from within.
I've started to focus more on the Rule 5 draft for young, high potential players that are just about MLB ready now.
I have a lot of younger guys that are due for big paydays, and I won't be able to sign all of them. Going to be an interesting off-season for me!

[Hayman19]

Re: Rebuilding Tips

I plan on doing a franchise this year with the Marlins. I like their new look unis and logos and thing they will be a challenge. I always play with budgets off and 30 team control(a must to Veto all those Pedroia trades) so I dont run into issues down the road, but keep the payroll similar to real life as much as possible. I always find there are 20-30 decent(70-85ish) free agents at the start of spring training that do not sign so I go through and find homes for them(budgets off makes this ALOT easier).

I am waiting to see what they deal Realmuto for and possibly building around them. They should get a good return from him and aside from Castro, there isn't much left on the main roster in terms of trade chips. I am going to try and build through the draft and sign guys on down years to flip at the deadline. Should be a challenge.

I will probably do a 2 team franchise and do my usual Blue Jays. Should be fun since they are further along in their rebuild and having Vlad Jr. to build around. I used to always run the Jays and an NL team, so it should fun to get back to that.